Just days before the Superior Court was set to decide the motions, the 3M v. Boulter federal court issued its decision,
holding that the anti-SLAPP act could not be applied in federal court.
Dean promptly filed his suit there, and sought to voluntarily dismiss
it in the DC Superior Court.
That’s when all the fun
started. The DC Superior Court judge held that, if Dean wanted to forum
shop, he could so do, but he needed to reimburse the defendants for the
fees they incurred in the Superior Court action (as long as that work
could not be used in the federal court action). In the interim, Judge
Leon stayed the federal court case until resolution of the Superior
Court action.
Dean protested that he was the master
of his forum, and could elect to bring his suit in federal court. He
refused to pay the fees that were ordered by the Superior Court judge as
a condition for being allowed to pursue his claims in federal court,
and instead moved to have the judge recused, alleging that she was
biased. She denied that motion and dismissed his suit with prejudice
for his failure to pay the fees, meaning that it cannot be brought
again.
The case has now found its way to the DC Court
of Appeals. At this point, it has very little to do with the DC
anti-SLAPP act, and instead focuses on whether the Superior Court judge
properly conditioned the dismissal on the payment of fees; whether the
fees were reasonable; and whether the judge should have been recused.
You can read Dean’s opening brief here, and the defendants’ opposition brief here.
Sounds pretty procedural to us.
But to read Bradlee Dean's latest appeal for money to help with his legal bills, you'd think that he's a prisoner in an iron mask. Or dead. In Will You LIVE For Your Country?, posted Saturday at the American Clarion, he writes:
Think the Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman case was bad? You should see what
MSNBC and Rachel Maddow did to Bradlee Dean. Help his lawsuit against
them. Stand for America and get your free gift.
Yes, reporting what Dean said on his radio show is so much worse than being shot to death or facing a murder charge.
And Dean's tales of woe about the fate of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence? Snopes has a factcheck of the old standard email list including the fact that John Hart, the first signer Dean mentions by name, didn't die "from exhaustion and a broken heart" but rather of kidney stones.
Bluestem sincerely hopes that Dean will survive the torture of paying legal fees from the lawsuit he filed and shopped around. It's right up there with the lives, fortunes and sacred honor anyone at the Second Continental Congress.
The check is in the mail. Really.
Photo: George Zimmerman (left) and Trayvon Martin (right). If you thought what they went though is bad, Bradlee Deann writes, " You should see what
MSNBC and Rachel Maddow did to Bradlee Dean." Yeah, okay then. Photos via ABC News.
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A twitter follower brought Remember Dean v Maddow? on LeClair Ryan's D.C. Anti-SLAPP Law blog to Bluestem's attention. You may remember that toxic metal Christian pastor Dean sued Rachel Maddow and local journalist Andy Birkey, as well as their venues for defamation after they reported things that he said on his radio show.
The defendants considered the filing to be "strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition," as Wikipedia defines the practice.
According to a brief filed in the DC Court of Appeals in early July, Andy Birkey was dismissed from the lawsuit by the Superior Court, and his employer at the time of the alleged smear, the Minnesota Independent, was never served although it was named in the complaint.
Just days before the Superior Court was set to decide the motions, the 3M v. Boulter federal court issued its decision,
holding that the anti-SLAPP act could not be applied in federal court.
Dean promptly filed his suit there, and sought to voluntarily dismiss
it in the DC Superior Court.
That’s when all the fun
started. The DC Superior Court judge held that, if Dean wanted to forum
shop, he could so do, but he needed to reimburse the defendants for the
fees they incurred in the Superior Court action (as long as that work
could not be used in the federal court action). In the interim, Judge
Leon stayed the federal court case until resolution of the Superior
Court action.
Dean protested that he was the master
of his forum, and could elect to bring his suit in federal court. He
refused to pay the fees that were ordered by the Superior Court judge as
a condition for being allowed to pursue his claims in federal court,
and instead moved to have the judge recused, alleging that she was
biased. She denied that motion and dismissed his suit with prejudice
for his failure to pay the fees, meaning that it cannot be brought
again.
The case has now found its way to the DC Court
of Appeals. At this point, it has very little to do with the DC
anti-SLAPP act, and instead focuses on whether the Superior Court judge
properly conditioned the dismissal on the payment of fees; whether the
fees were reasonable; and whether the judge should have been recused.
You can read Dean’s opening brief here, and the defendants’ opposition brief here.
Bluestem will let you know how that works out.
Photo: Bradlee Dean delivering his infamous (and redacted from the record) prayer in the Minnesota House that questioned President Obama's faith.
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Hansen has written that his job is to keep the public informed in "an ever-shrinking world":
My position at the Dispatch is to raise an awareness of issues
that are impacting our area on a city, county, state, national and
international level. In an ever-shrinking world, our readers must be
aware of news down the street and around the world to be informed
citizens.
ACORN and other community organizing groups will be in charge of
signing folks up for the Affordable Care Act. That’s right, community
organizing groups.
What’s wrong with that idea?
“Giving community organizers access to the Federal Data Hub is bad
policy and potentially a danger to civil liberties,” House Budget
Committee chairman Paul Ryan told me recently. “But it’s one of the most
underreported stories I’ve seen. If people only knew about this Data
Hub program, it would touch off a huge public outcry.” . . .
Oddly, Paul Ryan doesn't seem to have said that to Keith Hansen, but rather to John Fund at the National Review. In Obamacare’s Branch of the NSA, Fund wrote:
“Giving community organizers access to the Federal Data Hub is bad
policy and potentially a danger to civil liberties,” House Budget
Committee chairman Paul Ryan told me recently. “But it’s one of the most
underreported stories I’ve seen. If people only knew about this Data
Hub program, it would touch off a huge public outcry.”
Other passages--quoting sources that Fund used--are copied in the Hansen article. Hansen does attribute one quoted paragraph to the National Review, although he doesn't mention Fund or the title of the particular post and the pararaph before the quote closely resembles Fund's text. Hansen writes:
Navigators, as they will be called, will have access to sensitive
data. For example, Social Security numbers, tax returns and other
documents will be viewed by these community organizers. The big deal
comes into play when one realizes that there will be no criminal
background check required of these navigators. That’s correct, no
background checks.
“Both U.S. Census Bureau and IRS employees must meet those minimum
standards, if only because no one wants someone who has been convicted
of identity theft getting near Americans’ personal records. But HHS is
unconcerned,” National Review Online stated.
Compare that to Fund's text:
. . .navigators will have
access to sensitive data such as Social Security numbers and tax
returns, there will be no criminal background checks required for them.
Indeed, they won’t even have to have high-school diplomas. Both U.S.
Census Bureau and IRS employees must meet those minimum standards, if
only because no one wants someone who has been convicted of identity
theft getting near Americans’ personal records.
Given how much of Hansen's material is lifted from the Fund post, the Vice President of Audience Development at the Brainerd Dispatch shouldn't be worried about ACORN. He should worry about basic standards of attributing source material in the digital world into which Morris Media hired him.
