Britain more conservative now than when Thatcher was PM:

Britain is now more Thatcherite than when Margaret Thatcher was in power, with people much less supportive of the welfare state and the redistribution of wealth than in the 1980s, according to an authoritative study of the country’s mood.

New Labour oversaw the biggest recorded shift to the right in public attitudes on those measures, despite a surge in concern about the scale of the wealth gap between rich and poor.

The British Atlas’s shoulders seem to be itching…:

Sympathy towards benefit claimants has evaporated, along with support for redistributive tax and spend policies, over the past 20 years, with Labour governing during a period of significant hardening of attitudes towards the poor, the annual results of the British Social Attitudes survey reveal.

So there is hope in Europe.

Common Cause Minnesota  (CCM) is a “non-partisan” PAC that exists, in its entirety, to advance liberal causes and, when they can’t manage that, to retard conservative ones.

Oh, they tart the message up like a twenty-dollar hooker:  “Common Cause Minnesota is a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen’s lobby dedicated to improving the way state government operates. We have helped pass Minnesota’s most important ethics and campaign finance reforms“, is what they say on their website.  And everywhere, in all their communication – transparency.  Transparency, transparancy, transparency.  They want “Transparency” in government.  Or so they say.

We’ll come back to that.

As I pointed out last September, in the wake of  finding out that “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” was spending an avalanche of funding from not-so-transparent sources like Mark Dayton, his ex-wife and a slew of unions, through via a fiscal shell game that Derek Brigham mapped out as well as anyone – certainly better than anyone in the mainstream media…

…Common Cause had demanded an investigation of…

…Campaign for Minnesota’s future, and a donation it got from the Republican Governors Assocation.

And for this campaign, Common Cause went big, going to the state Campaign Finance Board.

CCM’s announcement certainly set the stakes high (emphasis added by me):

WHAT:           Common Cause has uncovered an elaborate scheme by three entities to hide political contributions.

WHEN:           Thursday, September 30, 2010
11:00 a.m.

WHERE:         Room 125, State Capitol

Common Cause Minnesota will outline a major complaint that it has filed with the Campaign Finance Disclosure Board alleging that three different entities circumvented Minnesota disclosure law and failed to properly disclose large contributions.  The parties involved could face civil penalties totaling $5.1 million and criminal prosecution.

###

Whew!  Scary!

And when the CFB released its results, CCM spun it like it was huge news; Mike Dean, CCM’s president, tweeted:

Campaign Finance Board finds that Minnesota’s Future, LLC Violated State Law:

Of course, like everything Mike Dean and CCM say and do, it was a bunch of twaddle.   The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board released its conclusions.

Among CCM’s many charges was that the Republican Governors Association didn’t disclose its donors according to Minnesota law.

It was true; they did it better than Minnesota law!

The Board notes that the RGA disclosed all of its sources of income to the IRS under the requirements applicable to organizations registered under IRC section 527. The timing of that disclosure is different than what is required in Minnesota but the level of itemization is greater than Minnesota requires. This observation is noted because it suggests that avoidance of disclosure was not a motive for the RGA when it made its contribution to Minnesota Future, LLC.

Conclusions from CFB investigation – again, with emphasis added:

Based on the above analysis, and the submissions of the Complainant and the other parties, the Board makes the following:

Findings Concerning Probable Cause

1. There is probable cause to believe that Minnesota Future, LLC, and State Fund for Economic Growth, both Minnesota corporations, operated as political committees as defined by statute and were required to register with the Board within ten days of accepting contributions or making expenditures in excess of $100.

2. There is no probable cause to believe that the failure of Minnesota Future, LLC, or State Fund For Economic Growth to register was done with the knowledge and understanding the corporation was, in fact, required to register.

3. Minnesota Future, LLC, and State Fund for Economic Growth have registered with and reported to the Board retroactive to the date they first accepted contributions in excess of $100. They have completed their registration and reporting obligations. Consequently, there is no probable cause to believe that an ongoing violation exists.

So there was no substantial violation of any kind.  It was a technical violation of a provision in state election finance law that’s not all that clear; no harm was done, no fines were levied (they very frequently are in these cases); Minnesota Forward didn’t get so much as a stern “you watch what you’re doing, now!”  No “criminal charges”, no “multimillion dollar fines”.

Nothing.

CCM’s selective complaining was incongruous enough to make even liberal-in-good-standing Paul Demko ask:

But Common Cause did not file a similar complaint against WIN Minnesota, a DFL-aligned organization that has been helping pay for attack ads against GOP nominee Tom Emmer. The group received a similar $250,000 contribution from the Democratic Governors Association (DGA).

Dean said WIN Minnesota is in compliance with the law because it’s organized under a different section of the tax code and has a broader mandate then simply influencing electoral politics. But he conceded that WIN Minnesota is no more transparent in revealing the source of the DGA money then its conservative counterpart. “The issue is one organization followed the law and the other organization did not,” Dean said.

Except that MNForward did, according to the Campaign Finance Board – and if WIN Minnesota (one of the maze of shell groups underwrting “Alliance for a Better Minnesota”) did, it was only by the stretchiest definition of “the letter of the law”, and I doubt even that.

So you might be reading this, and thinking – “Wow – Common Cause sounds like  a bunch of weasels”.

Now, now.  Not yet, they don’t.

Read this bit first (again with emphasis added):

At issue is a $429,000 contribution that the Republican Governors Association funneled to the group, which has been running television commercials bashing DFL gubernatorial nominee Mark Dayton. Common Cause argues in the complaint that Minnesota’s Future was required to disclose the names of donors who contributed to the Republican Governors Association.

Leaving aside the fact that the Campaign Finance Board rejected the premise that Minnesota’s future did anything wrong, I’d like you to check this out.  It’s an excerpt from Page 4 of Common Cause’s 2008 IRS Form 990 – disclosures.

Can’t read the names?

Get used to it.  There are eight pages of donations, a total of 44 of them, totalling over $600,000.

For one year.

And not one name.

For a group that alleges itself to be all about “transparency in politics”.

The lesson from this?  Whenever “Common Cause” pops up in this state’s political discourse, they need to be pelted with rhetorical rocks and garbage.  They exist only as a front group for the DFL; they are fundamentally dishonest.

I’ve invited CCM “president” Mike Dean to appear on the Northern Alliance Radio Network to discuss his various charges, and defend CCM against the charge that they are lying to the people.  Repeatedly.  For almost three months.

I expect better from responsible adults with non-risible points of view.

Place your bets.

A would-be satirist named Alfonso,
who though having an impaired sense of meter, tried his hand at limericks.
Though he’d learned English in adulthood
and was slow in grasping the concept of “Rhyme” or “Rhythm” in this foreign language,
he chose an editor who was easily intimidated.

It’s been a big week for awful news.

Tom Conlon – for many years, the only elected Republican official in any capacity in Ramsey County – died on Sunday:

Police were called to the 2100 block of Berkeley Avenue, where Conlon lived, about 5:55 a.m. Sunday.

