On Sunday, March 25, from 2pm til 9pm at Wilebski's Blues Saloon in St. Paul, The Krewe of DADs is hosting a benefit for founding member Karl Bremer. The Krewe is a non-profit organization, based on New Orleans carnival clubs, and has operated quietly for the past 30 years, bringing a number of national touring bands to the twin cities.
Mr. Bremer has been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Several musicians have volunteered their services for what promises to be a memorable and exciting day of music.
Doors 12 Noon - Music begins at 2pm
Tickets will be available at the door or in advance through the DAD's Network.
Tickets will be sold for a minimum donation of $25
1. I fixed the link to Bluestem Prairie, but for convenience's sake, here it is again.
2. Franson issue a semi-apology. It looks like she gets that people are offended, but not why, so it's one of those "I'm sorry you're so stupid you don't get my point" apologies. She seems to think it's about her support of self-sufficiency, "I apologized...so why all the fuss? I want ALL people to be successful. Self dependency is part of plan." She doesn't get it's about comparing her fellow human beings to wild animals who ought not be fed by park visitors as a matter of wildlife management. It's as if she she refuses to get that people who resort to food stamps are doing just that: resorting to them, when anyone would prefer to pay their way out of a paycheck. She does what her party seems to do routinely: jump to conclusions about people they know nothing about and condemn behavior they don't understand, assuming some sort of moral superiority. Also funny how Franson's party prefers that people be broke than that they get jobs from the government, even as they blame the poor for being poor and see poverty as something to be punished.
3. Anyone else notice the Batman logo on the bucket or whatever that souvenir is at the left edge of the video? It occurs to me that Bruce Wayne does lots of charity work and never picks on the downtrodden. At the risk of making conservative heads explode, I must point out that if Batman were real --- he'd be a liberal. Liberal, eh? That might explain his aversion to the death penalty.
And just found a fourth: The Cucking Stool seems to have found the "funny little clip" Franson read on the video, and it's a theme being passed around on the right. Franson or her "friend" visit some pretty noxious web sites:
I looked at the Big City Cops on Facebook and let's just say that if you're at all liberal, they hate you. I really, really hope they aren't really cops because if they are, might explain what we saw of police behavior in Oakland and New York.
In any real disaster, the first response is by people right there. If there are obstacles like torn-up trees blocking roads, then emergency response by officials may be hampered. This especially true of suburbs that have one entrance/exit for a whole area. Ramsey County Sheriff' Bostrom's office trains and equips members of the local community to be able to be the first responders or called-out support for a larger disaster. This Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program has been standardized across the United States.
The CERT subjects covered are: Disaster Preparedness, CERT Organization, Fire Safety, Light Search and Rescue, Disaster Psychology, Disaster Medical Operations and Terrorism. I am taking the class currently. The most valuable lesson that I have learned is how to rescue someone under a fallen wall or heavy object. In order to save lives, action has to happen quickly. I am also learning the processes of searching, carrying injured people, bandaging, triaging and putting out small fires. In a call-out situation, I know how to fit into the CERT organization, being an actual help and not an administrative volunteer burden. The instructors for fire safety and medical operations are great teachers,
The class is free, online or in a classroom class:
The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office will be conducting this nine-week session of classes beginning Wednesday, April 04, 2012. Classes will be held on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The class locations will alternate between Arden Hills and Vadnais Heights. Training is free. All applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
If you have additional questions or are interested in receiving an application, please contact: Carolann Martin at 651-266-7332 or carolann.martin@co.ramsey.mn.us . Completed applications should be submitted by Friday, March 09, 2012.
In the mission of community policing, where the community is very much a part of safety, there are multiple classes taught by the Sheriff's office: citizen academy classes, community affairs officer classes and multiple youth classes.
The House MNGOP was smart enough to pull down the video, but dumb enough to put a camera in front of someone challenged in both brain and heart. They were too slow for HongPong on YouTube, who saved and uploaded it, with a hat tip to Bluestem Prairie where I found the video posted.
About 1:50 in, Franson read "this little funny clip we got from a friend":
It says, 'Isn't it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever.
Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.