Bluestem has been posting about the ongoing investigation into allegations of alcohol consumption at a late May high school graduation party on the property of Morrison County Attorney Jan Jude and her husband, Russ Jude, an investigator in the Mille Lacs band tribal police force.
Some new developments are afoot in the case that reveal two conflicting narratives emerging in the report by Anoka County Detective Dan Douglas.
164-page investigation by the Anoka County
Sheriff’s Office into an underage drinking party at the home of Mille
Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude reveals two different versions of what
went on May 26 and 27 at the Jude residence near Foreston.
After drinking at the party, Bailey Hamilton, a Milaca graduate,
was taken by ambulance to the Princeton emergency room with alcohol
poisoning. Hamilton told the Messenger June 5 that the doctor said he
almost died.
The Messenger has compiled a list of 40 underage
Milaca High School students who were at the party. Detective Dan Douglas
spoke with 14 kids, in addition to Jan Jude, her 18-year-old daughter,
and her husband Russ Jude. He tried and failed to interview 10 more
kids, according to the report. . .
Jan Jude told Douglas she knew of no underage drinking at her
residence at a graduation bonfire in honor of her 18-year-old daughter.
Her daughter also said Jan Jude did not know there was any drinking, and
Russ Jude also denied knowledge of underage drinking.
“They made it very, very clear to me there was to
be absolutely no drinking but I’m a teenager and I have no sense,” Jan
Jude’s daughter, whose name has been redacted from the report, said. “I
personally said I don’t want any of you driving if you’ve been drinking.
… That wasn’t a rule from my mom or Russ or anybody.”
Several kids at the party, whose names were also
redacted, said they were under the impression that Jan and Russ Jude
knew underage drinking was occurring and “were fine” as long as no one
drove drunk.
One individual interviewed said she gave her keys to Jan Jude. . . .
Read the whole hot mess in the Messenger.
One new piece of information from the investigation appears to contradict an earlier statement the Mille Lacs County Attorney issued to the media after the Messenger broke the story. In his editor's blog, Larson posts in 14 going on 40?:
On Tuesday, June 4, Jude told Messenger reporter Diane Gibas, "There was no juvenile alcohol party at my house."
In Jude's comment to the media following the
Messenger's breaking of the story June 5, she said, "It has been
reported that a juvenile exhibiting signs of alcohol consumption was on
my property during a graduation party for my daughter. It has also been
reported that there are other minors have said they consumed alcohol on
my property. I had no knowledge of any of these events occurring on my
property until these reports were brought to my attention."
It's a bit unclear what she meant by "until these
reports were brought to my attention," but it appears that she's saying
she didn't know until June 5, when the Messenger story was published.
The investigator's interview with Jan Jude says Mille Lacs County Deputy
Brad Hunt talked to Russ Jude during the early morning hours of May 27,
and that Russ passed information on to Jan that Bailey Hamilton, who
had been drinking on the Judes' property, had been taken to the
emergency room with apparent alcohol poisoning.
In his blog, Larson explores the state statutes that govern misconduct by public officers and employees, wondering if the laws might apply to the Judes in this case.
And then there's the Jude daughter's statement to the investigator, which seem torn from the High School Social Queen's Book of Talking to Adults. Larson observes in his blog:
Jude's daughter's comments in the investigation were a bit surprising.
She said there were never more than 10 or 15 kids at the bonfire. Others
interviewed have estimated that there were 30 to 60 kids at the fire.
The Messenger has a list of 40. Some may have come and gone during the
evening, but a maximum of 10 to 15 does not correspond with any other
versions of events that we've heard.
Indeed, one of the teens who agreed to be interviewed for an earlier newspaper story was not interviewed by the Anoka County detective, Larson reports in the news article, nor were her parents, who drove to the Jude property to pick up their intoxicated daughter and a friend.
The investigative report also includes the transcript of a 911 call
from an unknown female reporting reckless driving in the area at 12:52
a.m. on May 27. “Hi, I was just driving down on the back roads on my way
home and I noticed there was reckless driving and I know there was a
party out here so I didn’t know if you guys had heard anything about
underage drinking?”
When asked for more information she said, “I know it’s *****’s grad party, but I don’t know if they — that’s where they were.”
The report also includes an email from jeffv to
Brad Hunt dated 5/27/2013 12:59:53 AM saying “Anonymous Female Called
911 From (***-***-****). Said That Some Of Her Friends Had Been At The
Party And Said There Was Underage Drinking Fyi. Caller Said She Was
Concerned About The “Roads Being Safe”. She Said It Was *****’s Party.”
(The name is redacted in the report. The phone number has been redacted
by the Messenger.)
The Messenger has received additional information about the party
that we have not published yet because we are still seeking confirmation
from additional sources.
Although we believe it is primarily the duty of
law enforcement to follow up on those leads, we will continue to do so
until we are satisfied that the voters of Mille Lacs County have all the
information they need to make a good decision if Jan Jude decides to
run again in 2014.
At this point we are not satisfied that all relevant information has come to light.
Anyone who has information about the party that
would either exonerate or implicate Jan or Russ Jude is encouraged to
call Commander Paul Sommer of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office at (763)
323-5000 or Diane Gibas, Rob Passons or Brett Larson at the Messenger
at (320) 676-3123.
Bluestem hopes that Messenger readers with knowledge of the case contribute their information to the investigators or the newspaper.
Photo: A Jude family graduation photo, via Jan Jude's Facebook page. One gathers from these folks that the bonfire was nothing more than a couple handfuls of kids toasting marshmallows. What, no s'mores?
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One of the storylines Bluestem has been following since 2009 is that of Southern Minnesota's neo-Nazis. Led by Samuel Johnson, formerly of Austin, Minnesota, the white supremacist group tried to use anti-immigrant sentiment to recruit new members.
Their activities drew counter-protestors from as far away as the Twin Cities, and later the attention of the FBI's domestic terrorism task force. Last spring, Johnson's name turned up in a federal affidavit related to charges brought against Joseph Benjamin Thomas, Mendota Heights, when Thomas and Johnson were considering blowing up the Mexican consulate in St. Paul.
By September, Johnson, a felon, was in prison for possessing an assault weapon, while Thomas had troubles of his own with drug charges. Neither man was brought up on terrorism charges.
Now Johnson's wife, Theresa White, is mentioned as an example of B. Todd Jones' poor performance as U.S. attorney in Minnesota. The Star Tribune's Dan Browning and Paul McEnroe report in Former Minneapolis FBI director attacks Jones' ATF nomination:
A former director of the Minneapolis FBI office sent a letter this
week to members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee denouncing B.
Todd Jones' performance as U.S. attorney in Minnesota as they prepare to
consider his nomination to director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Donald E. Oswald, 54, a self-declared Democrat and supporter of
President Obama, said he felt "morally compelled" to alert the committee
about what he describes as Jones' "atrocious professional reputation
within the federal law enforcement community" in Minnesota.