A neighbor and a snow plow driver saw Conlon shoveling out his car in front of his home about 5 a.m., said St. Paul police spokesman Andy Skoogman.

“It appears that he got into his car and likely had some type of medical issue,” Skoogman said. Conlon’s car was found crashed into a snow bank on the block.

He’d been teaching at Metro State, and mounted a brief run for State Auditor earlier this year.

These memorial pieces I write are usually somewhat detached, third-person things.  Not so with Tom.  This time it’s personal. 

Tom was a sharp-as-nails politician – can any other kind get elected as a Republican in Saint Paul?   He was a genuine, nice guy in person.  His low-key manner disarmed you, – he was a sharp, savvy guy who, above all, exuded love for his community.

A graduate of Harding High School, he served a hitch in the United States Marine Corps’ 11th Marine Regiment.  Which led to the one big incongruity in Conlon, from what I saw.

No, it wasn’t incongruous that he served his country with pride, of course – that fit perfectly.  But I don’t imagine that anyone could ever imagine Conlon, even the 18 year old version of him, making a “war face”.  The guy always had a smile for everyone.  Even during the most byzantine school board debates with his most whackdoodle colleagues, Tom kept not only his cool, but his smile.  Or one of them.  He had a bunch; the broad “glad to meet you” smile, even if you’d met him a hundred times; the wry “there you go again” smile that’d pop  up when one of his colleagues was expounding, and more.

Tom was a  very talented photographer – I had him penciled in to do my daughter’s senior pictures.

I last talked with Tom three weeks ago, at a CD4 fundraiser.  He’d been eyeing running for School Board.  The SPPS desperately needed him back on the board.

Rest in peace, Tom Conlon.  This city is a worse place for your passing.

The death of ones’ child is every parent’s worst nightmare; it stalks every parent, I suspect, from birth until the parent isn’t able to worry about it anymore.  There is no lighter side, no joking, no redeeming quality to the subject, even when it’s just a nightmare that you can wake up from.

When it’s for real?

I don’t even want to think about it, to tell you the truth.

And so I give my simple, unvarnished condolences to Mike Hatch and his family.  And I urge you all to give them your prayers, or whatever it is you believe in.

Last summer, I noticed a local leftyblog run by a couple of anonymous bloggers was trying to play lawyer. 

They were gabbling about my friend, colleague and now Minnesota State Representative, King Banaian’s radio show on KYCR – also known as “AM1570 The Businessman”, sister station to AM1280 The Patriot.  

King was a co-host of the Northern Alliance Radio Network on AM1280 – an overtly political show on an overtly political station – from March of 2004 until September, 2009.  At that time – long before he announced any intention to run for office – he switched to the 1570, where he ran an expressly non-political show about economics. 

The anonymous bloggers in question wrote a screed claiming that the 1570 needed to either pull Banaian off the air, or give his opponent equal time, notwithstanding the fact that AM1570 can not be heard in District 15B, a demand that caused me to wonder if Banaian’s opponent might want to just tell the anonymous bloggers to shut up and quit trying to “help” her; using the “equal time” would involve driving to Eagan from Saint Cloud every Saturday morning, or at the very least taking off a couple of hours of prime campaigning time per week to talk on the air on a station that has zero listenership – zero – in Saint Cloud. 

Little did I know as I wrote my response that somebody had already filed a complaint [Warning! PDF File!] with the Campaign Finance Board!   The CFB summarizes the complaint, saying the complainer believed there had been:

(1) a prohibited corporate contribution from the radio station owner to the King Banaian for House committee in the form of free radio air time;

(2) the failure to report contributions from the radio station owner to the King Banaian for House committee

(3) violations of the limits on contributions that may be accepted by a candidate’s principal campaign committee.

As I pointed out in my original response, the complaint was absurd: the show was expressly nonpolitical, and the station isn’t heard in the district in question anyway. 

The complaint also gabbled on for quite a while about Banaian’s history – ending half a year before he announced his candidacy – on AM1280.  Follow that logic there?  Being on the air in the past is a form of campaign contribution?  Did anyone file a complaint against Al Franken?  Can any talk show host ever run for office?

It matters not – because the Campaign Finance Board reached exactly the same conclusions I did, and for exactly the same reasons.

As re the complaint’s, er, complaint that Salem “contributed” to Banaian via the “free” air time?:

For the purposes of analysis, the Board will adopt Complainant’s position and assume that Salem Communications provided services of value to King Banaian. In fact, the opposite may be true since King Banaian was a volunteer host with significant credentials and the radio station’ owners profited from commercials run during breaks in his program.

Heh. Don’t we all know it.

As re the notion that Salem was contributing to the Banaian Campaign, the CFB notes that the “contribution” would have required phenomenal ESP on the part of Salem’s execs: 

Services provided by Salem Communications would be a recognizable and reportable transaction if those services constitute an “approved expenditure” under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 10A. An “approved expenditure” is an expenditure made by a third party for the benefit of a candidate with the approval of the candidate. Minn. Stat. §10A.01, Subd. 4. An approved expenditure constitutes both an in-kind contribution to the candidate’s principal campaign committee and an in-kind expenditure by the committee.

An approved expenditure is a specific type of “expenditure”. Thus, before a transaction will be considered to be an approved expenditure, it must fall within the definition of an expenditure.

Minnesota Statutes, Section 10A.01, Subd. 9, defines “Campaign expenditure” or “expenditure” as a payment or purchase “made or incurred for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of a candidate . . .”. This statute clearly requires the existence of a specific purpose before a transaction is an expenditure for campaign finance purposes.

The program under consideration was ongoing prior to Mr. Banaian’s announcement that he would run for office. The program is aimed at discussion of economic issues. Although it discusses policy related to economics, it has not discussed Mr. Banaian’s candidacy for the House of Representatives.

In other words, the “campaign” to which the “contribution” was “made” didn’t “exist” when Salem put the expressly non-political show on the air – “air” which, need we remind you, ends at about the west end of Maple Grove:

The program’s broadcast signal does not reach the geographic area in which Mr. Banaian is running for office. While the online on-demand archive is available to anyone, there is no evidence that Salem Communications or anyone else has promoted the archive to voters in Mr. Banaian’s district.

(Or any other district.  Don’t get me wrong – Salem rocks, and I thank them profusely for having me on the air for this past almost-seven years.  But any “promotion” that any of us local hosts have gotten has been via word of mouth.  Such is the nature of weekend radio).

The fact that Mr. Banaian may have appeared as a guest on broadcasts on WWTC, a political talk radio station, does not provide support for the proposition that Salem Communications made a political contribution to the King Banaian Committee. Minnesota Statutes Section Subd. 11(c) provides that a contribution does not include “the publishing or broadcasting of news items or editorial comments by the news media”. This exception is broadly interpreted in favor of allowing public discourse related to political campaigns. The fact that a candidate interview may have an effect on the candidate’s election is not sufficient to remove the interview from the news media exception.

