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Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 10:12:33 AM CDT
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(Mark My Words has some valid concerns about the Obama Administration's foot-dragging on equal rights -- hopefully this can be a positive dialog focused on pushing the right kind of action. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Dear Senator Dibbble:
You stated in a piece that you wrote titled "LGBT meeting with President Obama:
"After Monday's meeting, I am persuaded that President Obama is committed to working with our community to advance the visions and hopes of our entire country. I know that he has heard the message of frustration from our community about lack of meaningful action and the damage inflicted by missteps of the last few months. I am grateful for such a unique opportunity to present these issues to him, and I hope the messages we all brought to the White House resonate with the administration. I look forward to more rapid progress on change for the better."
And I'm curious on why you feel persuaded that President Obama is committed to anything related to our GLBT Community.
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 13:32:42 PM CDT
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Going back to my rural roots, Tom Rukavina is a Ventura-like candidate who could do surprisingly well if he ever got organized. While I am always second-guessing whether a candidate will do what he or she says, I never, ever doubt Tom Rukavina. His courage and honesty should appeal to any progressive. Tom wears his heart and his soul wide open. With this wide open populist approach, Tom Rukavina frequently captures the media stories. This is a talent that would be critical in a governor's race. Even his opponents are entertained!
Tom Rukavina is a DFL House Representative from Virginia. This is an ares with wide open spaces and many bars, a drinking culture. So it will probably not surprise you to find out that Tom Rukavina was driving erratically and was therefore cited for a fourth-degree DUI in 2004. Tom Rukavina cooperated with the Sheriff. In the next election, Tom Rukavina won by a higher percentage than before.
Minnesota Brown described Tom this way:
State Rep. Tom Rukavina is one of the great characters of the Iron Range. I mean great in that he personifies our unusual culture rather well and that his heart is usually in the right place, too.
(Minnesota Brown)
Tom Rukavina can champion surprising populist causes. Tom championed into law the requirement that alcohol be available to all legal-age buyers at the new TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota or that no alcohol at all be available. Previously, the U of M's plan was just to offer alcohol in the premium seats.
"There was an overwhelming feeling in the Legislature that what the Board of Regents did was elitist," Rukavina said. "If you can afford to sit in the premium seats, you can drink chardonnay, and if you sit in the cheap seats, you get water or pop ... We didn't think that was right."
(Uwire)
I stood up and cheered to this one!
While Tom Rukavina has not formally declared, he spoke in the time sent aside for gubernatorial candidates at a Minnesota DFL central committee meeting. Could this guy catch fire? Tell me what you think!
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 11:30:23 AM CDT
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A great little nugget in TPM's Eric Kleefield's conversation with Marty Seifert, discussing the possibility of Norm Coleman jumping into the gubernatorial race:As for what lines of argument Seifert might take with state Republican caucus-goers, to show that he's the better candidate: "I think my appeal is that I'm electable and that -- you know, the bottom line is, I love Norm as a person and as a public servant, but he lost to Al Franken, for goodness' sake."
I asked Seifert about a thought experiment I'd been doing, putting myself in the shoes of a Minnesota Republican activist -- that I would think "we was robbed" in the 2008 Senate race, and a Coleman candidacy for Governor would immediately be an appealing way to put things right again.
"It never should have been close, there never should have been a recount," Seifert responded. "So most people in the party, I think, are looking at the analysis and saying, we should have never had 42% against Al Franken. It should never have been close to start with. And that's with all due respect to Sen. Coleman, but it never should have been close." A couple of threads to suss out here -- Seifert is going against the official party line of "Franken stole the race!" and admitting that, while extremely close, the race was ultimately won fair and square by Senator-elect Franken. But he's also providing us a preview of the kind of bloodletting that's going to happen in the GOP endorsement process -- and with so many candidates, there's a strong possibility of a primary as well, especially if big names like Coleman and Bachmann jump into the race.
Sen.-elect Franken himself has made the point that a lot of people voted against him. 58%, in fact. Of course, 58% (plus 300-some-odd votes, of course) voted against Coleman as well. The difference now between the two is that one is theoretically considering whether to run statewide just two years after nearly six in ten Minnesotans voted against him.