In the letter, Oswald writes:
Moreover, in April 2012, at the conclusion of a long term joint FBI/ATF
undercover domestic terrorism investigation entitled "Operation Wrong
Reich," Mr. Jones' office failed to charge one defendent claiming
resource concerns. This investigation focused on a white supremist
groups, who among other things, discussed plans to bomb the Mexican Consulate in Saint Paul.
Defendant Teresa White, along with her husband, Sam Johnson--a
convicted felons, and Joseph Thomas, also a convicted felon, were
arrested on a multitude of federal charges. But suddenly, without
concurrence from the FBI or ATF, Mr. Jones' office declined to pursue
legitimate federal charges against Tereas White for an illegal straw
purchase of a firearm, conspiracy to illegally transfer a firearm, and
making false statements to federal la enforcement officials, claiming
resource issues. Mr. Jones can't have it both ways--that is to say--he
can't claim to be focusing USAO resources on terrorism matters, but fail
to pursue established felony firearm charges against a domestic terrorism defendant. (Letter, page 5)
This is new information about the arrests of Johnson and Thomas, adding a third person to the case. We're hoping to obtain more documents related to the case, as there's little online about Teresa White (an different individual from the time of the Austin agitation; Johnson was arrested for abandoning a dog when his former household was breaking up).
In addition to the list two letters of members resigning from the NSM
were also obtained. One was from Cynthia Keene from Springfield, MO, who
resigned for unknown reasons in 2010 but still said she will continue
to support the group's efforts. The other was from neo-Nazi Samuel James
Johnson, who said in his 2010 email that he is resigning to chart
another course in his activism. "There is no more purpose for
organizational ties, the time has come purely and simply for
organization," his email read. "I am not talking about a protest or a
street walk or handing out fliers to try to wake people up who will not
be awakened until there life's (sic) have been effected enough to see
the truth. I think you know what I'm getting at."
According to
recent information that has been obtained, Johnson is a convicted felon
who resides at [redacted] Fairmont, MN. He was recently married
to an alleged neo-Nazi named Teresa Goad, a/k/a Teresa Johnson-White,
who works as a nurse [redacted]
We can't vouch for the accuracy of this information, which is from March 2012.However, the gun crime charges that involve helping a felon illegally obtain firearms--and doing it on behalf of someone planning large-scale, hateful crimes--are sort of things that many Americans don't want to see go unpunished.
And while we believe that there's a need for additional gun regulations, Bluestem also thinks that given Johnson's perchant for violence, the public might have been served had the United State Attorney's Office pursued Theresa White's case.
Screenshot: The passage from the Oswald letter (above); Sam Johnson--yeah, that guy (below)
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Note: Bluestem has consistently been a gun rights supporter. However, like Joe Scarborough, the Sandy Hook school shootings have prompted us to rethink our position on gun rights and gun violence. We're looking now at what regulations would be most effective in preventing gun violence in America. While we get up to speed on the research, we'll be posting guest opinion.
Guest post by Sean Olsen
Crossposted from Brick City Blog, Chaska
The elementary school massacre in Newton, Conn. Friday is apparently
going to prompt actual Congressional debate over potential new gun
control measures. Here’s a look at some of the options you might hear
about in the coming weeks, with some pros and cons of each:
Firearm registration:
Would require users to register all of their guns with the state.
Would facilitate tracking of guns used in crime, as well as discourage
ownership of prohibited weaponry. Would be relatively easy to avoid,
however, and viewed as a serious abridgment of Second Amendment rights.
Owner licensing and training: Would require gun
owners and purchasers to be licensed by the state. Most proposals tie
such licensing to requirements for successful completion of a gun safety
course including passing a proficiency exam. Process would likely
create additional expense for prospective gun owners.
Liability insurance: Would require gun owners to
purchase liability insurance that would cover any damages resulting from
illegal usage of the weapon. Presumably, this would discourage the
ownership of semi-automatic weapons because insurance rates would be
higher. Would make it much harder for lower-income folks to own
firearms.
Additional screening: Would subject current or
prospective gun owners to more intensive screening of their criminal and
mental health background. Would likely prevent more people with mental
health problems from obtaining weapons, but will never be 100%
successful. Also, could be considered a significant invasion of privacy
depending on what steps are involved.
Limits on magazine size: The Bushmaster .223
semi-automatic rifle used by the Connecticut shooter had a detachable
magazine that carried 30 rounds. Some have called for the limit to be
as low as six rounds, but most proposals place the number at 10 or 12
rounds as the maximum. Significant numbers of these large magazines
still exist today (and would continue to after a ban), and one could
expect a robust black market to develop.
Ban on detachable magazines: Some have called for a
ban on detachable magazines altogether, which would require rounds to
be loaded by hand instead of the quick change process facilitated by the
detachable magazine. Similar black market issues would exist with this
option.
Other limits on ammunition sales: Various options could be in play here, such as limits on the amount or type of ammunition that could be purchased.
Bans on certain types of weapons: Congressional Democrats have already indicated that they will be looking to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban
which expired in 2004 — this legislation primarily impacted
semi-automatic rifles with certain military features. Could be somewhat
effective — for instance, the AR-15 used by the Aurora, Colo. movie
theater shooter would have been banned by the law had it still been in
place. However, there were legal weapons available that provided
essentially the same function. As with some of the other options, a
robust black market would likely exist, unless the U.S. were to
undertake an effort like Australia did in the mid-1990s, spending
millions to buyback banned weapons.
The key thing to note about all of these options is that there’s no
provision here that’s going to be a magic wand. Guns are and always
will be a part of American culture. Mainstream debate (on both sides of
the political aisle) reflect the fact that no one wants to take away
the rights of law-abiding Americans to have a firearm for self-defense
and hunting. To reduce the number of tragedies like Newtown or Aurora
or Columbine or Virginia Tech is going to require changes across a
number of areas of American life — not just or not even primarily
changes in gun laws. It has to reflect that our system for treating
folks with mental illness isn’t working. It has to reflect that there
are some things very wrong with our culture. Bob Costas may have used
the wrong platform to talk about it, but we need to rethink our love
affair with firearms and begin to treat them with the respect that they
deserve. Ads like this don’t help the process along:
Photos: A grieving resident of Newtown (above); Bushmaster's man card campaign image. Bushmaster corporation website (below).
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Straight from his stint as Field Director for ProtectMyVote, the recent St. Thomas grad sees a really, really scary example of a DFL emboldened by its capture of both houses of the Minnesota legislature in the November 2012 elections.
In Green...It's the New Red?, a November 30, 2012 blog post up at conservative group home True North, Rouleau writes:
Shortly after the DFL took control of the majorities in the legislature,
Governor Dayton issued Executive Order 11-32 on November 16 mandating
an Environmental Congress be called and forums around the state be
hosted. Now, if I was a betting man, I would wager that this is the
first hint of overreach that we will see come from the DFL. [emphasis added]
That's pretty scary, especially since Governor Dayton issued Executive Order 11-32 on November 16, 2011.
