Duehring lost, and returned to the Washington DC area. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team, Department Defense Transition Team following the 2000 election, and was appointed as the Air Force's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs under the Bush Administration from 2001 through 2009.
Mr. Duehring is a 28-year Air Force veteran, having been commissioned in 1968 through Officer Training School. He is a decorated combat pilot, completing more than 800 missions during the Vietnam War as a forward air controller, including a tour as one of the Raven FACs in northern Laos. Mr. Duehring has flown more than a dozen types of aircraft, amassing more than 1,200 hours in the A-10 Thunderbolt II. He retired as a colonel in 1996. His final military assignment was U.S. Air Attaché to Indonesia.
Mr. Duehring has served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and the Department of Defense Transition Team. He was the Executive Director of the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, a non-profit educational and charitable foundation, and he was endorsed as the Republican candidate for the Minnesota 2nd Congressional District in 1998. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Duehring served six years as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. He performed the duties of acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs in the absence of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, including an extended period during and following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. . . .
. . . While the war in Vietnam ebbed and flowed with alternating violence and boredom, there was a rumor of another war, somewhere else, where men flew long hours in propeller aircraft without markings into constant danger in a land where adventure reigned supreme, where common sense replaced the hated Rules of Engagement and where a man could finally test the limits of his abilities. These pilots were few in number and their call sign was Raven.
This is the wartime autobiography of one of the few pilots ever to fly under that now famous call sign. Craig Duehring lived and flew out of the guerilla headquarters at Long Tieng, Laos, in support of the iconic Hmong leader, Major General Vang Pao, for a longer tour of duty than any other Raven. During that time, he knew many of the most notable Ravens and participated in many tragic events of the day – including the famous “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”.
This is the story of how one young man left the farm country of southern Minnesota and embarked on a career as an Air Force pilot during the height of the Vietnam War. Equally as important as the combat he experienced is his personal triumph over repeated obstacles and near disasters to achieve his dream that will be a source of inspiration for young readers everywhere. . .
Photo: Craig W. Duehring during a Pentagon press briefing, Sept. 14, 2001. Via Wikimedia Commons. Image was released by the United States Department of Defense with the ID 010914-D-9880W-047.
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Answering a question about MNSure, Minnesota's health insurance exchange for those who don't receive affordable health care insurance from their employers or don't qualify for Medical Assistance/MinnesotaCare, Andrew Lang, the endorsed Republican candidate for state senate district 17 told listeners he couldn't afford MNSure.
Lang said:
. . .I've talked to a lot of people door-to-door, and what they're always saying, that's one of their big main concerns is health care has become so expensive, I can't afford it.
I know for myself personally, I can't afford the MNSure program. It would . . . (laughs) It's as much as my mortgage payment. The deductibles are outrageous. I can't afford it. There's no way I can go with it.
Here's the clip:
The cry to the heavens about expensive health care insurance came during a Kandiyohi County Fair forum earlier this month. One can listen to the whole debate here (along with those for the Minnesota House candidates for 17A and 17B).
We grew worried that Andrew Lang and his family might become homeless from having to pay for both "MNSure" and that mortgage, but further investigation revealed that Lang, who works as Supervisor of Parks for Renville County, receives health insurance benefits from his employer (Lang's wife also works for the county). A friend who works in a non-union supervisory position in the county said that the employer-provided insurance for "management" is very good.
One has to wonder if Renville County supervisors' insurance is close to AFSCME union members working for the county receive under their contracts, negotiated by Council 65. We dipped into a few of those for Renville County workers and found this language for health insurance benefits across the county:
Bluestem is all for members of all branches of the military--including the National Guard--receiving quality health care insurance. Our friends who serve are ready to make to ultimate sacrifice--and short of that, spend months away from their families and friends. Health care is the least we owe them.
While county employees aren't asked to make the same sacrifice as those serving in the armed forces, those we know work hard and take pride in helping their communities, so we don't begrudge them the benefits they receive. Indeed, we don't like the race to the bottom that's happened to private sector workers' benefits that in part triggered the need for health care reform.
What we don't have sympathy for is a wannabe lawmaker copping fake empathy about the cost of insurance. Lang should be honest about his own circumstances.
The West Central Tribune reported that the forum "drew a sparse crowd at the fair but was broadcast on KWLM." Let's hope those listening or downloading the audio online apply critical thinking tools to Lang's "feels" about the cost of policies obtainable from private insurance companies in the MNSure exchange.
Photos: Andrew Lang, via the Republican Party of Minnesota (top); screengrab from one of the AFSCME Council 65 contracts with Renville County (bottom)
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Point of fact: the park isn't a cemetery, but does include memorial paving stones with the names of area veterans on them. The Winona city police officers are to be complimented on their professionalism (maybe it was the hug one received from marchers earlier in the month).
Lost in the focus on the video and Pokeman Go players? The rest of the ordinance. Olson reports in the Daily News that a range of free speech and assembly activities would be restricted:
The ordinance would cover a wide array of activities, not all related to increased traffic from Pokémon players, and some which is already prohibited.
Obvious restrictions would include littering, disorderly conduct or driving through the park off of designated roads.
More closely related to concerns over the recent crowds that suddenly began gathering at all hours earlier this month when the game was released include prohibitions on hammocks and tents, sleeping and sunbathing, recreational activities and games (electronic or not), having pets in the area and playing music.
Some of the broader restrictions would include picketing and demonstrating, speeches or oration to assemblies, and displaying flags or placards.
The exception to many of these rules would be if they were part of a designated military memorial ceremony, or expressly authorized by the city.
The broad restrictions against free speech and assembly without prior permission by the city would likely have dampened the March For Hugs, one of the few non-veterans-related demonstrations of any kind at the park that a superficial online search revealed (rallies and protests in Winona seem to happen mostly in Windom Park or at public buildings like City Hall and the county courthouse).
Eleven-year-old Ezra Frame rode his scooter through Lake Park and down Huff Street Thursday evening with a sign that read “Less Killing More Love.”
“This has to stop,” Frame said.
He and his mom, Amy Ross, were part of a somewhat impromptu six-person Free Hug Peace March Thursday evening down Huff Street — which Frame affectionately named “Hug Street.”
The march was organized by Ross and her friend, Tesla Mitchell, in response to recent violence in the U.S. It’s the type of response, Ross said she believes the world needs.
“We’re sick of seeing all the killings and want to be more positive,” Ross said.
Mitchell admitted she had wanted to organize a peace march for some time, but when Ross approached her about one, she said she felt confident enough in promoting peace, that she believes the U.S. needs to achieve.
“If we can succeed, then the rest of the world can succeed in peace,” Mitchell said.
Though the march was small in numbers, every passerby left with a smile. And the march picked up at the end, concluding with a Winona police officer stopping for a hug — and the group crashing, with hugs, a crowd of people outside playing Pokemon Go. . . .
Hugging police officers without permission from the city council? That should send the country racing toward hell in a flaming handbasket.
Mass shootings. Protests. We've been going through a lot as a nation lately, so in response to all the violence and heartbreak a group of people put on a peaceful march in Winona, a march of hugs. These folks had one mission in mind - to brighten people's days.
This small group, not affiliated with any movement, got together Thursday and decided to try and bring change their way. They say they are tired of all the violence going around and they think that something as simple as a hug can make a world of difference to people.
Plenty of folks were excited to see them and see that there's still some good in the world and that's exactly what the huggers had in mind.
"We all want to feel love, we all want to feel acceptance and that's why our country is where it's at right now is because there isn't that love and acceptance and equality," Tesla Mitchell, one of the huggers, said. "We need to be putting that back into the world and so we have to do that, personally we have to do that, we have to be the change that we want to see."
They walked around the Veterans Memorial Park and down to a nearby Kwik Trip to see people. They even ran into a local law enforcement member who was more than happy to stop by and give them hugs.
That sweetness and cop-hugging might have to stop. However, the comments on Winona Daily News article about the proposal are for now running against the ordinance.
With their permission, hug your favorite veteran and each other, gentle readers, in Winona and wherever you may be.
Photo: Screenshot from KTTC's coverage of the March for Hugs (above); Winona Daily News' hug photograph.
Hat tip: Johanna Rupprecht on Facebook.
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Today is Memorial Day--which was Decoration Day until 1971, when it became a federal holiday. Decoration Day grew from dozens of local ceremonies immediately following the Civil War, including the moving story of African Americans in Charleston who worked to give fallen Union soldiers a proper burial and remembrance.
