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michele bachmann: legal drama gets more suspenseful!

by Bill Prendergast on May 24, 2013 · 0 comments

Bachmann-CaseForConvictionOMG, as my nieces say: can you believe that interview published this week in connection with the ongoing Michele Bachmann campaign investigations?
 
There’s some real shockers in that piece, it suggests the makings of a hot t.v. criminal courtroom drama. it’s an interview with pastor peter waldron, a former ‘bachmann for president’ staffer whose charges triggered the current michele investigations.
 
this is a damn good piece! i mean, pastor waldron was *there* when this stuff is alleged to have taken place. the pastor was on the inside, man — and he is now a whistle blower who is determined to *blow that whistle,* folks.
 
there’s some damned funny stuff in there (including the allegation that bachmann campaign staffers tried to get the liturgy changed in churches to further the campaign!)
 
… and how about waldron’s suggestion that michele should have been very alive to her campaign’s alleged theft of private property–because michele was “not just an attorney” but “a federal prosecutor” who “knows the law” because she “put a lot of people behind bars…”
 
WHAT?!! She was a “what?” She put ‘who’ behind bars?!! When? hey, this is the first time i’m hearing about any of this, and i’ve been writing about her for about a decade. (michele worked as federal tax attorney for the us government back in the eighties, and has steadfastly refused to discuss the specifics of any cases she litigated against US taxpayers during that time. and now here’s pastor waldron telling us michele’s “put people behind bars?” wow… is the pastor telling us that michele bachmann began her career by putting u.s. citizens “behind bars” for *not paying enough* in federal income tax?” oh, for a follow-up question to the pastor about *that* claim.
 
so you can read this piece about the alleged improper payoffs to senior campaign staffers, alleged money laundering to avoid accountability, alleged theft of a private political email list from a computer, which was allegedly carried out by senior bachmann campaign staffers, alleged bears eating alleged boy scouts — just kidding about that last one, but this waldron interview has everything else. including a photograph of michele posing with an abraham lincoln impersonator who looks like “zombie lincoln” (and i’m not kidding about that; look here.)
…READ MORE

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Sen. David Hann plays the ‘hate the kindergartener’ card

by The Big E on May 24, 2013 · 0 comments

Facepalm 42Hann

Hann can has the stupidness
 
Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) had no choice. The DFL majorities at the State Capitol passed all day kindergarten. Consequently, as the Tea Party inspired, low brain-function Republican that he is, he had to oppose it.
 
The story is not that he opposed it (as all Republicans like him are required to oppose everything Democrats do), it is why he opposes it:
 

Regarding the education package that provides school districts funding for all-day, everyday kindergarten, Hann said he would have preferred that schools got the additional money for their general fund without being required to spend it on kindergarten.
 
Hann also questioned claims that all-day, everyday kindergarten would reduce the education achievement gap. He said it hasn’t worked in other states.
(West Central Tribune, h/t Bluestem Prairie)

Okay, those are responses that sound reasonable. Except that this is David Hann we’re talking about.
 

“If Republicans want to run against all-day, everday kindergarten,” said Murphy, pausing a moment as Rep. Mary Sawatzky inserted, “Go for it.”
 
Sawatzky, a teacher and DFLer from Willmar who accompanied Murphy to the Tribune, said the Willmar School District won’t have to spend $350,000 on the extra kindergarten days anymore and can instead use that money for other general education programs.
(West Central Tribune, h/t Bluestem Prairie)

The bill provides $485 million over two years in new spending for public schools. It sets aside $238 million to boost the basic school funding formula, with funding increases of 1.5 percent each year. A new all-day kindergarten program funded by the state will receive $134 million in order to “provide funding for districts that want or need it.”
(Eden Prairie Patch, h/t Bluestem Prairie)

Yes, folks. He is that dumb.
 

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Mary Kiffmeyer’s family gun violence problem and the Gun Industry money and influence in the Lege

by Dog Gone on May 24, 2013 · 0 comments

photo from state lege site

Last night the 17 year old grandson of Mary Kiffmeyer threatened to kill himself and his family, especially his mother, with a shotgun in the Kiffmeyer home in Big Lake. The teen’s mother, who did not live in the home, called law enforcement, who arrested the kid.