Update: The wankerific Mr. Rouleau has tweeted that he "used a wrong word." As if his intent were somehow not clear in claiming that EO-11-32 and the Citizen Forum were a consequence of the November 2012 election and "the first hint of overreach," rather than something planned for months--or that the executive order had been issued nearly a year before the election.
This, dear friends, is why we save screenshots. And why we're pleased that the rhetorical brilliance that worked so well at ProtectMyVote is being brought into service in Mr. Rouleau's Holy War Against The Dirty Hippies at the EQB [end update]
Check it out, making sure to scroll to the second page:
Bluestem was aware that Alida Messinger's money could buy many things, but we had no idea that time travel was on the Dayton shopping list.
Think about it. On November 16, 2011, Tony Sutton had not yet renounced the throne of MNGOP and the horrific financial condition of the party was not yet public. Michael Brodkorb still worked at the Republican Senate Majority and Senator Amy Koch still led the Minnesota Senate; their affair wasn't yet widely known nor publicly.
The second session of the 2011-2012 legislature had yet to happen.
And yet Governor Dayton still knew to get the ball rolling for some world-class overreach. Some way, somehow, the Governor knew what no one else knew in November 2011: that the DFL would gain control of the legislature on November 6, 2012. Too bad John Rouleau wasn't let in on that dirty little secret as he might have found a different job when he graduated from college in the spring of 2012.
Rouleau continues:
While this seems like an innocent enough endeavor to
find out what the people of Minnesota have in mind, this was far from a
balanced audience. As I do more research, it appears to have been
selectively promoted with groups in attendance from The Sierra Club,
Environment Minnesota, citizens opposed to the Wolf Hunt and the
Minnesota Environmental Partnership.
Why is this important? Given the upcoming Environmental
Congress, it is very important for the environmentalists to be able to
point back at this data saying “this is what Minnesotan’s want” — while
pushing extreme environmental policies to the Environmental Congress and
through the legislature following that.
Ellen Anderson, senior adviser to the governor on energy and
environment, said Drazkowski's assertion that notification about the
meetings has been limited is "completely false." She said the board has
sent out hundreds of email invitations to various stakeholders including
farm groups, chambers of commerce, mining groups, environmental groups
and energy groups — just to name a few.
That was pretty much what we found, and given the membership of the Environmental Quality Board--commissioners from the departments of commerce, transportation, DEED and agricultures, as well as those divisions that might seem "environmental," along with citizen members from pro-industry groups like the Agri-Growth Council--it's hard to believe that there's selective recruitment of the audience.
Rouleau describes the horrific experience of participating in the forum (for a dirty hippie's counterpoint, check out LeftMN's Aaron Klemz in Citizen environmental forum provides a ray of hope, which suggests, when paired with Rouleau's account, that the Messinger-Dayton alliance can also purchase and install parallel universes).
Curiously, Rouleau notes that citizen participants are quarreling with the information the EBQ is providing:
At what point will people begin to realize that businesses are being
forced out of our state, that existing jobs are being eliminated and new
jobs are not being created. That is the point though, when radicals
(who put the environment above all else), claim that the data provided
by the Governors office and the EQB is faulty and express desires to
kill jobs and participate in social planning.
Jeepers, John, perhaps at other forums in exotic locales like Worthington and Moorhead.
Or maybe it's just you.
Image: Screenshot of the Rouleau post at True North.
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Christmas.
Austin neo-Nazi Sam Johnson, whom Bluestem interviewed during the period he was holding anti-immigration rallied in the Mower County meat-packing town, was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday for possessing an assault rifle, the Associated Press and the Austin Herald report.
Since Johnson is a felon, he is not supposed to possess weapons or ammunition.
Thirty-one-year-old Samuel James Johnson was sentenced in a St. Paul
federal court Wednesday for possessing an assault rifle. Federal
officials believed Johnson was amassing weapons and hundreds of rounds
of ammunition as part of a plan to attack the government and minorities. . . .
Johnson’s criminal history includes a number of convictions
in Mower County: attempted simple robbery in 2000, simple robbery in
2007, possession of a short-barreled shotgun in 2007, and sale of a
simulated controlled substance in 2007. Johnson also has a Hennepin
County conviction for felony theft in 1999.
Since at
least three of Johnson’s prior felony convictions were for crimes of
violence or serious drug crimes, sentencing in this current case was
subject to the Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandates a minimum of 15
years in federal prison. Johnson faced a maximum sentence of life in
prison.
According to a federal affidavit, Johnson was a
former member and Minnesota leader of the National Socialist Movement, a
white nationalist group and had gone on to form his own group, called
the Aryan Liberation Movement. He once held rallies in Austin.
Ironically, Johnson's first contact with neo-nazi beliefs came during one of his previous incerations. In an interview with Bluestem, Johnson said that he acquired "white pride" in the Mower County Jail:
National Socialist Movement Southeast Minnesota unit leader Sam
Johnson learned about what he calls "white pride" while incarcerated in
the Mower County Jail for multiple felony gun, drug, and simple robbery
counts.
Before he went to jail and discovered "white pride," Johnson said he
was an "ignorant man who wanted either to be feared or loved and to have
ton of money." . . .
The new cellmate called Johnson on his behavior and asked him to "Be White."
Paul Westrum's Minnesota Coalition For Immigration Reduction, an anti-immigrant group that seeks to severely limit all immigration to the United States, disavowed Johnson after featuring him in a video on its Youtube channel.
The Rochester Post Bulletin was sketchy about describing Johnson; in some reports, he was an "immigration reformer"; in others, a neo-nazi. Clashes with progressive bloggers and Indymedia led to an invitation for editor Jay Furst to TPT's Almanac, where Furst and the hosts chortled about how Johnson wasn't really newsworthy.
Earlier this year, Johnson associate Joseph Benjamin Thomas, who described himself as a "domestic terrorist," was indicted on drug charges. Thomas had planned to blow up the Mexican consulate in the Twin Cities.
The only source to have photos of Thomas? Indymedia, one of the online sources TPT and Furst so blythely dismissed. Jaime Hokanson had photographed Thomas at a rally in Austin and the infamous Sue Jeffers/Ruthie Hendrycks sponsored "Tea Party Against Amnesty" in November 2009. The rally was punked by prankster Nick Espinosa in the debut of persona "Robert Erickson," who called for the deportation of illegal and lawless European immigrants who had displaced Dakota people from their place in the state.
In the case of Thomas and Johnson, there might be some merit to that modest proposal.
Carver County's best blogger tells Bluestem in a message, "If Mike Parry is like a telenovela, Ernie is like a crappy TLC reality show." A recent incident at a League of Women Voters presentation at a senior facility in Waconia illustrates just how crappy Ernie is.