Seventy-two years after he gave his all off the coast of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, U.S. Navy Motor Machinist Mate 1st Class John Emanuel Anderson was laid to rest Saturday in his hometown of Willmar, surrounded by family, veterans, dignitaries and members of the community. Under a rainy sky they came together, not only to say goodbye, but to say thank you. It was a somber occasion but one that was also a celebration. . . .
Anderson’s remains were identified by DNA testing in 2015 and disinterred for reburial next to his parents in Willmar’s Fairview Cemetery.
The memorial service took place at Willmar’s War Memorial Auditorium, followed by the burial at Fairview Cemetery. The Willmar Brass Quintet provided the music and the playing of Taps, while the Minneapolis Navy Operational Support Center and Army Reserve/National Guard Honor Guard were on hand to perform the military honors, including acting as the pallbearers, folding the American flag and providing a gun salute.
Retired Brigadier General Dean Johnson of the United States Army National Guard gave the open and closing remarks and prayers at the service.
“You waited, wondered and questioned. Now he is finally home,” Johnson said.
After his death on D-Day Anderson had been buried as an unknown in the Normandy American Military Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. His family was told he was missing in action, lost at sea after his LCT-30 tank landing craft was hit by enemy fire. His parents and three sisters died never knowing what had happened to Anderson. It took years of research, letters, phone calls and hope for Anderson to be positively identified, a moment his family thought might never have come.
“The journey was long and arduous,” Franklin said, one of nine nieces and nephews of Anderson.
Helping along the way was Jon Lindstrand, curator of the U.S. Military Historical Collection, who worked tirelessly for four years on Anderson’s case.
“It means those who were lost will not be forgotten. John’s story offers hope. Hope that they will all come home,” Lindstrand said during the memorial service. . . .
About 1,000 people lined the street to honor the missing sailor during the procession home. A public memorial Saturday brought out hundreds to honor his life.
“After all this time, to know exactly where he’s at and to have him back here at home is just huge,” Lindstrand said.
John Emanuel Anderson was born in Willmar, Minnesota, on September 25, 1919, to Oscar and Anna Anderson. He was raised in Willmar and graduated from high school in 1937, after which he worked for his father as a painter and decorator,planning eventually to take over his father's business. Following the outbreak of W.W. II in 1941, John enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He trained throughout the U.S. as a Motor Machinist. After serving in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, John was sent to England to prepare for the Invasion of the European Mainland in January of 1944.
John was the couple's only son, the youngest of four children.
His return--and the generous public support by the regional center that's home to just under 20,000 people, none of whom now are related to the fallen sailor--is a reminder that many Americans still honor those who sacrificed for this nation. Rest in peace, John Anderson.
Photo: Citizens lined the streets to honor Anderson. Photo via WCCO news.
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Just in from First District Congressman Walz' office in Washington:
Today, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee appointed Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) to serve on the influential House Armed Services Committee. In addition, Walz will continue to serve in prominent roles on the Agriculture and Veterans’ Affairs Committees. Walz is the highest ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in Congress.
“I’m honored to be selected by leadership to this influential committee and look forward to this new challenge and responsibility,” Representative Walzsaid about his selection to the House Armed Services Committee.
The Armed Services Committee retains jurisdiction of all subjects listed in clause 1(c) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives and retains exclusive jurisdiction for: defense policy generally, ongoing military operations, the organization and reform of the Department of Defense and Department of Energy, counter-drug programs, acquisition and industrial base policy, technology transfer and export controls, joint interoperability, the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, Department of Energy nonproliferation programs, and detainee affairs and policy.
Photo: First District Congressman Tim Walz, DFL-Mankato.
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Initially, Severson had planned to devote his news event to the subject of voter participation among members of the military. Among other things, Severson contends that President Barack Obama’s administration, current secretary of state Mark Ritchie and DFL secretary of state candidate Rep. Steve Simon have all participated in efforts to suppress voting by members of the military.
That's fascinating--and like so much from Severson, worth scrutiny.
. . . an Iowa-based “educational” organization, begun in 2009, to “advance individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited and accountable government” through “independent, non-partisan research on public policy matters and initiatives,” its website explains. Eversole said MVPP is nonpartisan but does not disclose its donors.
The Legacy Foundation website says it does not support or endorse candidates. News reports say it has backed right-wing causes including Arizona’s controversial immigration law. It also brought a lawsuit last year against a Democratic-led congressional redistricting plan in Maryland.
Bruce Rastetter, a wealthy GOP donor and former business partner of the billionaire Koch brothers, who back conservative causes and candidates, is a former chairman of foundation, the Baltimore Sun reported last year.
Philpott also reported that Eversole "worked absentee voter issues for John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the senator’s presidential bid in 2008."
. . .Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has been a stalwart supporter of military voters and has helped to remove numerous bureaucratic hurdles in the military and overseas absentee balloting process. In particular, his office partnered with the Overseas Vote Foundation to create an easy-to-use, online service for military and overseas voters to assist them with their voter questions and facilitate their requests for absentee ballots. He also has worked with the legislature to allow email delivery of absentee ballots and moved the primary to allow sufficient time for military ballots to be received and returned.
Eversole said MVPP has “worked at all times to make this a non-partisan issue. I have repeatedly made clear that neither President Obama nor his administration is to blame” for a decline in absentee votes.
He said the FVAP still “failed to create a more systematic basis for allowing military voters to register and request ballots” by not using base voting offices as part of the check in and check out process, in the same way many states use vehicle registration offices to accommodate voter registration.
[T]here is little reason to believe the Pentagon's reported problems with voter assistance reflect partisan maneuvering, said Eric Eversole, executive director of the Military Voter Protection Project.
"The military voting issue has existed long before the current administration. I simply don't see any politics at play," Eversole said. [Marine Corps. Times, 9/5/12]
Looking through Severson's career as a legislator, we have found a number of veteran and military-friendly bills, as might be expected from a proud veteran, but none that specifically dealt with making it easier for active military members to vote. His zeal about this issue appears to be late blooming.
Apparently DFL Chair Martin looked up the same public record, judging from Grow's report.
Simon, on the other hand, has kept military voters in mind while writing election law. We noted back in the August post that MVPP had praised Minnesota for moving its primary from September to August to accommodate military voters. The author of the bill?:
Severson is wrong about the changes to absentee voting rules, Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-Hopkins, said.
“Anyone who says that members of the military are somehow left out of the new no-excuses absentee voting law either has a total ignorance of the law or is trying to accomplish some other aim,” Simon said. “The point is they absolutely are included.”
In addition, lawmakers authorized a new online voter registration system this year that allows military personal to more easily apply for absentee ballots.
Bill Sorem's Video from The Uptake
Here's The Uptake's video of the dueling press conferences:
The text below the video summarizes the content:
"When Dan Severson makes baseless allegations, we're going to respond in kind," said Ken Martin, DFL State Chair, after part one of Dan Severson GOP endorsed candidate for Minnesota Secretary of State press conference, October 14, 2014, to announce his initiative, if elected, to allow military personnel to vote on-line using their military ID. He accused the current Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie and the Dayton administration of systematically discriminating against overseas military personnel and thus severely reducing the number allowed to vote. He further claimed that the new "no-excuse" absentee ballot legislation which allows any registered voter to absentee vote without an excuse specifically excludes military personnel from this privilege, requiring them to provide an excuse. He further said that the current process
According to David Maeda, Minnetonka City Clerk and supervisor of city elections there is no requirement for military personnel to provide and excuse for an absentee ballot, they are covered by the same law as current residents. Further, the city is allowed to email an email application for an absentee ballot which can be emailed back. The county is permitted to email a ballot with appropriate instructions. The completed ballot must be returned by mail.
Severson also raided the issue of extensive voter fraud in past Minnesota elections.
Ken Martin, DFL State chairman, claimed that Severson has built a campaign around suppressing voting to solve unfounded election corruption allegations. Martin claimed the Serverson has said he wants to make voting as easy as possible and at the same time has said he doesn't support non-excuse absentee balloting or same day registration.
Severson stood up after Martin had finished and extended his previous remarks about voter fraud.
Bluestem has been looking into Severson's claims and background since August, some of which appear below.
Screenshot: Minnesota was named an All-Star State by the Heroes Vote Project in 2012.
