Legalectric

This Twins stadium deal and the trio of stadium deals really sticks in my craw. I didn’t like it for the Humpdome, and now… don’t we learn? Decades ago, a whole bunch of artsy folks I knew, (”cafe society”, eh Ross?) shared the top floor of a warehouse across the street until it went upscale, and it was heaven with a view, except for Twins days, anyway, it’s been so long that I can’t even remember the particulars of that Metrodome deal that pissed me off so, but I remain pissed!!! Righteously pissed!!!! What do facts have to do with anything anyway… I mean, we’re talking about corporate welfare here! And this’ll be on my list of election issues!

In the STrib article today, Twins stadium critics stage protest, reveals the truth, the public doesn’t want to pay for this:

On Sunday, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll showed that just 23 percent felt the Twins needed a new stadium the most over the Vikings and the University of Minnesota football team; two-thirds opposed public funding for a new stadium; and 78 percent felt that, should public money be spent on the stadium, a referendum should be required.

Yet it goes forward… WTF??? What about “two-thirds opposed public funding for a new stadium” don’ t they understand???

Twins stadium closer than ever

Dave Bicking, who ran for City Council last election, is fighting:

“We would at least like a chance to vote on this,” says Dave Bicking. He’s part of a citizen’s group fighting the sales tax that would pay for most of the new stadium. “Twenty-five years from now, I don’t think our highest priority will be paying our taxes for a new stadium.”

Bicking and those opposed to the tax want the issue put to voters while the Twins are happy a decade-long effort to get a new stadium could soon be over.

And in the STrib article today:

Auto mechanic Dave Bicking says opponents won’t forget at the ballot box in November and hopes to knock supporters out of office….

…But opponent Dave Bicking, who is organizing today’s protest at the governor’s residence, was more resigned.

“We’re exhausted,” he said. “Done deal? To be honest, it looks that way.”

I’m glad Bicking’s out there countering the lobbyists spin, reminding legislators that people do NOT want to pay for a stadium. It’s one more example of a private for-profit enterprise transferring the burden and risk to the public. Where that happens, we’d better be getting the profit, and when we don’t, legislators are NOT working in their constituents interest. Oh, I forgot, DUH, those who vote for the stadium regard the corporations as their primary constituents…

People??? Voters??? yeah… chopped liver… Time to VOTE NO AGAINST THEM ALL!

I’m on my second sick day here, with my little bro’s lilt in my brain, “I feel shitty, oh so shitty, I feel shitty and witty and gaaaaaaaay!” and hope I get better soon so I can change my tape loop. Anyway, the Times today has a report on the Massachusetts legislation on health care.

Massachusetts sets health care plan for nearly all

A few snippets:

The Massachusetts bill creates a sliding scale of affordability ranging from people who can afford insurance outright to those who cannot afford it at all. About 215,000 people will be covered by allowing individuals and businesses with 50 or fewer employees to buy insurance with pretax dollars, and by giving insurance companies incentives to offer stripped-down plans at lower cost. Lower-cost basic plans will be available to people ages 19 to 26.

Subsidies for other private plans will be available for people with incomes at or below 300 percent of the poverty level. Children in those families will be eligible for free coverage through Medicaid, an expansion of the current system.
…

Mr. Romney pushed the idea of the “individual mandate,” requiring people who can afford insurance to buy it. The bill makes it possible for employers to enable many of those people to use pretax dollars, saving them 25 percent or more. Individuals who fail to get health insurance by July 2007 will first lose their personal exemption on their state taxes. In subsequent years, they would have to pay a penalty that could be as high as half of what an affordable health care premium would cost.Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor’s communications director, said that for those people with incomes above 300 percent of poverty, “our assumption was that these would be mostly single mothers who just did not have the wherewithal to get insurance. It turned out it was mostly young males. In some cases they are making very attractive salaries. These are people who just don’t imagine themselves needing care, but of course when they break a leg when they’re out bungee jumping they go to the hospital and we end up paying for their care anyway.”

Now color me skeptical, because the state’s motivation was that the federal government had threatened to cut Medicaid funding unless more of its people had health insurance. So the focus here is not in providing health care, but in getting people to buy health insurance, which I object to! I struggle with our societal expectations about health care — working at Hennepin County Medical Center taught me more about our health care system than I want to know — the up side of it was that I observed medical training at all levels and I have a lot of confidence in the process, another up side is that if I were really sick or injured, that’s where I’d want to go. But our notion of private health care, the necessity of having “our” doctor, isn’t something I ascribe to because anyone can treat a sinus problem or pull a tooth, and too many plans do not cover the types of things where that is important, i.e., midwifery, mental-health — it’s been too long since Wellstone was trying to achieve mental-health coverage parity, and we’re no closer and so many physical chronic ailments are “all in your head.”

Anyway, what is heartening is that they provide coverage subsidies for those up to 300% of poverty. What’s that? Here are the 2006 Federal Poverty Guidelines.

