"Death Panels" debunked: Bachmann voted for them in 2008

The old "death panel" distortions raised their ugly heads again when President Obama through legal administrative procedure recently included end-of-life planning between doctor and patient as a service that could be covered under Medicare preventive care.

The term "death panel" is a distortion. Media shouldn't even use it just like we would not use the term priest to describe a Lutheran pastor. Death panel is just not accurate. People on both sides of the political aisle have agreed this is a "hyperbolic" term, the most recent was John McCain's advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer speaking on the issue on CNN a few nights ago.

Though she called it hyperbolic she still argues that the provision puts government in control of one's end of life decision or discussion. One can debate that I suppose, but barely. There is no specific language that says government is involved at all, -- it's between doctor and patient -- and even then its totally voluntary.

But as correctly pointed out by numerous sources, the so called "death panel" provision for end of life counseling was put in Legislation passed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress in 2008 and put in place by the Bush Administration after that.

Bush vetoed the 2008 bill but mainly because it removed his planned 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. He was overridden by large margins of both Democrats and Republicans in the House by a vote of 383-41 and in the Senate by 70-26.

The Bush administration later incorporated the end of life provisions into its Medicare regulations and rules.

Here is the exact language from the Congressional bill tracking system.
"(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on June 24, 2008. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Title I: Medicare - Subtitle A: Beneficiary Improvements - Part 1: Prevention, Mental Health, and Marketing - (Sec. 101) Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended by the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, to cover additional preventive services."

 Here is the specific provision.

"Includes body mass index and end-of-life planning among initial preventive physical examinations."

Link to entire bill summary for skeptics.


Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of it. It might surprise you. Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the people continually using the hyperbolic term "death panels" and expressing her vehemence against them during the health care reform debate voted with all other state Republicans as well as Democrats to override the Bush veto, and approve the Legislation with end of life voluntary planning.


Here's the House vote
Here's the Senate vote

Tax cuts and the deficit: This doesn't make economic sense does it?

Congress passed a year-end tax cut deal that will give lots of folks, everyone nearly, a nice tax cut, but it will increase our federal deficit by 27 percent next year and 50 percent in 10 years.

Which leads me to ask: Does that make sense?

Yes and no. It makes sense because it's an attempt to stimulate consumer demand. If we have a few more bucks in our paycheck, we might go out to eat more, or just buy some more stuff. That's what Congress is hoping.

But what about the debt. Shouldn't we be paying that down? In our own minds we've got to say yes, for all the usual reasons: the Chinese will start to control our debt, and maybe us someday. The investors in U.S. stocks will see this craziness for what it is and your 401(k) will become a 201(k).

Seems risky at best.

But someone smarter than me about world markets and the economy once told me the markets never lie. So, if the stock market still seems to be doing well, and credit markets and other investments are also doing well after the news of debt expansion hits, then there maybe aren't a lot of people with lots of money too worried.

But of course, markets get new information and new feelings every day, so stay tuned.

But that's my 30 second analysis, always subject to change and sometimes even wildly off-base.

That's why we've given you a chance to weigh in on the subject and be a star of The Free Press opinion page. Go here to give us your two cents, or $850 billion worth.

I agree with conservative Phil Krinkie and others

Businesses don't create jobs because of tax cuts, and they don't leave the state because taxes are too high.

Thank you, Phil Krinkie, for being a conservative willing to say that. Krinkie, as you may remember, was a longtime conservative member of the Minnesota House, and chairman of the Tax Committee.

He made the comment to MinnPost's Eric Black in a very interesting story on Tim Pawlenty's tenure as governor. It's very much worth reading.

The job creation argument has been the stuff of political rhetoric, says Krinkie. This comes from someone who worked years with dozens of business leaders, one of whom told him he kept his business in the state because his kids were in high school and it had nothing to do with taxes.

Over and over again, this year, we had those running for office saying any tax increase on the wealthy or business would be a "job killer." It's one of the most unproven statements I've ever seen the media let people get away with.

Another longtime businessman, Myles Spicer of Minnetonka, who also wrote a great essay for MinnPost titled "What Small Business Really Wants." And, according to Spicer, it's not a tax cut, really.

Spicer established and owned several successful ad agencies in the Twin Cities and been in business for 40 years.

There is not one study I have seen that shows small businesses cut jobs when their taxes go up or add them when their taxes go down.

But Spicer offers a study of what doesn't happen.

His words: 

 "A sanctimonious — and detrimental — claim
The most egregious of their useless proposals revolve around the current the tax debate — whether to include the top 2 percent in reversing the Bush tax cuts. The sanctimonious claim is "this would hurt small business" — and this suggestion is incredibly wrong and even detrimental.

It is wrong for many reasons, mostly because it is fiction. It would not affect the huge majority of small businesses, to begin with. In a very cogent recent study, Scott Shane, the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University, plotted the average of all industries and businesses classified as "small business," with the average revenues at a little over $1.5 million annually, and the average income (on which taxes are paid) is about $100,500. This is far from the $250K target for increasing taxes on the wealthy (or small businesses). Moreover, almost all such businesses are classified as Sub-S corporations, and as such they pay no taxes at all (profits are prorated and passed through to the shareholders, of which there could be several or more, further diminishing the likelihood of $250K taxation)."

His credentials in his own words.

"After serving in the U.S. Air Force for three years of active duty, I was honorably discharged in 1957. A friend of mine owned a small Twin City ad agency, and having gone to flight school, he advised me that his largest account sold communications equipment to the Air Force. He asked me to join him. A few years later I became a partner in my own agency, and owned several more Minnesota agencies over the decades. From that day on I have been entrepreneurial, my own boss, and a quintessential small businessman. Additionally, I have owned small businesses in the aforementioned advertising, Twin Cities real estate, health care — and at 77 still own and operate my own successful local businesses today. That gives me well over half a century of expertise to share with you, and the right to point out that most of the proposals today are irrelevant, or worse, and the right proposals are being ignored."

Some facts that are getting lost

News reports I've read would lead the typical reader to believe the recently approved so called Obama-Republican tax deal would had $850 billion to the deficit.

Most people would read that as $850 billion onto the current 2010 fiscal year deficit of $1.4 trillion. So adding $850 billion to current $1.4 trillion, looks like it increases the CURRENT federal deficit by more than 50 percent.

Actually, the projection for the deal adding to the deficit is for the period 2011 to 2020, as this CBO document shows. Go all the way to the bottom and see the recently passed legislation adds about $857.8 billion to the deficit.

So, it's only adding to the debt by about $374 billion next year, only about a 27 percent increase, not the 50 percent the "not exactly" media would have you believe.