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 09:25:36 AM CDT
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The Avista Capital Partners-owned Star Tribune still cannot abide the thought of former senator Norm Coleman out of politics. After all, they invested significant time, effort and copy inches pushing his campaign and then propping it up after it was clear he was going to lose. Mike Kaszuba, seeming to follow company orders, ignored several key facts in writing his analysis of Norm's political future.
The biggest mystery, now that Democrat Al Franken is heading to the U.S. Senate, is how soon Republican Norm Coleman will let Minnesotans know whether he wants to be their governor.
Kaszuba glosses over Norm's legal troubles, ignoring three of the four problems Norm faces. He doesn't even note what Norm is in trouble for:
But Coleman would face potential roadblocks. The FBI is still investigating his relationship with Nasser Kazeminy, a major political donor accused in lawsuits of funneling payments to Coleman through a business where Coleman's wife worked.
Maybe the Strib is too short-handed right now to assign someone who knows the political history of Norm. Maybe they're on vacation. At any rate, Kaszuba ignores three other probable corruption investigations:
- Kazeminy bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of designer clothing for Norm.
- Norm got a below market rate for his apartment in Washington, DC from a political ally and the guy who received millions in business from Coleman's campaign and senatorial office.
- Norm's landlord's company may have paid Norm's utility bills.
In all four cases, Kaszuba fails to mention Norm's legal problem ... he didn't report these gifts. If Norm is indicted, if Norm spends time in prison, it will be for not reporting these gifts.
And there's one more problem with Kaszuba's analysis ...
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Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 08:38:06 AM CDT
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(Editor's note: TwoPuttTommy is on vacation; this post was originally published on May 27th, 2008 at MnBlue. While TPT discusses then-Party Chairman Ron Carey, Current Party Chairman Tony Sutton was Party Treasurer.)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
"And we anticipate filing some amendments..."
...is an exact quote from a July 20th, 2007 letter from the Republican Party of Minnesota to the Federal Elections Commission.
"SOME" amendments?
How about SEVENTY amendments!!!
One for each month of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and the months of January through November of 2007.
Is that "some"?
Ladies and Gentlemen, under Ron Carey's "stewardship" in leadership roles, the RepubliCan Party of Minnesota has been paying fines to the FEC, going back to 2001 and a fine of $16,000. Since 2002, the FEC has repeatedly and continually asked for clarification of those monthly reports because, well, they simply don't add up nor make sense.
And since Ron Carey began criticizing Al Franken's bookkeeping problems, demanding Franken answer questions, republiCon Ron began ducking questions and re-filing amended monthly reports to the FEC for a period covering almost SIX YEARS. And who knows? There may be even more amended returns coming up. After all, what's republiCon Ron gonna say about the latest batch of amended returns - "Well, sure, we've amended a bunch of previously amended reports, but THIS time, we got 'em "right"!!!"
Hey - if they didn't get 'em "right" the first time, nor the second, why would anyone believe republiCon Ron got 'em "right", this time?
Think about that - since 2002, the Republican Party of Minnesota has not gotten a single month's report done correctly. Not a single one.
How's THAT, for a track record?
Now, one thing to remember, is this: the whole time republiCon Ron was in front of a microphone, piously criticizing Franken's paperwork, he KNEW that those seventy amendments to the previously amended reports were going to be filed.
He KNEW.
Yet he hypocritically ripped Franken anyway.
Why?
Unfortunately, that's a question that can't be asked, because although republiCon Ron is fond of demanding Franken answer questions, answering questions isn't something Ron likes to do, himself.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 23:54:41 PM CDT
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(It's tempting to fall back on "you lost, get over it." But as ericf notes, does that really get us anywhere? - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I've heard Franken speak enough about Wellstone's death to be sure that it was this that propelled him the get active beyond satire. In fact, not just Wellstone's death, but the lies the right told about the memorial service, which Franken wrote about in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and talked about on his radio show, propelled Franken to run. If Republicans would just have acted like human beings, like Wellstone's opponent Rudy Boschwitz did, and recognize the political speech was just a grieving friend saying things he shouldn't have, and offered condolences instead of deceptive spin, Franken's win probably wouldn't have happened, because he probably wouldn't have run.