 

Mary Kiffmeyer has been a MN GOP career politician, having served as a state Representative in the legislature, as Secretary of State first under Jesse Ventura, then under ol’ T-Paw, and is  now serving in the state Senate during the 2013-14 , with her term ending in 2016.

 

She has also been the ALEC chair for Minnesota, meaning she does the bidding of that shadow organization that drafts legislation for special interests that is then pushed through by pretty much exclusively conservative politicians.  In exchange, the conservative politicians sell or barter their votes to act on behalf of those special interests in exchange for perks, campaign donations, and other benefits.

 

The graphic below is fairly illustrative of the relationships between conservative politicians and the special interests.

 
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michele bachmann: busted again, for another “absurd” conspiracy theory

by Bill Prendergast on May 24, 2013 · 0 comments

bachmann-scream

Bachmann has made a sweeping claim: the “most personal, sensitive, intimate, private health-care information is in the hands of the IRS” under the health-care law. There is no evidence to support this assertion, and she is simply scaring people when she repeats it on television.
 
Bachmann thus continues her record-breaking streak of outlandish claims.

 
that’s the conclusion of a fact-checking article that appears in today’s Washington Post. political and media fact-checkers regularly expose successive bachmann claims as absurd. but it very rare that a respectable media fact checker labels one of her claims as ‘absurd’ in the *headline.* as the washington post did in this story, here:
 
Bachmann’s absurd claim of a vast IRS health database of ‘sensitive, intimate’ information
Posted by Glenn Kessler at 06:00 AM ET, 05/24/2013
 
…READ MORE

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Dayton line item vetoes in Legacy bill

by Dan Burns on May 24, 2013 · 0 comments

imagesqtbnANd9GcRORdjmczW59x3XD3e1dhkl3qzVbdnJxhWhMjpubNJkTxQ0f-P3I wrote before about the to some degree opposing views regarding the outdoors portion of Legacy funding. Some legislators wanted some of it spent in the metro, and on an invasive species mitigation project. Another faction insisted upon adhering entirely to the recommendations of the Lessard-Sams Council, which lean strongly to the acquisition and management of lands outstate. Governor Mark Dayton was kind of caught in the middle, and seems to have gone for political expediency.
 

Two outdoor projects in the Legacy bill passed by the Legislature have been line-item vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton: one which provides funding for habitat in the metro area and the other which targets aquatic invasive species. The governor says he responded to citizen pressure to drop funding for the two items…
 
Dayton’s veto message acknowledges he made a deal with legislative leaders near the end of the session to approve the two items. But he immediately received mail and phone calls from outdoor and conservation groups saying he was betraying a long-standing promise to respect the Council’s decisions.
 
(MPR)

I’m not sure how politically adroit stiffing the metro actually is. I kind of suspect that Dayton intends to make up for that, one way or another, next time around.
 

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Why did marriage equality come so quickly?

by Eric Ferguson on May 23, 2013 · 6 comments

marriage equality wins at the state capitolYou already know this if you’ve been hanging out in the liberal blogosphere or lefty social circles, but for everyone else, a recent topic of discussion is how the issue of marriage equality reversed so fast, and so certainly. Or was it so fast and certain? The context is wondering how it happened so we can copy it with other issues. Gun sanity seemed to have sudden momentum after the Newtown massacre, but then faded. Not entirely of course, but enough that opponents have been able to protect the cruel jokes we call gun laws.  Climate change is an urgent issue yet, despite being high on the national agenda for a generation, progress is incremental. It’s there, but not close to what we need. Yet marriage equality moved, in what feels like a blink, from a wedge issue for Republicans to a wedge issue for Democrats; from a long string of lopsided defeats at the ballot box to four wins last election day, and several states legalizing it this year, with the opinion polls steadily in our favor. Why? And could correctly understanding why help us on other issues?