Feel better? Well maybe.

The stimulus IS working. Hello!

Whenever I want to get the straight stuff on a political controversy, I ask a small business person.

They'll be straight with you. They stay in business being straight with customers, unlike bigger businesses that have tens of thousands of customers and can afford to lose a few along the way when being straight is sometimes optional to save face or whatever.

So, I found it quite refreshing that a small business person would say the Obama stimulus plan is working.

A Free Press story on Nov. 28 carried a story about the energy tax credit.


Here's what Dale Brenke of Schmidt Siding and Windows in Mankato had to say about the Stimulus

 “ There’s a lot of political controversy about the federal stimulus program that is providing this tax credit,” Brenke says, “ but it has saved thousands of jobs in this sector in Minnesota.”

Two years ago, eight Schmidt Siding and Windows employees were laid off during slow times for specialized remodelers, Brenke says. But since the tax credit program, all those employees have been recalled.

“ We’re just one business,” Brenke says. He cites lumberyards in the area, plus other contractors and remodelers in town. The number of jobs saved or added just keeps growing, he says.

In addition, the companies in Minnesota that make windows and doors are also feeling a huge boost because of the federal energy efficiency tax credit program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act better known as the Stimulus Act. Among those companies is Lindsay Window in North Mankato, Brenke says.

“ This act has helped a whole host of energy efficiency businesses in Mankato, and across the state,” he says

Thank you Dale!

I'll write this story as many times as Foxnews says the stimulus didn't do anything.


Now some will argue that the stimulus didn't "create" any jobs. But the Obama administration has consistently used the terms "saved" or "created" so even in the above case, if it didn't create any jobs for Schmidt, it indeed did save jobs. 


Eight people who didn't have jobs, got them back. I'm guessing they don't care if you describe them as "created" or "saved."

The bottom line: they were earning money again, off unemployment and boosting the economy.

The stimulus worked.

Emmer concedes: the buzz, the take

I, like two thirds of Minnesotans, thought it was time for Tom Emmer to concede.

He obliged us Wednesday. Like other media observers, I thought he went out with a lot of class. He made the concession from his home in Delano with family and friends around.

It was a close election, no doubt. And here's hoping that both sides are finally realizing people want both sides to cooperate and solve problems. An election is almost never a mandate in Minnesota.

The Republican Party needs some patching up, and as I mentioned in a previous post, some healing or fixing of the public and media relations machine.

Although Dayton may have underwhelmed a lot of people, even those who voted for him, he'll likely bring a real different set of tools with him. It's been a while since he's been an executive, but he seemed capable of that at the one debate I hosted with him.

He's thoughtful, and seems to have a real plan in place for compromising with Republican Legislature.

There will be new relationships all around, and that should be good for taxpayers. Sometimes old relationships carry with them old baggage that the two sides just can't let go of.

Good Republicans: please get a tourniquet

To the good people of the Minnesota Republican Party, and there are many, please suggest a more strategic public relations plan to your party's leaders.

Oy Vey.

First a poll comes out showing two-thirds of the people think your contesting and protesting gubernatorial candidate should concede, and at almost the same time the party proceeds to heap on the bad publicity by ousting members of the party for voting for the last of the great "Independent" Republicans Tom Horner for governor.

I've never seen an organization bury the needle so quickly on a pile of good will they just garnered for state reps and senators in the recent election.

A look at the people they ousted looks like a who's who of the Minnesota Republican Party, the one that actually came up with solutions to the state's problems a few years back.

Among the ousted: Former governors Al Quie and Arne Carlson (historically two of the best Republican governors.) Sen. Dave Durenberger, one of Minnesota's most intelligent senators who still is making an impact on health care policies.

Bill Schreiber, longtime leader of House Republicans and a staunch, staunch supporter of small business know how. Schreiber was the kind of guy who didn't play politics as much as get something done for small business in Minnesota.

I'm surprised they weren't stomping on former Republican Gov. Elmer Anderson's grave for being too level headed and compromising.

Here's what some of them told the Star Tribune after their public flogging.

"I was never Republican enough for them, anyway," said Lynne Osterman, a former Republican House member turned lobbyist, in reacting to the ban. "I find it ironic, and somewhat telling, frankly," she said, "[that] ... for all their ballyhooing about freedom, protecting rights for our country, blah, blah, blah ... [they] would see fit to vilify fellow citizens for exercising their rights."

Said Durenberger: "I'm still a Republican, but it doesn't feel like a very welcoming party ... my reaction was to smile."


Current Republicans defended the action - kind of. Again, more from Star Tribune.

Mike Boguszewski, a Republican House district chair from Roseville, said he voted for the Saturday resolution "after a lot of consideration." Boguszewski said the issue "went beyond" allowing Republicans to freely support the candidate of their choice.

He said the active support for an opposition party's candidate, "just takes it to a level beyond disagreement about policies ... very simply, [their] actions bring consequences."


Phil Krinkie, a former Republican legislator and president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, said he was "a little surprised to see that they actually took this step to bring it to a vote." But he added: "It's a public rebuke, and that's all it is."

Krinkie criticized Carlson, who in 2008 supported President Obama, a Democrat. "At what point," asked Krinkie, "do you [in effect] turn in your membership card?"

Pat Anderson, the former state auditor who ran unsuccessfully for the office last month as a Republican, downplayed the significance of the resolution and said Democrats and Republicans have had similar feuds for decades. "I don't think you have a bloodletting going on," she said.

Schreiber, the former Republican legislator who was among those banned, said Republican party leaders "would be more productive in focusing on issues, rather than people."
However, he said, "Am I going to lose any sleep over it? No."


I can't find a positive P.R. message in all of this. The P.R. messages that go out are:

New Republicans are disrespecting their elders, many of whom deserve respect:

Don't disagree with our dogma or you'll pay a price.

This is not the party of discussion. This is the party of repression.

Feedback on recount going very negative

People of Minnesota are reading blogs, looking up examples of challenged ballots, and are outraged, from what I've seen.

This is a Republican/Emmer public relations nightmare waiting to happen. While reasonable people know you can hire lawyers to challenge anything, they don't believe its the right thing to do at this point. Numerous people, even some Republicans, have said, he can't win. He kind of even conceded that himself in the Friday press conference.

Comments I've seen from online readers are very angry once they see the challenged ballots. The ballots are not even close to being unclear. That's what people don't get. And when they see any write-in candidate ballot was challenged because according to challengers it could "identify the voter."

People are just not buying it.