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A friend's ears perked up while listening to Blois Olson's interview of endorsed Republican Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson on September 24, 2014.
Asked by Olson about what he perceives to be voter fraud, "Teflon Dan" Severson recites his usual list of debunked anecdotes, then adds a new one at at the 25 minute mark:
Blois Olson: When you bring up this no-excuse absentee voting which is being touted this year, it's being used by candidates of both parties, any pitfalls you see potentially here that are concerning or that may cause some issues with this year's election?
Dan Severson:Yeah and I think, one of them was brought to me attention just a couple of nights ago, I was up in Sleepy Eye and a couple I had not met before came up to me and said, "You know, we have a daughter who was 18 years old when she last voted in Minnesota, that was basically eight years ago. She got, she moved down to Kansas. We got a absentee ballot to our house. She hadn't voted in these eight years and she got, we got a ballot at our house for her to fill out and mail in."
Well, she doesn't live in Minnesota anymore but there's a ballot that just happened to occur on their doorstep and I'm kind of going, how do they know this is her--
Olson: --Right--
Severson: --number one and how come all of a sudden this is has happened? Well, this is the whole "no excuses" early voting and there are lists that are out and the Democratic Party mined that list and basically said, "Hey we think that you should vote," and that fact of the matter is, she doesn't even live in Minnesota anymore.
Now what's the security of that particular ballot?
Severson's statement reveals a sweeping ignorance of Minnesota's absentee voting law, as well as a lack of curiosity about investigating why the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party would start mailing "ballots" to random individuals on voter lists.
No excuses absentee balloting isn't "early voting"
Olson correctly calls the new system "no excuses absentee voting," while Severson substitutes the phrase "early voting." The National Conference of State Legislatures explains the difference here, and The Uptake interviewed DFL Secretary of State candidate Steve Simon at the State Fair discussing how early voting would be different.
As no broad bipartisan consensus on traditional early voting could be reached in the latest bill to change Minnesota's election law, the practice was not included. AP staff writer Brian Bakst noted the most important difference in a June report:
Minnesota's absentee program differs than early-voting systems in many other states because the ballots aren't put into counting machines until the night of the election, and voters have until seven days before then to change their mind with a substitute ballot.
DFL isn't mailing out ballots
Much more revealing about Severson's willingness to embellish hearsay into accusations of voter fraud is the notion that the DFL is mailing out ballots themselves--and to make these claims on a well-known media figure's podcast.
In essence, Severson is accusing "the DFL party" with committing a rather clumsy crime--obtaining an absentee ballot for an unrelated person.
Did the DFL actually mail out ballots?
Reached by phone, DFL Communications Director Ellen Perrault said that the DFL had been mailing applications for absentee ballots, not ballots themselves. Update: in an email, Perrault wrote that "The absentee ballot request forms were mailed to current registered voters." [end update]
It is legal for others to distribute an application for an absentee ballot but the completed application for an absentee ballot itself "may be submitted by that voter or by that voter's parent, spouse, sister, brother, or child over the age of 18 years" and no one else. The process in the 2014 law is outlined here in section 203B.17 on the Revisor's Office's website.
June press coverage of state party's no-excuses absentee voting GOTV
Severson appears to be melding his confusion about an application for an absentee ballot and the actual absentee ballot itself with that Associated Press report in June on how the state parties will be using the new "no-excuses" absentee voting to get their voters to the polls.
Minnesota is on the doorstep of its biggest statewide election changes in years by providing more latitude for absentee voting and by giving political parties, campaigns and others the ability to track who has sent ballots in for counting. . . .
For the parties it's a way to bank votes early in a year with hard-fought contests for U.S. Senate, governor and control of the state House.
"Instead of the get-out-the-vote activities that used to occur in the last 72 hours and even the day of an election, we've now got a 45-day extension," said Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey.
Previously, people seeking to vote absentee had to attest that they were ill or disabled, were scheduled to be away from home, were serving elsewhere as an election judge or had a religious observance.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin said his team is playing up the no-excuse aspect in phone calls and mailings to potential voters. He hopes the eased access will help the party combat a typically steep drop-off in Democratic turnout in midterm elections.
Fraser said the identity of people applying for an absentee ballot isn't public, but data about who has returned one for counting will be. Political parties routinely run aggressive absentee ballot application programs, giving them a sense of voters who might possess one. The list would come at a cost and there could be as much as a 10-day lag in disclosure.
Still, it's a goldmine of data to party leaders and campaigns, allowing them to devote money and energy toward contacting people who need a nudge and lay off those who have already done their civic duty.
"It's a very efficient way of being able to take a universe and being able to really chase them down and make sure that they have voted," Martin said.
The DFL isn't doing anything new or illegal in sending absentee ballot applications to voters, though it may be using updated voter rolls more skillfully than the MNGOP in 2014.
The practice is longstanding (and legal in Minnesota). It only calls attention to itself when done awkwardly. The McCain presidential campaign was criticized in 2008 when it mailed absentee ballot applications with campaign literature, though most of the scorn came from suspicions that incorrect voting place information was an attempt to invalidate those voters' ballots. The McCain campaign cited bad data, rather than ill-intent, as the culprit.
Does Severson understand data base management and such?
The candidate's use of this story--it which he accuses the opposition party of criminial behavior--is all the more troubling because it reveals not only misunderstandings of the laws he would have to implement as Secretary of State, but of the technology that he optimistically offers as a quick fix (that nobody else ever looked into, no less) for all our voting issues.
From the express lane voting, to online voting for military personnel, to his latest "vote anywhere" proposal shared with host Olson on the Daily Agenda, Severson suggests that faith in technology will somehow make our voting more secure than shopping at Target or working for the NSA.
If only he understood the differences in ballot application forms and the ballots themselves (and the laws governing their distribution), Bluestem might tell our feline companion to stop laughing.
Severson faces DFL endorsed candidate Steve Simon and IP endorsed candidate Bob Helland in the general election in November.
Photo: Perhaps if Dan Severson stops talking about the election process, our feline friend will stop laughing.
Bonus question: Since the election is nearing, and military voters must request and mail absentee ballots to time for them to arrive by election Day, we have to ask once again whether Severson has delivered his Military Votes First petition to Secretry of State Ritchie and Minnesota House Elections Committee chair--or if he simply hasn't updated his website. The website petition still says that it will be delivered on September 11.
We'll be checking again on Monday with the intended recipients to see if it was delivered this week, or if the Severson campaign is entering Duffel Blogterritory.
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Go to endorsed Republican Secretary of State Dan Severson's website today, and you'll see the material captured in the screenshot above on the petition page under his causes menu. Click on "Read the Petition" and this text pops up:
In the 2010 election in Minnesota less than 5% of Minnesota’s active duty military members votes were counted. Current state policy is to count those votes last after all others. We believe that our active duty military vote should be counted first and in its entirety. If you agree, please sign the petition below. This petition will be delivered on 9/11 to Mark Ritchie, current Minnesota Secretary of State and Rep. Steve Simon, Chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives Elections Committee.
Tell them you support the initiative to have our military’s vote counted first!
In the post, we also checked out his claims, discovering that there is no state policy to count military absentee ballots last. In Chippewa County, where we live, the county auditor's staff counts all absentee ballots together, including those sent in by service members on active duty.
Since Thursday was September 11, we contacted the Office of the Secretary of State (OSS) and Representative Simon's office to see if the petition had been delivered, as those signing it had been promised.
OSS Communications Director Nathan Bowie emailed us to say, "No, we did not receive the petition." The legislative assistant to whom we spoke at Representative Simon's office said that no petition had been delivered on Thursday; she was at the office all day she noted.
Curious, we emailed the Severson campaign to learn the fate of the petition. The campaign emailed back:
Hi Sally Jo, no we decided to do it next week right before they mail the ballot.
Given that individuals signed a petition stating that it would be delivered on September 11, a day on which we remember the attack on the Pentagon as well as that onthe towers in New York City, Bluestem has to wonder what's up with a campaign that changes plans without notice.
Moreover, we are left shaking our heads at a campaign that will time the promotion of inaccurate information about the process of counting absentee ballots cast by active members of the military to the distribution of those ballots.
For information about the process, we recommend that readers visit the Military and Overseas Absentee Voting page on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.
As we have pointed out, counting ballots cast by active duty military personnel first does not address the issues of low voter participation by this set of voters. We encourage all readers who are eligible to vote in the state of Minnesota to do so.
