Karl Bremer has a good story on the media not doing their research and copy/pasting Republican press releases:
Norm Coleman’s campaign, highly paid Republican bloggers and their lapdogs in the mainstream media are trumpeting the news that former DFL state senator Doug Johnson of Cook has endorsed Republican Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate. What they aren’t telling you is that Johnson is a registered lobbyist for Excelsior Energy, which is trying to build a controversial $2.3 billion “clean coal” energy plant on the Iron Range that has earned Norm Coleman’s enthusiastic support for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and loan guarantees.
I’m glad someone is doing the research.
Zack Adds: Aaron Brown has a worthwhile take on Johnson’s endorsement of Coleman.
A second reading of the story tells me that this is part personal for Doug, as he knew Coleman when he was a fellow conservative Democrat and has personal regard for him. Doug is also a lobbyist now, and many of his key projects have enjoyed Norm’s support in Congress (most of them involve federal permits, grants or loans). The question (posed by the Pioneer Press first) is “will this change the dynamic of the Senate race?”
A little, maybe, but probably not much. Johnson has been out of office for six years and has mostly been lobbying (and fishing) since. He has loyal supporters in the more rustic environs of the Iron Range, but I don’t know that vast legions of DFL voters follow his advice on the Senate race.
Make sure to read the whole thing.
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I love that Team Franken’s embedded blogger (likely with Team Franken permission and approval) is now attacking a Democrat because they endorsed U.S. Senator Norm Coleman. Great work Aaron…
God are you stupid or what Michael? This is no attack on a DFLer… unless facts are mistaken for attacks in Republicanland. It is a clarification of loyalty. It is a little inside baseball on why a lobbyist endorsed one candidate over another. It is a lesson on which side of the bread your butter is on.
Norm Coleman is all about who paid who what. Watch him lose this election and turn on your Republicans like the rat he is.
And another thing… what is wrong with the Republican Party when they attack a self-made multimillionaire, Al Franken, to support a never saw a government check he wouldn’t cash Norm Coleman? Don’t you people respect the private sector and business smarts?
LOLOLS Michael B. Brodkorb, with a shallow, hit-and-run comment again for the umpteenth time.
Obviously, Michael is obsessively trolling MN Publius, searching for opportunities to be the FIRST COMMENT. How childish.
Michael B. Brodkorb seems to think that stating “Team Franken’s embedded blogger” makes Aarons posts irrelevant, or dishonest. That is typical of a right wing troll.
What Michael B. Brodkorb doesn’t realize is that simply being Michael B. Brodkorb makes his comments irrelevant because of his own history of failure, spin, half truths, mischaracterizing the posistions of people who disagree with him, and overall childishness.
Apparently, Doug Johnson has realized that Norm Coleman is the candidate of choice if you’re looking for corporate welfare for a project that pollutes Minnesota’s lakes.
Is there an actual difference between “clean coal” and just plain “coal?”
amuseinc, MBB does not need to be stupid in the same way he does not need to be intelligent. Most of the GOP base has this common trait. What a simple world they live in…
Ed,
Thanks for exposing the fact that Democrats are opposed to expanding affordable energy for Americans. This is the same mentality that says we cannot drill off our own shores, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve had several catastropic hurricanes go through oil derricks in recent years and have not had an accident. It’s the same mentality that says we cannot build a new nuclear energy plant, even though they are non-polluting. Democrats=less energy and higher prices.
Chris, if it’s “affordable” why do they need corporate welfare from Norm Coleman to make it happen?
Venerable, it is a good guess that we shall see this in spades on Thursday night…
Gratuitous pitch…
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So apparently the Dems don’t have lobbyists, period! This is the funniest thing I have ever read on this site, good ol Al has never taken a dime or ever once talked to a lobbyist once I am sure! Attack someone because they went against their party and yours to do something out of principle, which is stand up for the candidate that works across party lines to get things done for Minnesota!
Chris,
“Democrats are opposed to expanding affordable energy for Americans”
This is news to me, since when? Do you think we are gullible idiots?
Just because you say it, or even believe it (you wish it was true), doesn’t mean it is true.
It is you Republicans who are battling a credibility problem with the American people you know, despite what the bubble you live in is built on.