The Board recognizes that any positive public exposure may have some effect on an individual’s chance of being elected. However, this possible collateral effect under the facts presented is not sufficient bring the broadcasts described by Complainant within the scope of expenditures that are considered to be for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of Mr. Banaian.

Now, that’s an interesting proposition; considering “positive” interviews to be a “campaign contribution?”  Can someone file a complaint against Keri Miller or Esme Murphy?  Because if I have to listen to either of them painting Mark Dayton’s toenails on the air again, I’m going to herk.

The conclusions?:

Based on the information provided in the Complaint and the Response, and through the Board’s investigation, the Board makes the following:

Findings Concerning Probable Cause

1. There is no probable cause to believe that Salem Communications or KYCR Radio made a contribution to the King Banaian for House principal campaign committee by producing or broadcasting the King Banaian Show or other shows during which Mr. Banaian was interviewed.

Based on the above Findings, the Board issues the following:

Order

1. The Complaint of [the complainer] regarding King Banaian, KYCR Radio and Salem Communications is dismissed.

2. The Board investigation of this matter is concluded and hereby made a part of the public records of the Board pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 1OA.02, Subdivision 11.

Where have we heard that before?

Now, since the bloggers who originally wrote about this are anonymous, I obviously have no idea who they are, or if the CFB “complaint” was in any way related to the blog post I, er, addressed last August.

Still, I have a hard time thinking what the anonymous bloggers, or the complainer, thought they were going to accomplish with this complaint.  Given that the station is not heard in Stearns County, and given that the show was expressly non-political anyway, the only remaining motivation would be to stifle conservative punditry on the air.

It’s not hard to imagine that it backfired, though.  Indeed, it’s not at all difficult to believe any part of King Banaian’s margin of victory in this past election that didn’t come from people disgusted by the DFL’s clumsy, racist jape at Banaian’s consulting career might have come from St. Cloudians revolted by the bald-faced appeal to censorship from a couple of carpet-bagging (apparent) Twin Citians.

The DFL still hasn’t ponied up for its convention last April in Duluth.

From Minnesota “Progressive” Project:

Members of a local DFL unit in northeastern Minnesota who recently tried to book an event at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center were stunned to hear that payment in full, up front is now required, a significant deviation from the previous policy of billing the party unit after the event. The cause of this major shift in policy was later discovered to be that the Minnesota DFL still has not paid the bill for the DFL State Convention held at the facility last April.

 A reliable source affiliated with the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center has confirmed that the policy was indeed adopted as a result of a large unpaid bill incurred by the Minnesota DFL for expenses arising from the state convention.

Perhaps Brian Melendez thought that the convention results had a warranty, if Margaret Anderson-Kelliher didn’t win the primary?

Only the latest of many signs the wheels are coming off down on Plato.

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Co-President Barack Obama just can’t get a break.

Between the Media, for whom Barry O. was their precious leg-tingling darling…

Leftist TV talking heads such as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel have excoriated Obama for what they see as political perfidy.

…and his liberal peeps, his compromise has put him between a political rock and a hard place.

Given their overwrought reaction to President Obama’s tax deal, you’d think Democrats had no reason to compromise with the opposition. Have they already forgotten last month’s election?

Democrats have lashed out at Obama for “compromising ” with the Republicans on a tax bill. But all in all, agreeing to an extension of current tax rates for an extension of jobless benefits seems like a pretty fair deal.

Yet the reaction has been brutal.

After House Democrats voted Thursday to oppose Obama’s tax deal with the GOP, Virginia Democrat James Moran told the Hill: “This is a lack of leadership on the part of Obama. I don’t know where the f*** Obama is on this or anything else. They’re AWOL.”

…and then he has to come home to this at the end of the day:

I don’t think Barry’s having any fun…failing so spectacularly at presidenting.

Merry Christmas (or whatever it is that you celebrate) Mr. Co-President, and a Happy New Year.

For the kids, anyway:

The Minneapolis and St. Paul public school districts said they are canceling classes and activities today because of extremely cold weather and snow accumulation.

The districts both said it could not guarantee that all buses would arrive on time and on all routes, given the state of the city’s streets in the wake of the weekend snowstorm. That, coupled with chilly weather, the districts decided to close.

I actually impulse-bought a snow-blower over the weekend.  Not sure how I got by without one all these years.

We’ve been covering the Joel Rosenberg  case.  Joel carried a handgun and knife into Minneapolis Police Department’s headquarters, leading him into a rhubarb (here, here and here) with a Sergeant Bill Palmer.  A month after the rhubarb, Hennepin County issued an arrest warrant, and held him for a couple of days (Joel was bailed late last week).

Now, I’m no lawyer.  But Mark Bennett is – a criminal defense lawyer in Texas – and last week he had a pretty sanguine view of Rosenberg’s chances both against the charges and in his future lawsuit against Hennepin county.

Joe Doakes of Saint Paul is also an attorney.  And he takes a rather different view.

Joel Rosenberg is charged with violating Minn. Stat. 609.66, Subd1(g), possession of a dangerous weapon in a courthouse complex.  I think he’s in grave danger of being convicted.

“Dangerous weapon” is defined in Minn. Stat. 609.02, Subd. 6 to include guns, of course, but also includes “. . . any device designed as a weapon and capable of producing death or great bodily harm . . . .”

Minn. Stat. 609.66, Subd. 1(g) (b) (2) provides an exception for persons carrying pistols pursuant to a valid permit, if that person gives notice to the Sheriff.  The method and timing of notice is not specified.   Joel claims he gave notice, the Complaint claims the Sheriff has no record of it.  This raises both a matter of legal interpretation (can you give notice once and it’s good forever, or must you give notice for each visit, and how far in advance) as well as a matter of proof (did he actually give the notice).

Rosenberg has pointed out that he has is notice on file.  Hopefully that won’t be an issue; I’m looking forward to seeing the county claiming that  you have to notify them before every visit…

Even assuming both go in Joel’s favor, the case is not ended.

A knife is capable of producing death.  A knife is a dangerous weapon within the meaning of Minn. Stat. 609.66.  If the office where the incident took place is part of a courthouse complex, then Joel’s gun may have been legal but his knife certainly was not.

Hm.

Of course, the big question has been “can a judge more or less arbitrarily call buildings “courthouses”…

Red: Henco Gov't Center - Green: City Hall, where Rosenberg was arrested.

…that, in fact, are not ?

“Courthouse complex” is not defined.  The statute does not specify who has authority to designate a building as being part of the “courthouse complex.”

Minnesota’s government is divided into three co-equal branches.  The legal doctrine of Separation of Powers means the Judicial Branch has exclusive authority over matters of judicial administration and judicial officers.  Lawyers, for example, are licensed not by the Executive Branch in the manner of electricians or land surveyors, but instead are licensed and disciplined by the Supreme Court.  Naturally, there is a great deal of overlap (for example, under Article VI, Section 5 of the Minnesota Constitution, judges’ salaries are set by the Legislature).  There is no clear line dividing the branches’ powers.

