What has four letters and begins with F?

OK. Grow up. Quit giggling and start thinking seriously.

In today’s DPP, Joe Soucheray suggests that, if Ford insists on leaving town that Fiat take over the Ford Plant.

To me the idea seems worth investigating.

But I do wonder whether our powers-that-be would be receptive. After all we have planners and others who do not own the property thinking of a lot of things, many good but none especially likely and few as desirable as having a working automobile assembly plant.

UPDATE [4/2/08]: In today's paper Soucheray notes that it has been called to his attention that Ford owns Volvo which is also apparently looking for a US facility. Somehow that seems evn more likely something to shoot for, but I still wonder if those who have ideas for the reuse of the plant site are not so heavily involved in those thoughts that they might consider using the plant to make cars a poor idea.

In honor of Viet Nam veterans

The legislature has proclaimed today Viet Nam Veterans Appreciation Day. While at the rate we get into wars may soon give us more occasions for veterans’ appreciation than we have days on the calendar, this gesture seems to make sense and was overdue. So let’s give today proper attention.

I have been around for a while. Some of the people I have known were killed in Viet Nam. I have been to the funerals of both war victims and veterans and have shared sympathy with survivors.

Every generation seems doomed to have its war. Some wars seem to unify the country; others divide it; yet others seem to bring about a sense of ennui.

People of my parents’ generation fought World War Two. Records show that the soldiers and sailors returning from there were greeted by a grateful nation. I remember seeing my cousin off to and back from Korea when I was a young boy and know that the whole extended family was glad to see him. I was too young to appreciate anything like national sentiment, but have suspected that, likely because the war never really ended and the survival of our republic had never been seen as so directly challenged, their reception was somewhat less enthusiastic than that received by the World War Two vets, but that individual veterans were relatively well received.

We seem to have done a better job of welcoming those retuning from Desert Storm and even those coming back from our present adventures/misadventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia.

But somewhere the Viet Nam vet never quite got the appreciation those before or since have received. You would sometimes read about a vet being spit upon at the airport when he returned or having his family called by strangers suggesting that he was some kind of war criminal.

American participation in the Viet Nam war was unjustified from the beginning, but that doesn’t mean that those who had to go there thought it was a good idea. They were mainly people who had been conscripted or enlisted to avoid conscription, disproportionately working class and minority people. They did what they were told to do and generally did it quite well. But it wasn’t their idea.

I have my own personal story of one man’s return from Viet Nam which still gives me pause.

It had to be about 1971, give or take a year. I was driving cab and picked up a young man at the airport. He was carrying an Army duffel bag [or whatever they call one of those in the Army – I am not good on military vernacular] and gave me a destination off Highway 55 in Mendota Heights or Eagan.

While I was driving him there, I learned that he had just returned from Viet Nam. We did a little small talk about how he must be glad to be back and what a nice, sunny day he had for his return. It seemed me to be a sign of something wrong that nobody had come to greet him, but I don’t remember saying anything about it to him. And for all I know he had been wishing to surprise his kith and kin so had not told them the details of his arrival.

When we go to his house, I went to the trunk to retrieve his bag and noticed that there was a shirtless man who looked like he was probably the younger man’s father who was mowing the lawn.

The young man said something to the effect of “hello” and the older man stopped his mowing long enough to address him by name and say something like, “Oh, you’re back.”

The younger man took his bag on past the older guy who had resumed mowing and went toward the house.

I don’t know whether the man was indeed the young man’s father or not. He could have been a neighbor, relative, or family friend, but he obviously knew the guy and must have known where he had been.

But he couldn’t even stop mowing that lawn long enough to help him in or offer anything more than perfunctory greetings. That lawn didn't look that high.

Westover: The Vandals have sacked Rome

I’ve railed about transit before and continue to be amazed at how the phony ideas behind it seem to have been elevated to some kind of generally accepted, almost Biblical truth.

I comment Craig Westover’s column in today’s DPP to everybody’s attention.

I have excerpted the last paragraph as a teaser:

[C]urrent transit planning is not being done for the benefit of the public. The transportation policy being railroaded through the Legislature is about convenience for the well-connected and a legacy for the legislative elite for which everyone else pays. It's cool. The current dust-up among the Met Council, the Legislature and the counties is just more of the $6.6 billion entertainment value of the "historic" transportation bill, which is the best most of us can hope for.