“This is the same mentality that says we cannot drill off our own shores, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve had several catastropic hurricanes go through oil derricks in recent years and have not had an accident.”
We’ve never had an accident? Interesting. We cannot drill off our shores? Haven’t we been doing that for many many years?? Good grief, pally!
Remember, Chris, this is not a black and white issue. Just because you are 100% for it does not mean Democrats are 100% against it, no matter what your partisan colored lenses tell you, pally. There is common ground on every issue if you look for it.
Me, I don’t care where we drill, and yet I am a Liberal. I know of many Liberals who feel the same way. I know it sucks for you, because for your wedge issue to work, every Liberal has to be against it.
So how is it even possible that Republicans are more willing to reach out across the aisle, when they act like you do?
notwithstanding the fact that we’ve had several catastropic hurricanes go through oil derricks in recent years and have not had an accident.
Too bad that isn’t a fact. Katrina and Rita caused over 100 oil spills.
113 platforms totally destroyed, and - more importantly - 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10” or larger diameter. At least 741,000 gallons were spilled from 124 reported sources (the Coast Guard calls anything over 100,000 gallons a “major” spill). http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2006/press0501.htm
Chris posted: “This is the same mentality that says we cannot drill off our own shores, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve had several catastropic hurricanes go through oil derricks in recent years and have not had an accident. “
ROFLMAO!!!
http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2006/press0501.htm
Seriously, Chris is proof positive you simply cannot believe anything a GOPer says.
The risk of having this post deleted notwithstanding: Chris, you are a blathering idiot, rightwing point regurgitating drone.
But at least he’s consistent…..
I don’t know how Chris shows up here and keeps repeating GOPer bull(droppings) when it’s repeatedly shown he’s full of bull(droppings).
I can only think it’s because he can post anonymously, because anyone that’s been proven wrong so often simply wouldn’t show their face in public.
TwoPuttTommy,
You could thouroughly disprove Chris, and he would still post the same talking points. He does not comment here to discuss issues, instead, he comments to try to prove Liberals are wrong, driven by fake outrage and a belief that winning elections is the only issue that matters.
He does not listen to people who disagree with him.
He is the definition of a troll.
He’s also typical of today’s GOPer.
Erik Paulsen held a presser at a gas station not too long ago, and said the same bull(droppings). Repeatedly saying things that simply aren’t true is pandemic in the extremist rightwingnuts that control the once-proud GOP.
Remember that bull(droppings) the ‘cons were recently repeating about “China is drilling 60 miles off the Florida coast”?
Complete BS, yet they shamefully repeat the lie.
It is amazing how many moderate Republicans have left the party because of the crap GOPers like Chris routinely spew.
Thanks for the link, Aaron and Zack, and please let me add some fuel to the fire.
This Excelsior Energy bit is a huge outrage that I have struggled to bring to light up here on the Range for some time. Yes, Doug Johnson is a lobbyist for them, but he is one of 18 registered lobbyists on their payroll. The “company” is almost entirely composed of lobbyists and coal/energy industry lawyers. I put “company” in quotes, because it has never produced any electricity and exists solely through government handouts and loans that it has no ability to pay back until it builds its $2.3 billion power plant that would then require another $1 billion pipeline to do what it says (bury the carbon).
I wrote a column about last Thursday’s Office of the Legislative Auditor report that ran in the Hibbing Daily Tribune on Sunday:
http://www.minnesotabrown.com/2008/09/column-bad-idea-that-got-way-too-big.html
Essentially, back when the Range economy was crumbling in 2001, these lobbyists got the idea to ask the Iron Range Resources agency for millions of dollars in loans to start up a company that would build a coal gasification power plant on the Range. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Long story short, they got $9.5 million from the agency that they then spent, by circumventing a lax loan agreement, lobbying state and federal lawmakers for many, many more millions. Every company expense, from Wall Street Journal subscriptions to golf balls, was covered by public money. Now they have spent much of their money, but when their estimates of being able to produce “cheap, clean energy” proved totally false, the state PUC denied them a mandatory Power Purchase Agreement with Xcel. Now its tied up in corporate and legal wrangling. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
To add to the comments of others, clean coal is neither clean nor affordable, nor reliable for that matter. This “capture and store” technology is not yet commercially viable and some in the coal industry believe it may not be viable for 10 years and not affordable unless built at the mouth of a coal mine. Bottom line, if you want off “foreign oil” and traditional coal, this is not the way to do it. Norm’s hands are all over this, as are several DFL hands up here. I’m not happy to turn on my fellow DFLers, but someone’s got to answer for this nonsense.