Minn. Stat. 484.77 provides the County Board must furnish suitable facilities for court purposes; thereafter, the County Board and the District Court must mutually agree upon relocation, renovation, etc.   To my knowledge, the Hennepin County Board has not designated any buildings to be part of a “courthouse complex.”

There is no specific statutory authority for judges to designate buildings as part of a “courthouse complex,” but because of the Separation of Powers doctrine, judges historically have had the power to maintain order in their own courts.  Bailiffs are Deputy Sheriffs (Executive Branch) but they are assigned to work under the control and direction of the court (Judicial Branch).

S0 – separation of powers is good.  So how about a branch of government using that separation to more-or-less arbitrarily decide which state law applies to them?

There is a standing Order designating the City Hall as being one of the “court facilities” for purposes of banning dangerous weapons. I assume “court facilities” is the functional equivalent of “courthouse complex.”  The Order was issued by Chief Judge James Swanson in 2008.  In my experience, it is unlikely for such an Order to be the work of one rogue judge; instead, all the judges on the Hennepin County bench likely agreed on the order and the Chief Judge signed it.

The Order states its authority to designate buildings as part of the court facilities for purposes of banning dangerous weapons is the inherent responsibility of the Judicial Branch to ensure order in the court.  Joel may argue that Judge Swanson lacked authority to issue the order because of Minn. Stat. 6624.714, Subd. 23, which provides: “No sheriff, police chief, governmental unit, government official, government employee, or other person or body acting under color of law or governmental authority may change, modify, or supplement these criteria or procedures, or limit the exercise of a permit to carry.”  But the named officers are Executive Branch officials.  Judges are conspicuously absent from the list perhaps because, under Separation of Powers, the Legislative Branch knew it lacked authority to tell the judicial branch how to run its shop.

When a statute is ambiguous, the courts look to the legislative history to determine the intent of the law.  The harm meant to be addressed by Subdivision 23 was the problem of local officials exercising discretion in issuance of carry permits and this subdivision cures that ill.  I don’t remember anybody testifying to the need to carry guns in courtrooms.  Reading this subdivision to limit the judicial branch’s inherent authority to maintain order in the courts is a stretch.

So is the Henco judge’s order “overly broad?”

Another possible argument is that the Order is overly broad because it lists entire buildings, not only those sections of the buildings used for courtroom purposes.  In contrast, the Ramsey County judges issued a similar order in May 2003 that limited the definition of “courthouse complex” to those areas of buildings where court activities took place, except where the layout of a building made that impossible (50 West Kellogg) in which case the entire building is designated.  Hennepin’s Order is not so narrowly tailored.

Over-breadth is a fact-specific analysis.  If it would be difficult or burdensome to reconfigure the building to segregate the courts portion from the rest of the users of the building, then designating the entire building as part of the “complex” probably would be found to be valid.  Certainly the local trial court judge will think so.  The Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court tend to defer to the trial court in matters of fact because the trial court had the best opportunity to assess the credibility of the witnesses and hear all the evidence.

And in places like Henco, if there’s one thing that’s more important than upholding state law, it’s never, ever offending the Chief Judge:

As a practical matter, no District Court judge is going to find that her own Chief Judge lacked authority to issue the Order or that it was over-broad.

Then, there’s the matter of the knife:

Assuming the trial judge finds the Chief Judge had authority to issue the Order designating the entire City Hall building as a courthouse, the statute prohibits knives as dangerous weapons.  Aside from Sgt. Bill Palmer’s word, is there any proof Joel had a knife?  Sadly, yes; Joel himself shot a video of it and posted it on YouTube.  But a YouTube video is not eyewitness testimony, it is hearsay; can that be used against him?  Sure, when Joel publicly posted the video and its taunting follow-up, he made an admission against interest, basically a voluntary confession, which is an exception to the hearsay rule.   It was an unforced error but it still goes against him.

If this goes to trial, Joel will be convicted and the conviction will be upheld on appeal.

Ouch.

More on this later today.

Now, Joel’s been on a mission for a while now.  Was there another way?

But he had no choice, right?  He had to carry the gun to bring a test case to have the Order thrown out, right?  What else could Joel have done to contest the overbreadth of the Order?

He could have filed an Application for the Writ of Prohibition under Rule 120 of the Minnesota Rules of Appellate Court Procedure.   That application asks the Court of Appeals to prohibit the Hennepin County court from enforcing its order.  The Court of Appeals then decides whether Judge Swenson had authority to issue the Order, and whether designating the entire building made the Order overly broad.  If Joel doesn’t like the Court of Appeals’ answer, he goes to the Supreme Court.  If he doesn’t like their answer, he goes to the Legislature for an amendment to the law.  But no matter how many times he loses in those places, he doesn’t go to jail.  The filing fee is $550, the attorneys will cost a couple of grand, he probably could get a group of people to join in the application (form a non-profit named “Citizens for Safer Courtrooms” and have it accept donations to fight the case).  That’s the proper way he should have proceeded.

Bear in mind, Joe is not a critic of Joel’s:

I like Joel.  He’s a great writer and a good teacher.  But this time, I think he’s stepped in it.  I suspect his preoccupation with his wife and daughter’s troubles prevented him from thinking the problem all the way through.

If he hadn’t brought the knife, if he hadn’t videotaped himself violating the Order, if he hadn’t published his confession on YouTube . . . maybe things would have worked out differently and I’d have been eager to stand behind him.  I’ve hit his Donate button on the Ellegon website out of respect for his past contributions to the carry movement, but I don’t think the carry community benefits from making his case a hill to die on.  I won’t be publicly supporting him.

Joe Doakes

Como Park

So to sum up – judges can walk all over the intent of state law because “separation of powers” allows them to.

Even if it means walking over it to attack people – carry permit holders – who are, statistically, two orders of magnitude less likely to commit crimes than the general public.  And I suspect that includes county judges.

More on this later this week.

By now you have seen the video and national coverage of the Metrodome’s roof collapse. It didn’t take long for the media to speculate that an act of God is his vote for a new Vikings stadium.

The Vikings have been pushing for a new stadium for years without success. So far today, they have been silent on what this collapse means for their stadium wishes, perhaps deciding the best strategy is to let the event speak for itself.

The roof collapse says one thing and one thing only: a foot and a half of snow weighs a lot.

The only thing more ridiculous than a blizzard indicating the Vikings should get a new and presumably taxpayer-subsidized stadium without a roof, for ten games in Minnesota, is the fact that TCF stadium sits idle every Sunday already. Here’s something that really speaks for itself: there is talk of moving the upcoming Chicago game to TCF while the dome undergoes repairs.

TCF stadium is a wonderful facility and should have been designed and built in partnership with the Vikings. The fact that both shared the Metrodome without interference should have been a clue.

Maybe the Vikes and Gophers will get one now.