We'll keep looking for him as we look at Stuff Dan Severson says.
With the retirement of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, the OSS is an open seat. Severson is vying with endorsed DFL candidate Steve Simon, IP endorsee Bob Helland and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Odden, according to the filings at the OSS office.
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So the Minnesota Republican Party issues a press release announcing how offended it is that Sen. Al Franken recently held two road cones to his chest as if they were female breasts.
Really. Is that the biggest issue they can come up with?
Does anybody realize that the race between Franken and Republican challenger Mike McFadden is not for homecoming king?
West points out:
Check out the campaign web sites of Franken and McFadden. Look under issues. Neither one has a word to say about foreign policy. Not one.
One would think a gratuitous sentence or two describing their visions for America’s role in the world would be merited.
West, the columnist, does not appear to approve of the withdrawal, but mostly what he's asking for is a debate, questions asked and answered.
Looking at two congressional races
We visited campaign and official websites for two other taces we've been watching more closely to see what the candidates and incumbents say about foreign affairs. In MN07, the campaign website issue pages for Congressman Collin Peterson and challenger Torrey Westom do not include a category for foreign affairs. Peterson doesn't have an issues page, focusing instead on his legislative work.
Briefly put: Hagedorn wants to "bug out" immediately; Walz supports the President's timetable for withdrawal, which other Republicans wh've actually been elected for office denounce as being too fast to satisfy strategic needs.
After nearly nine years, the war in Iraq has finally come to a responsible close. Moving forward, we must redouble our efforts to make certain our veterans have access to the best health care possible, are provided with ample opportunities for education and well paying jobs, and are becoming fully reintegrated into the lives they once knew.
Unlike the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan was not a war of choice. It has been a war forced upon us by the terrible attacks on September 11, 2001, and reinforced by the subsequent attacks on innocent civilians in nations across the world. In general, I support the President’s overall strategy for Afghanistan to remove combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. We must continue to remain vigilant to ensure that Afghanistan and Pakistan do not provide terrorists a safe haven.
While the language about the close of the Iraq War's close is subject to question, it does spell out a clear priority for addressing the needs of the conflict's veterans. What of the Afghanistan withdrawal?
President Obama, declaring that it was “time to turn the page on a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” announced on Tuesday that he planned to withdraw the last American troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.
Under a new timetable outlined by Mr. Obama in the Rose Garden, the 32,000 American troops now in Afghanistan would be reduced to 9,800 after this year.
That number would be cut in half by the end of 2015, and by the end of 2016, there would be only a vestigial force to protect the embassy in Kabul and to help the Afghans with military purchases and other security matters. At the height of American involvement, in 2011, the United States had 101,000 troops in the country. . . .
Republican critics in Congress said that even though Mr. Obama accepted the recommendation of his generals to leave behind a substantial residual force, the rigid deadline for the troops’ departure could expose Afghanistan to the same violence and instability that has erupted in Iraq since the pullout of the last American soldiers in 2011. Military commanders had recommended leaving at least 10,000 troops in Afghanistan for several years after the formal end of the combat mission in 2014. . . .
On his webpage and elsewhere, Hagedorn has focused his foreign policy attacks on Walz's position on Afghanistan. Hagedorn favors the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanstan, a position he reiterated on Facebook on August 26.
In Afghan War, he writes in part of a statement we believe to be from December 2013:
“The Afghanistan War has become a war of diminishing returns,” said Hagedorn. “Rather than prolong U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and sacrifice more blood and treasure, as President Obama has proposed, we must end the war, bring our troops safely home and cease throwing good money after bad,” he said.
Read the whole thing at the site. He includes some characteristic graceless prose that he considers clever:
Hagedorn said Congressman Tim Walz has been silent while overly restrictive rules of engagement led to needless loss of life and injury in Afghanistan. “Tim Walz is proficient at issuing partisan press releases, but on this critical foreign policy and veteran’s issue the Congressman has been AWALZ for seven years - Away Without Authorized Leave Zzzz (snoozing),” Hagedorn charged.
Hagedorn said he advocates for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops and personnel from the country. He said he also advocates for ending all funding to Afghanistan for the purposes of "nation building," such as constructing schools and hospitals. He said he opposes the security pact because it would lengthen U.S. involvement in the country.
“I think our time in Afghanistan has come to an end. We need to move on. Just bug out,” Hagedorn said.
Moniz reported on Walz's reponse:
Democrat incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Walz declined to release an official position on the agreement until the final version is determined.
However he did send a letter to President Obama on Feb.13, urging an accelerating schedule for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan after 2014.
“The American people are tired of this war. I have heard from a number of my constituents who ache to see their friends and family return home. I have heard from others concerned that this decade-long war is unnecessarily debilitating our economy,” said Walz in the letter.
. . .Hagedorn pledged that while serving in Congress he will vote for the immediate end of U.S. Middle East combat operations and oppose the costly and discredited practice of nation-building. Hagedorn said he would work with like-minded legislators to implement a foreign policy based upon the Reagan Doctrine of Peace through Strength and assisting those willing to fight for their own freedom. “People who build their own institutions and battle for a better way of life are in the strongest position to create and foster meaningful democratic traditions,” said Hagedorn.
“Both political parties have mismanaged Middle East foreign policy these past 14 years and the result has been an uprising of radical Islam, the loss of U.S. prestige and the slaughter of Christians,” said Hagedorn. “The recent implosion of Iraq and rise of radical ISIS Islamists proves the policy of nation-building has failed.”
“Brave U.S. military personnel fought and died to create an opportunity for the Iraqi people to fight for their own freedom and defend democratic rule; unfortunately, it appears many Iraqis would rather live in a radical Islamic state than defend a democratic form of government,” he said. . . .
Read the whole thing to learn the policy he would urge the rest of Congress to adopt.
Hagedorn's "bug out" position puts him at odds not only with Congressman Walz, but with many leaders in his own party and the United State military who are critical of the President's policy, thinking that the withdrawal comes too soon.
Republican criticism of Obama's determination to withdraw from Afghanistan
While Hagedorn views the situation in Iraq as a reason to leave Afghanistan immediately, he appears to have little company among his party's leaders for bugging out.
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the White House risked leaving Afghanistan in the same situation as Iraq. U.S. officials in 2011 failed to secure a long-term agreement for a minimum troop presence in Iraq, where sectarian violence has now reached its highest levels in five years without the assistance of U.S. forces.
“I’m pleased the White House met the military’s request for forces in Afghanistan,” McKeon said in a statement. “However, holding this mission to an arbitrary egg-timer doesn’t make a lick of sense strategically.”
“Does the president seek to replicate his mistakes in Iraq where he abandoned the region to chaos and failed to forge a real security partnership?” he continued. “We are in Afghanistan because it was the spawning ground of al Qaeda and the devastating attack on American soil. Those threats still exist. We leave when the Afghans can manage that threat, rather than on convenient political deadlines that favor poll numbers over our security.”
Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) also noted that Obama had previously announced dates for troop withdrawals regarding his surge strategy in Afghanistan. The president’s decisions to set fixed timetables without consideration of conditions on the ground harm U.S. credibility, they argued.
“The president came into office wanting to end the wars he inherited,” they said in a statement. “But wars do not end just because politicians say so.”
“The president appears to have learned nothing from the damage done by his previous withdrawal announcements in Afghanistan and his disastrous decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq,” they continued. “Today’s announcement will embolden our enemies and discourage our partners in Afghanistan and the region.”
Speaker John A. Boehner says it’s time for President Barack Obama to reassess his strategy for withdrawing from Afghanistan after an attack left a general dead.
“What happened today is not only a personal tragedy, but a setback that demands leaders in Washington and Kabul take time to assess the state of our shared campaign and the necessary steps forward,” the Ohio Republican said. “The Taliban’s recent campaign of high-profile attacks is calculated to accompany a global PR strategy highlighting the fact that U.S. and coalition forces will soon be leaving Afghanistan and abandoning its weak and ineffective government. The Taliban wants everyone to know it will soon dominate all aspects of life in Afghanistan once again. . ..
Boehner has long been a hawk on Afghanistan and Iraq.
And as far as the situation in Iraq goes, the Washington Post reports today that Senator Rand Paul, a leader of the more libertarian wing of the GOP, favors severe military action in Iraq:
Republicans pounced on the statement. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speaking Friday in Texas, said, “If the president has no strategy, maybe it’s time for a new president.” He said in a later e-mail that he would call a joint session of Congress to seek authority “to destroy ISIS militarily,” using another name for the Islamic State.