This comparison of people receiving some form of government assistance (that's almost everybody, but of course they mean the poor, not themselves) to animals is a minor meme on the right. Franson and her anonymous "funny" clip writer join the infamous ranks of Nebraska AG and GOP US Senate candidate Jon Bruning who compared poor people to raccoons eating cockroaches, and South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer who compared them to stray animals that breed too much when fed by children.
I have a feeling there are some instances we're merely unaware of. Hey conservatives, your contempt of your fellow human beings is showing. Didn't you have your hands full calling women whores because they speak out for friends who need contraceptives to avoid losing their ovaries? When did the War on Poverty become the War on Poor People?
Franson followed that by listing several forms of abuse, including verbal --- and no, the irony did not strike her. What was she saying about abuse? Sex abuse is bad, go see what you can do about it. Visit a web site. That's it. Nothing specific she's addressing. No thought of, "Oh right, I'm in the majority in the legislature. I could present a bill to do something useful."
So much for any residual notions the lousy session last year and the responsibility of governing would make the GOP more serious this session.
By the way, just to keep facts straight, which Rep. Franson couldn't be bothered to do, the Dept. of Agriculture isn't "pleased" to hand out the greatest amount of food stamps ever. That's a sign of how many people the GOP Great Recession threw into desperate circumstances. The National Park Service is part of Interior, not Agriculture, though that doesn't matter except to indicate someone who works in government doesn't bother with details about it.
Sen. Dave Thompson (R-Lakeville) will introduce S2881, an Anti-Muslim Sharia Law bill, at the Capitol on Monday. His bill is a boilerplate copy-pasted verbatim from a far right policy group. The bill seeks to protect Minnesota from the ever-encroaching Phantom Menace of Islamic religious law.
Anti-muslim bigots claim fear of Muslims building mosques "all over" and wanting to take over the United States as justification.
Last time I checked, The United States allowed free practice of all religions.
Furthermore, Anti-muslim bigots mainly want to fear-monger that all Muslims are terrorists.
I can't wait for Sen. Thompson's speech on how dangerous all Muslims are and how they want to build mosques everywhere and take over. Hopefully, he'll channel a little Michele Bachmann while he's at it.
I hope someone questions Thompson about this bill because like most ALEC muppets, he's likely to be quite ignorant on the subject.
Can Thompson point to a single ruling by MN judges which allowed Sharia Law to overrule a MN law?
Has Thompson considered how his bill might stop Minnesota companies from entering into contracts with foreign corporations or foreign goverments?
Republicans want everyone to vote "Yes" on their Voter ID constitutional amendment. Without evidence they claim it will prevent vote fraud. What they really want is to reduce the number of people who vote. They know that when voter turnout is low, they do better. They know that the people most affected by their ploy will most likely vote DFL.
But here's what is shocking about their constitutional amendment: it doesn't specify how it will be implemented.
In typical Republican fashion, they've simply kicked the can down the road. In typical Republican fashion, they are uninterested in governing well, just interested in passing as much of their far right agenda as possible. If this ballot measure passes, the 2013 legislature will have to figure out how exactly this is going to work.
If the most likely 2012 election scenario plays out and the DFL regains control of the legislature, the DFL gets to implement the Republican's 21st Century Jim Crow law. DFLers get to implement their vote suppression.
Last year a man currently referred to as "Mr. X" tweeted something so appalling about Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann that I don't wish to repeat it here. It was a horrible thing to publish and circulate--all you need to know to understand the following post is that the published tweet referenced the author's desire to use a machete on Bachmann's person.
Investigation and legal procedures began. Was Mr. X's tweet "a threat" (and therefore the proper subject of criminal prosecution) or merely some kind of appalling "joke" (wrong, possibly fodder for some kind of civil lawsuit, but an improper basis for a criminal charge)?
That's the "big" issue, for the prosecutors. But there's another big issue for "Mr. X." Until prosecutors and a grand jury actually decide that his tweet was indeed a criminal "threat"--not just a "joke"...
...does "Mr. X" have a right to maintain his internet anonymity? In other words, can the government compel Twitter to disclose his real name to law enforcement and prosecutaion, and should that real name be disclosed to the public? Can they do that, if it has not yet been determined that "Mr. X's" machete tweet constitutes a "threat?" A crime?
