If you're a church-goin' person, you are probably used to the occasional under-the-breath political jab beneath the eaves of God's house. As a politically progressive Christian, I've turned the other cheek on the quiet Obama-as-anti-Christ joke, or the pastor all but bursting to hold in his belief that the newly-elected Democratic majority is an event akin to the baby-killing monstrosity of King Herod. There are churches and pastors who swing the other way, too, itching to damn the war in Afghanistan or the heartless bastard Glenn Beck.
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, people of Christian faith--especially clergy-- know church is no place for talking and acting on partisan politics. Even U.S law agrees.
When The Landmark Church in New York placed anti-Clinton ads in the local paper (4 days before the election of 1992), it broke the law. In May of 2000, after a much-appealed court battle, Landmark became the first church in the U.S. to lose its tax exempt status for violating federal IRS regulations.
Churches may not fund partisan activity. U.S. law granting tax-exempt status also forbids tax-exempt organizations from involvement in "any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."
A post in today's Outstate Politics questions a Bemidji Evangelical Covenant Church for possibly breaking this same federal law. The church is planning a Facebook-pimped pie social in financial support of MN Supereme Court candidate Tim Tingelstad this August.
(The newspapers are getting to that time when they're endorsing for the DFL primary, here's the first. - promoted by The Big E)
Today the Margaret Anderson Kelliher campaign for governor received another momentum boost earning the ECM Editorial Board endorsement. ECM publishes a string of local papers in rural and suburban Minnesota.
This is the first gubernatorial newspaper endorsement in 2010.
Randi Reitan of Eden Prairie was so outraged when she heard about our wonderful Target donating $150,000 to an anti-gay, super right-wing fund that supports Tom Emmer that she took matters in her own hands. She took her Target charge card in her own hands and trooped off to the local Target and bought $226.32 worth of merchandise. She then went to another Target and returned everything, explaining each item. She then cut up her Target card never to visit Target again.
The recent Citizens United decision by the Roberts Supreme Court invites corporations to spend unlimited amounts of corporate profits for or against any candidate. Previously they were limited to asking employees for voluntary donations to their political action committees.
Target has enjoyed a very positive role with a wide range of the populace including the gay community. They have participated in Pride and other community events. Not surprisingly, Target's donation to a group supporting Tom Emmer has provoked responses from many quarters.
A new report from Change.org reports that Target's CEO has also given a donation to Rep. Michele Bachmann.
When it rains, it pours. In the case of Target, and their $150,000 donation that filtered its way to an anti-gay candidate running for governor in Minnesota, it's a virtual tsunami. Around the country, thousands of folks have expressed outrage that the retail giant would give financial resources to a political candidate with some notoriously anti-gay positions and friends.
Now comes word, courtesy of Abe Sauer at The Awl, that Target's CEO has personally given the maximum contribution allowable to one of the most anti-gay politicians in the entire United States - Rep. Michele Bachmann.
For those interested in a quick crash course on Rep. Michele Bachmann's position on LGBT issues, here are a few statements attributed to self-appointed queen of the Tea Party movement.
* If gay marriage were to become legal: "[Gay marriage] is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it."
* On people who are gay or lesbian: "If you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement."
* Asked whether she hates gay people: "No, but ask my kids! (laughter)"
It should also be noted that Rep. Michele Bachmann voted against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and voted against expanding hate crimes legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity (and in so doing, managed to compare LGBT people to pedophiles).
All of that earned her a $5,000 check from Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, the maximum individual contribution allowable by the Federal Election Commission. Oh, and to top it off, Gregg Steinhafel's wife Denise gave Rep. Michele Bachmann $5,000, too.
And the hole Target is in gets a little deeper ...
DFLer Jim Meffert's campaign released an internal poll yesterday confirming what so many of us in CD3 have been hoping to hear: Erik Paulsen is seen as part of the problem in Washington.