There are more examples of this at StarTribune Hotdish politics regards to Waseca County's 114 challenged votes, 111 by Emmer.

The longer the case goes on, the more examples of challenges ballots will emerge. It will just make people more angry. 

We know there are not enough challenges to win. Now the Emmer camp is saying they want to review county databases and counties say they won't be able to have those ready before Dec. 15. I guess you can do that, they have a legal right, but that would likely indeed delay the seating of the next governor.

There is huge political risk here for bad publicity and a loss of social capital that the Emmer team doesn't seem to be feeling.

Here's the full list of challenged ballots by county, by precinct.

Hat tip to Max Hailperin for providing the link.

Recount fact and opinion

The gubernatorial recount continued Friday and into Saturday with highlights being an angry judge scolding his former chief judge, lots of frivolous ballots and a press conference that seemed designed to garner a least a little positive publicity for Republican Tom Emmer.


The relevant facts are thus:

After all 2.1 million ballots had been recounted, Emmer gained 107 votes.

The canvassing board will rule on about 1,000 challenged ballots, four fifths of them from the Emmer campaign

Even if every challenged ballot fell Emmer's way, it wouldn't be enough to make up 8,700 votes.

Local officials called 2,880 challenges by the parties "frivolous," 99 percent were challenges from the Emmer campaign.


Judge Paul Anderson gave a stern warning to the Emmer team and the former Supreme Court Chief Judge Eric Magnuson, who is representing Emmer, pointing out that bringing frivolous court actions whatever the topic is behavior for which attorneys can be punished.

Anderson went on to say Magnuson was more or less violating his own rulings and court directives from the 2008 recount years ago and that Magnuson might also be violating code of professional conduct for attorneys.

(It's interesting to note that Magnuson, now working with Emmer and presumably Pawlenty, was called "unwise" by Pawlenty and "activist" by Emmer last year when he ruled Pawlenty's unallotment decision was illegal.)

They must consider him to have "wised up" and be "less activist" now.

Anderson also made references to the Emmer campaign "disenfranchising" voters. Ramsey County Judge Gregg Johnson, another member of the Canvassing Board, used words like "ludicrous."

It was a rather remarkable event.

I've met Judge Paul Anderson a time or two and I was always impressed with him as someone who saw value in the judicial process and wanted to educate the public as much as possible about this important branch of government.

He never struck me as a political or partisan individual.

In his news conference Friday Emmer seemed to be addressing the number of frivolous votes Emmer volunteers in various counties were making, far above those being challenged by the Dayton campaign.

Emmer and the Republican Party claim those volunteers were "overzealous" and after they look at the frivolous votes, they might be willing to withdraw them. The Canvassing Board is going to allow this.

Over and over again, the news media asked Emmer how he thought any challenge could possibly provide him almost 9,000 vote turnaround.

He made allusions to the same-day registration system, and the reconciliation process where votes must match the number of voters. But those appear to be longshots in any case. The matching voter remedy if there was one, would take votes away randomly, from both voters.

Emmer also suggested he wants to see that Supreme Courts ruling on denying his initial challenge to have the votes reconciled one way. Then he would be able to explain his next legal course if action if any.

All in all, I don't see the Emmer campaign getting much upside from all of this. They clearly angered at least one of the judges in this, when average citizens see the ballots that were challenged all over the state by the Emmer campaign (many not even close to being unclear who people were voting for and in some cases, a write vote was suggested as a way that a voter would be indentified), most people will not be happy taxpayer money was spent on these frivolous challenges.

Emmer did continue to reiterate his intention is not to delay the seating of the new government.

My experience in public relations is the more you insist you're not trying to do something, the less people believe you.

Stay tuned.

Challenges ballots and frivolous: take a look

At the Star Tribune website citizens can check out copies of ballots that were challenged by GOP recount volunteers and deemed frivolous by election officials, and make their own decisions, much as the State Canvassing Board will do next week.

I couldn't find one that wasn't pretty darn clear that they all were intending to vote for Dayton.

There are nine ballot examples at the above link.

Apparently, copies of these ballots are not available to the press and the general public unless you get them from the campaigns, who are allowed to make copies.

That's apparently where the StarTribune got them. We asked for local challenged ballots, and that's what we were told. We'd have to get them from the campaigns. We might have to work on that access issue in the future.

Apparently, the news media is also not privy to the number of challenged votes until, I presume, the canvassing board looks at them, but the Dayton campaign told the Strib that Emmer campaign has challenged 2,700 ballots and 98 percent of them have been deemed frivolous.

They told the Strib 39 Dayton campaign challenges were frivolous.

Is the city of Mankato Scrooge?

The online story comments are buzzing and Free Press Facebook fans are humming on the story about how some municipalities are downsizing holiday Christmas decorations.

Mark Fischenich's Nov. 30 story on downtown Christmas decorations of the past seemed to strike a nostalgic chord with a lot of readers.

Some dozen plus readers commented on the story, but most were on the side of holiday decorations and against a seemingly penny pinching Scrooge of a city.

Here's a sample: (real names are not required)

From Jared Taylor: "The City of Mankato is too broke to string up Christmas lights, we have NO Sunday afternoon B.E.C. Library hours anymore; but apparently we can afford a $40 million coming levy for more spending into the Loss-Leader Civic Center. Thanks City of Mankato, Merry Christmas"

From Jason: "It's no wonder why North Mankato doesn't want to combine with Mankato. Mankato continues to go down hill and North Mankato doesn't want to get dragged along for the ride. What a shame that Mankato can't cough up enough money for Christmas lights---and they want to be a Christmas retail hub?"

From Merri Jo "I really miss those decorations, not to mention the old downtown. Just this weekend my sister and I talked about mom taking us DOWNTOWN to see them lit each year. Yes, it is very sad that Mankato no longer decorates"

From La Vone A. "Boy this is really sad. You need to come to Owatonna after the decorations here where caught up in the flood we had in Sept they are back up on the poles. Workers had to come in and clean the banners, replace the lights and what ever else had to be done. We are not a big town like Mankato but we still have the spirit and have come together to celebrate. I too remember Mankato and how nice it looked and enjoyed it. I guess I will stay in Owatonna and enjoy the holidays here"

The story mentioned how North Mankato still invests in its Christmas decorations.

To that Frank Jones commented: North Mankato 1, Mankato 0

Finally, an opposing view from Jody: "I applaud the City of Mankato. They have moved into a need vs want attitude. Christmas lights are wonderful and I enjoy them immensely, but they are expensive to purchase, put up, take down, and the electricity needed to operate them. They are only visible to the general population during the evening hours for one month. I think that classifies as a want. Perhaps the critics would like to start raising money to fund this the same as the fireworks"

 I must say cutting Christmas decorations seems like it would not be the first thing one would look at. They offer great benefit in publicity etc, for relatively little cost.

