2005 November archive at MNpublius.com

Archive for November, 2005

Return of the Surplus

Published by

2 years, 5 months ago in Local. 2 Comments

Its big news all over Minnesota today…we’re in surplus again! Whoo-hoooo!!!

This is genuinely good news. By legal mandate, all of the new money is dedicated to repaying the legislative accounting shifts (meaning bookkeeping gimmicks) the legislature used in 2002 to balance the budget. This is even better news. One of the worst things One Term Timmy Pawlenty has done in his brief tenure was use these accounting maneuvers, destroying Minnesota’s reputation with the bond market (and losing our top credit rating) all in order to keep his asinine “no new taxes” pledge.

For the record, I challenge Governor Pawlenty and the state legislature (DFLers included) to do the following with the surplus money before even considering any other option (whether that be tax rebates OR new spending):

1. Fix EVERY single accounting “shift”. These Arthur Anderson style maneuvers were the major reason why we lost our superior bond rating and were condemned by previous Finance Commissioners both Democrats, Republicans and Independents.

2. Restore the Tobacco Settlement Endowment. The elimination of this endowment is one of the most shameful acts ever committed by the Minnesota legislature. Our record settlement of $6.1 billion was supposed to go towards anti-smoking programs that targeted young people. Instead, it was used as political cover by a bunch of cowards who didn’t have the spine to deal with our deficit in a responsible manner. Every legislator who voted to kill the endowment (whether they be a DFLer or a GOPer) ought to be ashamed.

Apologies

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Uncategorized. 91 Comments

Perhaps some of you have heard of the mistakes that were made on my part earlier today and I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for any problems that have occurred.Â Today I discovered that the old Dayton v. Kennedy blogger account had gone unused for such a period that it was up for grabs by anyone with a blogger account.Â In what I thought would amount to little more than a practical joke, I claimed the up-for-grabs site and put up a post ridiculing the Dayton v. Kennedy blog.Â What I did not realize is that in doing so the archives would be removed from the site.Â For this I am truly sorry.Â I have removed myself from the blog’s administrator role and left it alone.Â This was not a case of “cyber-sabotage” or unethical blogging, it was an honest mistake made by someone who obviously does not understand the inner workings of blogger well enough.

To Doug, Andy, First Ringer, and yes, even Gary, I apologize for this mess.Â It was not intended to be anything more than a friendly jest. My intentions were innocent but the consequences were unfortunate.

MDE Attacks MNpub Part 3

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Newmdelogo It must be a slow day over at Republican Party HQ, cause all MDE has been doing today is picking fights.

MDE is clearly trying to steer the attention away from Mark Kennedy’s blatent use of taxpayer dollars for campaigning. His latest post claims to be a revelation but makes no new point. He claims that I can’t fault the planning of the event while supporting the cause: wrong! The event was transparently political which is a shame because the cause is an important one (even an elementary school student could follow that, sorry you don’t have a similar level of intellect exposer).

Since he’s trying to steer away from the facts, let’s review:

The ad campaign is planned by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
The ad campaign selected Minneapolis of 1 of 23 launch cities
launch event is held in St. Cloud
Mark Kennedy is keynote speaker at event
Mark Kennedy previously got in trouble for trying to attend a Minneapolis event on Congressional dollars
No other member of the Minnesota Congressional Delegation was invited
Mayor of St. Cloud not notified of event
Ad campaign and launch event funded by taxpayer dollars

This ad launch was a thinly veiled campaign event at the taxpayers expense. Had it really been the non-partisan launch event it billed itself as, all of the Minnesota Congressional Delegation would have been invited, not just the one who happens to have a Senate campaign coming up.

Sorry Exposer, looks like you might try facts and evidence next time you mess with me!

Here’s the intel to back it up:

Senator Mark Dayton (D): not invited

Senator Norm Coleman (R): had to leave a message

Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-1st): A nice lady named Wanda informed me, “I did not receive anything”

Rep. John Kline (R-2nd): Left a message with Burke

Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-3rd): “We don’t have anything”

Rep. Betty McCullom (D-4th): Bonnie says, “I haven’t seen one”

Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-5th): Didn’t get an invite!

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-7th): (UPDATE) Sherri says she “wasn’t aware of the invitation.”

Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-8th): (UPDATE) Jeri was kind enough to e-mail me this response: “I do not recall an invite for Mr. Oberstar for yesterday in St. Cloud and our district staffer didn’t either.”