Standard caveats apply - it's an internal poll, so the highlights are bound to be bad for Paulsen and potentially good for Meffert. And the toplines (Paulsen leading Meffert 44-22) aren't good by any means. But any survey from a reputable shop like Lake Research which shows an incumbent with numbers like these has to be seen as a warning sign.
Paulsen reelect Re-elect Erik Paulsen: 33%
Consider someone else: 31%
(Don't know): 24%
Vote to replace Paulsen: 12%
The two really important numbers in that second note are the Re-elect Paulsen and Vote to Replace numbers -- 33-12. Those should correspond pretty closely with the base numbers for the two big-party candidates right now -- which means that, if the survey is accurate, there's a pretty huge number of voters in CD3 who are willing to consider someone not named Paulsen. Especially when we consider that only 33% both know enough about Paulsen's performance to have an opinion and like that performance, there's an opportunity here.
What Meffert needs right now, in a bad way, is money and exposure. We'll be doing our part in that respect in the next week or so (more news as events warrant), but you might consider sending a few bucks his way. We could make a significant impact in this race with a relatively small investment, despite not having a boogeyman named Bachmann as an opponent.
The bottom line here is that Paulsen is seen as part of the problem, not part of the solution among those who even know who he is. It's a start.
The last broadcast of Quick on the Uptake was made this afternoon. The show was live on AM950 KTNF at 5 PM weekdays, and will be replaced by Nancy Nelson, who has a show on Saturdays and recently filled in while host Mike McIintee was gone.
The is not the end of The Uptake, just the daily radio show. The web site continues. Mike explained that it was a matter of available time. He pays the bills as a video editor, and he described The Uptake as his "passion", and something had to go. Unfortunately for his regular listeners, the radio show was it.
Mike said he left on good terms with station management, and he reminded his listeners the station is a local independent, not a big corporate station, and we're fortunate for that. He said he'll still be on the air occasionally, and indeed he was a regular guest on The Mark Heaney Show prior to getting his own show.
Speaking for myself, the show's end will leave a gap in my ipod, since I listened to the podcast almost every day I didn't hear it live. I don't know how long the podcasts will be available, but for the moment, they can be downloaded at http://www.am950ktnf.com/liste...
- State rankings for child health. Note how, except for a few outliers, the more politically conservative states are clustered near the bottom. This is a very common phenomenon, in studies of this type.
- This has been popping up in the progressive blogosphere for several days. Unfortunately, the comments are disabled; if they were allowing them, they would have been fascinating reading, I'm sure.
Howie Klein raises a great point. Why hasn't Erik Paulsen and John Kline joined Michele Bachmann's Teabag Caucus in the House?
Minnesota and Wisconsin share more than a long border and some Lake Superior shoreline. Each state has 8 congressmen and each state currently has 3 Republicans in Congress. But not even far right Minnesota colleagues John Kline or Erik Paulsen have joined Bachmann's Caucus. And none of the Wisconsin Republicans have either. Neither Paulsen nor Kline is willing to comment on why they won't join the Tea Party Caucus.
Maybe they view the insanity emanating from from the teabaggers as detrimental to their reelection efforts? Maybe they don't use my patented Effenheimer Fundraising SystemTM?
The racists on the Lino Lakes city council voted 4-1 to pass a English-only language ordinance yesterday. The YES votes were (from left to right above) Mayor Jeff Reinert, CM Jeff O'Donnell, CM Dave Roeser and CM Rob Rafferty. The ordinance was sponsored by Dave Roeder, a known teabagger. The ordinance prohibits the city from using any other language than English. The lone voice of reason was Kathi Gallup.
According to Reinert, the city currently does not spend any money translating or producing foreign-language documents. But that doesn't mean the city never would, in absence of this ordinance, he said, comparing the situation to the emerald ash borer problem plaguing parts of Minnesota.