 

I have three theories, which I call “good news”, “bad news”, and “no news”. That last one isn’t a great descriptor, but seems to fit the naming pattern. The first two though … great naming on my part IMHO, even if readers decide the naming was the only part I got right. Let’s start with the good news.

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Short on the 10th

by Dog Gone on May 23, 2013 · 0 comments

Closely associated with right-wing-nuttery are the so-called ‘tenthers’, those who support an oddly unconstitutional view of the 10th amendment relating to states rights.  For those of you not familiar with the various ‘flavors’ of right wing think, here is a handy summation from Wikipedia on the topic which saves me hurting my brain trying to sum it up:

 

The Tenther movement is a political ideology and a social movement in the United States that espouses that many actions of the United States government are unconstitutional.[1] Adherents invoke the concept that the states share sovereignty with the federal government and with the people by citing the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as the basis for their legal and ideological beliefs:

“

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

”

Adherents believe that political authority enumerated in the United States Constitution as belonging to the Federal Government must be read very narrowly to exclude much of what the national government already does.[2] They argue for the recognition of limited sovereignty of the States.[3] Opponents use the term in order to draw parallels between adherents and 19th century states’ rightssecessionists, as well as the movement to resist Federal Civil Rights legislation.[4]Adherents oppose a broad range of federal government programs, including the War on Drugs, federal surveillance, and other limitations on privacy and civil and economic liberties, plus numerous New Deal legislation to Great Society legislation, such as Medicaid, Medicare, the VA health system and the G.I. Bill.[2]

 

…, it has been argued by tenthers that the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated sodomy laws in all U.S. states where they remained, was an unconstitutional federal intrusion into what should have been a states’ rights area; from the tenther perspective, “there clearly is no right to sodomy found anywhere in the Constitution” and “the State of Texas has the right to decide for itself how to regulate social matters like sex, using its own local standards”.

 

In Congress this past week, Vermont Senator Leahy had introduced legislation to the Immigration reform under discussion which would allow couples in states which recognize same-sex marriage to apply for same-sex spouse green cards.  Twelve states, like Minnesota, like 11 other states, already recognize same-sex marriage, and a number of other states, notably Illinois and Michigan are in the process of recognizing it.

 

What other right wing senators, like Lindsey Graham, did was to pressure Senator Leahy to withdraw his amendment to the legislation, indicating that inclusion of full and equal recognition of same sex marriage at the state level was a ‘deal breaker’. It’s toss up where the greatest concentration of tenthers reside – South Carolina or Texas; Loopy Lindsey has been an outspoken tenther on more than one occasion; his selective amnesia is an indictment to his sincerity.

 

This is ironic, given that it is precisely these same bigoted homophobes who tend to be the loudest and most strident supporters of states rights.  It shows the right up for the rabid hypocrites and bigots that they are, for supporting states rights to define marriage, and then denying the states the right to define marriage when they don’t happen to like the definition of some states.

 

It’s time to repeal DOMA. It is past time for the SCOTUS to overturn federal laws that do not recognize same-sex marriage, NOT because of the tenth amendment, but because that is unfair federal discrimination.

 

While I appreciate WHY Leahy removed his amendment from consideration, it’s time to stand up to right wing bigotry and homophobia, and it is time to call out conservative hypocrisy.  That needs to be true at the local, state, AND federal level.  Minnesotans fought hard for marriage equality, because this move is an attempt to negate what Minnesotans have fought for so very hard this year.  It is wrong for Lindsey Graham and others to try to deny us what they claim they wanted, so long as state definition of marriage went their way.  Either states define marriage, or they don’t; they can’t have it both ways; but they will try if we don’t push back, hard.

 

 

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New Poll: Mostly good for Dayton, Dems, Progress

by Joe Bodell on May 23, 2013 · 2 comments

Public Policy Polling is out with (what I think is) the final round of results from their May poll: Governor Dayton’s approval rating is still hovering near 50%, the DFL in the Legislature is, while unpopular, a whole lot better-looking than their GOP counterparts, and Minnesotans appear to be coming down on the DFL side on most issues.