Technorati Tags: ethics, George Bush, Mark Kennedy

KvM Authors Apologize?

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Uncategorized. 5 Comments

There is something weird going on at the old Dayton v. Kennedy site…

and the site is still linked to on KvM’s front-page!

MDE Attacks MNpub Part 2

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Newmdelogo As expected, all MDE did in response to my rebuttal is claim it was flimsy.Â No new information, no new evidence, no argument, all MDE!Â But I’ll entertain this little squabble a little more:

MDE’s argument falls apart.

White House puts politics ahead of combating meth.

If the White House had been serious about attracting “media” attention to its “meth media campaign,” it would have launched its campaign in an area where the three TV stations reside:Â the Minneapolis/St. Paul area (not to mention the fact that this is where the ad campaign is taking place).Â Had the White House held the kick off event in the metropolitan area, one or all of the three television news stations might have attended the kickoff.Â But with Minneapolis represented by Democrat Martin Sabo and St. Paul represented by Democrat Betty McCullum, the White House chose to go to St. Cloud in order to include Republican Mark Kennedy.Â In choosing St. Cloud, the White House put campaign politics ahead of combating meth.

Call it what you want:Â ineptitude on the part of Kennedy’s press staff or unadulterated partisan politics on the part of national republicans or both. Either way, the taxpayers are the ones who will pay in the end for the whole failed campaign ploy.

KENNEDY SCANDAL UPDATE: Peterson Was Not Invited to Event

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Mark Kennedy. 3 Comments

Sherri from Congressman Peterson’s Office returned my call this morning, informing me that she “wasn’t aware of the invitation.”

There we go, that’s a confirmation that no Democratic member of the MN Congressional delegation was invited to the meth ad campaign launch on Monday!Â The only people yet to return my messages are Senator Coleman and Rep. John Kline… somehow I doubt that either one got an invite.

The full story has been updated below.

more to come, stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: ethics, Mark Kennedy

MDE Attacks MN Publius

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Newmdelogo It’s not the first time MDE has dished out flak to MN Publius, but the Exposer seems to shakin’ in his boots over the exposing that Makeover Mark is experiencing.

First of all, sweet pun exposer: “MN Publius Way Off the ‘Mark’”… ouch…

Secondly, the Exposer claims that MN Publius is “an extension of Amy Klobuchar’s campaign for the U.S. Senate”.Â ‘Cause, you know, Amy Klobuchar has such a huge campaign operation up here in Hanover New Hampshire! (for the record, MN Publius is not associated, in any way shape or form, with any political party or campaign)

Thirdly, MN Publius feels that meth addiction is a very serious problem (as I said in my first post) and that is why I am so offended that the White House and Mark Kennedy felt it was a good idea to politicize the non-partisan event and use it for the purposes of a Senate Campaign.

The really interesting part of MDE’s attack is that he fails to ever mention how Mark Kennedy was the only member found to be invited to the event!Â At a non-partisan launch of a non-partisan, federally funded event, why was Mark Kennedy the only one who got the invite!?Â DFLSenate notes that not even the Mayor of St. Cloud got an invitation, but learned of the event at the last minute!

Maybe MDE should stick to carefully investigating all of the “properties” info on every single Word document he finds.Â Then he can continue his strain of scintillating “exposures” of candidates using templates!Â God, I’m just still SO shocked over that one…

Also, “sadley” is spelled “sadly”–there’s no “e” in there.Â Sadly, MDE is not such a good speller.

FACE!

Technorati Tags: Blog

UPDATE: KENNEDY METH EVENT SCANDAL

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Mark Kennedy. 0 Comments

In case you’ve missed the unraveling of the latest Mark Kennedy scandal see my previous posts:

BREAKING: White House Uses Tax$ for Kennedy

MNpub EXCLUSIVE: KENNEDY ETHICS SCANDAL UNRAVELING!

A reader who was at Monday’s ad campaign launch event in St. Cloud sent me some interesting information.

Apparently, someone asked, word for word, â€œWhy St. Cloud?â€Â Then Townsend (from the Partnership for a Drug-free America), an ONDCP Representative, and Kennedy all looked around for someone else to answer the question.Â Eventually, Townsend stepped forward and said, â€œIn collaboration with ONDCP we looked around the country and wanted to pick a variety of markets, some where the meth problem is more mature and other where the meth problem is emerging and I think meth is very mature here in MN and this was one of the obvious choices.â€ Hey Townsend, that answers “why MN?” not “why St. Cloud?”Â The press didnâ€™t push it beyond that and went into what does holding an event say about meth trends, blah blah.Â No explanation was provided by Townsend as to what makes St. Cloud an â€œobvious choice.â€

What made it an obvious choice to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was that an ailing Congressman with a failing Senate Campaign needed a publicity stunt.Â Why pay for a publicity stunt when you can get it for free with taxpayer dollars!?