Ernie isn't the beloved Sesame Street muppet, but freshman Minnesota representative Ernie Leidiger (R-Carver County) best known for inviting Bradlee Dean to serve as House chaplain the day they were to begin debating the marriage restriction amendment.
State Rep. Ernie Leidiger is in a tussle
with the local League of Women Voters over a constitutional amendment on
this fall’s ballot.
At a meeting open to the public
last week at a Waconia senior facility, Leidiger admits to “standing up
and challenging” members of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Eastern
Carver County over their presentation on the voter/photo ID
constitutional amendment.
LWV members’ assessment of Leidiger’s behavior wasn’t so kind.
LWV members said Leidiger was “uncivil,” loud and interrupted the presentation to about 25 people at Westview Acres.
“He was loud, boisterous, argumentative and
bullying,” said Glenda Noble, an LWV member who helped arrange the
presentation. “His manner and tone was not appropriate. We were guests
in a facility that houses older people. The public is welcome, but we
expect them to behave.”
Leidiger defended himself by claiming that he "was just being 'loud'" and the League of Women Voters were
"nothing but a bunch of lap-dogs for (Sec. of State) Mark Ritchie and the Democrats. They are pathetic partisan hacks.”
Way to win friends and influence people.
League member Sharon Moeller of Chaska and Bev Geffert of Carver submitted commentary, Leidiger upsets LWV presentation, published in the Chaska Herald . They write:
Last Tuesday a program, sponsored by the
Eastern Carver County League of Women Voters, was disrupted by uncivil
behavior exhibited by State Rep. Ernie Leidiger.
The program speaker, a LWVMN volunteer, came to
provide information about the proposed Photo ID Ballot Amendment. The
event was held at a senior housing campus in Waconia. The speaker shared
factual information from the Brennan Law Center (and other sources) on
how this amendment might affect voting eligibility, who could be
affected and why the League is opposing this constitutional amendment.
Rep. Leidiger interrupted repeatedly saying he
had questions but, instead, spoke against the information presented. He
also made unsupported claims that could not be checked during the
presentation. When a LWV member, a constituent, told him she was
disappointed with his incivility and yelling, he replied that he was
just 'loud.'
Rep. Leidiger repeatedly asked why the LWV was
not presenting both sides of the issue. A member of the ECCLWV clarified
the League's procedure: Members carefully research issues, reach
consensus of opinion on those issues, then publicly support the position
reached.
The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither
supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties but always
working on vital issues of concern to members and the public. The League
has a long history of careful, thoughtful research that is widely
respected.
This 'loudness' and interruption at an
informational meeting is a bullying tactic that intimidates participants
and does not foster informed citizenship. It also does not model the
respect or standard of behavior that we should expect from a public
official in a democracy.
Bluestem gets a lot of fun email from vendors pitching products, but today's email brings what may well be the funniest email we've ever gotten from a "Senior Digital Media Consultant Marketing & Advertising Professional | Digital/Online | Mobile | SEO" type.
Out of kindness, we're redacting the name, but sharing the request:
Sally,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the Post-Bulletin newspaper in Rochester, MN. I work with our online/digital products. We have 330,000 unique visitors per month, accessing over 2.8 million pages on our site. The great part is that we reach over 130,000 people at the Mayo Clinic. This is a great market to reach- the majority are young, affluent, and educated. We have some really inexpensive ways to reach the public through our online paper. I am not sure if you are the right person, but I was wondering if you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of the person who handles the advertising for Allen Quist?
Thank you,
Well, no, Bluestem Prairie is a left-leaning website run by a poor country blogger. We're not the Quist campaign.
However absurd this request is, it does build confidence that the "Chinese Wall" that's supposed to separate editorial and news copy from advertising and marketing is fully intact at the Post Bulletin. Jay Furst and Heather Carlson would certainly never ask us this question. Indeed, Carlson would know enough to call the campaign directly if she were doing a story about advertising.
Any questions for the campaigns, elected officials, and other entities we write about should be directed to those campaigns. This ain't no receptionist's desk.
One day after the FOX 9 Investigators reported that as many as 24,000 Minnesota drivers licenses may be frauds, a state employee working in Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's department appeared in court to face charges that she fraudulently obtained a drivers license and housing assistance.
The irony of the indictment was not lost on Minnesota Majority, the group campaigning for the amendment. Ritchie, however, is out of state and has been unavailable for comment.
In Bluestem's reading about the case, we noticed that Oluremi George was reported to have worked for the State of Minnesota for seven years. Since 2012-7 = 2005, we wondered who had hired her and whether she had always worked in the Secretary of State's office.
Using the Ayoola name, George was hired by then-Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer in 2005 as a temporary office specialist. In 2006, she was promoted to administrative specialist, according to Pat Turgeon, spokeswoman for the office.
Ayoola remains officially employed as a clerical employee in the business services division, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office said in a news release.
Ritchie said in the release: "As soon as the indictment was unsealed, the office took immediate steps to ensure that all of our systems were protected. Yesterday, this office provided information to the Washington County attorney regarding Ms. George using her false government-issued driver's license to register to vote and vote in 2004 and 2008, which would be additional felony violations of state law."
She was hired in 2005 by the Minnesota Secretary of State's office as a clerical staffer under the Ayoola name.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie issued a statement Tuesday, July 17, applauding law enforcement's efforts to stop identity fraud and said his office had notified the Washington County attorney's office that George used the Ayoola name to vote in 2004 and 2008.
But Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said Wednesday he would not pursue additional charges against George, citing a three-year statute of limitations.
These facts raise some questions for former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer.
1. This person was hired and then promoted by Mary Kiffmeyer. Does she or or her chief staff Kent Kaiser know if there was some special reason why George was hired?
2. Why was George promoted during the Kiffmeyer administration? Were there any special reasons why George was promoted?
3. George voted illegally under Secretary Kiffmeyer's watch in 2004. Did Kiffmeyer know this and ignore it, or was she not aware of the vote? What measures did she have in place to address this sort of fraud? As Steve Drazkowski asked of Mark Ritchie, did this woman run the state's voter data base?
We know from a press release issued by Ritchie's office that George's job was clerical assistant in the business services office, located in a completely different location from all elections staff. Information about her responsibilities under Secretary Kiffmeyer could be obtained by calling her directly. Perhaps the conservative bloggers attacking Mark Ritchie could give Mary Kiffmeyer a call.
As uncovered by the FOX 9 Investigators, there are nearly 24,000 Minnesota drivers licenses that may be cases of possible fraud. Those cases were discovered by facial recognition software that electronically compared photos in the Department of Vehicles Services data bank of 11 million photos. That facial recognition scrub was conducted in 2008, paid for with a federal grant.
This scan occurred during former Governor Pawlenty's watch. Why was no action taken about the possible fraud? Was the inaction related to his run for President?
Bluestem is looking into the recent past politics in Minnesota of using biometrics. Fascinating reading indeed.
