Legalectric

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Defamation laws and truth be damned — KSTP helps police union slam Minneapolis Mayor and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change. Sounds like actual malice to me!

This is all about police harassment of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, police harassment of Navelle Gordon, and slapping up the Mayor of Minneapolis to divert attention. Very naughty…

Seems #pointergate is missing a big part of the story. It’s not just that the KSTP “story” just absurd, but it’s it’s worse… the public flap is focused on gang signals and the Mayor, but is avoiding the point that KSTP is complicit in their promotion of the police union party line. Does KSTP not know or care that the guy in question, Navell Gordon, is one of the Neighborhoods Organizing for Change workers that police harassed arrested for canvassing? Does KSTP know or care that police have been harassing Neighborhoods Organizing for Change? Why isn’t that the news? The STrib did link the KSTP story to Gordon’s arrest this morning in a buried paragraph, saying, “Activists also stood up for Gordon in September after cops allegedly tackled and handcuffed him while he was collecting signatures outside Cub Foods.” But folks, shouldn’t that arrest be the headline when discussing the backstory of why this is front page news?

The Mayor and Chief of Police were out with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change canvassers doing GOTV. And the police union and KSTP put this twist on it? The police chief has been under fire for police behavior, video cameras are now part of the uniform, and it’s good she’s getting into the neighborhood, out in public on the streets. There’s a systemic problem here with police harassment of Neighbors Organizing for Change.

In the #pointergate blather, I’ve yet to see FOCUS on the retaliation by police for the challenges to their roughing up and improper arrest of NOC organizer Navell Gordon when he was canvassing outside of CUB foods on September 14. Police also improperly arrested NOC’s Wintana Melekin when she was checking up on her organizer’s arrest. Pre-election, police were called on NOC by School Board candidate Don Samuels for handing out hotdogs!!! — and those cases winding through the court system are going to expose this harassment. NOC’s

Wintana Melekin of NOC is the one here leading the Pledge of Allegiance when Michelle Obama was in town:

Here’s the video of Melekin’s arrest when she was interviewing witnesses to her organizer’s arrest, an eyewitness who was told by police to leave or they’d shoot her. They told her she was trespassing and arrested her, the witnesss challenged police:

MPR’s Explaining #pointergate: The missing context misses the main point!  SO bizarre, when MPR reports about the “missing context” they don’t even mention the bogus pre-election arrest of Gordon or the harassment of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change:

Minneapolis officer accused of strong-arm tactics with canvasser

One of those great memories things about cleaning out the office.  Photos from my law school graduation reception and dinner.  Food by Jay Burlison, music by Dave Ray and Tony Glover.  Great time at the Gunderson House in Kenyon!

Released yesterday by National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy (NISLAPP) (never heard of it before, need to do some checking):

Green Electricity or Green Money?

Why is this a question?  We know it’s a problem. But this report focuses on things like “Smart Meters” and doesn’t dig into the the even worse toadying for coal gasification and other harebrained promotional schemes of these orgs.

Here in Minnesota, the money goes to Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Fresh Energy f/k/a ME3, Izaak Walton League and its former program now independent 501(c)(3) Wind on the Wires (conveniently separate since just after election, when Bill Grant was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Commerce in charge of all things energy)(oh, and Nancy Lange appointed to Public Utilities Commission).  And then there’s RE-AMP.  There’s so much money flying around for promotion of transmission and coal gasification.

Bill Clinton toadying for transmission

WOW’s devil we know… ummm… WOW!!!

Walton’s Bill Grant – Deputy Commissioner of Energy?

Wind up to ELPC Transmission Strategy Meeting

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH… back to work…

Yes, MISO is at it again, no, not the good MISO as above, but the other MISO, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.  Once again, they’re asking FERC for termination of a Generation Interconnection Agreement (GIA) for the failed and revoked Goodhue Wind Project, the part with MISO queue number H062 (it’s been assigned Docket No. ER15-254-000).

2014-10-30 Docket No. ER15-___-000-1

This is the docket that never ends, but keeps inching toward the cliff.  For all intents and purposes it’s over, but here’s another housekeeping detail.  It’s permits are revoked, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has closed the docket… but wait… didn’t they already do this in August?

Yes, that’s a headset — don’t be using a cell phone without one, DOH!

It’s almost winter, plants are shriveling up, we’ve just celebrated Dia de los Meurtos, and now is the time!  Make or revise your Living Will, your Health Care Declaration.  Just do it!

It’s my belief that having gone through this with parents, and so many times with our dogs and cats, and with clients, it’s a lot more clear how I’d like to wrap up this life and what I want to avoid.  It’s easier to talk about it because we’ve had to make these decisions, look at quality of life, what a “good life” and a “good death” mean, what efforts and torture we’d want to go through, and I’m pretty clear: ALAN, CALL THE VET!!!

Recently an advocate activist cohort, Jan Greenfield, died of lymphoma.  Most people have also heard of Brittany Maynard, who at 29 was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and opted out of treatment and life a couple days ago.  Ted Kennedy, Lee Atwater, Janet Johnson… The list goes on, cancer is everywhere, particularly as we get older.  And dear Kady, well, I found another tumor on her yesterday…

There’s an editorial in the STrib that I recommend, “To treat or not to treat a brain tumor,”  about a couple’s journey through brain cancer, and it’s important particularly for this one section on how doctors view treatment and death:

“What’s unusual about [doctors],” Murray wrote, “is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.”

Physicians are much more likely than the general public to sign a living will, specifying what, if any, treatments they want in the event of serious illness, according to a 2003 study.

In a recent Stanford University School of Medicine study of 1,081 doctors, 88 percent said they would choose a do-not-resuscitate order for themselves. Further, this group agreed they did not want treatment if they had an “incurable and irreversible condition that will result in … death.”

Doctors are more familiar not just with death but with the foibles of trying to flout it.

“Of course, doctors don’t want to die,” wrote Murray. “But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits.”

Think about that… “They know enough about modern medicine to know its limits.”

Here’s some information on Living Wills, a/k/a Health Care Directives.  Don’t wait — take time before year end to wrestle with your mortality, your thoughts and choices, so that those around you know what you want and won’t have to guess.  Talk with your “decider” so that you are confident they understand your wishes, and more importantly, can and WILL advocate for you if necessary — not everyone can do it.  Make provisions for your animals, line up a guardian and let the neighbors know — they’re the ones on the scene — and set aside a little fund for their care.  And clean the house so they won’t have to!!! (no really, figure out what to do with all those files and books and tools!  That’s too much to dump on anyone.)

Questions and Answers about Health Care Directives – Minnesota Dept. of Health

Here are some examples, and your health care provider may have their own version.  Talk to your trusted medical minds and go over options.  Make some decisions so that others can know and act.  From the Twin Cities Medical Society: