Legalectric

Remember Todd Guerrero, the attorney at Pig, Dog & Duck, (612) 371-3258, the guy with the “Big Stone II” applications? (That’s him hiding from the camera on the passenger side — from a biodiesel convention’s test drive of a Jeep Liberty!) (no, NOT the one at Reference AudioVisual)

Well today his mother’s in the news! I had the joy of meeting her at Women’s Political Alliance ages ago. She’s an eminently sensible woman who frequents the LTE pages. I’ll never understand genetics. Here’s her editorial:

Ironies at St. Thomas Law School

“Law school can be a torturous experience.”

This was the first sentence of the little article in the Oct. 5 Star Tribune announcing the recognition of St. Thomas Law School as the “Best Quality of Life” among students by the Princeton Review in their new book, “The Best 159 Law Schools.”

The irony of your writer to use the word “torturous” was not lost on some of us working to stop torture of detainees in prisons such as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and others around the world where prisoners are “rendered” as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year St. Thomas Law School hired Robert Delahunty as one of their esteemed professors. This is the man who, when working as a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice helped write the memos to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales justifying torture in “certain circumstances.”

The founding dean of the law school, Patrick Schiltz, made an even more ironical statement to your reporter by saying, “We work hard at stressing not just the law but also the way people treat each other. That was an important part of the philosophy in setting up the school.”

While I have no doubt that St. Thomas is a fine law school, as far as I know, torture is against the law — the Geneva Conventions and the Conventions Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Perhaps the hiring committee did not know this was U.S. law and, also, forgot about the law school’s philosophy in the hiring of Delahunty.

Pat Guerrero, St. Paul.

It’s strange in Red Wing… I live in the land of the nuclear “Emergency Planning Guide Calendar” where we’re advised, in the case of emergency:

They really give us a “notified” sign, but a couple years ago they quit giving us the calendars… damn, they’ve got to be worth something on ebay…

But that’s not it — what really got me going today was when I went to pay the water bill, and there on the wall is this big map, and they’re giving them away. 2005 Hunting Zone Map. Now I’ve often thought I ought to do some target practice on those possums on the bluff, it’s a drag to have them running around in the dining room, sitting on the hot water heater, or chowing down on the cat food, particularly those mangy ones. They are so foul. I like the badger, eagles overhead are too cool, voles are good entertainment for the cats, and the racoons are no problem because it’s the house next door that they like. But here in Red Wing, I swear this is real, we have deer hunting season in the city. Archery only (somehow that’s not a comforting thought).

RED WING’S 2005 HUNTING ZONE MAP

According to the map and rules, I can get a permit and do the archery training (no problem for a double Saggitarian), and then take the pups for a walk, bring my bow and arrow, and have at it as I go around the block! As long as I’m in the Archery zone, and on my property or city property or have permission from the owner, I’m cool, so literally, according to this map, I can go hunting walking around the block. Don’t laugh, I’ve almost bagged a few with my car coming up to my street! So I can put a lawn chair in my junk pickup and wait ’til the sun comes up and the deer stop for breakfast in my lot across the street.

This is too weird. Time for orange vests for the dogs? If I wear orange, I’ll be mistaken for a pumpkin and get smashed rather than shot…

Ray’s got another one of his inane blogs posted, Photo Identification for Voters, about voter registration. His vague complaints seem to be targeted at voter qualification on election day at the polls. He claims that “Many of these ?non-voters? fail to vote because they don?t want to wait in long lines.” He’d better check causes of long lines — maybe it’s 25B voting patterns and because voter turnout is unbelievably high! If you look at the Scott County precincts of 25B, you’ll find an average voter turnout of over 90%. Long lines are caused by high voter turnout and insufficient staffing and not enough voting booths.

Why would he take these positions on voter registration, when it appears that voters indeed turn out for 25B elections? Or is his problem that high turnout in Minnesota historically favors the DFL?

Has there been voter fraud in 25B? In Minnesota? Is it a big issue anywhere???? Something tells me he’s not thinking about the massive fraud in the last two Presidential elections…

From MAPE‘s Workday Minnesota:

Here is the complete list of ways to register on Election Day:

– MN Driver’s license, learner’s permit, identification card, or receipt for any of these, with your current address
– Tribal ID from a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in Minnesota, which has a photo, your name and current address
– For students, a Registration or Fee statement with the student’s name and address, along with a photo ID
– “Notice of Late Registration” postcard from the Secretary of State
– Original utility bill dated within 30 days of the election with voter’s name and current address, along with a photo ID (including Military ID, U.S. Passport, Student ID, MN ID, or Tribal ID)
– Someone who is registered in the precinct who has personal knowledge that you live in the district and will vouch for you
– Student ID with a photo for students who live on campus, if your college provided the county with a certified list of students
– If you live at a residential facility, an employee at the facility can vouch that you live in the district, if the facility provided the county with a list of employees 20 days before the election.

Cox makes the same bogus claim about voter registration that he makes about Environmental Assessment Worksheets (Ag or generally?), that it’s been “abused.” Really! Here’s the quote:

Voting is a privilege and a right, but there are people that abuse the system.