As I worked in my office yesterday, over my shoulder the television set to Bloomberg, I heard President Obama step to the press conference podium. Blah blah blah, me me me, etcetera, and then I heard a familiar voice from the eighties and it wasn’t Michael J. Fox or Duran Duran.

With Mr. Obama standing largely silently at his side, Mr. Clinton took over the lectern to lend his backing to the tax compromise the White House reached this week with Republicans.

As the television buzzed in the background, I came to realize that Clinton had been talking for a while and yet went on…and on and on and on. I swung around to look at the screen, and President Obama…was gone! I wondered if Clinton has the nuke codes now too?

And then Mr. Clinton went on, for half an hour, answering questions and holding forth on topics from triangulation to Haiti to the mortgage crisis and the nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

…and cigars? No?

Hey Barry, at least your old teleprompter had an off switch.

Barack Obama is the man who swept America off her feet (and to complete the metaphor, slipped her a mickey and violated her as she lay unconscious). A scant two years later, his political capital is so deeply overdrawn that he needs a loan from Bill Clinton to sell his compromise to his own party.

But after Mr. Clinton began taking questions, the current president politely interjected that Michelle Obama was expecting him at one of the many holiday parties that presidents host during December.

“I’ve been keeping the first lady waiting,” Mr. Obama said.

Best not do that with Bill Clinton in the House. You might find him on your spouse.

UPDATE: The Northern Alliance will be a “best of” today.  John, Brian and Ed cancelled due to the weather.  And I’ll be taking a bike ride, then going to a pool party afterward.  Stay safe, everyone.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network brings you the best in Minnesota conservatism from 9AM-3PM.

• Volume I “The First Team” –  Brian and John or some combination thereof kick off from 11-1.  Maybe.
• Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed and I follow from 1-3PM Central.  If we both make it to the station.
• The King Banaian Show! – King is on hiatus, still.  Stay tuned!
• And for those of you who like your constitutionalism straight up with no chaser, don’t forget the Sons of Liberty, from 3-5!

(All times Central)

So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of sanity. You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• streaming at AM1280’s Website,
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• UStream video and chat (at HotAir.com or at UStream).
• Podcast at Townhall, usually by Monday
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488!
• And make sure you fan us on Facebook!

Join us!

The Bush tax rates were put in effect in 2001.

…and yet the government and most politicians are calling the current efforts to extend those rates and provisions tax cuts.

The “cuts” happened in 2001. Nine years went by. Anything other than extending these rates is a tax hike. Got it?

It would be different if it had been a few months or a couple years but I think it is fair and reasonable to say that rates in effect for nine years have become the de facto norm. The fact that they had an expiration date doesn’t change that for anyone that actually pays taxes – which is only about 53% of us these days, last I heard.

Senate leaders released an agreement crafted by the White House and Republicans to sustain Bush-era tax rates through 2012, set the estate tax at the lowest rate in 80 years, extend jobless aid and cut payroll taxes by 2 percentage points.

The legislation would add $857 billion to the federal debt over 10 years, government analysts said.

Another semantic error there folks. This legislation will not add anything to the federal debt. Federal spending above current revenue is what will add to the federal debt. Out-of-control spending. Wasteful spending. Spending tagged with the misnomer “investment” or “stimulus.”

No doubt, calculations of the billions that will be added to the federal debt are erroneously, arrogantly based on the premise that the revenue resulting from a future tax hike has already been spent.

Don’t even think about trying to tell us what this is going to “cost” the government. The extension will not “cost” the government anything. More and more Americans are waking up and and telling the federal government that it was not the government’s money in the first place.

A two-year extension of those rates would cost $407.6 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Listen, no one in the next five years, let alone the next two should be considering rasing taxes for anyone.

While short term fiscal and monetary policy that serves to increase liquidity is widely considered a good strategy, lowering taxes is the only proven strategy, in the long run, to stimulate growth. Continuing to flood our system with worthless dollars will not incent employers to hire any more than the last trillion – only lowering expenses and stabilizing the outlook on taxes for the long run will give employers the confidence to hire again. The continued efforts on the part of the fed to further reduce the value of the dollar via “quantitative easing” is politically motivated and will have no effect on unemployment.

You can be sure of one thing. The only reason Barack Obama and his rejected liberal posse are going along with anything resembling what they  deem a “tax cut” for taxpayers earning more than $250K is that they have no politically palatable options to do otherwise.

Elections do matter.

Didja ever have the nightmare after high school or college – dreaming that you’d gotten a call a week before graduation, saying that you were going to have your diploma held up beccause you hadn’t taken Woodshop in seventh grade, or had squeaked through four years without taking Art Appreciation (yep, I had ’em both)?

I’ve got my own flavor of that nightmare, and it pops up every couple years, including a few nights ago.

I’m walking into a radio station in some out-of-the-way place.  A faceless program director directs me into a control room, to sit at a control panel I’ve never seen before.  Without any direction, he says “go to it”, and shuts the door and goes out for a drink.

A song is playing – usually on some device I’ve never seen before.  I have to figure out how to get the next song cued up, get on the air, and hit my break. 

The last time I had the dream, it was a little marginal AM station above (I kid you not) Peter’s Grill in Minneapolis.  It was just a little placeholder to keep the frequency alive until a new buyer could happen (yes, the backstory was in the dream), so the owner – he looked like “Newman” the mailman from Seinfeld – had cobbled together a bunch of equipment from the 1920’s; a big old ship’s chronometer, an eighty-year old control board with Bakelite control knobs and ceramic VU meters.  The song (on a turntable) ran out, and I couldn’t find either how to put the other turntable into “cue” to cue up the next record, or how to turn the monitor up so I could hear what was on the air…

…so I spent the entire air shirt winging it until the boss came back and chewed me out before firing me.

The other night?  The opposite extreme.  I was at KDWB (in its old offices, in Thresher Square, down by the Metrodome) – but its studios were so high tech, I might as well have been on the bridge of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise.  The song was playing, and the only way to run the controls was via a table full of touch-screen interfaces whose function I kept messing up.

Not sure what it means.  Other than “liberalism sucks”.

The dust is finally settling.  The campaign is over.  We have a “governor”-elect.

So what went wrong with the Emmer campaign?

We’ll come back to that.  First, let’s talk about what went right.  Emmer ran a campaign he can be proud of, to the extent that he, personally, never stooped to the Dayton campaign’s level of untruth and sleaze.   He took the high road, and stayed there, without excepttion – even chiding Ed and I when we interviewed him at the State Fair for calling Dayton “the opposition”. 

And the statewide GOP landslide in legislative elections showed that he was the right candidate for the times; the new conservative majority will, near as I can tell, be pushing an agenda not much unlike Emmer’s.  I’m by no means ready to write off widespread fraud, personally – but that’s a battle for investigators and lawyers to gnosh out or, ideally, for the Legislature to interdict with sweeping electoral reform.

So what happened?