Go to my site and search “Excelsior Energy” or “Mesaba Energy Project” for my deep history of posting on this boondoggle. If someone has time, check out Norm’s campaign report. Look for the names Micheletti and Jorgensen. Add it up and you’ll figure out the dots that connect Norm to Doug Johnson and terrible energy policy.
nice thread. Dan, clean coal is a myth, like God and the Unicorns. I cringe whenever I hear Obama say it. When GOPers say it, its par for the course. And Chris, its just too easy.
I wrote hastily. I forgot to mention that while DFL locals got the Excelsior boondoggle $9.5 million in loans, Norm Coleman got them $800 million in loan guarantees (yet unused as there are no major private investors) and, to date, about $22 million in “clean” energy grants.
Chris, are motives for an endorsement not relevant?
Do you people not read your own writings?
MMS also is releasing the following tally of hurricane-related oil/condensate/chemical spills in Federal offshore OCS waters as reported to MMS and the National Response Center. Six spills of 1,000 barrels or greater were reported; the largest of these was 3,625 barrels of condensate reported by the Gulf South Pipeline Company in the Eugene Island Block 51 area. A total of 146 spills of 1 barrel or greater have been reported in the Federal OCS waters; 37 of these were 50 barrels or greater. No shoreline or wildlife impacts were noted from these spills.
I did not say we didn’t have any oil spills. I said we didn’t have any damage, an accident like the Valdez, from the major hurricanes that went through the Gulf. As the MMS reports, No shoreline or wildlife impacts were noted from the spills.
I would point out that oil has been seeping naturally from the ocean floor off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA to the tune of thousands of gallons a day, which has injured birds and other animals. This is in contrast to the derricks in the Gulf which caused no harm to wildlife or the shores. http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/02/local/me-oil2
Chris, not only are you flat-out wrong, but now you’re trying to change the goal-posts, too.
I just googled “hurricane katrina oil spill damage” and on the first page, was this:
***
According to the US coastguard, 37 shallow oil platforms are missing from the Gulf and another 20 have been badly damaged, including four deep-sea ones. The department of the interior’s oil minerals management service (MMA) said that 70% of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil output and 54% of its gas were still closed off because of Katrina.
***
Now, as I live on terra firma, I don’t have to look any further to find out the obvious: 37 missing oil platforms caused damage.
There’s been plenty of damage done; among other stuff I read the Times Picayune on a regular basis since I have family down there.
You, residing on Planet Denial, need stuff spelled out in detail, which you still will ignore since you don’t live in the reality-based community.
When your party gets spanked in just a few weeks, remember that it’s true believers, just like you, that directly contributed to it.
Two Putt,
Since you’re such a fan of the MMS, their 2006 estimate shows that there are about 86 billion barrels of oil in the outer continental shelf and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. http://www.mms.gov/revaldiv/RedNatAssessment.htm
And your party is the one blocking our ability to tap into those resources.
Funny, Chris - I always thought Jeb Bush and Arnold were GOPers.
Then again, I don’t read your favorite paper, “The Planet Denial Daily.”
Chris, your wedge issue doesn’t work very well, because you insist every Democrat is against it, and every Republican is for it.
Your half truths, lies, mischaracterizations and spin are only fooling people YOU agree with. Maybe you should go to a ditto-head website and post your partisan crap sandwich.
You are a troll.
Two Putt,
I was talking about environmental damage and you know that. You also know that the link you cited from the Minerals and Mining Service indicated there were no shoreline or wildlife impacts from the spills.
Nitro,
The American people want off shore drilling and they know that liberal Democrats in Congress refuse to allow the kind of offshore drilling that would allow Americans to tap into 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Keep up the name calling too please, because Sean will start zapping your comments next. And you call me the partisan???
Wow, you do a pretty good job at yelling things at people Chris.
It doesn’t matter what we say to you, because there is no debating people like you. Trolls.
chris
who signed the offshore drilling ban?