Technorati Tags: ethics, George Bush, Mark Kennedy

Bush Torture Record Goes Back to Yale

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Bush. 0 Comments

In this Sunday’s Doonesbury, Gary Trudeau explores President Bush’s time as president of the fraternity DKE at Yale.Â Apparently, and this is true, there was a big scandal on campus when DKE was found to be branding their pledges with a red hot wire hanger under Bush’s watch.Â Guess this goes back farther than we thought!

Get the full story at Curly Tales of War Pigs

Technorati Tags: George Bush, torture

Another Day, Another GOP Ethics Scandal (or two)

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in National. 0 Comments

Looks like that slimy snake Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA) has more scandals up his sleeve.Â The former Representative can’t just stop at a shameful resignation due to millions of dollars of dirty dealings.Â Now he wants you to, a federal taxpayer, to fund his retirement!:

Rep. Randy â€œDukeâ€ Cunningham (R-Calif.) will soon relinquish many of his properties and his freedom after pleading guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy, but he will keep his government pension and could retain the privileges enjoyed by other former members of Congress.

Ordinarily, upon leaving Congress, former House members, like former senators, get lifetime floor privileges, access to the gym and a parking space.

[The Hill]

I’m sorry, “Duke” shamed the Untied States of America when he turned his office into a one-stop bribe shop.Â Does he deserve his pension?Â NO!Â I urge the House to introduce a bill relieving Cunningham of his Congressional “privileges” and his government pension.

It also looks as though Cunningham’s dirty-dealings may involve many more members of the GOP than just the “Duke”:

A San Diego businessman under investigation in the bribery case of former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham is a well-known GOP fundraiser whose generosity to key members of Congress came at the same time his company saw large increases in its government contracts, public records show.

…

Brent Wilkes, the founder of defense contractor ADCS Inc., gave more than $840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates, campaign-finance records show. He flew Republican lawmakers on his private jet and hired lobbyists with close ties to those lawmakers.

Wilkes’ charitable foundation, which aids sick children and military families, honored congressmen at black-tie banquets and donated to their favorite causes. Wilkes was also a “Pioneer” for President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, meaning he raised at least $100,000.

With help from two committee chairmen, ADCS got more than $90 million in government contracts since its founding in 1995, helping propel Wilkes from an obscure businessman to a millionaire prominent in Republican circles.

[USA Today]

What is wrong with these people!?Â The government is not intended to be a for-profit company.Â If you want to wrongfully rob people of their money go into investment banking.

Technorati Tags: ethics, George Bush, GOP, Randy Cunningham

MNpub EXCLUSIVE: KENNEDY ETHICS SCANDAL UNRAVELING! (Updated)

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Mark Kennedy. 3 Comments

Markkennedy Who knew that when Makeover Mark voted against Minnesota’s interests at the behest of President Bush that the White House would reward him with taxpayer dollars for his vulnerable Senate campaign!? (okay, yeah, I saw that one coming too)

As reported here yesterday, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (an office of the White House) held a launch event in St. Cloud yesterday announcing a new anti-meth ad campaign to be run in Minneapolis.Â The odd thing is that the campaign is for Minneapolis but the OoNDCP picked St. Cloud as the city for the launch event…

It seems as though the event was intentionally moved to St. Cloud so that Rep. Mark Kennedy could headline the event (which he did) and not face the ethics charges that the House threw at him when he tried to attend a Hmong event this summer in Minneapolis on Congressional dollars.Â Although the event yesterday was held in Kennedy’s district, it amounts to a use of public taxpayer dollars for a campaign event.

Today I made some calls to see who did or did not receive an invitation:

Senator Mark Dayton (D): not invited

Senator Norm Coleman (R): had to leave a message

Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-1st): A nice lady named Wanda informed me, “I did not receive anything”

Rep. John Kline (R-2nd): Left a message with Burke

Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-3rd): “We don’t have anything”

Rep. Betty McCullom (D-4th): Bonnie says, “I haven’t seen one”

Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-5th): Didn’t get an invite!