In combination with Dave Orrick’s article on the front page of the Local section [“Draft of a Dream”] about how the manipulators hope to redesign University Avenue with little concern for what happens to the present residents and business people along the Avenue, we all ought to be just a tad scared. [WARNING: Open House tomorrow, 10 am to 1 pm. 1080 University, aka the Old Library]

Previous posts:

http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2008/03/county-now-deeper-in-transit-ripoff.html [3/26/08]
http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/12/moving-train.html [12/16/07]
http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-lake-ripoff.html [12/13/07]
http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/12/transit-and-taxes.html [12/7/08]

You might want to drink late too

Let me see if I have this right. Legislative leaders, at least some of them, want to open the bars until 4:00 am during the GOP convention, so that our visitors will have a good impression of our city and/or area.

I suspect it would. Politicians [and maybe GOP politicians in particular] expect communities to surrender whatever values they may have to spur progress and the people who can bring progress about which is what they imagine themselves to be.

But Phyllis Kahn who seems to be promoting most of this balked at a temporary lifting of the smoking ban.

Go figure.

[Of course, having to go to a combination to nominate McCain and laud seven years of W is probably just cause to really drink.]

I would just as soon let the visitors see us as we are, worried about the effects around-the-clock drinking can have on society, concerned about how late we make our hospitality workers work, and totally intolerant.

Fuel for the Mill

Somebody wrote me a while back wondering why I had not written about the Rock Tenn [If you are over forty think Champion or Hoerner Waldorf or Waldorf] burner proposal. I guess that one reason is I just don’t know enough about the matter. [I know, I know, that doesn’t usually stop me.]

I guess that Mayor Coleman the Second did note at a recent meeting burning fuel oil there negated the improvements made by getting Xcel [NSP] to change from burning coal to natural gas by the high bridge.

Gee. What a surprise.

I can remember driving on the Short Line Road [what the yuppies and Dakota County trespassers now call “Ayd Mill Road”] a few years ago and seeing the steam pipes being installed along the Milwaukee Railroad [now Queen Elizabeth’s Canadian Pacific] line and reading articles [no, not while I was actually driving] whooping it up that this new energy source would allow whatever the paper plant was being called to stay in business for a long time.

And I remember our city leaders exulting while telling us that they had gotten NSP to switch from coal to gas. Since it never occurred to me that burning gas would not produce steam, I never made the connection.

But couldn’t somebody downtown?

If there were a Cheney Library would it have any books?

I have strayed into national matters more than I ever intended to when I started this thing. Of course, in a presidential year, it is hard not to.

When I read this column by former GOP Congressperson Mickey Edwards [“Betraying constitutional — and conservative — principles”] in today's DPP this afternoon, I thought it probably deserved some notice, but had other things I wanted to post about today. But when I checked the computer the next time I found that I had a comment [from somebody whose comments I don’t think I have had before] to my March 19 post Iraq-Five Years which also calls attention to this column.

So I am putting the comment into this separate post along with the URL to the column. I really have no further comment. I think both the comment and the column speak for themselves.

This morning in the Saint Paul paper was an editorial about a recent interview with VP Cheney. The interviewer prefaced his question with a statement about the extremely negative mood of most of the country toward the war.

Cheney's response was "So?"

How disconnected from reality is this administration?

Posted by Vic to Capitol City Musings at March 28, 2008 9:25 AM

The column is at http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_8719696

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 0300 hours

When she was First Lady, I had some respect for Hillary Rodham Clinton and thought that she might indeed have some qualifications to be a leader in her own right. Had she filed for divorce in the proper New York court on January 22, 2001, I likely would still have some of that respect. But Hillary somehow thinks she can’t make it without being married to one of our worst presidents, the philandering Bill.

If being First Lady makes one qualified to be president, maybe this year the Republicans should choose a Nancy Reagan-Laura Bush ticket. And Hillary should consider Rosalyn Carter for her running mate.

I never thought it was anybody’s business how often Bill and Hillary were together at 3:00 a.m., but since Hillary seems to think that the phone call at that hour is so important, maybe we aren’t out of line in finding how often they indeed were together at that hour. It might not be possible to find out for certain, but Secret Service assignment logs might help.

It might be pushing the proverbial envelope, but let’s see some ambitious newspaper or news service go for them and see what happens.