 

Money quote:

 

“Mark Dayton’s approval numbers have declined over the course of this legislative session,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But he still looks like a pretty clear favorite over any of the Republicans contemplating the race.”

 

Voters support the legalization of same-sex marriage by a 49%-45% margin. Only 46% approve of the job DFL legislators are doing to 49% who disapprove. Minnesotans dislike Republican legislators even more, at 23% positive to 59% negative. The DFL leads the Republicans on the general legislative ballot by 47% to 41%.

 

Minnesotans favor paying back the school shift as soon as possible by a margin of 50% to 13%. However, 44% think not raising taxes is more important than quickly paying back the school shift. 50% of Minnesota voters oppose allowing in-home child care providers to unionize, to only 31% who support letting them do so. A majority, 54%, support raising the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, compared to 37% who are against that proposal.

 

The care provider unionization vote effort has always been a touchy issue, with lots of cross-cutting concerns. It’s doubtful that it’s going to be a major campaign issue come October 2014, though. More important are going to be the DFL’s efforts on education (all-day kindergarten funding), economic opportunity (raising the minimum wage — ARE YOU LISTENING, SENATE LEADERSHIP?), and marriage equality, all of which are supported by fairly huge majorities of voters in this poll.

 

Interestingly, check out those numbers on the school shift — 50-13 in favor of paying it back, but 44% say not raising taxes is more important than paying it back. On the original question, 47% of 2012 Romney voters said they weren’t sure, but on the second, that number dropped to just 12% while the “low taxes > school payback” number jumped to 71%.

 

…Meaning that this group of voters don’t know what the school shift is all about, but they just know that it can’t be more important than keeping taxes on the very richest Minnesotans low.

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House votes to force Keystone XL construction

by Dan Burns on May 23, 2013 · 0 comments

air-pollution-2Yesterday, the Tea Party-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to try to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline extension. It will presumably die in the Senate, though not necessarily by much.
 

Average Supporter Took 6 Times More From Oil Industry Interests Than Opponents to Keystone XL…
 
Stephen Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International, issued the following statement in response to the vote:
 
“Apparently, Big Oil knows it takes $200,000 to buy a vote in the House of Representatives. This may be small change for Big Oil, but our democracy is paying a huge price. Americans are fed up with this corrupt ‘votes for dollars’ system, and we demand better.
 
“It’s time for President Obama to put an end to this oil-fueled circus and reject the pipeline once and for all. Keystone XL would be bad for our economy, threaten the health of our families, and wreck the climate.”

Among Minnesota’s delegation, moderate-to-progressive Reps. McCollum, Nolan, Walz, and Ellison were “nays,” and thumbs up were recorded by Republicans Bachmann, Kline, and Paulsen, and Blue Dog Democrat Collin Peterson. I’m not saying that all of those “yes” votes got $200K in campaign contributions, or more, or less, from Big Filthy Fossil Fuels. I haven’t looked it up. In fact, in many cases, votes like these, from wretched simpletons, don’t need to be paid for, at least not directly, at all.
 

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Is Videoing the Same as Watching Under the Law?

by Grace Kelly on May 22, 2013 · 0 comments

gavel
This is a case about what bystanders can do when law enforcement and paramedics are acting in a public scene. The arc of court decisions has supported videoing as part of the public’s right to know, to watch and to even protest what the government does. However videoing changes the accountability of a situation. Whereas a single witness’s testimony would have had a hard time being accepted over a law enforcement’s officer’s testimony, a video changes the balance of that. The public has had to accept being videoed in public situations. Now law enforcement is slowly making that same adjustment.

 

Andrew Henderson video recorded an incident involving a man at his apartment building Oct. 30, when Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy Jacqueline Muellner took his camera. Unknown to the Deputy Muellner, Henderson also was also doing sound recording on another device. No charges were filed. Then the next day, Henderson went to pick up the camera but it was not in property room. When Andrew finally got the camera back, he found the video was missing. Andrew Henderson was later charged with obstructing a paramedic and disorderly conduct. The American Civil Liberties union (ACLU) has taken on Henderson’s case. Today was the trial on the motion to dismiss.
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