Legalectric

The Kiffmeister just sent an email waving H.R. 1955 in front of my nose, daring me not to be outraged.  And of course, I AM OURAGED.  It’s bills like this that make us wonder when they’ll be banging on our door.  And it passed through the House virtually unopposed, not one Minnesota Representative had the gonads to vote against it.

Here’s HR 1955, The Violent Radicalism and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act:

HR 1955 - Oct 24, 2007 

Bills like this show the utter unawareness of causes of civil unrest, and any knowledge of what’s going on — like this might prevent anything, or that there’s anything to prevent!  It’s just one more way to tighten the screws and take away peoples’ rights, quash objections — it’s governmental terrorism directed at the people.

How misguided and paranoid can we get?

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Go Spotty GO!!!

Jonathan Larson (www.elegant-technology.com) sent this around, and it’s “spot on.” But it’s not only our federal elected officials, it’s our state Senators and Representatives too, those riding the wave of discontent and of revitalized progressive fervor — they get in and lose their backbone and gonads. What gives? State energy bills, the 2005 “Transmission Bill from Hell” in particular, and also the 2007 CO2 bill with loopholes, these are painful examples of wrongheaded policy, of giving away the farm for a teeny bit of gain. Whatever are they thinking?

From Spot the wonderdog:

A chat with Paul

Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walz are meeting over breakfast. They are talking and comparing notes about being freshmen in the Congress. Suddenly, a wiry, balding man with a slight limp pulls up a chair, sits down, and says “hello.”

Amy and Tim are speechless for a moment, and then Amy says, “Is that you Paul Wellstone? How can it be; you’re dead. Aren’t you?”

The man smiles and replies, “Maybe not so dead, after all. A person’s life can reverberate for a long time. It’s a measure of what you did in life, I guess.”

“It’s wonderful to see you, if that’s what we’re doing,” says Tim.

“Thank you; it’s nice to be seen, so to speak,” replies the man. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Of course,” says Amy, “we’re eager to hear what you have to say.”

“I am afraid,” says the man, well, we’ll just call him Paul, “that the two of you are going native.”

“What do you mean?” asks Tim.

“I am talking about your votes on the most recent Iraq war supplemental funding bill and your votes on the FISA expansion. By “native” I mean taking your cues from the Washington establishment, listening to inside-the-Beltway consultants too much, and trying to calculate your votes on some things are pretty fundamental. The D.C. people you’re listening to don’t seem all that progressive to me.”

“I am sure we’re both doing what we think it right,” say Amy.

“Ok, I’ll accept that at face value. But let me ask you this: why are the two of you sitting here?”

Tim answers, “Because we both won our elections.”

“Of course,” says Paul, “but why do you think that happened? You both beat people already in Congress.”

“We both ran great campaigns!” pipes in Amy.

“Yes, you did,” replies Paul, “but don’t you suppose that unhappiness with the Republicans, especially President Bush, had something to do with it?”

“Well, sure,” says Tim. “That doesn’t make our votes on the Iraq supplemental and FISA wrong.”

“It makes them mystifying to me,” Paul says evenly. “My time in the Senate began and ended with votes against the first and the second war in Iraq. I took plenty of heat for those votes, especially the first one. I announced my vote in a clumsy way—at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial—and I spent a lot of time redeeming myself from that with vets. And Norm Coleman was certainly trying to use the second one against me.

“Do you think I would have voted to continue to fund the war and condone wireless wiretaps of American citizens?”

“No,” say Amy, a little sullenly.

“Tim, you went to Camp Wellstone. You even had my friend Rick Kahn speak at your election party. And Amy, you were one of the people over at DFL headquarters after my plane went down asking to be the replacement candidate, right?”

Amy and Tim reply, “Yes.”

“And both of you have invoked my memory in your campaigns, haven’t you?”

Again the reply is “Yes.”

Tim says, “But, Paul, we have to try to keep everybody happy now. I have an election in just another year.”

“That’s true. But you’ll never please everyone, and you need to remember the tide of public opinion that brought you into office. The people you pleased with those votes won’t support you anyway.”

“Let’s suppose, just for the sake of argument, that we regret those votes. We can’t very well say that, can we?” asks Amy.

“I don’t know why not. I voted for the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a vote that I very much regretted. And I said so. Having regrets and being able to express them makes you authentic. And I have high hopes for both of you as authentic politicians.”

Just then, in different parts of the Washington area, Tim and Amy are jerked awake by their alarm clocks. They dress hurriedly and make their way to the restaurant where they had agreed to meet for breakfast the day before. When they meet, they say to each other simultaneously, “I had a dream last night.”

Fair Use stolen from STrib - this photo captures Sviggum’s essence!