County Now Deeper in Transit Ripoff

Although, transit continues to be as phony as a smile in Williams’ Arena in March, our County Commissioners today decided to make us pay a sales tax to fund it. And the proceeds from this theft cannot be used for busses, only for trains.

This action was made possible by the legislature in the veto-overidden Transportation bill from earlier this year's session. [To avoid giving His Excellency the Governor too much credit, it seems highly unlikely that this tax was the reason for the veto.]

In relative silence and without a public hearing, six commissioners [including all who represent the Capitol City] signed on to this new ripoff.

Note: Earlier posts mentioning transit can be found by clicking on the label “transit” on the right. The first one “Transit and Taxes” [12/7/07] is probably the most oriented to the theories supporting transit.

Sales tax is mentioned in Pawlenty and LeVander: Republican Governors and Sales Tax [3/7/08]

Treasure Hunt 3

Treasure Hunt 3 begins now.

The rules [or lack thereof] are the same as for the first two.

Examine the picture. Study the clue and hit the comments link with your answer.

Clue Number 1: The Man in Black knew that life was not always easy for everybody.

Clue Number 2 [4/3/08]: Once there were 3 R’s amid a street of bars.

Clue Number 3 [4/11/08]:

• Hammerstein met Rogers, Gamble met Proctor, Bigelow met Brown
  Bringing culture and soap and telling about it in places all around.
  Pastor meets social worker meets mortician meets town.
  Can somebody please give us the real lowdown?

Clue Number 4 [4/19/08]:

Think of a Catholic haven.
Think of a Lutheran church.
Think of children playin’.
Remember where it hurts.

Clue Number 5 [4/27/08]:
Clue Number 5 is this larger picture






Clue Number 6 [5/6/08]

A Bluff has both up and down.
And don’t think about a department store.
Forget that street across town
Or a Senator from yore.

None of them matters here.
Put them out of your mind.
Don’t shed for them a tear
And maybe the prize you will find.

Clue Number 7 [5/18/08]

This is the top of a tree [Surprised?], a threatened tree. Regular readers of this site [both of you] might have extra insights about why this tree was chosen to be placed here.

Clue Number 8 [5/29/08]

You don't really think that I could go more than two hunts without having an East Side site, do you?

Clue Number 9 [6/29/08]
Think about Phalen Park.
It’s not in Phalen Park, but that first line is relevant, anyway.

Observations on Obama, his mosque, and his imam

If I believe all that I hear lately, Barack Obama, whose being Muslim has been well documented on countless blogs and talk shows over the last year or so, somehow has a pastor [or, more correctly, until recently had a pastor] at some strange mosque in Chicago called the Trinity United Church of Christ. “Trinity,” “church,” and “Christ” seem like strange words to be in the name of a mosque, but I am not an expert on Islam. Maybe a “pastor” is some special kind of imam. This “pastor,” Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, jr. baptized Mr. Obama several years ago and also officiated at his marriage and baptized his children. I am not sure where baptism sits among the Muslim rites, but as I said, I am not an expert on Islam.

I do know something about a Christian denomination called the “United Church of Christ” [UCC] which is a predominantly white Protestant denomination. I have been a member of one of its congregations since 1968 and at one time was actually a student at one of the denomination’s theological seminaries.

I have heard many of their mostly white, male, and straight clergypeople and I have heard several who were not white or not male or not straight. I have read articles and position statements from the denomination’s people, both clergy and lay.

The things which Dr. Wright is quoted as saying may be surprising but if the Trinity United Church of Christ were indeed a Christian body like the other congregations who use the UCC label, instead of the secret mosque it must be, the comments certainly would not seem shocking when one considers that the entire denomination seems to be extremely tolerant of strangeness and does not seem to have any conception of heresy.

Dr. Wright has apparently said, “God damn America” as part of a sermon. Isn’t that what white Baptist Phelps is essentially saying when he brings his strident pickets to military funerals? No. actually Phelps is saying that God is already damning America. CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT. In fact I can think of a lot of situations in which religious figures, clergy or lay, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish might string those three words together in the right context

Dr. White was senior pastor at Trinity mosque for over thirty years. He must have delivered a lot of sermons or messages or lessons or whatever they’re called. Why not look at a little more before rushing to judgment? The membership of his church at the time of his recent retirement was almost one hundred times what it was when he started there. Considering that people are constantly dying, moving, and changing faiths, to move a church from 80 to 8,000 probably meant that at least 12,000 people must have joined Trinity Church while he was there, yet nobody outside Illinois and the religious community ever seemed to hear of him. Whatever he was doing must not have been too scary or somebody would have “outed” him earlier, and if Obama were truly a good politician he would have had an earlier opportunity to run away.