That's where the intensity of this race came from, the lies, the phony outrage, and the "he's dead, get over it" bumper stickers. Frankly, they motivated many DFLers to step up and try to fill part of our Wellstone-sized hole.
I'm not sure we realized how big a hole Wellstone would leave behind until it was there, and we discovered we couldn't just have Walter Mondale jump in to fill it. While we were mourning, Republicans brought out the meanness and used public misunderstandings to spread lies that lead to a political empty jacket defeating Mondale for the seat Wellstone looked likely to retain. We felt like the floor fell out from under us, but the Republicans handed us the motivation to rebuild, and do more than win the seat Wellstone had occupied.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 23:16:37 PM CDT
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Al Franken spoke on the steps of the State Capitol to around 500 to 600 supporters today. Despite the overcast sky, U2's "Beautiful Day" blared over the speakers and perfectly summarized what today is like for DFLers across the state.
Norm Coleman is vanquished and we finally have a Democrat back in the seat that Paul Wellstone held.
Rep. Betty McCollum, Rep. Keith Ellison and DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez warmed up the crowd. Franni Franken introduced Sen. Amy Klobuchar who introduced Al.
More pictures after the break. Plus I hope to get my hands on the transcript of Al's speech.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 02:17:04 AM CDT
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(Peace, single payer health care, honor for gays in the military, no torture, civil rights - these are the issues that we worked for. How are we doing? - promoted by Grace Kelly)
I've become a cynic on the entire subject related to President Obama's ovations he made towards the GLBT community while he was running for president.
In fact, I've become skeptical to the entire Democratic Party's views towards the GLBT community. The GLBT has been ferociously loyal to the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party has reacted to that ferocity by turning the GLBT's support into nothing short of a cliche'.
The other day, I had a volunteer call me from the DFL looking for my husband life-partner, and when I identified myself as his partner, she identified herself and wanted me consider a donation.
Mega-mistake. Oh boy...
She got an earful. When I said my partner wasn't available, she said; "Then maybe his wife is around?!"
Oh boy....
I said: "ummm... It's illegal for him to get married. I'm his life-partner. We're a gay couple. Is there something that I can help you with?!"
That's when she told me that she was from the DFL and was looking for some cash.
Oh boy...
The DFL is clearly out of touch with the GLBT.
Short version of that conversation: She agreed with me 100% and she admitted that the DFL and the Democrats have treated the Gay Voter as a free meal ticket. Her tone was pretty queasy, you could hear a couple of tears in her tone. She apologized twice I think, but I lost count after I got to the part where the DFL simply walked away from bills in both the state House and the Senate in hopes that they would just go away.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 14:09:59 PM CDT
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( - promoted by The Big E)
I had the honor of attending a gathering with President and Michelle Obama at the White House on Monday, June 29, at an event marking the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, commonly cited as the modern beginning to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equal rights movement, alongside about 250 other LGBT citizens, allies and families. I was especially encouraged to see so many young people there.
This was a unique opportunity to remember those who began fighting for equal rights so many years ago, and honor the work that has been done since that time. It also was an opportunity for members of the LGBT community to speak with President Obama about how much work is yet to be done, and how we would like to work together to ensure equal rights for everyone in our country.
Because it was important for the President to know the thoughts and feelings of those from across the country the about the state of our movement and the pace of change, I brought two letters with me. I personally delivered each to the President's Senior Advisor, David Axelrod.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 10:56:45 AM CDT
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UPDATE: Marty Seifert has responded to Andy's allegations, see his response after the jump.
Note to readers: Andy Aplikowski removed his original blog post yesterday. We were able to make a copy of the original post and save it. Links to his posting are to our archive. Andy has linked to our archive indicating its validity on his own blog Residual Forces.