Photo: Did what Mary Kiffmeyer know (or not know) about her office's hire make her smile so? Photo: Paul Schmelzer, Minnesota Independent.
Between the lines in Quist FEC Q2 2012 report: $4000 to Al Travis Theilfoldt
July 2012 Sixth Anniversary Bleg Notice: Like what you're reading on this blog? Help support an independent voice from Greater Minnesota:
Isn't this crazy? And yet you go online, do a "Bradlee Dean" Google search, you'll see me up on the top, you'll see all of these sick-minded bloggers, who are my opposition. Keep in mind they're all homosexuals. Homosexuals. And if they're not, they're advocating homosexuals, they have it it in them too.
This month marks Bluestem's sixth anniversary of blogging about news in Greater Minnesota, along with original reporting. This post will remain at the top of the blog until the end of the month; to read new material, just scroll down.
What began as an attempt to bring one-stop news aggregration and commentary about politics in Minnesota's First Congressional District during the game-changing 2006 Gutknecht-Walz contest has grown to look for the emerging stories across rural Minnesota (BSP leaves Duluth and the Range to Minnesota Brown).
It's been over a year since I've asked readers to help support the site with a donation.
Bluestem hopes to continue to cover and comment on Greater Minnesota politics; the domain name has just been renewed for another five years. That renewal is a good example of the costs related to keeping the blog alive: hosting costs, mileage, phone and other basic tools for reporting, and increasingly, the cost of online subscriptions to daily papers (they, too, have to secure a revenue stream).
This blog receives no assistance from progressive organizations, which have chosen to advertise in or support other blogs they deem more worthy of their dollars as the November elections approach. This choice gives Bluestem the freedom to be independent of talking points and campaign plans determined somewhere other than rural Minnesota. It also leaves the "bleg" as one of the few ways Bluestem can find the funds to devote time to research and posting.
Use this button if you wish to contribute:
Like reading Bluestem's content? Please consider using the paypal button above (checks accepted; email for my snail mail address) or something from my modest wish list (mostly coffee and cat treats).
This [Michael Brodkorb's threatened lawsuit after being fired for having an affair with Senator Amy Koch] is an internal employment issue involving the Republican caucus. This has little to do with creating and passing legislation for the public's beneift. Brodkorb was basically a political strategist and spin doctor whose job was to make the Republicans look good and the DFL look bad. The Republican Party should be footing the bill for the caucus' defense.
Of course, the Republicans have had trouble paying the rent on their state headquarters and paying for their recent recount challenges. They probably don't have the money for the legal fees, either.
If they are really concerned with protecting the taxpayers, the Republicans should pay their own legal bills.
The Fairmont Sentinel, a more conservative sister of the Odgen Newspapers Inc. chain that owns the Journal, suggests a different option buried in its regular Saturday "Et Cetera" short editorial:
Settlement in order?
The Minnesota Senate is facing rising legal costs associated with the firing of a communications aide, Michael Brodkorb, who reportedly was having an affair with his boss, former Majority Leader Amy Koch. Brodkorb is alleging unfair termination and is threatening a gender discrimination lawsuit.
Senators are getting riled about the escalating legal bills, and the story is driving the public nuts.
There's a simple solution: The Senate must weigh what it stands to lose in a lawsuit versus the cost of its defense. A settlement would fall somewhere in between.
The accompanying cartoon by Dump Bachmann's Ken Avidor suggests that without a confidentiality clause, Michael Brodkorb might be able to cash in by publishing a tell-all memoir, especially with a cover like this.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem and Deputy Senate Majority Leader Julianne Ortman met privately today at a St. Paul coffee shop with former Senate staffer Michael Brodkorb. MPR News learned of the meeting, which was later confirmed by Senjem. Brodkorb has said he plans to sue the Senate for wrongful dismissal after he was fired from his job last December.
Senjem would not say what was discussed at the meeting.
"We had a brief conversation," Senjem said. "I can't go any further than that because it's a private conversation."
Ortman didn't return calls. Brodkorb said in an e-mail that he no comment about the meeting.
Brodkorb's attorney, Phillip Villaume, was surprised to hear of the meeting.
Via a tweet by my friend Mary Franson, Bluestem has learned that former partial-term Idaho Republican state representative Curtis Bowers will be the keynote speaker at a July 12 Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots rally in sunny Browerville. Fargo area radio personality Scott Hennen will emcee the gathering.
Those who can't make Professor Quist's PowerPoint presentation have a couple of other opportunities for emotional loading and froth. The Sherburne County Tea Party is serving up two nut courses on January 26, as well as a Taco Bar. Not only with GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dan Severson, who "has what it takes to defeat the Obama-Klobuchar Agenda!" be there, but his top gun will be followed by a showing of the documentary, "Agenda: Grinding American Down."
Curtis soon lost his primary in May 2008, the first time he actually faced Republican voters in Idaho's District 10.
Readers are likely to learn elsewhere that, like the conservative obsession with "Agenda 21," this second "Agenda" is a brand new shiny thing, but to those observers who do more than superficial sneering at the right, knowledge of Bowers goes back a couple of election cycles.
And his presence at a Greater Minnesota Tea Party rally likely marks a ramping up of the rhetoric from the right on the marriage amendment, since the gay agenda is one of the three prongs of the pitchfork that Bowers sees pushing Americans toward the dark satanic mill of post-modern communism.
In the fateful column that brought Bowers to the attention of fellow conservative conspiracists everywhere, the former Mona Lisa Fondue restaurant magnate and Otter appointee declared in Communist agenda makes its way to our mainstream:
They [Communists at a 1992 meeting he infiltrated by growing a goatee, and wearing "a revolutionary T-shirt" and "some ratty jeans"]had a three part agenda. They would use their manpower, influence and funds to back anything that would destroy our families, businesses and culture.
Firstly, to destroy the family, they would promote co-habitation instead of marriage. They would also try to get children away from their mothers into government programs at the earliest age possible. They felt the best way to do this was to promote the feminist movement, which had been very effective at making women discontent with marriage and motherhood.
Secondly, to destroy businesses, they aimed to wipe out the profit potential that motivated people to start them. If people couldn't make good money off their ideas and hard work, they would eventually be content working for someone else. They were sure the environmental movement (modest at the time) was the only vehicle capable of creating enough regulation and expense to discourage business growth.
Finally, to destroy our culture, they needed us to abandon our heritage of religion and morality. They believed the homosexual movement, if accepted, would begin to effectively extinguish these values.
In Bowers' worldview, pride flies a red flag. This is retread Bircher material with a lavender twist.
The local reaction in Republican Idaho wasn't particularly kind to Representative Bowers, although he had his defenders, who claimed he was doing a great job representing his constituents (the constituents showed him the door in the next Republcian primary, the first time they actually had a choice in the matter).