If people went through the Mankato budget, they could probably find something less popular to cut and come out all right.

There's merit in the idea of private businesses kicking in as sort of a user fee. Or maybe the city could just assess a $1 or $2 or whatever it is fee on a businesses utility bills.

Anyway, the story seems to be getting a lot of traction.

Emmer racking up kudos

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer is racking up kudos from Mankato to Minneapolis.

On Saturday, The Free Press gave Emmer a thumbs up for basically saying he was going to be reasonable when it came to challenging the recount. He said he would make sure nothing extraordinary was happening and then if the margin is still fairly large, 8,700 votes or thereabouts, he would be done.

He went on to say that he wasn't going to put everyone through a futile effort.

Emmer also got a good 700- to 800 words of praise from Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman, who had much good to say about Emmer's sportsmanship. Many of Coleman's readers were at the very least surprised, and possibly some shocked, as he is not want to heap a lot of praise on many Republicans.

Coleman said Emmer "deserves great appreciation" and that kind of "leadership" is "rare."

Emmer has in the past been described a the bulldog of the Republican Party, especially when he was in the Legislature. But a long campaign for governor, hearing and seeing the hopes, wants and desires of average Minnesotans, may tend to have a calming effect on any candidate.

When I hosted the gubernatorial debate in Mankato, I thought one of the best and most sincere statements Emmer made came when he was asked to pick a former governor he respected. He said something to the effect that he respects anyone and everyone who has put themselves through a campaign and made sacrifices simply because they believe they can make the state better for future generations.


 Emmer's recounts statement has hints of those beliefs. Good for him.

Talk about a death panel!

Here's some info on the fact sheet for a government health care program.

Let's see if you can guess where it comes from and which political party approved this.

This was a letter sent to people who are enrolled in a government-sponsored health program based on need and eligibility

"Why am I getting this letter?"

"The way you get your health care services is changing. Starting June 1, only certain hospitals will give
you services."

"What does this change mean for me?

• Services you are currently getting may not be covered.
• You may need to go to a different doctor or clinic.
• Services by this group of doctors is limited and there may not be one in your county.
• If you do not choose a group the government has required, your coverage is limited to prescription drugs.

You may have to pay for other medical services including the doctor visit to get a prescription."





So, in essence, you won't get to choose your own doctor

Some services might no longer be covered.

There may not be a approved doctor in your county, so you'll have to travel.

And if you don't like the government's choice of doctors, you're out of luck.

I point this out only because these were almost identical to the fears raised with the national health care reform put out by Democrats last year.

I've always believed when the so called "death panel" talk came out as Congress was debating the health care reform bill, that it was pure and unmitigated B.S. from the start. We won't go into that here.

But what most people don't realize is that there are instances happening at state and federal level that will restrict what doctor you can see and de facto put government and insurance companies in control of your medical care.

Like the example above: They are the actual rules for the General Assistance Medical Care program approved by Republicans and Democrats in Minnesota. To be fair, Democrats had proposed a program that would cover more and cost more. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed that in lieu of the a program that cost less and covered less.

However you see the issue, clearly, when government pays your medical bill, they're going to have something to say about the care, which doctors you see.

This should be a reality check for all of us.

Fireworks at the Supreme Court and other incendiary reports

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled quickly and decisively 5-zip against the first, and so far only, challenge by the Tom Emmer campaign to the gubernatorial election results.

A MinnPost report by Jay Weiner again is the credible and interesting report I am relying on. He even offers a little "dark and stormy night" drama in this one. Hey, it's one way to make public affairs reporting interesting!

What I found interesting about the ruling was that it was issued without an opinion, so as "not to impede the orderly election process." The court seemed to be hinting that another challenge might have to really provide earth shattering new information, or the court, mostly Pawlenty-appointed, would reject that as well. Just my guess, though.

In my opinion, any further challenge without such significant backing will come off as frivolous to the judges, and when judges think you're wasting their time, the don't get mad, they get even, or they get mad and even.

I've seen many a judge use the rule that "their impartiality ends where your frivolity begins."

News reports called the ruling from Pawlenty-appointees "terse." Maybe it's payback for Emmer who called them "activist" last year after they ruled Pawlenty's unallotment was illegal. Pawlenty was kinder but said the ruling was "unwise."

Republicans challenge at their peril here. As I mentioned in Wednesday's editorial, "voters can forgive politicians for a lot of things, but not for denying them the right to have their vote counted." Any challenges from Emmer, at this point, seem to be playing with fire near a propane tank.

There's some sound reasoning behind a recount of votes making a difference with regard to the Emmer petition and several counties filed information to that effect.

Recount wouldn't stack up

Here's the good info from a solid Pioneer Press report on the issue by Jason Hoppin.

Noteworthy is Blue Earth County's own expert Patty O'Connor, election director.

 In Anoka County, election judges were able to reconcile the ballots in all precincts but one. Out of 131,700 votes, officials said there was no evidence that the sole extra ballot was cast by anyone other than a legitimate voter.

In Ramsey County, officials said there were just five unexplained ballots out of more than 192,000 cast but that there was no reason to toss out those five.

In Hennepin County, Minnesota's largest, officials found discrepancies in 15 precincts for a total of 22 ballots and said they would work to resolve the discrepancies but did not want to throw out votes.

Together Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey County cast nearly 800,000 votes in the Nov. 2 election, or about 39 percent of the statewide total. With Emmer needing to close a nearly 9,000-vote gap, they found just 28 unexplained ballots between them.

Some local officials contacted by the Pioneer Press said they also have found few extra ballots. Officials in Goodhue County, which follows the procedure sought by the GOP, found discrepancies, but none that could not be explained. And Carver County officials found only a few extra ballots but said they appeared to be caused by election judges themselves forgetting to sign the register when they voted.

In an affidavit, Hennepin County election manager Rachel Smith argued that counting voter receipts is actually a more accurate way of tallying voters than counting signatures, calling the method "universally preferred."

That was backed up by others, including Blue Earth County Auditor Patty O'Connor, who said the problem with counting signatures is that voters sometimes don't sign the register, even though they are required by law to do so.

"You have to remember, I'm in outstate Minnesota, where we all know each other," O'Connor said, adding that it's easy to forget to follow the letter of the law when chit-chatting with a friendly face. "The wife signs and the husband doesn't, and off they go."

Hoping to bring great budget debate to Mankato

I'm hoping to convince the Citizens League of Minnesota to bring one of their intriguing budget debate meetings to Mankato in the near future.

The Citizens League, a non partisan and credible research group, has through a grant with the Bush Foundation set up some 30 plus meetings around the state, in small towns and big, to gather citizens for a night of discussion on how to solve the state's estimated $6 billion budget deficit.

There's a good report on one of the recent meetings in MinnPost.

I recently spoke with Citizens League Executive Director Sean Kershaw and when I saw he didn't have Mankato on the list for a meeting, I recommended we get one. I told him I believe Mankato was a community that could be very engaged in this process and he'd get a good turnout.

He sounded like he was going to pursue it. I spoke with him at a recent meeting of the University of Minnesota Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism board, of which we are both members.

The Free Press will do everything it can to help bring about this meeting, including participating in it and publicizing it. I'm hoping to hear back from Kershaw soon. Will update when I know.

Essential news and analysis worth reading

There's a solid analysis by MinnPost reporter Jay Weiner on the current gubernatorial recount effort and the Republican lawsuit.

Weiner of course wrote award-winning stories on the Coleman-Franken recount and now has a book out about it called "This is not Florida."

His piece in MinnPost is a solid and enlightening analysis by a journalist who had in-depth knowledge of this issue and the complicated legal proceedings that can surround it. You'll get a feel for the likelihood of success for the GOP court challenge.

He also talks to Blue Earth County's own Patty O'Connor, longtime elections director and on the board of the statewide election officials organization. She provides some interesting insights on his own.

He also provides lots of links to past rulings, current court statements and basically everything you need to understand and get up to speed on this issue.

What I like about Weiner's journalism is that he digs deep into places others don't even know about -- Minnesota administrative rules on elections, for example.

Cal Thomas agrees with me, and other thoughts

Free Press conservative columnist and Foxnews contributor Cal Thomas agrees with me on a number of things.

He writes in his column in Thursday's Free Press that "Individuals who make wise decisions, care for themselves and refuse Social Security and Medicare (which should be means tested), should get tax breaks."

I'm all for the tax breaks for people who can show they won't be a burden on government, but more than that, I'm all for making Social Security and Medicare means tested. Bill Gates shouldn't be eligible. Nor should Warren Buffet, who actually probably wouldn't mind, but as long as these folks have a free gift handed to them, why wouldn't they take it.

Actually, Social Security is kind of means tested now, those who mean to retire 30 years from won't get it, or will get much less than anyone who's getting it now. But, it is basically a welfare program, so if we're trying to provide things to people who need them, let's make it dependent on income.

The flip side of the tax breaks for people who take care of themselves, it a reduction in tax breaks for corporations that cost us more money. Thomas agrees with me on this too, as he has endorsed the federal spending cuts and reduction of tax breaks advocated by the Heritage Foundation.

Of course, Cal doesn't have to run for office, so he can go around saying things like that. I've not heard it from anyone who has a real stake in the game, but we'll be watching closely the new powers that be in Washington.

Bush popularity likely rising

Today's Free Press editorial gives due respect to President George W. Bush for the tales in his recent book, and his willingness to accept responsibility and talk plainly about some of the mistakes and successes of his presidency.

I watched NBC's Matt Lauer interview W. and will say it's the most impressed I've ever been with the former president, mainly because he acknowledged his mistakes, and took full out responsibility for the bank bailouts saying anyone who believes Obama started the TARP program is dead wrong.

He said he believes in free market principles, but when experts told him the banking system could collapse and create a depression, he believed them and did what he believes was the right thing by authorizing TARP.

That action is the essence of what we should expect our presidents to do. It's sometimes lost on the angry crowd of  "low information voters." (I like that term).

He also showed great respect for the presidency by refraining from criticizing Obama. I think he knows Obama is doing a pretty good job. Whenever you've been there, you're a little more reluctant to throw stones. We can't say as much for the former vice president.

Good job, W. :)

GMG Hall of Fame: a big crowd, compelling stories

The Greater Mankato Growth Hall of Fame awards banquet at the Verizon Center last night drew one of the biggest crowds ever, filling dozens of tables in the main ballroom.

The local chamber group has expanded its array of awards this year that included some "design" awards, recognizing business projects that add an interesting and attractive physical aspect to the community. That was a nice addition for recognition. The way a city looks says a lot about the commitment of its business owners and city leaders.

This list of award winners can be found on The Free Press website, along with Tim Krohn's coverage.

Here's some videos of top three award winners that are short and worth watching.

There were, as always, many great stories about people starting out in business. Many had very humble beginnings and just worked liked crazy to make things happen.

It was very clear listening to owners speak about their businesses, that they all had one thing at the top of their list: serving customers. Many did not dwell on their own expertise or their staff's acumen, but thanked the people in the room and the community at large for being their customers.

It was also great to see that the Hall of Fame Inductees - the Abdo, Eick and Meyers Accounting firm and Mankato Independent Originals started as small family businesses. You often hear how chains or big box retailers can have such an advantage over small homegrown businesses, but that is clearly not the case with these two winners.

Mankato Independent Originals - Patrick and Chris Person and Tasha O'Hara - run four independent unique restaurants, including Neighbors, Dino's, Tav on the Ave. and Number Four. Their business started with Pat and Chris's parents, Adrian and John Person who for years ran Adrian's restaurant.

The Abdo firm was founded by longtime Mankato businessman Joe Abdo, who started out working for another longtime family business - Schwickert Hardware store.

All in all, it was a solid event and business winners were no doubt an inspiration to those in attendance.

News I'm watching, thinking about

There was a very intriguing interview with former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Larry King Monday, Nov. 15.

It will be worth your time to watch it.

Some highlights: Obama should've focused on economy before health care before anything else. President is doing a good job on economy but hasn't communicated it very well.

Powell says he's a moderate Republican, which means for small government, strong national defense and help the people who need help as much as is necessary.

We need to provide Pakistan more help, more tools to root out Taliban. Afghanistan President is increasingly in a tough spot. Bin Laden may be alive, but he's not operating as normal, he's hiding, so he can't be anywhere near as effective as he was when he orchestrated 9/11 attacks.

When King asked Powell if he was ticked by being misled about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, he gave a mad-as-hell sounding "yes." But said many, many intelligence agencies were saying it was true and he spent 4-days at CIA headquarters going over the information, asking questions about its veracity every way he could.

Asked if he's talked to Rumsfeld or Cheney lately, he simply said "No," abruptly ending answer. King chuckled and said "Well said."

