Legalectric

Today was the Lake City Waterski Days Parade, and as usual, the Green Party contingent was following the horses, “Cleaning Up Politics,” with lots of cheers from the crowd, and even the parade judges cheered — they were blessed with a particularly large pile right in the middle of the band judging area! Not to fear, pooper scoopers to the rescue. Some other Waterski Days parade they tried to march behind Sen. Steve Murphy, but the parade organizers wouldn’t allow it! Anyway, we were right behind Sandy Wollschlager. FULL DISCLOSURE: Sandy and I really disagree on a few things, but we also really agree on a couple very important things… Anyway, she had her horse, though she left her DFL ass behind, apparently he’s too slow for parades. Drat! But watching her work the crowd from her horse, who was spunky, attentive and just perfect, a kid magnet, it was inspiring. A little of that technique on Steve Sviggum ought to keep him in line. No spurs though… for Sviggum, that’d be a necessity!

Dan Ryan had his pick up truck and a supporters in T-shirts, yawn, but Wollschlager had her truckette with the paint job, and a trailer with a beach theme, and lots of wildly clothed folks and beach gear. Given her horse and our clean up duties, we were a good combo. There was a good turnout from both Lake City and Red Wing — my neighbor just down the block, the guy with that big adorable yellow lab, was there, Susan from Nuclear Waste Daze, and all the usual suspects, a little part of a bigger band in a trailer behind Sig’s Prius, a VW diesel, and another Prius, and it seemed John Sandquist, formerly of the Red Wing City Council and the Nuclear Waste Citizen Task Force, spent more time on the Green side! shhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone…

Dan Ryan hasn’t got a chance — I mean, who would vote for a highway in Chicago? Poor guy pounded on my door — he probably won’t do that again!

Yes, I’ve been SWAMPED, too many of these guys hanging around…

Finally, here they are, Letters to the Editor from the Grand Rapids Herald Review, and it’s worth the time — these are examples of why I’m compelled to work on these issues — THE PEOPLE’S VOICE. I’ve just been having that discussion in another context, about the power of blogs, and blogging is just an extension of what we’ve all been doing for centuries, millenia.. . forever… speaking out — that’s our job!

From today’s Grand Rapids Herald Review:

Wind power is more logical solution

Herald-Review

Editor:

I am compelled to write after reading the letter from Kristen Anderson in the Herald-Review, Wednesday, June 14.

Ever since the showing of TV ads touting the production of “clean electricity” from coal, and then there were news stories promoting the funding for the project plus the many letters to the editor regarding the “coal gasification” project, I thought about the eminent pollution possibilities. Kristen certainly did some important research for all of us.
The next thought and question is: Should these Mesaba plants 1 and 2 be built despite popular votes against them? If built, where does the waste go? More particulates and gases into the air? At a time in this century, when scientists tell us that our air is contaminated, do we need to add more contaminants?

Since Minnesota has a Renewable Energy Resources Fund, plus Federal Department of Energy and Iron Range Resources millions of dollars, why are we contemplating using the major portion of it for a project that will be used for converting a non-renewable resource into a lot of pollutants, and then electricity. Senseless! Whose hand is in the public’s pocket?

Look at the situation in Hibbing where there is a 10-acre site with an estimated 2 million cubic yards of coal tar containing a wide variety of contaminants. Do we really want that? Wind power is a more logical solution for our world.

Oh, but then, we wouldn’t have the jobs here. According to the statistics that I have read from Kristenâ??s letter and others, those that would be permanent would be the highly technical jobs.

Has anyone ever noticed the wind propeller on Highway 169 South, near the Elk River landfill? It is providing electricity for something. There are sites in Itasca County and elsewhere, which could do the same. Of course, there are the nay sayers. I say, use the Renewable Energy Resource Fund for just that and not for coal. Parts of our county still are recipients of fall-out from the Clay-Boswell plant in spite of their higher stacks.

Dorothy M. Olds
Grand Rapids

Numbers, by Karl Manning

She referred to Kristen’s letter, Kristen Anderson of Trout Lake Township. Here’s her letter from last Wednesday, June 14, 2006, and keep an eye out for Ed’s LTE!

Adding up the numbers

Herald-Review

Editor:

The coal gasification project proposed on the Scenic Highway is a huge, seemingly overwhelming issue to understand. Using information from Excelsior Energy informational meetings, Excelsiorâ??s reports, and public records, it is helpful to view Excelsior Energy â??by the numbersâ?:
600 – Number of permanent jobs originally proposed in 2003 for plant 1 and 2 (Mesaba 1 and 2)
150 – Permanent jobs proposed in 2004 for Mesaba 1
107 – Permanent jobs proposed in 2005 for Mesaba 1
0 – Number of jobs guaranteed by Excelsior Energy
? – Number of actual jobs for 2011(completion date of Mesaba 1)
447 – Tons of sulfur dioxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
1,227 – Tons of nitrous oxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
991 – Tons of Carbon Monoxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
17.9 – Pounds of Mercury to be released each year by Mesaba 1
174 – Tons of particulate matter (PM2.5) to be released annually by Mesaba 1
6 – Number of phases (plants) planned by Excelsior Energy
18,303 – Estimated work loss days per year due to illness caused by Mesaba 1
10+ – Extra miles of train cars going through Grand Rapids each week
345,000 – Voltage of Transmission lines from Mesaba 1 and 2 to Twin Cities
70 – Increased risk percentage of childhood leukemia within 200 yards of high voltage transmission lines
140 – Height (in feet) of transmission line poles for Excelsior Energyâ??s project
0 – Excelsior equity in Mesaba 1 project
9.5 – Million dollars from IRR for Excelsior Energyâ??s project
10 – Million dollars from state Renewable Energy Resource Fund
36 – Million dollars from federal Department of Energy
800 – Million dollars in federal loan guarantees
12 – Million dollars in state bonding for Itasca County infrastructure
0 – Watts produced thus far by Excelsior Energy
0 – Power plants built thus far by Excelsior Energy
9 – Excelsior Energy â??Our Teamâ? employees
15 – Number of lobbyists working for Excelsior Energy
0 – Acres of green space in original legislation
1,000 – Acres of green space required for Scenic Highway site
0 – Demonstrated need for additional energy in northern Minnesota (in watts)
65 – Percentage of votes opposed to Mesaba project in recent Herald-Review Quick Poll

Kristen Anderson
Bovey

Stolen from here

And this one from last weekend’s paper (I can’t figure out if it’s a Saturday or Sunday paper, I think it’s been changing up there…):

Coal project is no fairy tale says reader

Editor:

The Dirty Coal Choo-Chooâ??a bedtime story.

Once upon a time the wise elders of a northern Minnesota community thought, â??Gee, we like railroad trains and we have railroad tracks running right through townâ??how can we get more trains to come through town? Our subjects need to hear the rumble of trains over the tracks, and the blaring of train horns at all hours of the day. And how fun it is to sit and wait for trains to pass and count railroad cars.â?

The wise elders were contacted by powerful people with lots of money and political connections. The powerful people said, â??We can build a power plant that uses lots of dirty coal. And the best way to bring that dirty, yucky coal from far away Wyoming is by stinky diesel locomotives that chug right through your wonderful northern town.â? And the wise elders were thrilled and bowed to the powerful people and said, â??We will help pay for railroad tracks for your dirty coal trains so that our subjects can be happy and see much dirty coal.â?

So the powerful people told the wise elders, â??If you will support our environmentally unfriendly project we will help make your subjects happy.â? The wise elders were assured that each week five trains, each with 115 cars of dirty coal would travel east through town to the powerful peopleâ??s polluting, monster, power plant and each week five empty trains would travel west through town to return to the dirty coal fields to retrieve more dirty coal to fill the dirty coal cars. And the powerful people told the wise elders that each train with dirty coal would be almost one mile long so that the wise eldersâ?? lucky subjects would be able to see 20 miles of trains with dirty coal each week. The powerful people said, â??Oh how happy your subjects will be and you wise elders will be treated like royalty.â?
And the powerful people said, â??Wise elders, if your subjects are really good and obedient people, we will build another polluting, monster, power plant that uses dirty coal and you will have twice as many dirty coal trains for the subjects to watch.â?

The wise elders were ecstatic as they thought of the joy they would bring to their obedient subjects. The wise elders thought â??our names will live forever! And maybe the powerful people will even name a car that carries dirty coal after each of us. Such an honor!â?

Fairy tale? Nightmare? There is no â??they lived happily ever after.â? Dirty coal trains are but the tip of the iceberg. Learn more about the dirty coal gasification project and you will find that our wise elders are selling out to the powerful people and planning to degrade the quality of our lives and the environment of northern Minnesota.

John Zasada
Grand Rapids

My grey hair is showing… what’s a “database dump and a g’zipped tarball” …

So who’s leaning on them, Tom Micheletti or Karl Rove?

Just in:

Carol,

NCO last week made the decision to cut support of all hosted weblogs
on Northfield.org. This will allow us to better focus our technical
side toward the main website. I have signed on to handle the migration
of the blogs off Northfield.org.

Basically, you have three options for your blog:

Commercial hosting
This isn’t free — you’ll probably spend about $100/year — but it
allows you a lot of freedom. You’d have your own domain (e.g.,
http://caroloverland.org) and you’d have options to upload and share
larger files and other things that you couldn’t get anywhere else.
With this option, I would install the blogging software (it won’t be
Movable Type — the software you currently use — it’d be WordPress),
upload your files, and import your old posts.

WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a completely free option. You’d get a subdomain
(e.g., http://caroloverland.wordpress.com). I would still import all
your posts, but you will need to upload all of your files (like
pictures you used in your posts) yourself. The interface of the
software you’d be using is identical to the Commercial hosting option.

Dissolve it
If you’re no longer interested in blogging, we’ll provide you with an
archive of your posts and files, which you can restore later if you
change your mind.

