- There hasn't been much in the news about the solid rejection on Tuesday of North Dakota Measure 3, a screwy ballot initiative that ostensibly was about preventing government from interfering with the free exercise of religion. Supporters targeted Planned Parenthood, and got creamed.
Sarah Stoerz, president of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said the group did not get involved in the effort to defeat the religious freedom amendment -- known as Measure 3 -- so that the organization would become a target in the debate, but that supporters of the measure tried to turn the vote into a referendum on the women's health group. Measure 3, which was backed by the North Dakota Family Alliance and the North Dakota Catholic Conference, was defeated, 65 percent to 35 percent, in a statewide referendum Tuesday.
"Proponents thought that Planned Parenthood could scare people in North Dakota," Stoerz told HuffPost. "It did not. I feel good that Planned Parenthood became an issue at the end of the campaign and voters sided with us clearly."
- Most every Saturday, at Daily Kos, there's a comprehensive roundup of the week's developments in the War on Women. That's been happening for a while, but recently, the author has also been crankin' on some seriously righteous rants. This, from a couple of weeks ago, is my favorite so far.
Yes, yes, as the lady haters are quick to point out, we've come a long way, baby. But we're still underrepresented in our government, in boardrooms across America, in the economic recovery hecovery, and in the national meta conversations about why all of that might be. It's a shameful stain on traditional media that even conversations about women are still being held mostly by men. We can't possibly hope to eradicate institutional discrimination, not to mention cultural misogyny, if we can't even get our voices heard. But that's the lesson from this week's reports: Shut up, little ladies, and stick to not-of-general-interest pink subjects, so Very Serious Men can tell us what we should think about ourselves.
Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN/NH) was actually back in Minnesota this weekend. I've discovered rare proof (at least if your willing to believe a conservative blogger) that the beleagured first-term Tea Party Republican visited our fair state to march in a parade. It almost feels like a Big Foot sighting its so rare.
The early part of each summer in Minnesota is known for backyard BBQ's, spotty weather, the start of construction season. And its parades.
Yesterday, Chip Cravaack attended the big parade in Bigfork, MN. Chip's trip to Bigfork, a town only 75 miles from the Canadian border, is proof of Chip's desire to stay in touch with his constituents.
The only problem is that the picture associated with the post doesn't appear to have Chip Cravaack in it. Check it out for yourselves.
So maybe Cravaack didn't visit from New Hampshire after all?
Minnesota-based Fortune 500 company General Mills came out today against the marriage amendment. The amendment would prohibit LGBT couples from marrying and deny them other rights like participating in end-of-life decisions for their partners. General Mills believes this amendment negatively affects their employees.
"The business case against this amendment is straightforward and powerful. General Mills' decision to publicly oppose this hurtful, freedom-limiting amendment sends a clear message that neutrality on this amendment is simply not in Minnesota's best interest. In order to keep our state a thriving and competitive place to live and do business, we must maintain our status as a national leader in attracting top talent. Doing so begins in November with the defeat of this amendment, and we're proud to stand with General Mills and other Minnesota businesses - both big and small - in refusing to limit the freedom to marry for some committed couples in our state."
(MN United)
Minnesota journalists will return to ignoring her lies, bigotry, gaffes and conspiracy theories
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has slipped out of the national spotlight after her run for President failed in Iowa. But Bachmann hasn't stopped pushing the latest conspiracy theories. She hasn't stopped telling outright lies. And I'm sure she'll soon make a gaffe like the ones that have made her infamous.
But Minnesotans, and especially Minnesotans in her district, won't find out about what she says and does because of the journalists in this state. Its now up to Minnesota journalists to cover Bachmann. And they won't.
Its not as if Bachmann has slowed down, its just that the journalists who were willing to publish what she said or analyze her statements have switched to other national political topics.
Last weekend, Bachmann spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Chicago. Here's her latest conspiracy theory:
Former Minnesota governor and also-ran GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty has scored another corporate gig. This one's of a particularly odious sort.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has joined the board of directors of Smart Sand, a Pennsylvania company that is building a large frac sand plant in Oakdale, Wis.
The plant expects to process more than 1 million tons of sand annually when it begins operating later this month. The special silica sand, sought for its uniform size, strength and round shape, will be supplied to hydraulic fracturing operations elsewhere in the nation, where it's pumped with water and chemicals at high pressures deep into the ground to extract natural gas and oil from rock.
Frac sand mining is happening in Minnesota, too. Check this out.