It’s a start…

And meanwhile here in MN, there’s this, though I find the headline odd:

Insurance crisis imperils busy community clinic

And the tape loop changed and is stuck again, now it’s “M-A-double S-A-C-H-U-S-E-double T-S” …oh my…

HR 4437
Title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes.

Minnesotans who have signed on to this bill include “our own” 2CD John Kline, plus Jim Ramstad and Collin Peterson.

Tens of thousands march in Chicago to support immigrant rights

“Tens of thousands” ???? The headline’s misleading, it’s a few more than that according to that article and it’s even more in others:

And here CBS in Chicago says 300,000-500,000:
Protesters rally against illegal immigration bill

Here’s an easy link to check all the Chicago TV stations

Again, here’s the bill:
HR 4437
Title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes. .

Sponsor: Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [WI-5] (introduced 12/6/2005)

Here are the co-sponsors:
COSPONSORS(35), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)

Rep Alexander, Rodney [LA-5] - 12/8/2005
Rep Bachus, Spencer [AL-6] - 12/7/2005
Rep Baker, Richard H. [LA-6] - 12/13/2005
Rep Bono, Mary [CA-45] - 12/13/2005
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] - 12/13/2005
Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] - 12/7/2005
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4] - 12/7/2005
Rep Culberson, John Abney [TX-7] - 12/7/2005
Rep Dreier, David [CA-26] - 12/7/2005
Rep Feeney, Tom [FL-24] - 12/8/2005
Rep Forbes, J. Randy [VA-4] - 12/7/2005
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] - 12/6/2005
Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6] - 12/8/2005
Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49] - 12/6/2005
Rep Istook, Ernest J., Jr. [OK-5] - 12/7/2005
Rep King, Peter T. [NY-3] - 12/6/2005
Rep Kline, John [MN-2] - 12/13/2005
Rep Lewis, Jerry [CA-41] - 12/13/2005
Rep Lungren, Daniel E. [CA-3] - 12/6/2005
Rep McCaul, Michael T. [TX-10] - 12/7/2005
Rep McHugh, John M. [NY-23] - 12/13/2005
Rep Miller, Gary G. [CA-42] - 12/6/2005
Rep Murphy, Tim [PA-18] - 12/13/2005
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] - 12/8/2005
Rep Pickering, Charles W. (Chip) [MS-3] - 12/13/2005
Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2] - 12/13/2005
Rep Ramstad, Jim [MN-3] - 12/7/2005
Rep Royce, Edward R. [CA-40] - 12/13/2005
Rep Ryun, Jim [KS-2] - 12/13/2005
Rep Schmidt, Jean [OH-2] - 12/7/2005
Rep Shuster, Bill [PA-9] - 12/13/2005
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] - 12/6/2005
Rep Stearns, Cliff [FL-6] - 12/7/2005
Rep Thornberry, Mac [TX-13] - 12/7/2005
Rep Wilson, Joe [SC-2] - 12/13/2005

Vote McGovern — Andy Warhol/Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters 1962-1964 at the Walker right now

MoveOn.org has an ad campaign where Nixon morphs to Bush (here’s the ad). Been there, done that, but here we go again.

From their ad, a direct quote, they ask we consider these key facts (citations embedded):

* First, the president said publicly there was no such program. He said,
“Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing
down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we
do so.” [1] He lied.

* For weeks, Gonzales, President Bush and others have insisted that the
wiretapping program was only applied to suspected terrorists [2]. But
just last Sunday, the Washington Post exposed that the program was
broad and not limited to suspected terrorists. In a nutshell, it’s a
fishing expedition and participants are increasingly “uncomfortable
with the mountain of data they have now begun to accumulate.” [3]

* And yesterday, the attorney general said that he could not assure the
Senate that the program did not eavesdrop on innocent Americans [4].

Yup, deja vu all over again…

To support airing of the ad, go here!

Some things never change… lesson of the day fresh from the lecture halls:

There once was a time back in the 1300’s when they covered the walls of the hall where decisionmakers met with frescos to remind them of their purpose. Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted two huge frescoes for the Palazzo Publico where the nove, a/k/a nine decision makers, met. These frescos detailed the Effects of Good Government, where the allegorical figure of “Security” floats over the landscape, women dance calmly in the streets, school is orderly, and business flourishes. The figure of Securitas carries a banner that reads “Without fear every man may travel freely and each may till and sow, so long as this commune shall maintain this lady, Justice, sovereign, for she has stripped the wicked of all power.”

Then there are the Effects of Bad Government where the nasty figure of fear hangs overhead, women are attacked, there is no school, buildings are falling apart, and soldiers are sent into the fields rather than merchants and farmers. “Fear” carries a banner that reads “Because each seeks only his own good, in this city, Justice is subjected to Tyranny; Wherefore, along this road nobody passes without fearing for his life since there are robberies outside and inside the city gates.”

These were painted in 1338-1339. Some things never change…maybe if we had frescoes like these painted at the Capitol…..

In this last image, the one with the horns represents Tyrany, and Avarice, Pride, and Vainglory surround his head.