Drip Drip Drip: “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” was on the ground the afternoon Emmer won the nomination, first with a website and then a TV ad campaign that I spent the better part of six months debunking, one point after the next.  It was the most toxic, sleazy third “third party” campaign in Minnesota history (paid for by the Dayton family and ex-family, it wasn’t “third party” at all) – and it hit paydirt with an ad campaign featuring a teary-eyed mother recounting her son’s death in an accident with a drunk driver.  The woman then mentioned Emmer’s two 30-year-old alcohol-related driving convictions, and mouthed outrage that Emmer proposed legislation to “reduce punishments for drunk drivers”.

Mark Twain once said that a lie will go around the world while the truth is waiting in line for its morning latté.  The corollary to that is that it takes seven seconds to tell an effective lie, and a couple of minutes to refute the lie – but the average political consumer’s attention span is about seven seconds.   ABM lied – I busted them over and over , as did Channel 5 – but they were never held accountable for it. 

Anecdotally?  I heard from GOP activists all over the state that they heard from people whose only real impression of Emmer was that he was “a drunk driver”, throughout the summer.

 Erin Haust at the Minnesota Examiner addressed the ad in her own post-mortem of the campaign in the MN Examiner:

The ad, and subsequent silence from the Emmer campaign to refute the claims, clearly negatively effected the election results. Keeping in mind local races resulted in the Minnesota House and Senate changing to Republican control for the first time in decades, the blame for losing at the top of the ticket must be placed squarely on the state party and the Emmer campaign for reasons other than just one ad.

True.  But the response to the ad was a symptom of the next reason.

Can You Spare Me A Dime:  One of the reasons Emmer didn’t respond to the ad, other than taking the high road, was that the campaign spent virtually nothing on advertising until after the primaries, and really nothing much until Labor Day.  During the primaries, oddly enough, all three DFL candidates spent most of their ad money attacking Emmer – indeed, it’s kind of curious how in sync all three of them were before Dayton’s primary win.  Very, very curious.

But I digress. Emmer didn’t respond.  It was a matter of fiscal prudence; it also allowed ABM to frame the entire discussion.  By the time Greater, Non-Republican  Minnesota heard anything about Emmer, he was “the angry guy”, “the drunk driver” or, if the good guys were lucky, “Tom Who?” to a big chunk of Minnesota.

It made fiscal sense, but it meant the Emmer campaign was framed from the very beginning. 

Emmer gambled, to a great extent, by not spending the rest of the campaign un-framing himself, but rather pushing his own, positive message and agenda.   Had the election been held a month later, I bet it’d have worked. 

But on November 2, there were 8,000 more Minnesotans (or maybe 2,000, with 6,000 stuffed ballots; we just don’t know) who were still drooling “G’huck, isn’t he the angry drunk guy” before walloping their kids while standing in line at the liquor store.

So close.  So very, very close.

Antisocial:  I’ve copped to it many times; I’m not primarily a social conservative.  Oh, I’m anti-infanticide, and think that while there’s a case to be made for civil unions as a legal contract I believe marriage is religious and ergo none of the state’s business.   I’ve said it not a few times; Emmer got my attention at the 2009 State Fair, when he said the election was about jobs and the economy, not gay marriage.   And Emmer strenuously avoided social-conservative talk throughout the campaign – to the point where during the final debate at the Fitzgerald Theatre, when Gary Eichten pressed him to discuss whether he’d use the bully pulpit to curtail the “right” to infanticide.

In short, Emmer left social conservative issues on the table.  Perhaps he’d assume that socialcons would read the fact that’s a Catholic guy with seven kids and draw all the conclusions they’d need to come to the polls and vote for him.   When was the last time a pol overestimated the intelligence of the voting public?

There’s evidence that it was a mistake.  A Laurence survey showed that gay marriage – or, rather, the idea that Dayton and Horner would use the courts or a DFL legislature to jam down gay marriage, like in Iowa – was a huge swing issue for voters.   A bit of stupid anti-Catholic bigotry from the State DFL may have swung the SD40 race for Dan Hall.  And I wouldn’t doubt that there are 10 Swarthy-Americans in Saint Cloud that were offended by this toxic DFL gaffe, just enough to put King Banaian into office.

And don’t forget Chip Cravaack, who ran a good jobs ‘n economics campaign, but did not allow the voters to forget that “pro-life” Jim Oberstar had betrayed his pro-life constituents by caving in to The One on providing infanticide via Obamacare.

Didn’t seem to harm him much.

From Out Of The Bag: The above might have been unforced “errors” – or maybe not errors at all.  It’s hard to say, but it’s easy to be a Monday-Morning Quarterback.   The fact is, other than the spending deficit and the early flub in handling the “Waiter Tips” teapot-tempest, Emmer ran a decent campaign.  Indeed, watching the candidate debates – all 3,174 of them – it was hard to miss the fact that Dayton was a bumbling chanting-point-bot, and Horner was a slick, highly-polished talking-point-bot.  Emmer cleaned the floor with both of them in every debate I saw (although I only saw like 400 of them).

But the media was in the bag for Dayton.  Oh, the Strib endorsed Horner, but out in the streets, the media’s real agenda – anyone but Emmer, and please, please, we want a DFL governor after all these years, was loud and clear.

Haust catches part of it:

Dayton’s history of ties to socialist, progressive groups is far from secret. Dayton spokeswoman and Executive Director of Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Denise Cardinal, was a featured speaker alongside self-avowed communist and community organizer Van Jones at the America’s Future Now! conference last summer. They and other speakers demanded redistribution of wealth in the United States and discussed radical, revolutionary tactics to accomplish that end. Neither the state party nor the Emmer campaign made the connection between radicals like Cardinal and Van Jones and the Dayton campaign…Dayton’s campaign received millions of dollars from groups and individuals linked to socialists, progressives and communists. George Soros funded organizations like Democracy Alliance contributed heavily to his campaign. Soros himself is scheduled to co-host a fundraiser for Dayton in the coming week.

The Republican Party of Minnesota and the Emmer campaign failed to take advantage of the national media attention Dayton’s friends and allies were receiving during the campaign and throughout the recount.

True, perhaps – but it’s for sure that the state’s media didn’t go near any of it, either.  Indeed, the media failed to report – or report meaningfully at any time between the endorsing process and the election – about Dayton’s…:

• mental health state. 
• alcoholism
• relapses – when, how recently, how severe, and why?
• quitting his job as economic development commissioner under Rudy Perpich
• closure of his DC Senate offices in 2005 
• record as a New York “Teacher” – it was up to Sheila Kihne to find out that “the toughest job of his life” lasted sixteen months of working about 1/3 of the time until his draft status let up.
• Educational record – the University of Massachussetts at Amherst won’t say if he got his teaching certificate (or, indeed, whether he completed any course work at all) – which’d be an odd bit of history for someone who opposes alternative teacher licensing.

Oh, the bloggers investigated it all.  And the mainstream political media – Rachel Stassen-Berger, Tom Scheck, Tim Pugmire, Bill Salisbury, Pat Doyle, Pat Kessler – studiously avoided touching any of the topics.  (or, to be fair to Rachel Stassen-Berger, they avoided addressing them after January of 2010, long before anyone outside the wonk class was paying ahny attention to the election).