Last summer, Bluestem was critical of the Star Tribune's unrelentingly boosterish reporting of what it dubbed "the new gold rush" of frac sand mining in southeastern Minnesota's bluff country. For many residents of the area, comparing the move to strip the bluffs and fields of green, dig up and process silica sand, then haul it away to distant shale oil and gas fields to a "gold rush" isn't a strong analogy.
It's not a gold rush. It's fool's gold.
Here's a primer about the methods and environmental consequences of fracking itself.
Timmy won't be out in the field working a backhoe, of course; his purpose will be to convince lawmakers not to regulate, much less ban, fracking. He'll presumably have a lot more time for that, after Mitt Romney, in whose campaign Pawlenty is currently a key figure, is soundly defeated in November. As the environmental consequences - including, in all likelihood, contaminated tap water - become more manifest, we'll see how that all works out.
This popped up on City Pages earlier this week, but bears more attention:
Two leaders in the McLeod County Republican Party have resigned in response to Rep. Mary Franson's "stalker" allegations against chairman Eric Harpel.
The McLeod County GOP held a meeting this past Thursday where vice chair Marie Thurn and secretary Linda Senst quit their leadership positions. Both questioned Harpel's integrity, according to a local media report.
"We have lost something very, very vital," Thurn told the Hutchinson Leader in a story not available online. "We have lost who we are... It's been very disheartening on my part. This isn't what I got into politics for."
Senst's letter of resignation "cited issues of integrity," according to the paper, which quoted Senst saying she disagreed "with how leadership issues have been handled."
Their reaction to Franson's allegations contrasts sharply with former McLeod County GOP chairman Craig Hoel's, who brushed off Franson's side of the story.
Harpel is apparently a big ally of Republican Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, who is now running in a big part of McLeod County. He frequently talks about the destructiveness of the male sex drive, and one has to wonder what Gruenhagen thinks about the McLeod County chair's dalliance with his colleague. Or about his colleague's extra/post-marital dalliances with his ally.
Or what color the sky really is; these people's mindsets can't really be described in a rational way. But it still might be interesting to see where Gruenhagen's loyalties fall when the rubber really hits Highway 15.
Last Sunday, Catholic Priest Bob Pierson took a brave stand for marriage equality and against the Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Church. The Bishops are using the might of the Church to try and help pass the so-called "Sanctity of Marriage" constitutional amendment which would bar gays and lesbians from marrying as well as deny LGBT couples all end-of-life rights that heterosexual couples enjoy.
To a crowd of 200 Catholics in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Pierson--who is gay himself--delivered a passionate speech in favor of marriage equality. He rightly argued that marriage equality will have no bearing on Church policy and that the Church therefore has no business pushing for the amendment. He also cited Paragraph 1782 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which affirms Catholics' right to make decisions based on conscience. He even cited Pope Benedict himself:
Our holy father taught in 1967 that we must obey our own conscience, even if it puts us at odds with the Pope. I doubt that he knew that he was going to be Pope when he said that.
And here's the kicker:
As Catholics we must follow our own conscience in making decisions such as how to vote. My conscience tells me to vote no on the amendment because I have yet to hear a convincing reason why we need such an amendment to our state constitution. In fact, I believe the church does not have the right to force its moral teaching on others outside the fold.
First to say something nice: the endorsed GOP candidate for State House district 6B is pro-union:
I am a Republican and I am proud to be a union member. I do not support making Minnesota a right to work state. I believe workers already have the right to choose for themselves whether or not they want to work for a union employer. I do not want to lose my right to be a union member and to have a livable wage.
Good for him. He's right that workers already can choose to not join a union if they work in a union shop. They can opt for "fair share", where they cover their share of the cost of administering the collective bargaining agreement. Anti-union conservatives tend to complain about paying about 85% of what members pay, unaware of not only how much they get, but that most of a union's costs are in the workplace, not other activities. That's how right-to-freeload breaks a union. Non-members get the full service while bearing non of the cost. Imagine a business had to serve all customers but couldn't charge those who chose not to pay. So give Colangelo credit for being on the right side of this issue.
If that sounds preparatory to saying something critical, well, yes.
Now I can happily report that the talks between the two parties have started:
The Wedge Co-op recently held its first bargaining session with union officials representing the co-op's warehouse employees, and both sides are optimistic about negotiations.
Wedge members rebelled in April after City Pages reported that the co-op had hired "anti-union" law firm Seaton Peters & Revnew to handle labor negotiations with newly unionized workers, prompting the beloved grocery store to dump its counsel. The Wedge's replacement law firm, Dorsey and Whitney, has "always been respectful to our folks," says union negotiator Jennifer Christensen.