As reported across Minnesota -

In STrib:

Sviggum named labor, industry Commissioner

In St.PPP:

Veteran legislator Sviggum named head of Labor and Industry

Associated Press on Minnesota Public Radio:

Sviggum to leave House, appointed Labor Commissioner

Winona Daily News:

Sviggum to leave House; date for special election uncertain 

The Gov’s Press Release:

Gov. Palwenty appoints Sviggum Labor and Industry Commissioner

… and from the MPR page (it may be radio, but they consistently manage to capture these guys as they are! Remember that Micheletti photo???)

Here’s the most recent Overland photo of him, from the Candidate Forum in Zumbrota just before the last election:

Last but not least, here’s Sviggum with his toady Ray Cox (stolen from Ray’s site). Steve’s the guy who as Speaker sent letters threatening felony charges for serving pie and popsicles at public events, grossly misinterpreting campaign law. Ray was a benefactor of the pie letter, but in the end, Sviggum and Cox had pie on their faces:

Looking for a demonstration of his judgment and character? Check this! Is this the kind of guy we want as Commissioner of Labor and Industry?

Legislative Blue Books?

10:53 UPDATE TO UPDATE TO UPDATE TO UPDATE:  Mark says that distribution of the Legislative Blue Book is proscribed by statute, and that legislators, the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate each got “a few hundred each.”

Clerk of the House: (651) 296-2314
Secretary of the Senate: (651) 296-0271

10:31 UPDATE TO UPDATE TO UPDATE: RITCHIE TO THE RESCUE, TWO COPIES ON THE WAY!!! RESPONSIVENESS IN GOVERNMENT PERSONIFIED!!!! THANK YOU!!!! I appreciate not having to try to wrangle ANYTHING out of Sen. Steve Murphy! Please order more!
10: 28 UPDATE TO UPDATE: He’s back, saying that if I’d asked for hard copies, they’re out. Um, yes, exactly, that’s what I’m complaining about…

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10:19 UPDATE: Now THAT’S responsiveness in government. Just 14 minutes, 14, after I fired off my missive to Mark, he responds personally that there are some, and “How many would you like?”

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Oh, I’m having one of those “Overland” moments. I am one of the thousands who got this Ritchie blurb in my inbox, also through the CD2 list. And I read it! Part of the blurb said that the Legislative Manual, affectionately known as the “Blue Book,” distinct from “Mao’s little Green book,” has just been released.

I want a hard copy of the Legislative Manual. It’s one of those books I want in arm’s reach from the phone and computer.

ONLINE VERSION OF LEGISLATIVE MANUAL

The phone number listed on the state’s legislative manual link provided is (651) 215-1440.
So I call, and was told that THEY ARE OUT AND THERE ARE NO MORE ON ORDER. HUH??? Supposedly, our legislators are given a certain number of copies to distribute. WHAT? Only the “Student” edition is available, and to get one, you have to send a self-addressed stamped envelope, and the guy couldn’t even tell me how much postage was necessary. WTF?

The “Blue Book” is one of those things that is essential to those new to politics and civic participation, and even seasoned and grizzled pitbulls need one on hand for reference. THEY ARE OUT AND THERE ARE NO MORE ON ORDER!!!

It’s as bad as when the Senate decided they were not going to have paper copies of bills anymore.

It’s probably one of those things that Ritchie inherited, but he’s now the Secretary of State, the guy on the hook to fix it. Call (651) 215-1440 to get a copy and write to Mark Ritchie at secretary.state@state.mn.us and let him know that we need the Blue Book!

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people? Uh-huh… right…

The best news I’ve had lately is that Komanoff is back at it and laying out the essential differences between “Cap & TRADE” (BAD) and “Cap& TAX” (GOOD). He gets it — do you?? Here’s the Carbon Tax site. More on this soon.
I was just indulging in a little Komanoff in the tub (Power Plant Cost Escalation) and found this snippet that rings so true about coal gasification and the spiraling out of sight costs — and in dealing with those promoting IGCC when they haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. The cost estimates for IGCC are way off for the same reasons that was an issue in nuclear — we’re stuck in the 70’s folks, overbuilding, trying to get approval for capacity we don’t need, and on the brink getting mired in Dogawful messes:

The failure to predict accurately nuclear capital costs reflects a fundamental limiation in the power industry’s technique of engineering estimation, which employs conceptual plant designs to calculate the labor, materials, equipment, and engineering effort to build a plant. The technique requires that the scope of work be known at the start of construction, yet nuclear plants, as the larges reactor builder has noted, are subject to “new requirements… imposed after the design and construction are well advanced, requiring substantial rework that increases both the schedule and cost.

Yeah, DUH, but the cost estimates are so far off, and it’s only going to get worse if they actually try to build one of these fool things somewhere. Substitute IGCC for nuclear and there you have it! How many “lessons learned” at Wabash River? How many full-time engineers does it take to cobble Wabash together?

I can’t get over the aspects shared by nuclear of the 70’s and coal of 2006. We really don’t need to do this all over again.