If you're a person who uses a pseudonym when publishing comments or communications on the internet or Twitter--you probably already understand instinctively that there are legitimate and common sense reasons for using a pseudonym.
You have a First Amendment right to express your opinion, but other citizens may hold that opinion against you. One of the main reasons for using a pseudonym is fear of threat or reprisal for an opinion you might have posted or tweeted. Someone who doesn't like you --may refer someone with authority over you (your boss, your teacher, etc.)--to your post or comment or tweet. And that person with authority or impact on your life-- might take action against you--fire you, refuse to hire you, pass you over for promotion, "hold your opinion or comment against you, etc.)
Similarly, there are "bad" reasons to use a pseudonym in digital media. As Mr. X and his machete comment make clear, internet anonymity can be used to shield oneself from accountability for what one says.
Presumably Mr. X would never have published his remark about taking a machete to Rep. Bachmann if he knew his identity as the author would be revealed. We can presume that, because up until now Mr. X has been fighting like hell to keep his identity a secret.
But now a decision has been handed down. A court has ordered that Mr. X's identity can be revealed, even if it has not yet been determined that his "tweet" constituted a threat and crime...
(CONTINUED)
My theory was Rush Limbaugh's audience is so far off on the hate-wing of the right, that he could say anything with no consequences as long as his audience stayed with him. I'd like to be wrong. Here's the first indication I am. Thanks to Limbaugh for showing that this issue isn't about the religious rights of employers to deny their employee's treatments they find morally objectionable, and it's not even about contraception. It's about those conservative men who have such disrespect for women, in Limbaugh's case "hatred" seems the right word, that they see women as whores who must be either punished, controlled, or used.
Sleep Train announced on Twitter that they're no longer sponsoring Limbaugh's daily hate-fest:
Minor pet peeve: why do even people who despise this blowhard call him by his first name? "Rush" is no friend. Leave that for the dittoheads.
For anyone who didn't subject themselves to the misogyny, here you go:
MST3K AKA Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was a cable channel from the 80s and 90s that played tacky old sci-fi movies while an audience of bored robots made snarky commentary. It was a cult classic, and developed a considerable following.
Out here on the Buffalo Ridge, it's that boring time of year we call the "winter rebuild season" That means that all manner of machinery from motorcycles to tractors are dragged inside for overhauls during the usually cold and snowy winter when we can't do much outside anyway. Winter made a comeback this week, and I'm busing overhauling an '83 BMW motorcycle in the living room, with the trusty easy chair and TV handy. Public TV in Minnesota gives us damn near gavel-to-gavel coverage of the legislature, and it's been a treat to watch lately. One after another, not ready for primetime GOP legislators say truly stupid things on camera.
As the fall elections draw near, the GOPers are having to put even their most embarrassing backbenchers in front of the camera, especially if they just got redistricted into swing districts. Thus we witnessed 21A representative Chris Swedinski painfully trying to present his bill to spend a few million of our bucks to dredge out the muck that's runoff into Lake Redwood. The DFL legislators appearing before the committee clearly had done their homework, with well researched cost benefit justifications and promises of local cost sharing in their projects. Chris "Swede" and the GOPers, not so much- His pet dredging project asks for not a single penny of contribution from the irresponsible upstream megafarmers and developers whose sloppy soil management, or more accurately lack of same, filled Redwood Lake with sediment. Neither did Chris "Swede" include any provisions in his bill to insure that the lake wouldn't get silted up again... And again.
It's painful and perversely hilarious to watch as one after another the GOP legislators put both feet in mouth and swallow clear up to the hip. There's no end to it- Stupid newbie motions, ignorance of basic parlimentary procedure, and sheer GOPer stupidity have you yelling at your TV on a regular basis. So MST3K, please come back, we need you! Maybe as a new channel on The Uptake... ?
According to a news release, starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow [Friday, e.g., today], Paulsen is also set to tour the Bloomington McDonald's on Lyndale Avenue "where he will work the front counter and the drive-thru."
The McDonald's is at 9529 Lyndale Ave. S.
Stunts like this are...well, boring, really. They're designed to give a few people the "OMIGAWD GUESS WHO SERVED ME MY HAPPY MEAL" stories for the water cooler the next day, and demonstrate how in-touch-with-the-working-man the elected official is.