"Now, the employer didn't respond to our proposals yet, but we remain hopeful that they will also look on these negotiations as an opportunity to improve things and make things fair and just and consistent," Christensen said. "And just better."
(City Pages)
No word about firing their PR firm who didn't advise them very well at all on how to get and stay on top of this story.
Minnesota's GOP delegation to the U.S. Congress is certainly a motley bunch in some ways, though very similar in others. I think that Rep. John Kline stands as the most well-defined example of a right-wing authoritarian among that crowd.
Right-wing authoritarians are people who have a high degree of willingness to submit to authorities they perceive as established and legitimate, who adhere to societal conventions and norms, and who are hostile and punitive in their attitudes towards people who don't adhere to them.
That's only part of it; Kline appears, at least to me, to be among that subset of authoritarians that also incorporate the traits manifested by "social dominants." In other words, he takes for granted that he is among the authorities to be rightly perceived as "established and legitimate."
Yesterday the Big E published a piece how Bachmann attempted to deceive constituents with a political mailer. She lied, telling voters that another 1000 jobs are on their way, still to come, because of a Korean trade agreement.
The Spin Detectors website looked into it. It wasn't true. (And when factcheck.org called her office to get her to explain the disinformation on jobs, no one would get back to them.)
But here's the good news for you. Some voter in the Sixth District who received the mailer had his doubts about Bachmann's veracity (can you imagine that?) That guy sent the Bachmann mailer in question to factcheck.org so that they check out the Bachmann claim...
...and they did.
The good news is: you can do this, too. You can take a mailer, a flier, a video file from your favorite lying politician--and upload it to factcheck.org--
...and they say they will fact check it. Here's their offer:
(CONTINUED)
State Senate GOP caucus spokesman Steve Sviggum apologized for printing partisan materials at public expense. He was referring to materials distributed at GOP precinct caucuses, thanking attendees for attending GOP caucuses. "In my mind that was a constituent piece and they are constituents," said majority leader David Senjem, R-Rochester. Well, I don't want to be ungracious (until a later paragraph). Apologizing is better than not apologizing. Apologizing after giving such a phony excuse is better than not apologizing after giving such a phony excuse. Apologizing after claiming it was cleared by the Senate counsel is better than not apologizing after claiming it was cleared by the Senate counsel.
One thing apparently not worthy of an apology however was telling us the printing was only $50: "In all, 4,725 flyers were printed at a cost of less than $50 to taxpayers," as reported by MPR. Let's pull out our calculators and just have a look (OK, now is when I get ungracious). $50 divided by 4725 is $.0106, rounded off. A bit over a penny apiece. Wow. Can I use that print shop? I can't get basic black and white photocopies for less than maybe 10¢. Sweet deal the Senate GOP got! Well, it would have been sweet if they were paying for it.
Yesterday, the Office of Administrative Hearings said a complaint that the Republicans used public money for campaign pamphlets can go forward. The Senate GOP was asking for summary disposition, and the complaint against one senator was dismissed, but the rest can go forward. The dispute is over materials printed for precinct caucuses at public expense. Republicans claim their just constituent information. The DFL complains the constituent information apparently includes the address of GOP campaign web sites. Despite the apology I ridiculed last February, the GOP senators are sticking by their claim these are legitimate constituent materials.
Are there potential fines I'm unaware of? I can't fathom why they just don't say someone screwed up, but now they know better, and the caucus will reimburse the full cost. Even if they got very expensive pamphlets, without the discount of bulk orders and in-house printing, how much could this have cost, several thousand dollars? Isn't paying that easier than making up some convoluted claim?
I wonder if the administrative judge will ask if she can get the same wonderful deal on printing costs for copies of the decision, or if she'll just point out that such a bizarre claim doesn't help the defendants' case.
- There hasn't been much in the news about the solid rejection on Tuesday of North Dakota Measure 3, a screwy ballot initiative that ostensibly was about preventing government from interfering with the free exercise of religion. Supporters 
Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN/NH) was actually back in Minnesota this weekend. I've discovered rare proof (
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has slipped out of the national spotlight after her run for President failed in Iowa. But Bachmann hasn't stopped pushing the latest conspiracy theories. She hasn't stopped telling outright lies. And I'm sure she'll soon make a gaffe like the ones that have made her infamous.
Former Minnesota governor and also-ran GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty 
Minnesota's GOP delegation to the U.S. Congress is certainly a motley bunch in some ways, though very similar in others. I think that Rep. John Kline stands as the most well-defined example of a 
Last February, 