Earlier in August, the New York Times reported that while Congress remained wary about intervention in Iraq, Republicans were warming to the idea:
A growing number of Republicans are criticizing Mr. Obama for not doing more. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said, “President Obama continues to appear unwilling to do what is necessary to confront ISIL and communicate clearly to the American people about the threat ISIL poses to our country and to our way of life.”
Representative Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican who is also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said: “The president’s current path of action has been far too limited to make a difference. We must do what is necessary to eliminate ISIS, protect the innocent, and keep Americans safe.”
But few of these Republicans have laid out exactly what they want Mr. Obama to do to intensify the battle. . . .
Senator John Barasso wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday:
• Afghanistan. The administration says it still intends to pull out the remaining 30,000 troops by the end of 2016. If it does, the country will quickly become a terrorist haven once again. As with Iraq, the timetable seems to be mostly about the political calendar. The Obama administration seems to have lost the will to win. The terrorists have not.
These conservatives would all seem at odds with Hagedorn. Will Hagedorn's double-plus "zero option" find favorwith them--and the financial backing to promote his message on the Afghan war as a means to getting to Congress? Will voters agree? Or will he shift to be more in line with his party?
Update: While we were working on this post, Heather Carlson posted Hagedorn, Walz disagree on immediate troop withdrawal at the Rochester Post Bulletin. Carlson did not frame Hagedorn's demands for an immediate withdrawal in terms of his national party's leaders' position.
Photo: Foreign troops in Aghanistan, via BBC.
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According to the Pew Elections Performance Index for Minnesota for 2010 (screenshot above), 7.34 percent of military and overseas ballots were rejected, putting the North Star state at 29th is this category, while 34.99 percent of military and overseas ballots were not returned, putting us at 11th.
Overall, the state ranked second in performance, while North Dakota was first. Obviously, we should do better when it comes to counting military ballots, but the system isn't a farce that might prompt Duffel Blog-esque satire.
But it's apparently not the completely awful situation that former state representative Dan Severson is decrying, either. We present two recent examples for your consideration.
On August 23, endorsed Republican Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson posted four pictures on his campaign Facebook page of a larger-than-life petition for a "Military Votes First" petition under the following text:
In the 2010 election, only 5% of our active military's votes were counted. This is simply unconscionable. Stop by the #mngop booth at the Fair and join the hundreds of other Minnesotans who have already signed our petition to COUNT OUR MILITARY'S VOTE FIRST this election. (4 photos)
Where does that "only 5% of our active military's votes were counted" figure come from?
Of the 2 million military voters covered by this report, only 4.6 percent of those voters cast an absentee ballot that counted in 2010. This percentage represents a significant decrease from the last mid-term election in 2006, when 5.5 percent of military and overseas voters were able to cast an absentee ballot that counted.
It's not that there was a deliberate effort to not count the vote; the larger problem appears to be that eligible active duty members of the military don't cast ballots.
As far as returned votes go, the report states:
States generally did a good job of counting absentee military ballots if the ballot was returned. Overall, the states in this report counted more than 94 percent of all ballots that were returned.
What Minnesota's military voters require are easier systems for registering and casting absentee ballots that will help create a higher participation rate, a problem that isn't particular just to us. The report notes:
At least two states, Minnesota and Nevada, took advantage of this change in 2010 and required military voters to request absentee ballots for that specific election. 20 In other words, the 2010 survey data from these states reflects the total number of absentee ballots requested by military voters in 2010. Once again, the data paints a disappointing picture.
In these two states, the absentee ballot request rate ranged from 5.8 percent of the total number of military voters in Nevada to 6.9 percent in Minnesota. Collectively, only 2,656 of the 42,672 military voters in these states requested an absentee ballot in 2010—that is, an overall absentee ballot request rate of 6.2 percent. In our view, this data underscores the critical need for greater registration and absentee voting assistance for our men and women in uniform.
It's not that voters' ballots are left uncounted. It's that registration and absentee voting is difficult.
The Minnesota legislature approved online registration in the last session (and retiring Secretary of State Mark Ritchie unilaterally implemented a system before that which the courts tossed because of the overreach). Online registration is one of the recommendations in the report.
The report does note that some states, includng Minnesota, underwent major efforts to implement a federal law designed to assist military and overseas voters:
Many states undertook great efforts and expended significant resources to implement he MOVE Act in time for the 2010 election. In some cases, states had to make relatively minor legislative changes to comply with the MOVE Act. In other cases, states had to move their primary schedule and re-write much of their election code. The states that undertook these efforts should be commended. . . .
While there are a number of factors that prevent military voters from returning their ballots (e.g., it may be received too late to be returned), the data indicates that many of the ballots may not have reached their intended recipients. This conclusion is evidenced, in part, by the high rate of return in states that eliminated absentee ballot requests from previous election cycles. For example, the rate of return in Minnesota and Nevada ranged from 66 percent to 74 percent, whereas the rate of return in the other 22 states was 30 percent. As more states implement the one election cycle requirement, we anticipate that the absentee ballot return rate will continue to improve.
Looking through Severson's career as a legislator, we have found a number of veteran and military-friendly bills, as might be expected from a proud veteran, but none that specifically dealt with making it easier for active military members to vote. His zeal about this issue appears to be late blooming.
Minnesota can and should do better--and there's a clear choice among candidates for one who has actually herded cats on certain reforms that are meant to address these issues. Tha individual is not Dan Severson--and this leads to his more dubious claim about when Minnesota counts military ballots.
In the 2010 election in Minnesota less than 5% of Minnesota’s active duty military members votes were counted. Current state policy is to count those votes last after all others. We believe that our active duty military vote should be counted first and in its entirety. If you agree, please sign the petition below. This petition will be delivered on 9/11 to Mark Ritchie, current Minnesota Secretary of State and Rep. Steve Simon, Chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives Elections Committee.
Here, we see the claim about 5% narrowed to Minnesota, but it's misleading, since the claim count be read as "military votes cast," rather than "actual ballots cast by eligible active duty military voters."
And then there's that bit: "Current state policy is to count those votes last after all others."
Since votes in Minnesota are tallied at the county level, Bluestem called our local auditor's office here in Chippewa County, Minnesota, to learn if indeed the absentee ballots sent in by military voters were counted last, and if a state policy mandated that military votes were to be counted after all others.
The helpful staff member conferred with others in the office and returned to the phone to say that military absentee ballots were mixed in with other absentee ballots, then counted at the same time as the rest of the absentee ballots.
An email request to the Office of the Secretary of State confirmed the local auditor's office's account.
In a separate email, the office's Director of Communications Nathan Bowie explained the process of counting absentee ballots:
Absentee ballot process:
When voters submit an absentee ballot, the counties review their absentee ballot materials to check if the materials were filled out correctly so the ballot can be accepted. Those ballots that are accepted are set aside to be counted on Election Day. Counties do not separate military/overseas ballots from “regular” absentee ballots — these ballots are all in the same “accepted” set of ballots.
Voters whose absentee materials are rejected are notified of the problem so the voter can correct and resubmit their ballot.
Seven days before Election Day, counties can begin feeding in absentee ballots into the ballot box, but these votes aren’t counted until Election Day.
Also of note:
At our site, mnvotes.org, there are helpful tools for our military and overseas voters, including a tool for these voters to easily request their absentee ballot. In this tool, the voter can request to have their ballot materials emailed to them, to eliminate mailings. In this case, the voter prints out the materials that were emailed from the county, fills them out, and mails them back.
From our perspective, it looks as if Severson is using an emotional appeal to patriotism to invent a new status for military voters. It sounds wonderful to count military ballots first, though each county would have to keep them separate from other absentee ballots. Perhaps those folks signing the petition can pitch in some coin to create that new system for all 87 counties.
It sounds wonderful, and patriotic and good, but counting military ballots first on election day would do nothing to addresss the systemic issues that lead to low election participation rates by members of the military. Propaganda designed to trigger our patriotic impulses while shushing critical thinking is one thing (how could anyone be against counting a military ballot first?), while actually working on the hard process of achieving bipartisan agreement on election law is hard work.
Images: Screenshots described in the post.