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-7th): (UPDATE) Sherri says she “wasn’t aware of the invitation.”

Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-8th): (UPDATE) Jeri was kind enough to e-mail me this response: “I do not recall an invite for Mr. Oberstar for yesterday in St. Cloud and our district staffer didn’t either.”

There are still a few unaccounted for, but it looks as though the White House only invited Kennedy to the event even though it is a nationally funded, non-partisan ad campaign!Â SABO WASN’T EVEN INVITED AND THE AD CAMPAIGN IS RUNNING IN HIS DISTRICT!!! And it looks as though not a single Democrat was invited to the event.

Mark Kennedy is using taxpayer dollars for campaign events!Â And, moreover, the White House is using taxpayer dollars to buy votes from the vulnerable Representative!!!Â The Office of National Drug Control Policy has clearly involved itself in political campaigning and I, for one, am not going to let this stand.

Stay tuned, more to come…

Technorati Tags: ethics, George Bush, GOP, Mark Kennedy

BREAKING: White House Uses Tax$ for Kennedy

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Mark Kennedy. 52 Comments

This is still a developing story.

Know what the GOP loves to do even more than cutting funding for crime prevention programs, college students, and farm aid?Â Spending taxpayer money on a media campaign to help a vulnerable GOP Senate candidate!

Earlier today an ad campaign aimed at reducing meth spear headed by the White House was unveiled in several US cities, one of them being Minneapolis.Â This is obviously a very good initiative as meth use has become a tragic problem in many rural communities.Â What is surprising, however, is that this ad campaign was unveiled in St. Cloud with Mark Kennedy as the headline speaker.

Hmm… meth ad campaign to run on television, print and radio; White House spear headed; St. Cloud is in Kennedy’s congressional district; Kennedy engaged in heated Senate race for 2006… do I have to connect the dots?

So why have a launch event in St. Cloud when the ad campaign is launching in Minneapolis? Well, for those of you who are loyal readers of MN Publius you may recall that earlier this year Kennedy was nailed for attempting to use congressional funds to attend a Hmong event in Minneapolis on charges that it was outside his duties to his district and would constitute using tax payer dollars for campaign activities.Â So, he got a little smarter and moved this event to his district.

The event today still comprises a major breach in ethics rules if Democrat representatives were not invited (given it was a bipartisan state-wide initiative payed for with federal tax dollars).Â Unfortunately, by the time I caught wind of this the Congressional offices were closed, but I will be calling tomorrow to figure out who did or did not receive an invitation to this event.

Stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: ethics, GOP, Mark Kennedy

Lt. Governor???

Published by

Jon-David

2 years, 5 months ago in MN 2006: Gov. 0 Comments

The Fist Ringer has a great post about who the various DFL gubernatorial candidates will select to be their running mates. To summarize, the Ringer thinks Doran will pick a political veteran from outstate, Kelley a female, urban liberal, Lourey a progressive and Hatch the biggest name he can find.

I agree with First Ringer on most points, particularly his take on Hatch and Doran (I have reported before on the rumors that Hatch is after Patty Wetterling for his LG spot). I think, however, that he might be slightly off-base on Kelley and Lourey. I suspect that both will go for someone outside of the legislature, particularly if the anti-incumbent feelings that have been festering nationally continue to pick up steam. Kelley in particular needs an unconventional candidate to compensate for the fact that he’s less than charismatic. I think he would do well selecting a business or civic leader.

I also think Lourey will be more pragmatic than the Ringer seems to expect. True, Lourey’s selection of Joel Kramer in 2002 was less than inspired. But then again, Lourey was a true underdog in 2002; everyone expected the race to be between Dutcher and Moe, Lourey’s strong showing on the first ballot was one of the suprises at that convention. This time around, Lourey starts out as a serious contender and I expect her to act like one. Look for her to pick a moderate, probably from the suburbs (ideally the Edina-Minnetonka are that is trending blue).

One person who would make sense for any one of the candidates is former State Auditor (and former GOPer) Judi Dutcher. I haven’t heard anything about Dutcher for some time now, and it’s not clear to me that she’s interested in returning to public life at all. But her charisma, moderate credentials and non-legislative resume would make her an excellent addition to any ticket.

Another Day, Another GOP Ethics Scandal

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Culture of Corruption. 0 Comments

Cunningham WHOA!Â From The New York Times:

Representative Randy Cunningham of California resigned from Congress today after admitting to a federal judge that he had taken $2.4 million in bribes from a military contractor.