According to the conservative blog Residual Forces, operatives close to Rep. Marty Seifert are "trying to tank some of the contenders on Seifert's behalf ... making up rumors about one's marriage." These references specifically point to the whisper campaign currently underway against Rep. Laura Brod. Also according to Residual Forces author Andy Aplikowski, the accusations against Rep. Laura Brod are false. However, he also claims "Seifert's close supporters and Caucus staff are using DFL bloggers like Shawn Towle & Dusty Trice to torpedo Republican candidates with smears and lies." If these accusations prove true, the implications are significant. A scandal of this proportion could derail Rep. Seifert's expected gubernatorial campaign launch next week, and create a cloud of suspicion regarding his candidacy and campaign tactics. Attempts to contact Rep. Seiftert's staff for comment were made. However, at the time of this publication, Rep. Marty Seiftert has not responded to our requests for comment.
We will provide updates as we learn more about this breaking story.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 10:42:42 AM CDT
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That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the beginning of a line in a June 3rd, 2007 story by Dan Browning and Pat Doyle of the Star Tribune. That story may be a key in explaining why the unDynamic Duo of Ron Carey and Tony Sutton had to amend and re-amend and sometimes even re-amend the re-amended FEC (Federal Election Commission) Reports. Here's a key excerpts from Dan Browning and Pat Doyle's June 3rd, 2007 story:
A key element of Tostenson's memo deals with his accusation that the party appears to have violated federal law by repeatedly delaying the deposit of employee payroll contributions into their retirement accounts. He said the "misappropriation" helped cover party expenses before the money was deposited.
"As reported on our payables at the state executive meetings last summer there was as much as $12,000 not deposited at any one time," he wrote. "This represented months of paycheck withholdings by the Party which had not been deposited within the 30-day legally required time limit."
The party offers Simple Individual Retirement Accounts for some employees. Federal law requires that money deducted from employees' checks for those accounts be deposited as soon as possible, and in no case later than 30 days after the month when it was withheld.
In cases of tardy deposits, employers may be required to make the plan whole by paying back any lost investment earnings. If they had mixed the employees' retirement money with general operating funds they could be required to pay an excise tax.
Party records show that money was withheld for employee retirement plans from September 2005 through May 2006, but Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reflect no deposits into the accounts during that period. In June 2006, the party made two makeup payments totaling $12,243 into the accounts.
The delay in depositing the money could have benefitted the party by giving it temporary access to the employees' funds.
Carey didn't explain why the retirement money wasn't deposited promptly.
"There seemed to be some gray areas as to what was the requirement," Carey said. Asked to explain the gray areas, he said, "I really would prefer not to get into the weeds on something like that. (StarTribune.com)
"gray areas"??!? "...get into the weeds..."??!?
Yeah, "right."
Supposedly, the newly-elected Chairman of the State GOP - Tony Sutton - is holding an overview of 2010 election today at 1:30 at GOP HQ; I'd bet they don't get "into the weeds" on just how much GOP mismanagement - when Sutton was GOPer Treasurer - is going to figure into 2010.
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Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 08:18:25 AM CDT
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Al Franken is (finally) headed to Washington! We have 60 Democratic Senators!
What now?
Conventional wisdom would have us think the answer is "not much, since it takes 60 votes to pass anything and we're bound to lose a couple of votes here and there from the Bayhs and Nelsons and Liebermans and Lincolns."
I don't buy it, and neither should you.
Now is the time to be calling your Senators -- BOTH of them -- to make sure they vote to cut off debate when it makes sense to do so, and can save their conscience "no" votes for the actual passage. I don't have many doubts about Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken being good on most matters -- if we make sure a public health insurance option is included in the final Senate bill, I doubt Klobuchar will vote against cloture despite the fact that she hasn't publicly committed to the public option yet. But there are many states in which this is an open question, and we in Minnesota need to stand ready to assist progressive activists around the country as they pressure their Senators not to kowtow to the conventional wisdom.
It takes 50 votes to pass legislation. It takes 60 to cut off debate. Anyone who says otherwise is either selling something or unwilling to put in the effort necessary to make the Congress do what vast majorities of Americans want it to do.
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