Powell said new Republicans are kidding themselves if they think they can balance the budget without raising some kind of revenue. He noted they're asked often what they would cut and no one can come up with the answers.

King suggested others were pushing Powell to become Obama's chief of staff, to which Powell said, "I haven't been asked and I don't want to work in the government. I worked in the government for 40 years" etc..But he did say, when the president asks, you have to at least listen.

Here's my problem with George Will

Conservative columnist George Will is one of the best conservative minds around, and as far as columnists go, he can be pretty compelling a lot of the time, even if you don't agree with him.

I don't have a problem with the content of his opinions from time to time, but he does have a tendency to sometimes state his opinions or analysis as fact. It reminds me of  Daniel Patrick Moynihan's longtime quote "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."

Such a stating of opinion as fact is one of my pet peeves. It annoys me because stating opinion as fact is misleading and wrong and most importantly, intellectually dishonest. I don't let Free Press letter writers get away with it.

So, I will take George Will to task for a column in Tuesday's Free Press.

Will's opinion stated as fact: "Card check legislation would make it easier to herd private sector workers into unions by abolishing the right to secret ballots in unionization votes."

Will's intellectual dishonesty comes in the phrase "abolishing the right to secret ballots in unionization votes."

The card check legislation does not "abolish" the secret ballot. Rather, it allows those organizing unions two options when organizing a union vote. It allows them a new option known as the card check. In other words, they could simply ask employees to vote up or down on a union by using a card, yes or no. If 50 percent of workers say yes, the union can be established.

However, they can also request a secret ballot under the card check law.

When Will says the law would "abolish," one takes that to mean "abolish the secret ballot in every and any case." But that's not the case, as reported below by Politifact, a division of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper that both political parties often use to back up their facts.

In 2009 when the Card Check issue was hot, (it never made it anywhere), here's how Politifact described it:

"Here's how union elections work now:

Union organizers try to get employees in a particular business or unit of a business to sign cards indicating they want the union to represent them in negotiations with the employer. The employer is not permitted to see the cards before they are turned in to the National Labor Relations Board — or often even after that — or engage in any other kind of surveillance to try to discern which employees are union adherents and which are not.

If more than 30 percent of the employees sign, the union can ask the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election. If more than 50 percent sign, the employer must either accept the union or ask the board for an election.

Most employers ask for an election. It takes place a few weeks later at the employer's place of business. It's a secret-ballot election and is run by the National Labor Relations Board. If a majority votes for the union, the union wins.

Here's what would happen under the Employee Free Choice Act:(or Card Check).

Just like before, if unions got more than 30 percent of the employees to sign cards, they could ask for a secret-ballot election. But if they got more than 50 percent, the union would win automatically. The employer would no longer have the right to insist on a secret-ballot election and would have to negotiate with the union. 

"Decertification" elections, where the employees vote on whether to cease being represented by their union, are currently secret-ballot elections, and would continue to be under the Employee Free Choice Act.

As a practical matter, secret-ballot elections would be far less frequent if the Employee Free Choice Act were passed. But they would still take place under certain circumstances: during decertification contests, or on the occasions where unions won the support of more than 30 percent but less than 50 percent of the employees (but unions don't generally ask for elections unless they have the support of more than half).

There would also continue to be secret-ballot elections in instances where a majority of employees say they want one. That is, where more than 50 percent of the employees sign cards requesting a vote on unionization rather than cards saying they want a union to represent them."


Here's the whole Politifact article

So Will appears unwilling to go into the nuances and would rather just state his opinion as a fact.

I'd be much more comfortable with him if he just said "Card check HAS THE EFFECT of abolishing secret ballots." That's much more of an honest argument and it lets the reader know there is a nuance here, and maybe someone might have another take on this.

That would be more intellectually honest.

In fact, Politifact, when assessing a similar statement on Card Check by Sen. Arlen Specter decided what he was saying was "mostly true." But that's still not absolutely true, as Will would have well-meaning Free Press readers believe.

Deficit commission and your money

The federal so-called deficit commission captured a lot of headlines this week when the bipartisan group put out a draft proposal with something for every American to dislike.

Tough choices on Social Security, Medicare, defense spending, entitlements and taxes, both individual and corporate. I think it is the most courageous political act I've seen in decades and I applaud co-chairman former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Clinton Chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

A lot of my colleagues in the media write their stories with a cynical edges noting by themselves or others, often unnamed, that it "will never pass."

They're right, the first draft proposal won't pass, but I believe something will, something that is substantive, fair, bipartisan and tough.

The chairman freely conceded that this was going to be tough on a lot of Americans but they also said we have a history of a willingness to sacrifice when we know our country will be better for our children.

And that's exactly what will happen if some of this stuff is passed. Really. You heard it hear first. I'm optimistic.

Here's a link to the report. It's 50 pages, but don't let that scare you, it's done in powerpoint-style big type etc.

Talk issues with us on Facebook

Hey everyone in Katoland, we're trying to engage our community and you a little bit more as an effort to make everything we do more interest and exciting for our readers and divergent and civil voices.

Go to our Facebook page for our take on news of the day and tell us what you think about it. Talk politics, city hall, county board or give us suggestions for covering a story.

We know that it's not possible for 25 people in our newsroom to be smarter than the 60,000 or so people who live in this well-educated community. So give us your ideas, comments, off the cuff remarks.

You can go here for our Facebook page or to our home page and click on our Facebook inset on the lower right. It can be an intriguing and enlightening conversation at times.

Hot topics our Facebookers (is that a name?) are commenting on include Blue Earth County new administrator search, sex assault at MSU and what can be done, Vikings and the Brad Childress saga as well as bonuses, or compensation, for university presidents in these tough times.

Join the party. Engage us!

Calling Mankato Home diversity event packed

I was very happy to see the standing room only crowd at The Free Press/Minnesota Public Radio event on diversity at Minnesota State University Tuesday night.

The crowd was at least 300 in my estimation, and many community leaders showed up as well as a good cross-section of the diverse community. It was standing room only.

It was a continuation of Free Press efforts to shed light on the issue of diversity in our community. One by one, Sudanese, Somali, and others from the diverse community and ordinary Caucasian citizens stood up and talked about what Calling Mankato Home means to them, and just how welcoming we are as a community to people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and sexual orientations.

There were many positive stories, but also some stories of discrimination and disrespect. A Mankato high school young lady had her hijab ripped from her head and teased about it when she was at school one day. A longtime Native American talked of how the adoption agencies described him as someone no one would want.

But on balance there were many positive stories. It was good hearing from AmeriPride Production Manager Tom Blaido talk about all the people of color his company has hired as a proactive effort. Others like Abdi Sabrie couldn't say enough good about how welcoming a place Mankato has become.

I was asked to sum up the evening and suggest things I've learned or taken from the conversation.

Here's what I came up with:

I hear a lot of hope in the voices of refugees and immigrants who spoke. They want to stay in Mankato and will do so, if they can find employment.

The community needs to be proactive in "opening our circles." I heard this from the schools, from the university people and the newspaper. Many in the diverse community will not come forward to participate in our community if they do not know the door is open.

Mankato can be not exactly welcoming but "not mean" to diverse people. That's not good enough. We have to do better at welcoming. We have to do better than "not being mean."

We can understand diverse people if we just listen to them a bit. Where they come from, things are different. A visit by police in the Sudan or Somalia may mean you're never heard from again. It's reasonable to expect they will have trepidation in dealing with police in America then.

We have to be proactive about developing a culture that is accepting of diverse people. We can't turn on a switch. It has to be ingrained in our mindset.

The term "Home" is a universal concept. If we want people to "Call Mankato Home" we have to help them find things that are homelike -- good friends, accepting people, comfort in social settings, employment that can sustain a family.

I heard from a lot of community leaders that this conversation turned out great, and we received thanks for hosting it. It is simply the kind of thing The Free Press wants to be associated with. It's our brand. Community leadership, civil discussion of the issues.

Lul Ahmed, a Somali woman who is part of The Free Press advisory board, said she didn't hear anything really new at the meeting, but she was glad that many more people were in on the message.

MSU professor Tony Filipovitch said there may not be a lot new, but it was important we were finally maybe having the discussion "with each other," thereby raising the overall community awareness.

It will provide another springboard for continuing Free Press coverage on the diverse community. You can participate in that coverage by giving us your feedback. Hopefully it will raise awareness that we can really grow this place to be even better than it is.

I wish the Fed would stop controlling my life

The Dow Jones Industrials rocketed 2 percent higher on Thursday and moved ahead again Friday to finish at 11,444, the highest since September 2008, just before the financial crisis-crash.

The Wall Street Journal and other credible publications attributed the rise to "the Federal Reserves plans to spur the U.S. economy" by buying $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds that "helped fan fresh rallies in oil, gold and Asian stock markets."

The move helped push down interest rates caused American companies like Coca Cola and Dow Chemical "racing" to sell $12 billion in new debt.

But this kind of interference is just another example of government getting too involved in our personal lives. My kid's college fund what up so much it was detestable. I would rather take my jolts without the Fed's unwarranted and unwelcome intrusion into my personal finances.

If we were this "fair and balanced" 
our readers would be burning our building down.

A column by Dana Millbank of the Washington Post has me trying to figure out why people call the Foxnews network fair and balanced.

He cites a number of Fox news employees taking sides in the recent  election coverage.

If Free Press reporters even came close to any of this kind of behavior, our readers would be burning our building down, and, by the way, the reporters would be fired.

What goes into an election night in the newsroom

The Free Press newsroom is recovering from a wild election night that taxed staffers for hours and at the end had reporters filing stories to editors every five minutes.

That led to more than 40 election stories being posted to our online website as the results began coming in at about 8:30 p.m. It also led to updating those stories several times during the night and producing several additional stories to publish in one print edition that rolled off the presses at about 1:45 a.m. and another so called "remake" with more final results rolling off the presses about 2:30 a.m.

In between we chased down politicians for quotes, pictures and their reaction to their winning or their losing.

In the days before newspapers had online sites, this kind of a night was a bit less hectic. But now we must produce our product on several "platforms" or places readers want to go to find news.

To that end, we were putting short headlines and updates on our Facebook site, that by the way, is automatically connected to our Twitter site.

The effort was one of high quality for a gargantuan task, and I'm proud to be associated with our team.

Readers, print and online, Twitterers and Facebookers were served.

The traffic to our website Tuesday and Wednesday totaled over 120,000 page views, usually the normal amount of traffic for four days.

But the presses ran, the microchips hummed and Democracy was served.

Countdown to election: mission impossible

With only three days before the election, it's amazing that the whirlwind of events doesn't just blow us over sometimes.

The newsroom becomes a busy place: candidates roll in every other day; letters flood the editor's desk, with the writers calling and anxious that their letter get in.

In my experience, this year ranks much higher for the amount of voter interest than other mid-term elections. Voters are stressed, angry, confused and in some cases voraciously defending their favorite pols in a year when all seem at risk for losing their jobs.

I was honored and fortunate to be in the middle of it at times while I hosted two debates through Debate Minnesota, an organization I have volunteered for now for three elections. Debate Minnesota is a nonpartisan group dedicated to rigorous but fair and civil discussion of the issues of the day.

They require orderly crowds as well and one of my jobs was to be the "no clapping" policeman.

I hosted with Pete Steiner of KTOE the 1st Congressional District Debate between Tim Walz, Randy Demmer and Steven Wilson. I also hosted the Minnesota gubernatorial debate at MSU with longtime St. Paul Pioneer Press political reporter Bill Salisbury.

I enjoyed doing both debates and take my hat off to all the candidates. It never ceases to amaze me the time and commitment these candidates put into their races. They take time away from their jobs, their families and their life in general to put themselves out there with their ideas, often unfairly attacked by their opponents.

It's a wonder we have anyone willing to run at all.

Editor talks sports, Vikes, Twins, therapy

Four words and a mathematical equation

Randy Moss = Vikings Superbowl

How's that for brevity? Exciting to see the length the Wilfs are willing to go to make the Vikings real contenders. Realistically, in the last 12 years, the Vikings should've won two Superbowls, one in 1998 and one last year. But who's holding on to old disappointments?

With Moss back, it may or may not happen. (How's that for a Vikings fan employing the tools of disappointment therapy?). But it sure could happen, and the season just got worth watching every game again. Typically, when the Vikings appear to be underachieving, I'll not watch the games they definitely should win.

It's my defense mechanism. But, now with Moss, I'll be suckered back into the purple haze, rain, -- to mix a Hendrix and Prince metaphor.

Twins and Yankees: I don't want to watch, but I will

I'm tempted not to watch the Twins and the Yankees. The Yankees and Jeter are the most ignorant people in the world. How are they ignorant? They're too ignorant to ever doubt their ability to win in any way, in any situation against any opponent. Of yeah, they're arrogant too.

The Twins have seemed lackluster at best in the last what is it? eight games? Talk about playing to their competition.