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A reader calls our attention to a commentary in the Morrison County Record about the four-way primary for sheriff in the central Minnesota county. Editor and general manager Tom West applies an interesting standard for the candidates in Big differences hard to find in sheriff’s race:
On another topic, I asked the candidates for their views on the position of Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole, who said in 2012 that he would refuse to enforce any federal mandate, regulation or rule that he believes violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms and is not approved through the legislative process.
Gun owners have little to worry about in Morrison County. All claim to be strong supporters of the Second Amendment, at least for law-abiding citizens. Strack wants gun owners to be adequately trained and qualified; Larsen said his department wouldn’t enforce federal law, that’s up to the feds. Justin and Rocheleau agreed with Cole. Rocheleau said, “We are really the last stand for the people.”
However, Bluestem has to wonder if liberty-loving patriots would still want to see Robin Cole he;d out an the exemplar of the Second Amendment defender, since the Pine County Sheriff's department obtained a government surplus MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) troop carrier last year.
Addition of military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies has been criticized by the conservative Cato Institute and others concerned with blurring the line between public safety and war. Cole, who is not seeking re-election, told Watchdog's Tom Steward that the vehicle will "be used only within the constraints of the Constitution of this country."
We have to wonder though, reading SWAT team attends Z.E.R.T. training in the Moose Lake Star Gazette, if the framers of the Constitution really had this in mind:
Some residents of Pine County are questioning Sheriff Robin Cole for taking part in a non-government training exercise in southern Minnesota last weekend.
A total of four members of the Pine County SWAT team were in Morristown last weekend with their MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) troop carrier for an event called Outbreak: Omega 6! at a Z.E.R.T. event.
Z.E.R.T. stands for Zombie Eradication Response Team.
According to its website, it is an organization that uses the Zombie as a metaphor for any natural or man-made disasters that will occur. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, criminal attacks, or any type of situation where being prepared, trained and, most importantly, armed with the proper mind-set, is required to see you and your family through to safety. . . .
According to Cole, they traded out with the organization to bring the MRAP down in exchange for working with instructors, who typically charge $1,000 per instructor. Cole said the training they received was valued at $4,500 in exchange for “a couple tanks of gas.”
Cole said the training they received was from special forces type of people and they were required to sign all appropriate waivers limiting the liability of Pine County in case something went wrong.
“We came out better on the deal,” Cole said, who spent two days in Morristown. “It was a good deal for the county.” . . .
Cole said the SWAT team members said it was one of the best trainings they have gone through. The sheriff said the training budget is $20,000 per year, which doesn’t go far.
“If we can do some horse swapping, we do,” the sheriff said.
Photo: Sheriff Robin Cole (right) and the MRAP at the zombie training.
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One of the big surprises at the 2014 Republican Convention was the performance of Phillip Parrish in the battle for endorsement to run against Al Franken for U.S. Senate.
Outperforming Rep. Jim Abeler (Anoka) and Monte Moreno, Parrish lasted three ballots before dropping out of contention. He received 16 percent of the delegate vote on the first ballot. While investment banker Mike McFadden eventually won the endorsement, Matt Hudson reports in the Owatonna People's Press that Parrish considers his own Senate campaign a success.
Mostly, it's about the relationships, says the systems administrator and Naval Reserves intelligence officer who has returned to his work overseas:
“I feel pretty good,” Parrish said. “I mean, we literally built connections and relationships and people connected with what I was saying.”
Parrish, who was born in Blue Earth and grew up in Medford, said he met many people in person and on social media who shared his views on the state of the federal government. He said his campaign connected with a lot of people even though a lot of the connecting was done from England, where he works.
With tea party affiliations and a constitutionalist outlook, Parrish engaged the campaign like a mission. He expressed that he was “gravely concerned” with the country and spoke of cover-ups and ill-intent at the hands of current officials. Democratic leadership, he said, is full of “globalists” and “elitists” who don’t look after the public welfare. . . .
That's all pretty spooky for sure.
Republicans are now urging him to run for the state senate in 2016, according to the most recent OOP story.
To Phillip Parrish, Washington, D.C., is full of dark secrets, false narratives and manufactured cover-ups. And he’s upset about it. . . .
His interest in politics began in high school when he did grassroots campaigning for Steve Sviggum, former Minnesota state representative.
In 2006, he launched his first campaign and attempted to enter the Minnesota gubernatorial race. As a former teacher, he wanted to correct what he considered to be bad practices in special education reform.
It was another case of the government pulling the wool over people’s eyes, he said.
“Another agenda was spun up and kept in the forefront to stay away from a special education agenda that a few people had in the Department of Education,” Parrish said.
Parrish ran without the endorsement of a major political party and failed to collect enough signatures to make the ballot. The incumbent, Republican Tim Pawlenty, went on to win the election. . . .
This will be one to watch.
Photo: A random Naval Intelligence patch we found online. Phillip Parrish knows dark things you don't, or so he tells the Owatonna People's Press.
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It's Memorial Day, time to remember those who died for this country. I remember my maternal uncle, Madelia native John D. Osborne, who died from a blow to the head from from a German soldier in the Malmedy Massacre during the Battle of the Bulge.
According to military records and a 2012 book, Fatal Crossroads, John's body was tagged #1 when American forces recovered the bodies in the snow weeks later. After the war ended, the U.S. Army tried a number of the Germans involved for war crimes. Concerns about the fairness of the trial led to a Senate investigation; the report is available here.
After 70 years, the stories of Malmedy and the postwar trials are fading, blurred by fictionized Hollywood versions. Fatal Crossroads author Danny Parker interviewed American survivors, Belgium witnesses and German soldiers, and talked about his finding on Veterans Day 2012, joined by survivor Ted Paluch.
It's not embeddable, but here's a preview of the talk:
Photo: Bodies at Malmedy.
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A proposal to provide specialty license plates for women veterans in Minnesota is slowly making its way through the legislative process. It has stalled in previous years, but advocates remain hopeful.
Specialty plates have been a subject of debate in the Minnesota Legislature over the years, and lawmakers generally have been resistant to adding many more incarnations.
But advocates for these license plates argue that the plates would go a long way toward removing the invisibility that many women veterans feel, even among the well-meaning.
“This is not a vanity plate, it’s a values plate,” said veterans advocate Trista Matascastillo, a former Marine and a former member of the Minnesota National Guard.
It’s not uncommon for women veterans to feel slighted, even as the number of women veterans continues to increase. In Minnesota, there are an estimated 29,000 women vets, about 8 percent of the state’s veteran population.
At a recent hearing, West Point grad and Army and National Guard veteran Jill Troutner made the case for the plates as something visual that can’t be mistaken as recognition of anyone’s service but their own.
“Everyone notices a veteran’s plate, everyone assumes that it belongs to a man,” she told legislators. “For me, this license plate is a statement of value, that Minnesota, my state, values my contribution, my sacrifices and my patriotism in a highly visible way that will eliminate the need to explain to others that I am a military veteran.”
Minnesota was one of the first states to propose the plates, and now nine other states have adopted similar plates. . . .
And what would those other states be? West Virginia created the first plate in 2005, with Kentucky issuing "a Woman Veteran' sticker, which could be placed over the county name at the bottom of the Kentucky plate."
The Minnesota House passed HF1916, 118-0 on April 28, 2014.
It's not exactly a "politically correct" thing--with uberconservative male governors like Perry and Walker signing the bills into law--although you'd think so from listening to the offense taken by Senators Carrie Ruud, Dan Hall and a few others before HF1916, the Senate version of the bill, was passed 54-9.
How bad was it? Staunch conservative Senator Warren Limmer had to step in to share stories of how women veterans should up for Veterans Day specials at restaurants, where staff keep thanking their non-veteran husbands for their service. Bluestem has seen and heard about these sort of things happening to Iraq War women veterans we know, so we understood where the women veterans who lobbied for the plates (and the veterans groups who supported them) were coming from.
The Uptake pulled the video of the debate for us. It's jaw-dropping at times.
Image: A Wisconsin woman veteran license plate.
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After months of sphinx-like silence, investment banker and United States senate candidate Mike McFadden is finally sharing his positions, which include adopting the military as the model of "limited but effective government," while evoking pity for PolyMet for having to suffer through environmental review.
As for his view of fellow Republicans, McFadden says they have long expressed a message of limited but effective government, but have fallen short in helping deliver on the "effective" part of the agenda. He says the U.S. military is a standard of effectiveness, and it is this model that should be adopted elsewhere in the federal government.