Of course, where does Mr. Paulsen stand on the minimum wage? It's relevant, since most of the workers with whom he shared his "job" today are somewhere near that wage level. And food safety tends to be an important issue at fast food joints, right? Paulsen voted against the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2010 (it passed anyway).
Events like this one are a lot like the food Paulsen served this morning: knowing what's going on beneath the surface tends to make you like it less.
However, it looks like Keystone is emerging from the grave after only a month, as TransCanada-the company behind the pipeline-moves ahead with plans to build the segment running from Oklahoma to Texas, sections of the pipeline that don't require a federal permit. TransCanada is also in the process of reapplying for the cross-border section of the pipeline-the section for which the administration previously denied a permit.
The project now seems to have the White House's support. "Moving oil from the Midwest to the world-class, state-of-the-art refineries on the Gulf Coast will modernize our infrastructure, create jobs, and encourage American energy production," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
Well, ominous for those of us that care about the environment, and moving toward energy resources with staying power beyond a few decades at best. And who don't like the idea of living in servitude to Big Dirty Fossil Fuels, any more. But Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-NH/MN(?)) is a big pipeline fan, despite this:
But in the case of the Keystone pipeline, it turns out there's a special twist. At the moment, there's an oversupply of tarsands crude in the Midwest, which has depressed gas prices there. If the pipeline gets built so that crude can easily be sent overseas, that excess will immediately disappear and gas prices for 15 states across the middle of the country will suddenly rise. Says who? Says the companies trying to build the thing. Transcanada Pipeline's rationale for investors, and their testimony to Canadian officials, included precisely this point: removing the "oversupply' and the resulting "price discount" would raise their returns by $2 to $4 billion a year.
I don't think that it's a bad idea, to do what we can, to remind voters in MN CD-8, that the same people that bought a congressional seat for a lazy, incompetent ideologue like Cravaack, feel that we're not paying enough for gasoline.
Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN/NH) announced on Thursday, 1 March that he is holding a town meeting at the Gilbert Town Hall on Saturday, 3 March. What is remarkable is the shockingly short - and limited- notice given to Iron Rangers of the meeting on the Eastern Mesabi.
In his press release, Cravaack states
These town hall meetings are a great opportunity for me to hear directly from my constituents in the Eighth District about the issues that matter to them. I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say, as well as sharing with them what I have been working on as their representative to Washington
Yet the only public notice of this 10:00 am meeting was given via a press release on Cravaack's congressional page and in Thursday's on-line edition of the Duluth News Tribune. Those who have access to only the print edition of the newspaper will not see this until Friday, 2 March.
Incredibly, there was no mention of this event in Cravaack's social media and it is interesting that this town meeting was announced only after the Boys Class A Section 7 hockey final at Amsoil Arena in Duluth between Chisholm/Hibbing and Duluth Marshall was rescheduled from Wednesday evening to early Saturday afternoon due to the blizzard.
So,if Chip of New Hampshire really wants to hear from his constituents on Minnesota's Iron Range, why is he giving the public a scant 2 days (or less) notice of the "town hall" meeting?
Perhaps Cravaack is afraid of us or, as my 23-year-old son observed, "I guess he just doesn't care."
Given past history, there is little doubt that "Team Cravaack" has been duly notified of the impending meeting, and one can expect the hall to be packed with Tea Party Chip's right wing extremist supporters, most of whom are not from the Iron Range.
Obviously there will not be town hall meeting with Iron Rangers on Saturday, but rather a Tea Party propaganda session with a room full of packsackers in support of a packsacker congressman.
How quaint - and deeply offensive.
And that is why Tea Party Chip Cravaack is a one term congressman.
In any real disaster, the first response is by people right there. If there are obstacles like torn-up trees blocking roads, then emergency response by officials may be hampered. This especially true of suburbs that have one entrance/exit for a whole area. Ramsey County Sheriff' Bostrom's office trains and equips members of the local community to be able to be the first responders or called-out support for a larger disaster. This Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program has been standardized across the United States.
Sen. Dave Thompson (R-Lakeville) will introduce 
Ominously, the 