Somehow a lot of our leading people say outrageous or stupid things and still stay respectable. Andrew Young said that the British had invented racism, but somehow he stayed respectable and was confirmed to be our Ambassador to the United Nations and later served as mayor of a major American city. [Of course the claim was not accurate, since there are no new sins and racism was around before there were British, but it was only mild hyperbole since the British have done a lot to perfect racism.] W went to Bob Jones University, a school whose president once called on God to strike President Reagan and Secretary of State Haig dead for establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and praised the Reagan legacy and he went on to be appointed president. Jimmy Carter stumbled over “ethnic purity.” In a 1976 debate, Gerald Ford, the sitting president running behind in the polls, said that he did not think Poland was under Soviet influence, yet was gaining on Carter in the polls up until election day. It used to be common for the American people to judge a man or woman by a broader context than we sometimes are tempted to do in this news-, but not necessarily well-compiled or placed in context news-obsessed society.

I don’t know who [if anybody] I will be supporting in November. Actually, I find national politics not particularly important sometimes. However, I am impressed with Senator Obama’s handling of this matter. He seems to have acknowledged the goodness of Dr. Wright and appreciated his work while giving his own perspectives on race and faith. He has not shoved Wright off into some kind of limbo as President Clinton did with Zoe Baird or Lani Guinier or his Arkansas friends involved with Whitewater.

I know Obama is an Ivy League lawyer and politician and I would expect him to be a persuasive speaker and I am sure that these things helped him, but he does seem to show a sincerity on racial matters that we don’t see often, if ever.

And if you drive by a building and see that it hosts a United Church of Christ, don’t assume that it is a mosque with a cross on it.

Happy Easter to my Western Christian friends

Happy, Joyous Easter! The Savior is risen!

Happy Easter [or other spring holiday] to my secular friends

Happy holiday!.

If I have these holidays right, there was some guy named Santa Claus who was born one December in a barn and who celebrated his birthday by riding a sleigh powered by a team of flying reindeer, giving presents to good children of Christian families, saving the best presents for the children of the more affluent families. He became very unpopular with some people and they had him executed one spring by crucifying him on an evergreen tree, but he came back to life as a rabbit who passed out eggs and chocolate and went back to flying that sleigh.

Iraq -- five years

In 2003 President Bush the Second chose St. Joseph’s Day of 2003 for the American invasion of Iraq. Of course, it is a shame that he chose any day for this venture.

In 1983, two days after American marines died in a barracks bombing in Lebanon, President Reagan sent troops into Grenada to reinstall a British governor and preserve our nutmeg supply. After it was over in a few hours and with American eyes no longer on Lebanon, he called Margaret Thatcher and told her, “Surprise, look what I’ve done for you.”

And Americans acclaimed him for it.

A few years later President Bush the First ordered the invasion of Panama to catch a drug dealer.

And Americans mostly acclaimed him for it.

I am not sure who W thought he was going to impress with the invasion of Iraq which has taken such a huge toll in lives and wealth from Iraqis, Americans, and others with Iraqis, Americans, and others continuing to perish with no end to the horror in sight.

And, even though most Americans question the call [now], many still acclaim him for the invasion.

And that’s a problem, the whole world’s problem.

Happy St. Joseph's Day

For those of you who for ethnic, religious, or other reasons note the day:

Well, traditionally this is St. Joseph's Day, although I know it had to be moved this year, but I don't know to when.

Al Franken's return to New York City

I saw Al Franken’s appearance on Letterman’s show last night. I don’t see anything inherently evil in the appearance, but it does remind me that show business takes care of its own sometimes. Remember Schwarzenegger on Leno?

But I do wonder if Norm couldn’t have given just as good a showing and certainly understand the frustration some of his people may have.

New York doesn’t seem interested in electing its own senators. Remember Robert Francis Kennedy from Massachusetts? Pat Moynihan from Massachusetts? Hillary Rodham from Arkansas?

Maybe his trip there is Franken’s assurance that if elected, that he’ll give New York back a senator they are missing.

Another Privacy note

I posted earlier Is Anything Private? Will Anything Be Private? Does Anybody Care? [2/10/08] in which I decried the increasing loss of privacy we have in our Republic.