We're left scratching our heads at that one, having heard some rather shocking stories from friends serving in the military about the cost and waste of the military procurement system, as well as in general operations.
Discussing these issues and others at the local Culligan dealership, McFadden, 48, used the Polymet mining proposal in northern Minnesota as a lesson. It would involve tapping an estimated $10 billion worth of copper. McFadden says getting a yes or no answer on whether the project can move forward has taken more than seven years and cost more than $150 million, with no resolution.
"What an inefficient, ineffective process," McFadden said. "This is a case study in what is wrong with government."
He noted that in even a nation with stricter environmental laws, such as Germany, a project gets a yes or no answer so that everyone can move on. And noting American innovation, McFadden said hearing a "no" in the United States would mean people getting to work to find solutions to barriers, so that industry and the environment could co-exist.
Coming soon to your local sheriff: 18-ton, armor-protected military fighting vehicles with gun turrets and bulletproof glass that were once the U.S. answer to roadside bombs during the Iraq war.
The hulking vehicles, built for about $500,000 each at the height of the war, are among the biggest pieces of equipment that the Defense Department is giving to law enforcement agencies under a national military surplus program.
For police and sheriff's departments, which have scooped up 165 of the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPS, since they became available this summer, the price [free] and the ability to deliver shock and awe while serving warrants or dealing with hostage standoffs was just too good to pass up. . . .
But the trucks have limits. They are too big to travel on some bridges and roads and have a tendency to be tippy on uneven ground. And then there's some cost of retrofitting them for civilian use and fueling the 36,000-pound behemoths that get about 5 miles to the gallon.
The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing what it sees as the increasing militarization of the nation's police. ACLU affiliates have been collecting 2012 records to determine the extent of military hardware and tactics acquired by police, planning to issue a report early next year. . . .
An Associated Press investigation of the Defense Department military surplus program this year found that a disproportionate share of the $4.2 billion worth of property distributed since 1990 — everything from blankets to bayonets and Humvees — has been obtained by police and sheriff's departments in rural areas with few officers and little crime.
In addition to the MRAP now in St. Cloud, a half dozen are now controlled by sheriff outfits the Minnesota counties of Dakota, Pine, Sherburne, St. Louis, Olmsted and Wright.
Dakota and Wright Counties are suburban-to-exurban places; Olmsted is home to Rochester, the state's third largest city, while Duluth's in St. Louis County; part of Sherburne is in St. Cloud. Only Pine County counts as purely rural, although its proximity to I35 allows some residents to commute to the Cities for work.
The Wright County Sheriff’s Office has obtained a surplus military armored personnel carrier and is getting the heavy-duty law enforcement vehicle ready to roll.
“It’s basically a big dump truck that’s got a lot of armor on it,” said Lt. Todd Hoffman. “”We picked it up at Fort Bliss, Texas. It came back from overseas.”
The Wright County Sheriff’s Office was placed on a short list for acquiring the 2008 International Navistar MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle because it plays a key role in security planning for the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Monticello, Hoffman said.
“We’ve been working with the federal government ever since the nuclear plant has been here,” he said. “The Monticello pant, whether we like it or not, is considered a national asset. We have different types of plans for security, and there are different types of contingencies we have to be able to address. This vehicle fit nicely into our plan.”
The Military Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) operates a program called the Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO), Hoffman said. The LESO program assists local law enforcement offices across the country in acquiring surplus military supplies and equipment for no or little cost.
“These surplus fully armored vehicles are now being given to local law enforcement agencies at no cost. The sticker price on a brand-new vehicle is $658,000,” Hoffman said.
Wright County’s armored vehicle arrived Sept. 23 with 13,000 miles on it, he said. The Wright County Highway Department is currently working on the armored vehicle and giving it a thorough tuneup. Once operational, the vehicle will be used by the sheriff’s office and its emergency response team as part of its security plan for the nuclear plant. The vehicle will be used at other incidents if needed.
The Wright County Sheriff's office did remove the gun turret, a spokester tells the paper:
“There are two different types of vehicles,” Hoffman said. “The St. Cloud Police Department decided to keep the gun turret. We decided to take that off as well as some of the armor. Basically, it’s a transport built on an International dump truck frame. It doesn’t have any gun ports.”
Bluestem knew that St. Cloud State's Homecoming got rowdy, but this seems a bit overboard. Over at the Wright County Tea Party ally Wright County Watch, Tom McGregor approved the acquisition, although he had some reservations:
Troubling, in that there now seems to be a 20 year practice of distributing military-grade, assault weaponry to the local level. Here is a description of the Law Enforcement Support Office ( LESO ) program on the MN state web-site
“HSEM is the state administrator for the Minnesota Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) program established by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) through the Defense Logistics Agency. It allows law enforcement agencies to obtain surplus military weapons, tactical vehicles, aircraft and other equipment for any bona fide law enforcement need at no cost.
All transferred surplus items must have a direct application to the law enforcement agency's arrest and apprehension mission.
Since the inception of the program in 1993, more than $25 million worth of equipment has been transferred to Minnesota law enforcement agencies including the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Enforcement Division, along with 85 county sheriff's offices and approximately 325 local police agencies.”
But ultimately, he's down with it:
In the end however, I guess that until I hear that a 50-caliber machine gun has been mounted in the turret of that armored vehicle, I believe that we are still a long ways away from any danger of Wright County Sheriff’s department becoming an instrument of tyranny and oppression and I have to say that the acquisition of this vehicle is a good thing for the citizens of Wright County and for the men and women in Wright County Sheriff’s department who risk their lives on a daily basis protecting our freedoms and keeping Wright County safe.
That MRAP and the direction of a citizen energy rebellion
Meanwhile, the Wright County Watch is rallying the citizenry against a request by Geronimo Energy LLC to install three solar projects that will supply energy for Xcel Energy, which also operates the nuclear power plant at Monticello.
So, here is your chance, citizen of Wright County, to make your voice heard regarding solar energy in Wright County, but act quickly as a vote on the issue will be taken next Tuesday's Wright County Board meeting. One question that seems germane is: Do we really want our county commissioners, in essence, lobbying for something that ( will most likely be funded with tax dollars ) when there are serious questions about the effectiveness of alternative energy production?
The Commissioners voted to withhold support for the project until the boards of the townships form opinions about the projects, three of thirty-one sites in the distributed solar energy project.
It's curious to see the local Tea Party ally, like legislative Republicans, kvetching about solar energy, while remaining mute about Monticello. Earlier this month, the Star Tribune's David Schafer reported in Xcel Energy seeks a $291 million rate hike:
Xcel Energy asked for its largest-ever Minnesota electric rate hike on Monday but offered ways to soften the pain, including spreading it over two years.
The increase of $291 million is slightly more than what Xcel sought in its 2013 rate-hike request, which utility regulators slashed by two-thirds. This time, Xcel proposed smaller, single-digit increases over two years for its 1.2 million electric customers in Minnesota. . . .
In its regulatory filing, Xcel attributed 37 percent of the requested increase to investments and expenses related to its nuclear power plants. The company’s oldest reactor in Monticello was recently refurbished and one of the two units at the Prairie Island nuclear plant in Red Wing, Minn., is now undergoing a major upgrade.
Xcel said 17 percent of the rate increase stems from transmission investments, 11 percent from wind and other generation projects and the remainder from an array of investments and expenses. Overall, Xcel said its been investing about $1 billion a year in Minnesota.
Earlier articles indicated that the refurbishing of the nuclear power generating plant at Monticello went way over budget, while Xcel sought to pass these expenses on to ratepayers. Shaffer reported in August in PUC slashes Xcel rate hike, votes to probe reactor upgrade:
One question getting special attention is how much Minnesota ratepayers will end up paying for the $655 million project to extend the life and boost the output of the Monticello nuclear power plant. The project ended up costing more than twice the 2008 estimate of $320 million.
Minnesota regulators are hiring a nuclear expert for their investigation of Xcel Energy Inc.’s massive cost overruns during upgrades to its Monticello nuclear power plant.
The state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday decided that a consulting engineer would help the state Commerce Department review the $665 million spent to extend the plant’s life and boost its output. The final cost was more than double the original estimate.
The PUC in August decided to investigate whether the investment was prudent — and whether ratepayers should pay for the overruns. The Minneapolis-based utility last month submitted to regulators a lengthy explanation, asserting that the five-year project turned out to be more complicated than first envisioned, but still worth doing. . . .
