Will the real Pawlenty stand up?
January 6th, 2008
… and go away! Seems to me people are catching on to the difference between Gov. “Green Chameleon” Pawlenty’s talk and the walk.
The talk:
And the walk:
and see TPT’s coverage here:
and here’s MPR:
January 5, 2008
Ely, Minn. — Gov. Tim Pawlenty was greeted by protesters at an Ely, Minn., summit on global climate change. Demonstrators worry that copper and precious metals mining planned on the Iron Range will create dangerous waste that could pollute area water supplies for decades or longer.
Gov. Pawlenty said there needs to be a balance, and that the mining could be done safely.
“One of the themes of the discussion today was making sure we balance the need to make sure that people have jobs and economic growth and economic activity, with being good stewards with the environment and the need reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and address climate change. I think both can be done,” says Gov. Pawlenty. The Ely summit is the first of several meetings that Gov. Pawlenty and Will Steger are holding around the state.
Minn. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar joined the Ely summit, along with a dozen Iron Range business and academic leaders.
Pawlenty says, “the mining could be done safely.” “Could be…” but WILL it be safe? Give me a break… And what exactly is he doing to assure that it be safe? “Mining” with toxic chemicals… grrrrrrr… I represented two of the “Crandon 29,” 29 people who were arrested for protesting the proposed sulfide mining in Wisconsin. That project didn’t go forward. Now we’re watching that type of insane idea go forward here in Minnesota. Where are the state agencies charged with protecting our environment and the public interest? Oh, but they’re the executive branch, the arm of the Governor. Too bad those “agency arms” aren’t like the tail of a chameleon, grab it and it comes off (as the chameleon runs away). Oh well, get ready MPCA and Dept. of Commerce, we’re pulling on your tail and won’t let go!
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There is good news here… that good news is that Gov. “Green Chameleon” Pawlenty is having to confront the impact of his policies. He is lots of talk, saying the things that the public wants to hear, but if you look at what he’s done in Minnesota, it’s pretty awful.
As with former Rep. Ray Cox, who bent over trying to posture himself in the same mold, Pawlenty is seeing his policy come back at him. GOOD, hold him accountable! This Green Chameleon Governor is the guy who has his agency toadies interfere in energy dockets when he sees obviously bad projects going south, projects like Mesaba’s IGCC coal gasification plant, one that shouldn’t ever have seen the light of day, much less get millions in federal and state money, OUR money:
Those are pretty outrageous examples of what this Governor is all about, the kinds of interference that he’s willing to run for a project that costs too much, does not significantly reduce emissions, and is not in the public interest — yes, Excelsior’s Mesaba Project — where the ALJs (TWO of them) reviewed the record, tens of thousands of pages, and came up with that determination, will somebody please explain why Pawlenty would support Excelsior Energy and the Mesaba Project? Green? Not quite…. And supporting it against evidence??? Who’s he bending over for? Whatever is he thinking? The voters recently let Ray Cox know what they thought of that chameleon stance, and as he says, “… just like the 2006 election I was pounded by Northfield voters.” Naaaaah, this was a LOT worse than the 2006 election…
Gov. Green Chameleon, do you understand that the voters are feeling the impacts of your regressive policies and are voting accordingly?
DFL takes SD 25!
January 4th, 2008
Kevin Dahle takes it by 13%. YES! Not that I’m a big fan of Dahle’s, don’t know him well at all, but it seals the DFL majority in the Senate. Pawlenty was stumping for Cox, saying that, threatening?, that if Ray didn’t win, the DFL Senate could override any veto. AWWWWWWWW… But this isn’t so surprising, given the index of the district. What’s most surprising is his high level of support in the southwestern and western part of the district, 25A, where a Republican could be expected to do better. But despite party endorsement, Ray had two challengers in the Primary:
So it’s clear that there’s resistance, and that resistance was from the 25A part of the district. In LeSueur County, it was less than two percentage points, and Vance Norgaard’s share was 3.5%, but it’s hard to tell where Vance’s voters were, and typically independents draw equally from both, ask Ralph Nader!
On the other hand, Ray won in Sibley County by a wide margin, nearly 10 percent:
Then there’s the Scott County share of SD25, where Ray won by nearly 14 percent:
And coming in last, the latest to report, was Rice County, Northfield holding up the show while we sit on the edge of our chairs:
Dahle wins Rice County by 27 percent! Northfield, of course, thinks it’s so special, but look at the townships, where I think candidates rise or fall. Look at Bridgewater, a township lurching towards urbanization in disturbing ways:
Dahle takes Bridgewater by over 6%, which has traditionally been a Ray precinct in House elections. Look at Shieldsville, which Dahle took by 12 percent:
Wheeling Township, home of Doug Jones,
oh, not THAT Doug Jones, this Doug Jones is one of Ray’s Republican handlers, the guy who has the award-winning McMansion sprawling across a hilly pasture near Nerstrand… anyway, typically, that’s a township leaning Republican, but here’s the Wheeling vote, exactly equally divided:
And look at Ward 2, Precinct 1 of Northfield, looking like a Northfield precinct should, with Dahle getting 73 percent of the vote:
Ward 2, Precinct 2 is also a strong win for Dahle:
Ray didn’t take a single precinct in Northfield, where they know him best and where his prior representation of House District 25B apparently didn’t go over too well! Here’s the Secretary of State site so you can look at the County and the Precinct by Precinct numbers:
Now, what will the DFL do with this? Does the DFL have the gonads to use their majority, to stand up and turn our wrongheaded policy, particularly energy policy, around? The whole world is watching… well, at least Minnesota!
GO VOTE!
January 3rd, 2008
Senate District 25 election is today!
No excuses, get out and vote!
State of Minnesota v. Larry Edwin Craig
October 10th, 2007
I just stumbled on to this as I was looking on the Courts site for the court rules:
State of Minnesota v. Larry Edwin Craig
This has the primary documents in the state’s file. For inquiring minds…
Much ado about heroin
July 20th, 2007
It’s hard to ignore all the flap in and about Northfield, but it seems to me that most are getting off track, and too many are worried about the communities “reputation” and arguing about whether reports were exaggerated, rather than getting to the work of addressing the community’s problems, problems all communities face. Northfield is not “special” and is a little too “special.”
Moral to the story? It does happen here, it does happen there, it happens everywhere, it happens. Face it, deal with it, move forward…
The laundry list of links to press coverage will appear here later.