Bowers' goal, it seems, was to pit neighbor against neighbor by targeting three groups of people: feminists, environmentalists and gay rights advocates. According to him, these groups share blame for the destruction of families, business and culture. In fact, his enemies list may include you.
1. Do you agree that women should have the right to vote? If so, then you're a "feminist."
2. Do you enjoy hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, skiing or other recreational activities, and do you agree that preserving the ability to participate in these activities for your children and grandchildren is important? If so, then you're an "environmentalist."
3. Are you among the 63 percent of Idahoans who, according to a recent BSU survey, agreed that it should be illegal to fire a person because they are gay? If so, then you're a "gay rights advocate."
If you answered "yes" to any of these three, you are among those Bowers has accused of being unpatriotic communist sympathizers.
“We have this political war going on where we are trying to shift today’s Republicans [back to the right],” she says.
Franson, who was interviewed at length Feb. 15 by Capitol Report, acknowledges that the ideas are not her own. They are gleaned from a documentary film, “Agenda: Grinding America Down,” by conservative filmmaker and Idaho legislator Curtis Bowers. It is a movie that critic Richard Metzger claims is replete with “John Birch Society conspiracy theories that no one takes seriously anymore.”
Franson would dispute that. “This movie says it so great,” she enthuses.
Come and hear our conservative candidates, and hear more about Voter ID, ObamaCare, Flat Tax/Fair Tax and Tax Reforms, about the UN, and the Marriage Act! A fun evening planned. There will be a hot dog stand with chips, pop and water. It starts at 6 pm, but come early and come hungry!
The trailer not only raises the ghosts of those murdered by communist regimes, but Hitler and Nazis make an appearance too. Will Bowers be couching his keynote remarks in Browerville with the same historical references?
Whoever originally posted the Youtube took it down, though fugitive copies are posted at other channels.
Now it might be time for Parrish and other amendment supporters to return the favor with regards to Bowers' rhetoric. The trailer below for "Agenda" not only raises the spectre of the millions who died under communist regimes like Pol Pot, but that of Hitler as well, at the 3:17 mark. Will Minnesotans for Majority and other pro-amendment groups step back from this inflammatory rhetoric?
Should Bower's own private Idaho really take a central place in the conversations Minnesotans are having about the meaning of family and marriage? It wasn't particularly welcomed by Republican voters in Idaho's 10th state house district--and Bluestem is curious just why it's getting a welcome in Todd County's Browerville.
Bonus round: Bluestem always keeps an eye out for earnestly believed urban legends and spurious quotations attributed to the Founding Fathers. Our search for news of the July 12 Tea Party Rally led us to the NW MN Tea Party Patriot site, where the patriots attribute the following to Thomas Jefferson at the bottom of the site:
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
Historical evidence suggests that Jefferson and Ford were not the same person.
Photo: Curtis Bowers imagines he has a handle on the gay agenda; Bluestem thinks all that was solid melted into the fondue sauce he once slung. Photo via the Prodos blog.
The subtitle? "One man's view from the front line of politics by political war horse Tony Sutton." That Sutton can assert that he's able to correspond from the front line should be somewhat discouraging to conservative accountants who had hoped the party boss and failed burrito baron had been put out to pasture.
Given his newly public appreciation of art and beauty, the design of his blog disappoints with its tiled trench warfare photo and gloomy palette, although the gracenotes in his writing easily rival those of the homonym error master of the left. Bluestem hopes that Sutton will tart the place up a bit visually.
In the spirit of blogger camaraderie, Bluestem offers one suggestion: the addition of an author's photo. Fortunately charming images of the blogger abound; Bluestem is especially fond of Tild's photoshopped image at the top of this post, and through the miracle of Creative Commons licensing, Mr. Sutton is free to use the image at no cost, provided that he attributes the source.
Image: The famous Tony Sutton peso, by Tild, perfect for blogging from the trenches. For an example of a nattily dressed new Wordpress blog, Bluestem recommends Thug In Pastels, by SEIU leader and DNC member Javier Morillo.
Via Politics in Minnesota's Morning Report, we learn that many male progressive's favorite conservative twit, John Hugh Gilmore, wants you to think that the party's fantods over Agenda 21 is somehow new. It's not.
Before the lazier members of the Twin Cities twitterati who loves themselves some Gilmore adopt this meme as the new shiny crazy from right, perhaps a few thoughtful reporters and editors might consider how Republican fretting over Agenda 21 is nothing new nor particularly fringy.
Let's review. As Bluestem noted back in May, Agenda 21-phobia isn't simply something that popped up in brochures at the Republican convention.
Republican Agenda 21-phobia has a legislative history in Minnesota. Companion bills in the Minnesota Senate and House take up these fears, proposing a Legislative Commission on United Nations Agenda 21, and the Senate version was heard and approved in Mike Parry's State Government Innovation and Veterans committee and passed on to the Finance Committee.
David Brown is chief author in the Senate, with Parry, Dave Thompson and retiring one-term senator Al DeKruif serving as co-sponsors. None are sponsors of the raw milk bills that so chafe Mr. Gilmore's tender sensibilities (for the record, Bluestem sides with the cooked milk side of the debate).
Mike Parry is running for Congress in CD1, where no selection was made as he and Allen Quist (another Agenda 21 phobe) battled to a standstill at the endorsing convention. Quist is the Tea Party and Kurt Bills favorite--but both men have Agenda 21 syndrome.
In the House, freshman state representative Mary Franson and veteran lawmaker Sondra Erickson are sponsors. Gilmore is a Franson ally--perhaps he only looked to her public woes but not to legislation she authors.
You'll no doubt read Gilmore's frame repeated by his dear friends in the conventional media and the blogs, but repetition of the original thimblewit assertions by a Minnpost columnist makes them no more true. This isn't a new shiny crazy--but one that's sparkled openly on the right for years.
One wonders: who gains by the pushing of this patiently false meme? Agenda 21 phobia is malarky, but it's nothing new among Minnesota's conservative Republicans like Bachmann and Quist--nor have Brodkorbians like Mike Parry rejected it. Far to the contrary.
LeftMN, the new package for Cucking Stool, is a new blog run, by its own description, by four urban white guys. Without smart urban guys like this, bumpkins could never do get any DFLers elected.
What you can see when looking at those numbers is that the only time Democrats do well in the district is when that Democrat is named Kory Kath.
Left out of Petrangelo's equation? Tim Walz's wins in 2008 and 2010 in House District 26A. And something else.
But Petranglelo has a formula that transcends the facts, and that formula allows him to write "the only time Democrats do well in the district is when that Democrat is named Kory Kath."
After all, being able to make analysis with confidence is far more important:
This means that its [sic] hard to know if a district is voting the way it is because of its partisan lean, or because of candidate quality. Or even both. And because the quality of candidates will be different in every legislative race in the state, you can’t compare those districts to one another based on past legislator performance, because you don’t know if the votes were for the candidate or the party.