The cost-overrun investigation is expected to last into 2014, and is likely to play a role in the PUC’s eventual decision on Xcel rates. The company in October asked for a $291 million rate hike that will raise customers’ bills 4.6 percent increase in January, with a slightly larger increase possible in 2015.
If the PUC declares some of the Monticello costs imprudent, Xcel investors, rather than ratepayers, would pick up the tab.
And there you have it, gentle readers: the local Tea Party watchdog in Wright County is calling citizens to the barricades over three small solar installations, while remaining silent over the potential rate-hike spiking overruns.
Doesn't look like the Wright County Sheriff's Office will have to roll out its armored dump truck for that.
Photos: Generic MRAP via the Wright County Watch blog (above); Proto angry peasant mob from the Frankenstein movie (below). We can sorta guess who wins this fit, so maybe it's a lot safer to protest small solar projects than ginormous cost overruns (and simultaneous demands for a higher rate of return for investors) at a nuclear plant. Just saying.
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Never mind that reporters and camera crews hovered nearby, snapping photos and recording video, or that over 150 people showed up to tell their Congressman in one-on-one conversations that they want him to vote against a resolution in favor of American military action in Syria.
. . .But though everyone that came to the Co-op Friday was given a chance
to speak to the Congressman, there were complaints that the forum was
too small considering the enormity of the decision Congress will soon be
faced with it.
"I'm glad he did it," Quist said. "But I call it
'Congress in a Closet.' People want to talk to him about this. I think
he should have done something bigger." . . .
When dozens of people in southern Minnesota had a chance to tell U.S.
Rep. Tim Walz whether Congress should support military action against
Syria for allegedly using chemical weapons on its own people, they
universally said no.
This lede is repeated in story after story.
Here's the KARE 11 clip:
No Quist monopoly on sour: Hagedorn uses offical event to campaign
Wannabe Walz opponent Jim Hagedorn, seeking the Republican endorsment, put in anappearance at the event to campaign against Obama's Middle Eastern policy. Or something.
Joe Spear at the Mankato Free Press captured the moment on video, as a bug-eyed Hagedorn berates Walz, who remains a calm, if captive, audience:
Jim Hagedorn, who is running for Walz's seat, challenges him on Syria/Middle East policy http://t.co/DC0b4hJHmj
The latest bit of enlightenment that they share is Armed Teachers?
We asked a question too: why the question mark from individuals whose devotion to the Constitution begins and ends with the Second Amendment?
With that mystery hanging over the copy, it was a must-read, and we eagerly devoured the pixels, soon learning after the jump that it was a post lifted from South Carolina patriot Tim Brown at Freedom Outpost, Arkansas Uses Little-Known Law To Arm Teachers With Guns. Brown freely mixes his original thoughts with an Associated Press report (via the Blaze) about "training and arming 20 teachers, administrators and other school employees" for the coming school year.
Smith approves--though he isn't happy that the government is paying for the training and arming of the teachers. Here's how the program works, in copy that's straight from the AP report:
Superintendent David Hopkins said that the school district’s previous plan in the past was “Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,” but he added, “That’s not a plan.”
Hopkins believed in utilizing those who were already employees of the schools to guard students, rather than paying for security.
“We’re not tying our money up in a guard 24/7 that we won’t have to have unless something happens. We’ve got these people who are already hired and using them in other areas,” Hopkins said. “Hopefully we’ll never have to use them as a security guard.”
Through a program, participants are given a one-time $1,100 stipend to purchase a handgun and holster. The district is paying about $50,000 for ammunition and training by Nighthawk Custom Training Academy.
Got that? Train and arm the staff, and the school doesn't have to pay those layabout armed security officers, who will so be doing nothing at all unless someone opens fire.
Brown likes the idea of armed teachers but not the notion of using taxpayer money to do it:
Personally, I don’t support tax dollars going to any of this, but the concept of the training and arming teachers and administrators I fully support. After all, they are not only protecting student[s], but also themselves. In fact, I’m often amazed at hearing stories where teachers have to bring in paper and pencils and have to use their own money to purchase supplies and yet here’s tens of thousands of dollars being spent on guns, training and ammunition. However, I’m glad to see that the school district is serious at least about letting citizens be able to carry their weapons to defend themselves and the students of the school. For that, I applaud their efforts.
Bluestem's happy that Brown admits that maybe taxpayer dollars should directly purchase school supplies rather that having the fund for teachers' salaries indirectly subsidize that buying.
But school security? That is so not taxpayer business, since the teachers would be defending themselves, not just the children. Let them pay for their own dang guns and armed crisis training!
We have to wonder why Brown stops there. Under that logic, Americans should be able to cut military and defense spending to the bone, since those law enforcement officers, Border Patrol personnel, Marines, sailors, soldiers, and pilots aren't just defending communities and our country, they're defending themselves!
Bluestem is grateful to the Central Minnesota Tea Party for sharing this gem, as we probably wouldn't have found it in our own meandering reading.
Photo: Training for a school shooter scenario in the Clarksville Public Schools, still from the AP video that accompanied the story.
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McLeod County Chronicle editor Rich Glennie might have opposed the rapid enactment of marriage equality, but he's turned his attention to new developments that seem far more threatening to him.
Drones. Secret wiretapping of reporters. I.R.S. investigations. Corporations using facial recognition software to track consumer behavior.
Well, just like the Y2K millennium end-of-the-world scenario and the Mayan calendar doomsday predictions, the world did not end with the same-sex marriage bill passed recently by the Minnesota Legislature.
Despite this admission, Glennie's rhetoric does take on some violent sexual connotations:
This was the liberals’ one opportunity to foist their gay agenda onto the rest of us, who simply were not ready for such fast action from a traditionally slow-moving Legislature. . . .
There was no one to slow down the DFL juggernaut this session, and not only was gay marriage rammed down our throats, so has a whole truckload of new and expanded state taxes.
That truckload sound hard to take. But then he softens his tone, noting that many Christians were torn between strictures against same sex love and Jesus's great commandment to love one's neighbor as one's self--and that Minnesotans tend to recognize shades of gray on social issues:
To most Minnesotans, social issues are more gray than black-and-white. We tend to favor equal rights for all; we tend to defend the underdog; we tend to fight for fairness and openness.
So when the same-sex marriage push was made, it was with mixed feelings.
That being said, Glennie moves on to what he thinks is a real problem:
What Minnesotans, and Americans in general, should be more worried about, however, is the insidious intrusion of the federal government into our lives with increased use of domestic drones, the secret wiretapping of Associated Press journalists’ phone lines and the Internal Revenue Services’ revelations about zeroing in on specific political groups for more scrutiny.
To top it off was the “60 Minutes” report on Sunday that showed how facial recognition is being used to not only find criminals, but to identify your spending habits, where you used your credit cards and for what purchases. Corporations can then use that data to pinpoint their advertising campaigns.
Big government and big corporations diminishing civil liberties? He might be on to something.
It is a fact universally acknowledged that Senator Warren Limmer may be one of the principal architects of the DFL majority in both houses of the Minnesota legislature.
Bluestem wishes we could say, for the sake of our state, that the ruin of his earnest desire in the constitutional establishment of one of his prejudices has produced so happy an effect as to make him a sensible, amiable, well-informed man for the rest of his life; though perhaps it is lucky for bloggers, who might not have relished felicity in so unusual a form, that he still is occasionally nervous and invariably silly.
The argument over the idea reignited simmering tensions about the voter ID proposal, which lost dramatic support in closing months before the November election.
State Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, another sponsor of voter ID, raised doubts about the legality of absentee voting. Minnesotans can vote absentee before an election if they are disabled or sick or if they expect to be traveling during an election.
Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, warned Limmer and other legislators against edging toward a constitutional showdown over absentee voting.
“Senator Limmer, you are disenfranchising the vote of every singe member of the military,” Rest said. “I don’t think you want to go there.”
Limmer shot back: “I am not going to sit here and be questioned about my motive and be warned not to go somewhere.”
The hearing was filled with elderly, the disabled and others speaking in favor of early voting.
With that sort of performance, Bluestem wonders whether this might be the time to abandon political blogging, pull up stakes and move to Big Stone or Lac Qui Parle County and write nothing but blank verse until Terry Vanderpol's cows come home or John White quits fishing.
Our work here is done--and by Republicans.
Photo: Warren Limmer, the Mrs. Bennet of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
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All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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