The subject does not go away. These are just a couple of paragraphs from a post by Massimo Calabresi at Time.com which ought to discourage all of us:

Pity America's poor civil libertarians. In recent weeks, the papers have been full of stories about the warehousing of information on Americans by the National Security Agency, the interception of financial information by the CIA, the stripping of authority from a civilian intelligence oversight board by the White House, and the compilation of suspicious activity reports from banks by the Treasury Department. On Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report documenting continuing misuse of Patriot Act powers by the FBI. And to judge from the reaction in the country, nobody cares.

A quick tally of the record of civil liberties erosion in the United States since 9/11 suggests that the majority of Americans are ready to trade diminished privacy, and protection from search and seizure, in exchange for the promise of increased protection of their physical security. Polling consistently supports that conclusion, and Congress has largely behaved accordingly, granting increased leeway to law enforcement and the intelligence community to spy and collect data on Americans. Even when the White House, the FBI or the intelligence agencies have acted outside of laws protecting those rights — such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — the public has by and large shrugged and, through their elected representatives, suggested changing the laws to accommodate activities that may be in breach of them.

There is not much new in here, but this subject should not be forgotten.

Phalen Village Cub groundbreaking

I just returned from the groundbreaking for the new Phalen Village Cub store at 1157 Clarence.

Chuck Repke [who somehow manages to continue serving as Executive Director of both NENDC and District 2 Community Council] did a wonderful job as master of ceremonies. The expected politicians and developers gave the usual speeches.

Mayor Coleman the Second spoke first and suggested that perhaps Dan Bostrom could find future employment at the new store. It was made to look like it was being said in humor. The audience is free to make their own individual conclusions.

Councilmember Bostrom then commented that if he worked there that he would not be able to be a greeter for [a large Arkansas-based discount chain whose name I prefer to withhold], leaving one to wonder how he knew that said chain even had greeters.

Representatives of Oppidan and Cub spoke. Appropriate City staff people [including Penny Simison, Sheri Pemberton, Larry Zangs, and Tom Beach] were complimented for their work in making the thing possible and Oppidan’s representative lauded Mr. Repke.

In other words, it went pretty much to form as groundbreakings go.

Previous post: Revealing the Sign [11/1/2007]

Can we have your gun, Chief?

It really is off topic for this blog, but the irony possibilities are so good that I just couldn’t pass this up.

The United States Supreme Court heard the District of Columbia handgun ban law today. The District Chief of Police attended the arguments, but the Supreme Court made her surrender her gun to enter.

Think about it for a minute.

Mike Ciresi and Norm Coleman, some observations

Midway Barb left a comment to my post ["Ciresi Out” 3/10/08] ago to which I have responded.

It occurs to me that perhaps the whole matter really merits being a post of its own, so I am excerpting her [or his] question and my reply here.

Midway Barb said

Isn't it true that your dislike of Ciresi comes from his role in the tobacco suit? If he had saved us from some other community nusance wouldn't you like him?

This is my response:

I think that Mr. Ciresi’s opportunistic exploitation of the cigarette industry is not the reason I could never support him for anything.

And it would not be because he is a trial lawyer. A lot of lawyers do good things and working on contingency is often the only way some litigation could be brought about.

Poor people or people of moderate means often hire attorneys on contingency when they have wrongs that need addressing. On big successful cases the attorneys make a real bundle, but it is often the only way that poor folks have access to the court system for redress for real wrongs.

But if I am to choose between Ciresi and Norm, there really isn’t much choice. One is a lawyer who used his profession to make a lot of money which should have belonged to either the stockholders of the tobacco companies or the taxpayers of Minnesota, depending on how you view the merits of the case. Norm worked for a salary for the attorney general’s office.

Politicians often try to scare people into helping their careers by citing bogus enemies or crises. [Remember W on Saddam or JFK on the missile crisis?] When Skippy wanted to find a bogus enemy to propel him to the governorship and decided to sue tobacco for wrongs to the citizens of Minnesota, wrongs more detectable from intuition than from any fact that the companies had forced smoke into people’s bodies, he wanted to make a real big splash and get money in ten or eleven digits. He needed to find a way to make billions in punitive damages. He doubted if any of the lawyers in his office could do the job, so he made a deal with Ciresi and his Robbins law firm. He and Ciresi hoped that if they could sue for enough money and tie up the tobacco companies’ law departments long enough that they could pick up a small fortune. Skippy really wasn’t concerned about how much money Ciresi got as long as he could get big headlines about billions scared out of what they called “Big Tobacco.” They had no problem ignoring the inconvenience to the taxpayers paying for the suit or needing the real attention of the Ramsey County courts and the poor people conscripted to be on the jury, pushed their dubious case. Ciresi knew the contingency business and must have liked his chances and Skippy likely was figuring that it was now or never for his gubernatorial dreams so it was time to take the shot.