To be clear, you still have these issues with candidate quality in statewide and nationwide races, but the difference is that every person in the state is given the chance to vote on those candidate options.
That means that to the degree candidate quality is skewing the numbers, that skew should effect all districts about equally. This is why Cook PVI uses Presidential numbers to measure the partisan nature of congressional seats instead of the results of the actual congressional elections.
In a partisan metric such as PVI, you want to control for candidate quality as a variable and using numbers from the legislative races themselves doesn’t do this, instead, it amplifies the problem.
To answer NorthernMNer’s question then, you want to use numbers from races that everyone in the state had a chance to vote on.
Even under this formula, Petroangelo isn't looking at a 2006 statewide race in which a DFL candidate trounced her Republican opponent in the counties that make up the district. The last time Bluestem checked, Amy Klobuchar wasn't named Kory Kath.
So Walz and Klobuchar are winning Democrats in Kath's district who aren't named Kath, but because Petroangelo is so enamored of his formula, and Walz's election isn't part of his cherished metric, he'll not even use Walz's name, going so far as to claim no other Democrat wins in the district. Not even Klobuchar, who ran a statewide race.
That's awesome writing and analysis. Without smart urban guys like this, rural Minnesotans would be totally lost and never able to elect Democrats.
Photo: Tony Petrangelo, so much more brillant than you.
As we return to the latest epsiode of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most watched telenovela, the War of the Letters returns, with well-known Owatonna religious authority and letter writer Bob Nesbit rising to Allen Quist's defense.
Betty Quiring’s letter, “Quist displayed poor behavior,” on May 2, 2012, was extremely misguided and incorrect. Her analysis of the two Republican candidates for endorsement was totally distorted compared to what really took place.
I also was a Steele County delegate to that 1st District convention in Mankato back on April 21 and barely survived the 23-ballot endorsing marathon.
Mike Parry fits the definition of a politician perfectly. He’s loud, thinks the world of himself and proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was the bully of the convention — not Quist. The big difference between the two candidates is that Quist is a statesman while Parry is just another politician, of which we already have way too many of both in St. Paul and Washington.
Allen Quist has forgotten more about Constitutional governing than Mike Parry will ever hope to learn. Those, like Parry, who yell and shout others down to try to impress the voters usually don’t know what they are talking about. The same goes for neophyte delegate Betty Quiring. And, as the old saying goes, “Birds of a feather, flock together.”
As Quiring's letter was published in paper's across the district, we're likely to see Nesbit's epistle elsewhere as well.
In another development, more Twin Citiesbloggers have begun to notice the Mother Jones piece on Quist, a week after it was published. It's curious that so much progressive love is now being lathered on the retired professor and Norseland farmer. Using the standard that Parry applied to himself--attention from the left and the companionship of a DFL tracker--like this one--the casual reader might wonder if Quist is the frontrunner in the primary.
Stay tuned.
Image: Mike Parry, the Belle of Waseca County, in his new bonnet.
Minnesota's social media environment was deeply enriched yesterday by a bunch of guys--many on the left and one on the right--circling around and praising each other's daisies.
Though it's only May, and Kurt Bills' chance of getting elected to the United States' Senate is about as likely of those enjoyed by Francisco Franco (in other news, he's still dead), the smartest guys on the Internet have decided that comparing Ron Paul, Bills' ally and perpetual Presidential candidate from Texas; Bills, a one termer from Rosemount; and, Keith Downey, an aspiring state senator in the burbs, to the worst genocidal monsters of the twentieth century was felicitous rhetoric.
Did someone convene a focus group in France Avenue in which this trope emerged as winning language for DFL candidates?
On Facebook and other social media, Bluestem found male acquaintances passing around John Hugh Gilmore's What I Saw At The Hemp & Raw Milk Revolution with all the satisfaction of 1970s-era boys who had just discovered Hustler magazine. Oh, the fine pleasures within that prose.
But then, Gilmore is not a recently acquired shared pleasure of liberal men--last summer when he was facing charges stemming from berating Muslim women on the streets in downtown Minneapolis, several members of the same boys' club privately urged both Bluestem and Phoenix Woman of FireDogLake not to write about the escapade by their dear friend from twitter. Never mind the women, complete strangers he scolded on the street for their religion and manner of dress. Gilmore was acquitted, but video footage of his performance on the street reveals behavior no progressive ought defend.
David Duke admirer Ron Paul addressed the convention in the afternoon on Friday. MC walked out. It wasn't very brave, just honest. It wasn't like hiding Anne Frank although if Duke and Paul had their way, MC's carriage house would be full up. Paul called for legalizing hemp and raw milk to much applause. How so called party leadership could remain on the dais while he spoke is a mystery. When they look in the mirror they must not see anything.
If Ron Paul "had his way," there'd be second Holocaust? Really? Overwrought much, John?
But it's not so much Gilmore's intoxicating prose that is troubling, as its embrace by progressives. What's up with this? Those who are given to lecturing others (like Bluestem) about framing, messaging, and winning words like this sort of thing?
But the monstrous framing of the sorry state of the Republican Party of Minnesota isn't confined to the blogger who lost party office because of an influx of Ron Paul supporters in his district.
One of the lead authors for LeftMN, the shining new box into which the Cucking Stool has been placed, cranked up his ire against Keith Downey and newly-endorsed Kurt Bills. In Keith the Smartest Guy in the Room I, a post that contrasts Republican state senate candidate Keith Downey with DFLer Melisa Franzen, one of the smartest urban white guys on the blogosphere (LeftMN's admirers tell us so) works up a head of steam, concluding:
Downey is the kind of guy who would have been right up front with the all the British evangelicals arguing against sending food to Ireland during the famine, and also arguing against the repeal of the Corn Laws, because the potato blight was God’s way of teaching the Irish to become self-sufficient . Better to let a million people die, says Kurt, than abandon moral principle!
Or kill and starve five million, as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in its longing to return to the year zero.
We’ll be better off in the long run.
We’ll explore the depth of the craziness of the economic and monetary fantasy world of Keith Downy and his fellow traveler Kurt Bills in future posts.
Yes, boys and girls, Keith Downey and Kurt Bills are the sort of people who will kill and starve five million people, just like Pol Pot. (We might be persuaded that they embrace as certain sort of mild post-modern souperism, on the other hand).
Surely, this is the sort of rhetoric that will help Melisa Franzen win a senate seat in Edina. Perhaps Bakk's Senate Caucus volunteers will adopt it for doorknocks. That will work.
No doubt Amy Klobuchar's campaign staff have grown tired of the bland safety they enjoy and will spend her banked millions on that one.
Bluestem's editor agrees to drop her objections to hyperbolic comparisons if it means she won't have to endure any more insufferable lectures about framing, message discipline, or George Lakoff from urban progressives white guys. Do we have a deal? We'll even let you compare Mary Franson to Josef Stalin.
Photo: Pol Pot and a pal, or Kurt Bills and Keith Downey. Whatever.
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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