Mr. Cunningham, 63, made a brief and tearful announcement to a group of reporters outside a federal courthouse in San Diego after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. He admitted to taking money from a military contractor in exchange for his supporting the contractor’s efforts to secure Defense Department contracts. The eight-term Republican congressman, one of the most highly decorated fighter pilots of the Vietnam War, also pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

“The truth is I broke the law,” Mr. Cunningham, and “disgraced my family.”

“I forfeited my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions,” and, he added, his voice breaking, “most importantly, the trust of my friends and family.”

“I can’t undo what I have done but I can atone,” he told reporters.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 27. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a six-figure fine.

What is it with these guys!? With all seriousness, these kind of ethics violations are disgusting.Â Doesn’t a person like Randy Cunningham or Tom Delay realize that they are not bigger than their office?Â That in being elected they represent not only themselves and their constituents, but the entire United States and its system of governance.Â Every time one of these ethics violations occurs the United States is disgraced.Â People lose faith in the system, they turn away at the shame the person has brought to our great nation.Â Congratulations Mr. Cunningham, you have disgraced the United States of America in order to pursue your own petty gains.

Maybe it was his house that tipped them off:

20 13 257 1 05

Technorati Tags: GOP, Randy Cunningham, Tom DeLay

Frank Rich Tears Bush a New One

Published by

left_blank

2 years, 5 months ago in Iraq. 0 Comments

Gettycheney156247973 Large In one of the better editorials I have read in a while, The New York Time’s Frank Rich disarmed the Bush Administrations attempts to wipe themselves clean of the mess they’ve made of Iraq (unfortunately the Times is doing that stupid “Times Select” thing where you have to pay for editorials, but you can read the full thing for free here).Â Here are some excerpts:

Â Â The Washington line has it that the motivation for the Bush-Cheney rage is the need to push back against opponents who have bloodied the White House in the polls. But, Mr. Murtha notwithstanding, the Democrats are too feeble to merit that strong a response. There is more going on here than politics.

Â Â Much more: each day brings slam-dunk evidence that the doomsday threats marshaled by the administration to sell the war weren’t, in Cheney-speak, just dishonest and reprehensible but also corrupt and shameless. The more the president and vice president tell us that their mistakes were merely innocent byproducts of the same bad intelligence seen by everyone else in the world, the more we learn that this was not so. The web of half-truths and falsehoods used to sell the war did not happen by accident; it was woven by design and then foisted on the public by a P.R. operation built expressly for that purpose in the White House. The real point of the Bush-Cheney verbal fisticuffs this month, like the earlier campaign to take down Joseph Wilson, is less to smite Democrats than to cover up wrongdoing in the executive branch between 9/11 and shock and awe.

…

Â Â If Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney believe they were truthful in the run-up to the war, it’s easy for them to make their case. Instead of falsely claiming that they’ve been exonerated by two commissions that looked into prewar intelligence - neither of which addressed possible White House misuse and mischaracterization of that intelligence - they should just release the rest of the President’s Daily Briefs and other prewar documents that are now trickling out. Instead, incriminatingly enough, they are fighting the release of any such information, including unclassified documents found in post-invasion Iraq requested from the Pentagon by the pro-war, neocon Weekly Standard. As Scott Shane reported in The New York Times last month, Vietnam documents are now off limits, too: the National Security Agency won’t make public a 2001 historical report on how American officials distorted intelligence in 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin incident for fear it might “prompt uncomfortable comparisons” between the games White Houses played then and now to gin up wars.

Â Â Sooner or later - probably sooner, given the accelerating pace of recent revelations - this embarrassing information will leak out anyway. But the administration’s deliberate efforts to suppress or ignore intelligence that contradicted its Iraq crusade are only part of the prewar story. There were other shadowy stations on the disinformation assembly line. Among them were the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, a two-man Pentagon operation specifically created to cherry-pick intelligence for Mr. Cheney’s apocalyptic Iraqi scenarios, and the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), in which Karl Rove, Karen Hughes and the Cheney hands Lewis Libby and Mary Matalin, among others, plotted to mainline this propaganda into the veins of the press and public. These murky aspects of the narrative - like the role played by a private P.R. contractor, the Rendon Group, examined by James Bamford in the current Rolling Stone - have yet to be recounted in full.

Read the whole thing, it is fantastic.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, George Bush, Iraq

Archive for November, 2005

Hot off the Presses