When tobacco finally surrendered, Ciresi was allowed to walk away with a very big chunk thanks to a wonderful contract he and Skippy had arranged beforehand which sent money the plaintiff [supposedly us] would receive straight to the Robbins firm instead of to the legislature. Other money was diverted to a state foundation instead of the body our constitution charges with deciding how to spend state assets.

I don’t doubt that this was all done legally and I don’t doubt that this was all done ethically when viewed in the narrow perspective of legal ethics [often a lovely oxymoron]. After all, it was written by smart lawyers, at least on Robbins’ end. But it stunk and it still stinks.

Norm Coleman also worked as a lawyer for the state and he prosecuted some really provable enemies of Minnesota while doing so. But Norm only took his salary, which may have been generous, but was never more than the low six figures, if that high.

When Norm has run for office he has had to do it the old-fashioned way by begging contributors for donations. State service had not given him millions in his own private vaults.

While I think that neither way of funding a campaign is the best, Norm’s is surely the better. It is one that you don’t have to be a lawyer to use.

And between the two of them, there would have been no problem for me in deciding whom to support. And I would like to think that I would have taken the same position, no matter what imaginary enemy Ciresi and Skippy had taken on.

With Franken it will be different.

RS

Who Do You Trust?

I suspect that most people who have supported political candidates or supported people for appointment to some office or commission have done so with their fingers crossed, at least symbolically.

No matter how much you think you know somebody you run the risk that something will happen or will be discovered which makes your support untenable and maybe even ridiculous, which can disillusion you and make you feel betrayed and less likely to support somebody in the future, lest you be burned again.

While many people’s focus of wonderment has been about what kind of prostitute can command a $5,500 fee such as Elliot Spitzer, Governor [for a few more days] of New York, supposedly spent, Leonard Pitts, jr. in a recent column inspired by the situation asks, after listing several instances of similar recent and historical indiscretions with varying degrees of fall from grace, notes

Instead, with an arrogance that beggars description, with a hubris that blots the sun, these men try to game the system. And when it catches up with them, they don't even bear the greatest cost. No, that's borne by wives who must stand, dead-eyed and humiliated, by their sides through the ritual of apology, by children who must go to school the day after, by constituents who believed and now see that belief betrayed.

Do you know how hard it is to believe? To overcome cynicism and inertia and place fragile trust in the hands of someone who claims to represent values higher than expediency and self? Do you have any idea how much of a fool you feel to see that belief, tenderly given, callously trampled? Do you know how much less likely you are ever to give belief again?

And finally, do you know how much it damages us, the larger us, when faith is calcified by cynicism? When we become unable to believe?

And, although the section about family might not be relevant here, you wonder if Lord Fletcher isn’t also feeling a bit of disillusionment.

Randy Kelly to MnDot?

Randy Kelly for Transportation Commissioner?

It might happen. Or at least that is the subject of a Joe Kimball Minnpost post.

I don’t know what the Senate thinks of their former colleague or what Mr. Kelly thinks is his political future [if any], but accepting an appointment like that [and I don’t know what I think Pawlenty would see as the upside for appointing him] would seem to seal his conversion to the GOP which was actually made in 2001. [And if Pawlenty were to go to Washington, where would that leave him?]

It’s a shame. Randy really is a good man and we’d be better off if we hadn’t rejected him last election, but it seems to me that he’d be better off if Pawlenty chooses somebody else for this honor.

Sue’s Park update

Hoisington Koegler Group, the group charged with “visioning” for the Payne/Maryland Partnership showed a new concept to Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee last night.

The new “concept” does call for saving part of Sue’s Park, the western part with the big evergreen tree.

But I would have to conclude that the park is indeed still threatened. In addition to remembering that this is only a “concept,” that it is far from being a secured site plan, one needs to remember that even this new concept cuts out a good piece [it looked like a third or so] of the park.