Abuse the system? HUH? How prevalent is voter fraud? How many instances of voter fraud have there been recently?

Who’s abusing the voter registration system?

Ray Cox could cite one of the biggest cases of voter fraud in U.S. history, right here in his own front yard, but he doesn’t mention it! Do you remember the “Jake’s” case?

Voting Fraud Aimed at Benefiting Strip Club
Thursday, October 17, 2002

COATES, Minn. ? Dakota County prosecutors charged 95 people Wednesday in an alleged scheme to rig elections in the small town of Coates for the benefit of a strip club that officials have long been trying to shut down.

County Attorney James Backstrom said 94 of the defendants filled out voter registration cards claiming they lived at the same address. The address turned out to be that of the club, named Jake’s.

Prosecutors charged Jake’s owner Richard J. Jacobson, 32, of Prescott, Wis., with conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit unlawful voting, another felony, for allegedly orchestrating the scheme. The other 94 all were charged with forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery. All the charges are felonies.

Backstrom said he believed some of the defendants were employees at Jake’s, but he thought most were customers who might have been duped into signing the registration cards.

Reached at the club, Jacobson declined to comment on the voter fraud allegations. But he said his battle has been going on for 11 years and described the situation as “a small town run amok, with a Nazi mayor and a bunch of sheep as councilmen.”

Jacobson’s attorney, Randall Tigue, said he had not reviewed the charges but had read a news release from Backstrom’s office describing them. Based on that, he said he doubted a crime had been committed.

This case of voter fraud wasn’t about unqualified individual voters lining up at the polls, it was an issue of a guy orchestrating an effort to force his will over a community’s ability to determine the character of the city, corporate v. local control. He was losing, the city was shutting him down, and here’s the extent he went to to prevail. The problem is one of economic coercion of employees and collusion with patrons. I’ve got a copy of the long list of those charged in this case, a few familiar names… Registration was done through the mail on registration forms, not through on-site election day registration.

Town Bares All

Voter Registration Fraud in Minnesota

Justice cracks down on voter fraud

Marijuana, $70,000 seized at strip club involved in voter fraud scandal

This is the only reference to a case of voter fraud that I’ve been able to find.

So where’s the problem, Ray? What are you really getting at?

Maybe the Secretary of State is going to get sued again… her ideas on voting rights are scary… draconian federal regs would keep Kiffmeyer out of the hot seat!

My little bro’ David moved to Lake Havasu City years ago.

I thought it was all about a move from car sales to bridge sales, but apparently not, he’s settled in at a job at a resort, Islander RV Resort and sets up cabanas, puts boats in the water, digs up and fixes water system pumps, installs mood lighting in the gazebo, chases coyotes with a golf cart, and gets paid for it — he was overdue for a change and deserves it!

David’s as apolitical as apolitcal can be, striving for balance in the family, I guess. But now and then I get a photo of a beautiful transmission line through the desert, or an article like this:

—– Original Message —–

From: Dave Overland

To: arizonadave@frontiernet.net

Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2005 8:26 AM

Mayor-elect urges condemnation of English Village, other sweeping changes

By Brian DiTullio

Thursday, September 15, 2005 10:30 PM MDT

In a letter and a meeting with the city manager on Wednesday, Mayor-elect Harvey Jackson proposed sweeping changes to city government, several of which might be illegal, according to City Attorney Matt Podracky.

Jackson also informed Today’s News-Herald through his secretary on Thursday that, until further notice, he no longer would be speaking to Today’s News-Herald. No reason was given for this decision.

A major platform of Harvey Jackson’s campaign was a more open city government.

The first page of the document asks for several changes, some of which City Manager Tim Ernster said violate city codes and the duties of the city manager position.

In the six-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by the News-Herald, Jackson proposes the elimination of two positions, city public information officer, a job now held by Charlie Cassens, and the proposed cable TV position. He also requests all promotional advertising for the city cease immediately.

Cassens declined to comment on the letter at this time.

Councilwoman Cindy Aldridge said she was very concerned over the letter and that she has been an advocate for open government.

“I’m deeply concerned on how we can communicate information without a (public information officer),” she said.

Jackson accuses department heads Kevin Murphy, Mark Clark, Stan Usinowicz and Ted Swendra of developing reputations of “being disingenuous, untruthful, rude, arrogant, contemptuous of ideas, questions or suggestions by community members and employees, have a reputation for terrorizing employees who feel supervisors or the City should be told about inefficiencies or misdeeds, and have fostered an atmosphere of secrecy and arrogance.”

Jackson also asked that those four individuals no longer be allowed to represent their departments at City Council meetings.

Usinowicz, Clark and Swendra all were in Phoenix for transportation-related meetings on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Murphy said he had seen the letter and felt it was best he not comment on the situation at this time.

Jackson also questions Ernster’s desire to execute any of the proposed changes around City Hall, proposed having a City Council member serve as city manager, and asked for a special meeting to discuss the termination of Ernster’s contract.

“The evaluation will include the handling of the four department heads or assistants, the willingness to cut operation and maintenance spending and to address sewer issues and open government policies,” said Jackson in his letter.