"Right now we have zero expense in the city for emerald ash borer," Mayor Reinert told the crowd that filled the council chambers, "And yet we're spending all kinds of time, staff time, no doubt eventually money, for a problem that doesn't exist. But it's something in the future you can see."
Like preventing the ash borer from spreading to their town, they're doing what they can to prevent the scourge of minorities from infecting their lily white town.
Target and CEO Gregg Steinhafel are in damage control mode after news broke that Target gave the MN Forward PAC $150,000 and the PAC is running ads on behalf of Tom Emmer. In particular, the GLBT community is up in arms. So Steinhafel wrote a memo. Here's an excerpt:
In the past week I've heard from some of you, including our GLBT team members, regarding your concerns with Target's recent contributions to MN Forward, an independent expenditure committee that is supported by a broad coalition of large and small businesses throughout the state, including the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
As you know, Target has a history of supporting organizations and candidates, on both sides of the aisle, who seek to advance policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth. MN Forward is focused specifically on those issues and is committed to supporting candidates from any party who will work to improve the state's job climate. However, it is also important to note that we rarely endorse all advocated positions of the organizations or candidates we support, and we do not have a political or social agenda
Target's upper management are almost all right wing Republicans. Emmer's belief that we should get rid of or slash the minimum wage would help out Target; they could pay their employees even less.
"Improve the state's job climate?" That's what they think Emmer would do? How would slashing taxes on the wealthy and slashing state programs help create jobs? Emmer's vague starve-the-beast, no new taxes mantra will only drive our state into a recession. However, Emmer would reduce Target's already low tax burden and especially the taxes paid by Target's overpaid executives.
Finally, Target are really digging themselves a deep hole on this issue with the GLBT community. Emmer is simply horrible on GLBT issues. Target is trying to defend the indefensible. The problem for them is, Republicans like Steinhafel will probably only continue to dig. They don't understand the concept of "first stop digging."
After being in Iraq last week, MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty visited Afghanistan. Apparently, he hasn't learned from a previously failed presidential aspirant - yeah, the one that snubbed TBag when it came time for his VP pick, putting the nation at tremendous risk instead via the most reckless, preposterous selection arguably in the history of US presidential politics. Anyway, Timmy's talking 'surge!', kind of.
Monday, he stopped in Washington, DC, for the same tiresome crap in which he's been indulging himself for a while.
- He blathered on about 'entitlement reform,' and bashed the Obama administration's largely successful efforts to keep the country out of another Great Depression (see the Washington Post article linked above)...
(H***, yes, it pains me to link The Weekly Standard AND Politico - in the same post, no less. But I have a job to do.)
From the Weekly Standard article:
But in the end, Pawlenty said, there won't be much difference between GOP presidential candidates on the issues. He said it's important to have a presidential candidate who doesn't live up to the stereotype that Republicans are "all CEOs" who "play polo on the weekends." Pawlenty made the case that his background as the son of a truck driver who worked his way through college helps him reach out to working class voters, who are turned off by "country club elitists."
He's a real 'man of the people,' all right. Farcical.
Below the fold is the entire Minnesota Senate district hPVI list, but before we get to that let's first take a look at some information about the list.
As you would expect the most democratic districts are significantly more partisan than the most republican districts. In fact a full 16% of the districts are Democratic districts that are more partisan than the most republican district. Conversely there are relatively few Democratic districts in the +10 - +20 range, while there are lots of republican districts in that range. You can see the trend more easily when the list is graphed.
The republican districts are more plentiful, but less partisan while the exact opposite is true of the democratic districts. The other interesting feature is just how many +10 republican districts the DFL currently holds. Even if you exclude Lisa Fobbe in her R+24 district there are six districts with an R+10 score or greater that are held by DFLers while the most Democratic district currently held by the GOP is SD41 with an R+5 score. This is to be expected in a Senate dominated by the DFL, but it's still somewhat surprising to see how far into GOP land the DFL incursion has penetrated.