Earlier post: RIP: Sue’s Park? [2/1/08]

The Dog-gone Facts about a Dog Park, revisited

Betsy Mowry wrote a piece for the Twin Cities Daily Planet yesterday [St. (sic) Paul dog owners straining at the leash] about dog parks, noting the overuse of Arlington/Arkwright.

While I think she neglected to point out some of the history of Arlington/Arkwright Dog Park, especially missing the contribution of Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council in mediating and mitigating problems between users and immediate neighbors, Ms. Mowry seems to have diagnosed much of the situation correctly. It continues to be true that the basic problem at Arlington/Arkwright is overuse, overuse which is caused because the city has never followed up on a promise which it made to Arlington/Arkwright neighbors and the dog using community last century, that if the one there worked well, that more would be forthcoming, and that Arlington/Arkwright would not be the only one.

Even if we can get all the improvements that were agreed upon last year for Arlington/Arkwright funded and implemented, there will still be problems until we get more dog parks in our city.

At one time there was discussion that David Thune was considering allowing one at the site of the NSP High Bridge Plant. I suggested here earlier that Lilydale Park might work. Both seem acceptable to somebody from my side time of town, and especially since there aren’t a lot of immediate neighbors to play NIMBY as there are in Mac-Groveland and other western neighborhoods, those sites might have a chance of happening.

But until we get more parks, preferably in western neighborhoods, Arlington/Arkwright will continue to be overused.

Earlier posts: The Dog-gone Facts About a Dog Park [11/27/07]; Thinking Outside the Box? [1/6/08]

Do we really want to share Governor Plenty with the nation?

Aren’t we glad we have Tim? Are we really sure that we want to share him with the nation?

His Excellency, Timothy Pawlenty, Governor of the once-Great State of Minnesota, has always been against new taxes. [Increased fees are a different thing. Ask anybody who has been tagged for a seat belt violation or tried to buy a pack of cigarettes.]

He even wants to give us a break on our sales taxes, a really big one. It will save one cent every time you spend eight bucks.

But to make up for that he wants to reduce the property tax credit for renters and renters only. [As any GOP insider can tell you, tenants are second class people for the most part, anyway who aren’t going to vote, or if they do, will not vote for people like Governor Plenty, anyway.]

A Minnesota Monitor post today by Jeff Fecke [How Tim Pawlenty's tax cut helps you] gives some more illumination, ending with the following revealing paragraphs:

Yes, if you're the type of consumer that makes big-ticket purchases of electronics -- not to mention yachts, where you could save $250 on a $200,000 purchase -- you might actually see some benefit from Tim Pawlenty's big tax cut.

Incidentally, Pawlenty did call for one tax increase on Friday. Well, not so much an increase, really, but a decrease in the property tax credit for renters, from 19 percent to 16 percent. Now, if you pay $950 a month for your 2-bedroom apartment, that will cost you an extra $342 next year.

Again: Aren’t we glad we have Tim? Are we really sure that we want to share him with the nation?

Rosario: Seifert is "Sir Punisher"

In a Sunday column DPP columnist Rubén Rosario has pronounced Marty Seifert, the immigrant-baiting, mind our party line Republican leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives to be “Sir Punisher.”

He comments on his past attempt to take dessert away from prisoners and his recent role in demoting Republican representatives who broke with his bowing-to-Tim leadership by voting to override Plenty for a Chamber of Commerce transportation bill.

Rosario notes that Seifert

“is shrewd enough not to violate one of the cardinal rules of bad politics: Never let the facts get in the way of a bill that will pocket easy votes but actually make things worse.”

And he notes that Seifert’s latest attempt to make local police and sheriffs into immigration officers was likely not done with any input from the local police in our largest cities and certainly not with Saint Paul Chief John Harrington, whom he quotes as saying,'

It's a bad idea. We depend on people providing information and victims coming forward in cases that may involve terrorism, prostitution, human trafficking and domestic violence. We are dependent on people to help solve problems.

"We've heard from women who say they will rather take a beating before they call police if they think they or their kids will be deported. That's not what we are about. The community is better served and safer when people have the trust in us to tell us what is going on instead of hiding from us.''

His final suggestion that Chief Harrington might want to have somebody start his car from now on is probably hyperbole, but his article does generally seem to be right on the mark.

Let’s watch out for this guy. If Pawlenty doesn’t go to Washington and calls it quits after eight or twelve years this guy may want to become a resident of 1006 Summit Avenue. He’ll have his own security so having the Saint Paul PD tied up doing immigration duty won’t affect him.

Earlier posts: Observations on the Override [2/27/08]; Well, now we know how much time [3/3/08]

Ciresi out

Both metro area newspapers and Minnesota Monitor are reporting that Mike Ciresi is dropping out of the Senate race. That means that we will likely not have to choose between trial lawyers in this year’s election.

And it means that Ciresi who, with the help of his friend [at least he ought to be his friend] Skippy [the imitation Hubert Humphrey], found a new way to arrange public financing, will have to stay in his suburban home with a bit less of his public financing in the bank.

This may not be good for Ciresi, but can anybody question that a Franken vs. Norm race ought to be interesting [and likely dirty]?

And we might even see some speeches or ads we cannot all understand since either of both of these guys with their New York backgrounds may well make reference to something we poor Midwesterners cannot understand.

D.N. Berg wins Treasure Hunt 2

Treasure Hunt 2 is now over.

D.N. Berg has identified the second Treasure Hunt Picture as being a picture of Newell Park. More specifically, it is a picture of part of a roof of a picnic pavilion there, but our judge has deemed his answer sufficient.

D.N. Berg has now won the Treasure Hunt for the second time. Maybe if he makes it three in a row, we’ll have to call it the Capitol City Musings D.N. Berg Memorial Treasure Hunt or something.

The hunt is now closed and I will soon post the clue explanations and stop allowing comments there. You can add comments on this hunt or the hunts in general to this post.

I intend to start the next Capitol City Musings Treasure Hunt in about a week, so keep watching. And for now, let’s make sure that we all congratulate Mr. Berg

Pawlenty and LeVander: Republican Governors and Sales Tax

I am getting too old to understand some things, I guess.

Sales taxes used to be anathema to DFL types while Republicans thought them a creative way to raise government funds. They were, and still are, regressive ways of taxation.

HISTORICAL NOTE: In 1966, Governor Karl Rolvaag promised that as long as he was governor there would be no sales tax. His Republican opponent, Harold LeVander merely promised to veto any sales tax.

After LeVander was elected, the legislature gave us the first state sales [3%, labeled “general excise” for politically euphemistic purposes] enacted. LeVander did as promised, but after vetoing the sales tax, he called the legislature into special session so they could override his veto.

BACK TO THE PRESENT: So it seems a little surprising that Pawlenty today [link] suggested that, even though the state is facing another large deficit, that the sales tax be lowered.

Actually, at first glance, this seems like a better way of getting money that people would spend into circulation than the federal solution [Cf. earlier post] since it sneaks the money in gradually and subtly, but this new Pawlenty idea does make one wonder what will not be funded since we all know that Governor Plenty doesn’t support tax increases of any kind, even crossing the Chamber of Commerce to veto the gas tax for transportation and sales tax for transit bill earlier this session.

Does it make you wonder what audience our governor is playing up to? Is that audience in Minnesota? or is it a specific person from Arizona? or what?

Treasure Hunt 2 -- Clue 8 added

Clue No. 8 has been added.

link

More Harp Music [in a very minor key]

I know it seems that I harp on this a lot, but when basic human freedoms that Americans used to assume they had disappear, shouldn’t there be some harping?

It looks like we will have a lot less theater in Minnesota as authorities will try to crack down on all the new theaters which have opened up in the light of the Tobacco Taliban’s fraudulently-labeled “Freedom to Breathe” Act.

Although the story made Time, it looks like free theater’s day in the sun will be brief. Somehow, we all must have known it would be, since the demonstrated haughtiness and intolerance of the act’s advocates has been well noticed over several years.

We submit to fingerprinting and drug tests to apply for even the most minor jobs. We allow ourselves to be almost strip-searched to go into our public buildings or an airport concourse. We say, “I don’t smoke so why would I care?” We beg our authorities to enact things like "photo cop." We continue to lose liberty and nobody seems to care.

I have suggested before that we need to change our National Anthem from the one we have to one less martial and less jingoistic and blasphemous [read verse 4]. Now I think there is another reason. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is no longer true.

This is not the land of the free and is the home to very few brave.

[Earlier posts include: Free [10/1//2007]; Two Followups [1/4/2008] and others under labels "Freedom" and "Smoking."