And after remembering the feeding frenzy the media went into over, say, Morgan Grams (the son of Rod Grams, Senator until 2000, whose estranged son got into legal trouble that drew slavering coverage from the Twin Cities media, even though Grams had had almost nothign to do with raising him after his divorce from Morgan’s mother…

…details of which we got the kind of detail that made everyone an expert in Rod Grams’ personal life.

So why didn’t Mark Dayton, the man who would be governor, the guy who has to try to un-flock a “6.2 billion dollar deficit”, warrant the same level of scrutiny?

Why do you think?

There are some lessons to learn here – and, hopefully, institutionalize.  Because I have a hunch we’ll be running for an open seat again in four years.

This isn’t even news any more…Barack Obama releases a statement lauding the award in absentia of the Nobel Peas Prize to Liu Xiaobo which of course is all about Barack Obama, Narcissist in Chief.

One year ago, I was humbled to receive the Nobel Peace Prize — an award that speaks to our highest aspirations, and that has been claimed by giants of history and courageous advocates who have sacrificed for freedom and justice.

What a day that was for all Americans!!! (!!!)

Tell me, do you remember where you were when you heard the news that President Obama won the Nobel Peas Prize?

Mr. Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was.

Infinitely.

Joel Rosenberg is currently sitting in jail for violating a court order signed by Hennepin County Chief Judge Jim Swenson that declared that guns were not allowed in “courtrooms” in Henco…

…notwithstanding that he was not arrested in a “courthouse” – he was arrested at the office of the Chief of Police, which wasn’t even listed on Judge Swenson’s court order.  No matter – Judge Swenson had declared some county buildings to be “courthouses”.  And Henco judge Janet Poston is apparently closing ranks with a cop who apparently embarassed himself by arresting Rosenberg for behaving entirely legally – all apparently entirely by judicial fiat.

So I got to wondering; how else can a county judge pre-empt state law with a stroke of the pen?

And after exhaustive research, here they are:  The Top Ten Laws-By-Proclamation From Henco Judge Swenson.

10. All Hennepin County residents not wearing aluminum foil pants shall be subject to tasing and confiscation of property, at the sole discretion of Judge Poston.

9. Judges shall not be referred to as “your honor”, but as “your serene majesty”.

8. All betting spreads are doubled for judges, police, fire, and county administrative employees, and other county workers as defined by a Hennepin County judge.

7. No tabs are to be picked up by Hennepin County judges.

6. The United States Constitution and Minnesota state law are both considered to be  firearms, for purposes of “Courthouse” carry restrictions.

5. So is “satirizing Judge Swenson’s alleged penchant for authoritarian overreach”.

4. Manny’s Steak House is now legally considered to be “Judge Swenson’s chambers”.

3. Britney Spears is totally hotter than Christina Aguilera.

2. All of Hennepin County is actually an elementary school; nobody can possess a firearm within 1,000 yards of Hennepin County.

1. The law is pretty much whatever Judge Swenson says it is; if you don’t believe it, bend over and INSERT VIOLENT VERB and in the INSERT AWKWARD BIT OF ANATOMY.

Whew.  Seems pretty draconian to me.  But we’d best not complain; they’re all legal and stuff.

Wanna good laugh for the  morning?

Here’s a scan from Henco’s complaint against Joel Rosenberg:

Now, as I’ve ascertained, I’m no lawyer.

But Mark Bennett is.  And he’s got the ultimate write-up, so far, of the Rosenberg case.  It’s over at his blog.

The warrant is for the felony of carrying a firearm in the courthouse. Because carrying a firearm in the courthouse complex is a felony—except for “persons who carry pistols according to the terms of a permit issued under section 624.714 and who so notify the sheriff or the commissioner of public safety, as appropriate“—which, oddly enough, is a category into which Joel neatly fits. And except that the city hall is not really a part of the courthouse complex, but a judge says it is.

The warrant is also for contempt of court because, you see, there was a judge’s order declaring the police station a courthouse (how many legs does a dog have, if a judge says that a tail is a leg?) and barring citizens from carrying firearms there—except that, among other problems, “no sheriff, police chief, governmental unit, government official, government employee, or other person or body acting under color of law or governmental authority may … limit the exercise of a permit to carry.”

Bennett, a defense attorney in Texas, points out the rather odd circumstances of  a judge INSERT A VERB a court order that didn’t even have a charge filled in:

Yes, it is in fact alleged that he DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR in contempt of the Hennepin County Juvenile Court. Now, I ask you: can we really have people like Joel Rosenberg going around DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR? I say not, and I say we should DESCRIBE KANGAROO PROCEDURE and then DESCRIBE BIZARRE AND PAINFUL PUNISHMENT them.

I don’t ordinarily pick on other people’s judges—Texas being a target-rich environment—but what kind of Ruben-Guerrero judge is Janet Poston, to sign an arrest warrant based on the allegation that someone has DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR? She didn’t even bother to read the papers.

Conclusion?

So Rosenberg will sit in jail dealing with his health problems, and Rosenberg will fight the case, and Rosenberg will win the case. And, before all is said and done, Sergeant Palmer’s little self-esteem-fluffing exercise will cost the city a pretty penny.

Read the whole thing.

And I hope that when Joel’s lawsuit is over he has the City of Minneapolis by the DESCRIBE A TENDER PIECE OF ANATOMY, and walks out with DESCRIBE ABSURD AMOUNT OF MONEY.

Today would have been the 96th birthday of one of World War II’s great unsung (at least in the US) heroes – Max Manus.  I’m not sure if McGyver had a real-life model, but if he did, it may have been Manus.

Born in Bergen in 1914, Manus had quite a life before the war, galavanting about the jungles of Latin America for some years (his father, a Norwegian businessman, had spent many years in Spanish-speaking countries on both sides of the Atlantic; he’s changed his name to “Manus” from “Magnusson” to fit in better; Max’s full name was the very un-Nordic “Maximo Guillermo Manus”), adventures that later became the subject of a book published in Norway and translated into English.

From there, at age 25, he transitioned to the motti of Finland, volunteering to fight against the Soviets during Finland’s Talvesota, the “Winter War“.  But on on April 9, hearing news of the German invasion of Norway,  gathering a company of 130 men around him to fight on in the interior until resistance ended.

Manus quickly connected with the resistance –  serving mainly as a weapons collector as well as printing illicit counterpropaganda newspapers – until his group was betrayed and Manus was arrested by the Gestapo.  He escaped with the aid of a sympathetic doctor, and escaped to Sweden.  There, he was approached by the British “Special Operations Executive” (SOE), and escaped across the USSR, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and thence across the ocean to the USA.  Hitchhiking to Canada to join Norway’s small army in exile, he returned to Scotland in 1941 for more training with the SOE.

There, recognized for his combat experience, coolness under fire and mechanical aptitude, he was recuited into the elite – the Lignekompaniet, the exile army’s Commando unit.  Trained in sabotage, close combat and parachuting, Manus and a small team of saboteurs were air-dropped into the woods near Oslo.

There, Manus spent the rest of the war making life hell for the occupiers.  His specialty was sinking ships – big merchant ships needed by the Germans for supplying their garrison and hauling much-needed goods back to Germany from Norway.  In 1945 alone, using home-made magnetic mines and a few homemade torpedos, he sank two large cargo ships, as well as many smaller bombings and the killings of not a few German officers and Gestapo agents.  There’s an excellent accounting of his wartime record here.

As the war ended and the royal family returned, Manus was rewarded by being put in charge of King Haakon’s security detail.  He spent the rest of his life – until 1996 – running a variety of businesses, indulging his wanderlust, and eventually living in Spain.  He apparnently suffered from nightmares and a bit of a drinking problem; his years in the (literal) cold took their toll.

But he was one of the great heroes of World War II.   Big enough to get his own movie:

Now that Tom Emmer has conceded in the governor’s race, it’s time to figure out who the other winners and losers were during this race.

Winners

Conservatism:  Lori Sturdevant may not have gotten the message yet, but the “Independent Republican”  of “progressive Republican” politics in Minnesota is dead, dead, dead.  And nobody’s going to visit the grave.  This election put a railroad spike through the forehead of the party of Durenberger, Carlson and the post-Watergate “DFLers-with-nicer-suits” version of the Minnesota GOP.  The biggest victory in this past election – next to two chambers in the Legislature – was the one for the soul of the MNGOP.

The House And Senate GOP Caucuses: They can run 100 campaigns with an amazing degree of success!  Who knew?!

SocialCons: I’ll confess; I became a Tom Emmer supporter the day he said he didn’t care about gay marriage in this election (though he opposed it personally and in the legislature).  Emmer steered well clear of social issues in the campaign – even refusing to discuss abortion in the final debate at the Fitzgerald Theatre, two days before the election.   The Tea Party was aggressively ecumenical on social issues. 

Would Emmer have gotten 8,000 more votes had he hit on gay marriage and abortion?  There’s some evidence that it might have helped, even in “purple” Minnesota. 

Losers

The “Star/Tribune” Poll and the Humphrey Institute Poll:  Is there a case to be made, anywhere at all, that either of these polls shouldn’t be immediately scrapped?  Someone show me.

The Media:  It was almost as if the media had a “hands off” order from some “mythical” central media control center; “don’t touch Dayton”.  There were so many questions that needed to be asked; none of them got asked, at least not during the calendar year 2010.   Granting the media any credibility at all at covering partisan elections should be considered grounds for stripping peoples’ rights for incompetence.

The DFL: The DFL’s endorsed candidate – Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, for those who’ve forgotten – continued the “Kiss Of Death” streak for the DFL endorsement, losing a squeaker to Dayton.  The DFL lost both chambers of the Legislature.  Their chanting-points bots noted that the DFL got plenty of votes – but those were concentrated in a small number of blowout urban races.  And they lost the great DFL fortress, the Eighth District, as well as watching the Third and Sixth districts turn ever redder. 

Brian Melendez better hope he’s got a union job…

The “Independence” Party: It’s official; the IP is nothing but a tactical prop for both of the major parties. 

Mark Ritchie: Without a DFL legislature to hide behind, the Secretary of State stands to have the lid ripped off his little DFL vote-manufacturing machine.

…Joel Rosenberg’s hearing is in Room 142 at the Courthouse.

He is apparently under arrest and charged with a felonly for obeying existing state law.

He could use the support.  Wish I could get there…

…so I have pretty much held my counsel on Monday’s SCOM decision on Tom Emmer’s request for reconciliation.

Joe Doakes – of Saint Paul’s Como Park neighborhood – is, in fact, a laywer.  And he’s got an opinion.  I’ll be adding emphasis:

[Monday], the Minnesota Supreme Court issued its opinion explaining why it denied Emmer’s request to have the number of ballots cast verified against the number of eligible voters before the vote totals were certified by the State.

Refresher: a prospective voters goes to the first table at the polling place to sign the roster; then he gets a receipt and takes it to the second table where the receipt is exchanged for a ballot; then he marks the ballot and deposits it in the ballot box. At the end of the night, all three are counted – number of eligible voters who signed the roster, number of receipts given, and number of ballots in the box.

The Court said: “ . . . the legislative intent appears to be to design a process that would guard against more ballots being counted than eligible voters voting.”

Yes, exactly right. Only eligible voters should be able to vote.

So far, so good.

The Court said: “Petitioner has not shown how counting voter’s receipts, which are given to voters only after they have signed the polling place roster and which constitute proof of the voter’s right to vote [citation omitted] is inconsistent with this legislative intent.”

Well, duh. That should be obvious. If the signature-receipt-ballot system worked perfectly every time, we wouldn’t need triple-entry bookkeeping to weed out cheaters. But if 100 people signed the book as eligible voters and 110 receipts and ballots appear in the boxes, there’s no way to know who put the extra receipts and ballots in the boxes. Presumably they were NOT deposited by eligible voters or the vote totals would match the signatures; therefore, the statute requires election officials to throw out excess ballots. It’s precisely because we don’t trust the system to work perfectly that we build in safeguards.

It’s here that the problems start:

The Court said: “In responses filed to the petition, certain local election officials appear to have conceded that they are not removing excess ballots . . . The validity of this practice was not raised in the petition and has not been fully presented to this court. Therefore, this issue is not before us, and we do not discuss it further.”

And sure enough, the system did NOT work perfectly. There were indeed more ballots cast than eligible voters, precisely the problem the legislature intended to address. Voting fraud does exist. If we’re to fulfill the legislature’s intent, we ought to order the counters to toss out those excess ballots before certifying the results.

Of course, the intent of the legislature gets filtered through whomever runs the legislature…

And finally, “Our review . . . establishes that the legislature intends the processes [for removing excess ballots] to be based on either the number of signatures on polling place rosters or on the number of voters receipts.”

Whaaat? How’d you reach that conclusion? We admit there’s a problem, it’s precisely the problem the legislature intended to address with its triple-entry bookkeeping system, but now you’re saying the legislature intended us to ignore it? Now it’s okay to skip the first step in the security check, the one step that proves the fraudulent origin of those excess votes?

If you’re only going to count receipts and ballots – no matter how they got into the box – then what’s the point of proving voter eligibility?

How can disarming the security system be consistent with the intent of maintaining a security system?

It makes no sense – as a stand-alone decision.

As a bit of legalistic buck-passing, though…:

This opinion makes no sense to me. The fact it’s unanimous means either the entire Court understood something about the law that I simply can’t grasp; or they wanted no part of another election lawsuit and kicked the case out on the flimsiest imaginable grounds, knowing the real solution is for the legislature to rework and clean up the election law through the political process. I’m betting on the latter.

Joe Doakes, Como Park

So there you go, Legislature.  Tear it up!