One more option: if you’re comfortable with handling this all
yourself, you can choose to do so. I can provide you with a database
dump and a g’zipped tarball of your files.

Please respond as soon as possible: there are many people who need to
be migrated, and it’ll go a lot more smoothly if I can schedule them
seperated out a bit.

I am sorry that we won’t be won’t be able to host your weblog anymore.
As long as you continue blogging, though, your posts will still appear
on the “Blogosphere” page. Your old address
(http://northfield.org/blogs/caroloverland) will redirect your new
blog address for several months after you are removed.

Any blogs that have not been migrated will be removed August 14.

Thank you

I fired off a few points, of course:

Questions – please forward to the board:

1) “better focus our technical side toward the main website.” In what way are blogs such as mine detracting from that focus? Techinical demands, time for training and questions, etc? (on other than mine, I know I’ve had no training and few questions).

2) What is basis for decision?

3) What is cost per blog to nco?

I doubt you all have any idea how much this means to have this repository of documents, and how it makes it possible to get this information out to a broader audience (and in most instances there is ZERO money brought in to me on it, Mesaba is big exception, and the Waseca plant). This to me is what the web is about and a 501(c)(3) mission: provision of information and educaiton. By closing this down, you’re changing the shape, and my bottom line is that I don’t think this is taking resources, either in time or $$$$. Hence 1 and 2 above.

It is a valuable tool with serious political implications that is being silenced. Now I don’t know what northfield.org’s mission is, but this shift in an age of media constraint and strangulation, the policy silences voices when I think the organization’s purpose is to give community a voice.

Carol

Today was an odd time in Red Wing. A bunch of us were invited by MPR to share over din-din our thoughts about issues in Red Wing, what’s happening in Red Wing, what should be different in Red Wing. Michael Skolar, Managing Director News, seemed to be the head honcho (is he the one who forgot the camera??), also present was the head of the Rochester branch and the discussion was lead by the Rochester star reporter Sea Stachura, and M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-o-r-eeeee (yes, she sings out the spelling that way) . It was sort of a focus group, get MPR focused on Red Wing, and there were two rooms full.

How did they find us? Were we a group of members? Were we the ones who call and compliment and/or complain? I know I’m usually on 2-3 times a year, so is that how my name turned up? I’m so curious about demographics, marketing, I’ll puzzle about it for a long while.

I’m not particularly a fan of MPR, having spent 5 years or so at KFAI, where advocacy journalism is the norm — that’s Community Radio. MPR fought to keep KFAI off the air, and fought our power increase to a whopping 100 watts, so I’m no fan of the Klingon Dynasty. But nowdays MPR is the only open and free access broadcast news source I use, can’t get KFAI down here, much less KMOJ (am a member of KAXE!), and I spend an inordinate amount of time wheeling down the road. Captive audience!

It was interesting what got folks riled up. The “Riverfront” development was a hot topic (paired with distrust of elected officials), and what really got people going, yes MOI for sure, was utility personal property tax, the decrease of our tax base. Another thing, “the people” clearly get the problems with JOB-Z, perks for corporations, and that there is more to economic development than cash for corporations and “jobs, jobs, jobs” at $7/hr. I think people are generally disgusted and tired of being screwed, and maybe that’s a good sign, a sign that they’re willing to work for change. But this was not a typical demographic, it was two rooms full of active people.

I’m still pondering… it was assuredly worth the price of admission!

Here’s the woman who runs the Rochester station (sorry, didn’t catch her name) and that’s Euan Kerr’s mug behind her (on mug detail)

It’s been bipartisanship through and through, and now it’s the R’s turn. Go to Scott Jensen’s district’s legislative page and what do you find? VACANT

In today’s StPPP: Jensen gets 15 months in prison

Prosecutors spent two weeks during his trial putting a string of his Capitol aides and former legislative workers on the stand.

They testified they served as field campaign operatives, held campaign strategy meetings in both Jensen’s office and other state offices, recruited candidates and produced campaign literature on their state computers, all under Jensen’s oversight. They also testified Jensen used legislative aide Sherry Schultz as a full-time campaign fundraiser who would guide Republican candidates.

And more description of their illegal behavior from a JSOnline article: Jensen guilty of 3 felonies

Their testimony painted a stunning picture of a GOP election and re-election machine paid for by taxpayers:

With Jensen running it before the 1998 and 2000 elections, the Assembly Republican Caucus recruited candidates; plotted ways to get incumbent Democrats to not seek re-election; organized fund-raising events; and used state-paid graphic artists to do invitations and thank-you notes for them.

Those workers also solicited lobbyists to give to “vulnerable” GOP candidates; devised strategy plans based on poll results; assigned state-paid aides to specific races; and coordinated the filming of TV ads, using state-paid workers as extras.

Throughout, Jensen whined about “selective prosecution” claiming “the Democrats were doing it too” but the Democrats were jailed too — he’s clearly not getting it, is he…