Jackson also states in the letter his desire to have City Council advise and give consent to the hiring and naming of department heads.

Ernster said he was shocked by many of the items Jackson had in his letter.

“It’s essentially illegal,” said Ernster, referring to the firing of department heads. “He’s asking me to do something illegal, or he’ll fire me. That’s a first for me.”

Ernster said that his job description states that he handle all personnel matters within City Hall without interference from City Council.

“That’s my responsibility, not City Council’s responsibility,” said Ernster.

Podracky said that some of the proposals were “clearly improper,” and that he would be preparing a more formal response to all the issues raised in the letter.

“I have serious concerns,” said Podracky. “Several items appear to be illegal under state law and city code.”

Podracky also said part of the education process for the new City Council members would involve explanation of what is legal, what can get them removed from office, arrested and jailed and what might potentially involve Lake Havasu City in several lawsuits.

Jackson goes on to propose condemning the English Village and developing plans for a convention center over two levels of underground parking next to a performing arts center at that site.

Jackson also proposes a complete re-evaluation of the sewer expansion project and a new look at the city budget.

Ernster said he had no problem with the last two requests, adding that a meeting with City Council to do an in-depth explanation of the city’s finances was something that needed to be done.

“It’ll help them get up to speed on the issues,” he said.

In a related note, Councilman Bob Crabtree, in an e-mail to Ernster, insisted the new City Council members be installed immediately or he would recommend terminating Ernster’s contract.

Aldridge provided a copy of Arizona Revised Statute stating the election canvass cannot be held any earlier than “six days nor more than 15 days following the election.”

Crabtree could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Councilman-elect Bruce Hinman said he had not seen the letter yet and declined to comment on it.

“It is something that we’ve been discussing together prior to the election discussing what would be good for the city,” said Councilwoman-elect Margaret Nyberg. “There are some things I have questions about.”

Nyberg said she would be having her own meeting with Ernster about the “nuts and bolts” of city operations.

“There’s a lot of things that need to be done,” said Nyberg.

Councilman Vall Striyle said he had not seen the letter yet, but pointed out that everything must be heard in public before it can be voted on.

“There’s seven people on City Council last time I heard,” said Striyle. “It has to come before us.”

Today’s News-Herald was unable to contact Councilman-elect Allan Sturtevant on Thursday afternoon.

To review the complete report, go to CLICK HERE

You may contact the reporter at ditullio@havasunews.com.

Click that link and read the emails there — BIZARRE! And this new mayor is a lawyer!

And if ya think those are good examples of civic leadership, my bro’s got this bridge…

From webs.wichita.edu/mschneegurt/biol103

In the “it’s about time” category…

Mad cow: A good step by USDA

Late last month, however, the USDA issued an important and welcome update on its mad cow surveillance program. Since June 2004 the government has tested more than 460,000 “high risk” beef cows — animals culled by veterinarians or renderers because they showed nerve disorders or other potential symptoms of mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The idea is not to test for food safety, since the animals had been pulled from the food chain anyway, but to estimate how far BSE had spread in the American herd. So far, only one of the tested cows has turned up positive. Now the department will expand its tests to 20,000 animals that show no symptoms but are old enough to have developed the disease. Europe includes such animals in its testing program and has found many cases of BSE, so this is a valuable addition to the nation’s surveillance protocol.

Should we worry about Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease? Considering this is not something typically suspected, that we don’t test the cows, how would we know CJD? Did the man in Northfield who died of CJD a while back have CJD Variant? In the UK, you’re more likely to die of CJD than of HIV from a blood transfusion — considering all the prevantative measures with blood transfusions, YOU WOULD THINK THAT WE’D TAKE SIMILAR LEVELS OF PRECAUTIONS WITH MEAT … but as my ex-husband would say, “Goes ta show ya don’t think!”

I’m a veggie primarly because in 6th grade we toured the Swift plant in South St. Paul.

From the Minnesota Historical Society

It was either tour that plant or the Metro sewage treatment plant, and I wanted to see the collection they had of items flushed. Oh well, just my luck, I instead had to see meat packing in action, and what really did it was a couple of big barrels of eyes that were going into hot dogs. After the tour, they handed us each a cold hotdog. Urp…

This image was accompanied by a meat version of the “Beans, beans, the magical fruit” ditty…

Add to it the cumulative impacts of a couple years cooking at the Seward Cafe (some folks’ tour of da hood), plus I was a meat hauler in a past life, spending lots of time at IBP and John Morrell and Farmland (check this!), etc., waiting for animals to be killed, cut up, put in bins or boxes and stuck on my truck, where we spent the next 36-48 hours headed west to Farmer John’s, Cal-Hono, and cold storage and grocery warehouses all over California.

And then there’s the pissy deer in Wisconsin… Hmmmm… I’ve got a friend in the pissy deer area who’s displayed some obvious judgment problems… maybe that’s his problem!

How do these Chronically Wasted Deer get from South Dakota to Wisconsin? Think it doesn’t happen here? Here are some more info links.

Meat? When pigs sing and cows fly…

From: www.madcowsracing.org (Stephanie found this one a while back)