Gardenhire hasn't dealt with this kind of letdown before psychologically. So he's in new territory as a manager to figure out the psychology of the team and work with it. Without Morneau and Nathan, the odds are stacked even higher against us. Matt Capps is no Joe Nathan. I hope to be proven wrong.

But again, the Yankees are ignorant and arrogant.

Mankato economy: some surprises

Mankato's economic indicators for this month are offering some surprises to the positive side.

Twelve indicators are up and five are down, according to the data provided in Free Press Media's Minnesota Valley Business magazine, a business magazine that's a must for anyone who is in business. (You can get on the  list for free if your are a business owner or you can subscribe for $19.95 per year. Call 625-4451 to subscribe or e-mail to readerservice@mankatofreepress.com).

But the most positive signs appear in the area of jobs. The Mankato/North Mankato metropolitan statistical area has about 1,000 more jobs than a year ago through August. The number of jobs is 54,350. But what's interesting looking at the historical data, we hit 55,343 jobs in April of this year, the highest level going all the way back to 2001.

Other indicators that are positive: initial claims for unemployment down 50 percent in nine county region from a year ago; The number of people looking for jobs is down by about 500 for the same place and time; unemployment rates for nine counties are all down; residential building permits in Mankato and North Mankato are up over last year comparing August, and prices for corn, soybeans, hogs and milk are up; vehicle sales and general sales are up in Mankato, compared to a year ago May.

Still, the economic impact of the state balancing a $6 billion deficit is likely to his the Mankato region more so than other places. In 2009, 10 percent of all wages paid in Blue Earth County came from state government. In Nicollet County, 17 percent of all wages came from state government jobs.

Editor's take on today's news

Surprising poll and the anger vote

Results in the latest Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute poll are somewhat surprising showing Mark Dayton opening up an 11 point lead over Republican Tom Emmer.

Apparently, Dayton's tax the rich message is not scaring too many average people. You have to wonder if one of the worst recessions in decades, angst and discord in Washington, tea parties across the country has created the perfect storm for the anger and frustration vote.

The idea that taxing the rich will hurt job creation also seems to be a message that not many people are buying. I'm not sure why they would. They haven't seen their "rich" employers add many jobs lately. So, they figure, what do we have to lose?

That's not necessarily the way I would think about it, but I've not seen anyone offer a study that shows when you raise taxes on wealthy individuals you curtail job creation, or conversely, if you lower taxes - like in 2001 - you spur job creation. That obviously didn't happen.

Anger, part two, the Chinese

With voters angry at their U.S. elected leaders in Congress, you've got to figure Congress gets angry and frustrated as well. So why not take it out on the Chinese.

A bipartisan group of 348 members of the House of  Representatives voted to penalize China if we don't like how they value, or - in our view- manipulate, the value of their currency, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Journal writer Michael R. Crittenden and Bob Davis describe it as a move that is "sending a powerful warning to Beijing but risking a response that could harm U.S. companies and consumers."

That's a great piece of good old fashioned journalist intelligence to work into that lead. The politicians were acting tough, but likely to the detriment of their constituents.

But who is against bashing the Chinese, the guys who are like the "rich" of the world because they own so much of our debt.

The bill would allow us to put tariffs on Chinese goods if we didn't like the fact that Chinese currency was making ours look bad. Congress is probably posturing more on this than actually thinking about doing it, but then again, actions of Congress are often based on what looks good and not what will work well.

The risk in this kind of retaliation legislation is what the World Trade Organization won't tolerate. The WTO has the authority to rule against any unfair tariffs and allow the aggrieved country justice. This legislation seems like it would certainly fall outside the WTO rules we all agreed to abide by years ago.

We'd just have them retaliate with tariffs on everything we have to sell to them. And being that China is one of the largest markets in the world for U. S. goods, (why would our governors and others be continually traveling there if they weren't?) cutting off trade or artificially raising the price of our goods in the Chinese market wouldn't make any economic sense.

Tip of the day for tea party folks

The tea party continues its angry protests against all manner of federal spending that doesn't ever seem to be specified except in broad ways like welfare and Obamacare.

I offer this specific for use in their next rally: The House of Representatives approved in May a Defense Department budget that will increase $46 billion in 2011, or 7 percent. The vote was 229-186.

But Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and his deputy recently told Congress their budget is bloated and wasteful and they don't need that much money, and are aiming to cut their own budget $100 billion over five years because of waste in private contracts that should be done by the Defense Department's own employees.

They also didn't want Congress to spend $485 million on backup jet engines they say they didn't need, as did Obama, as did Bush before him. The House voted down stripping that money from the Defense bill. The vote will surprise you. Democrats voted against the wasteful spending, while many Republicans voted in favor of the extra jet engines, though there was crossover both ways.

Tea parties and citizens getting involved in government is great. It helps if you have some facts.

Investors now hammer Target political contribution

The Target political contribution saga continues

Now, major investors in Target are asking independent board members to review political contribution policies.

One investment manager said they can't believe Target didn't see how political contributions toward controversial candidates affect the bottom line and its business.

Several groups are calling for a boycott.

Many corporations will be reviewing their policies and many are likely to be chilled.

What's interesting about this whole series of events is that the need to do good business trumps the need to be political or make a statement, especially with investors money!

Here's latest Strib story which also quotes L.A. Times.This story is getting a lot of traction and will likely not go away soon.

Business and politics don't mix

I knew it would happen.

As soon as the Supreme Court gave corporations the go ahead to contribute to political campaigns, many would move that way headstrong without thinking of the ramifications.

Many, like Target Corp., are now thinking twice about corporate contributions to political candidates.

When Target contributed to Minnesota Forward, a political group backing GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, the corporation ran into a buzzsaw of sorts of public opinion from the gay community.

Lots of those folks work at Target, lots buy at Target and they weren't so keen on Target backing a guy who they believe does not have their best interests at heart.

Target apologized to its gay and lesbian workforce and later to the groups as a whole.

Now, Moveon.org is "targeting" Target for a boycott.

I must say I am amazed at corporations who hire squadrons of public relations people to gauge consumer reaction to the size and shape of Cheerios have no clue when it comes to offending consumers in the political arena.

The longstanding rule of polite conversation is to avoid topics like politics, religion and sex, seems to be lost on corporations who must adhere to the rules of polite conversation if they want to maximize the number of people who may be interested in their products.

For more on this topic, check out MPR's story.

Here's an interesting FactCheck story as well.

Give Emmer credit,

You've got to give gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer a little credit for going into the belly of the beast and having a town hall meeting with angry waiters and waitresses.

He said in remarks earlier that he favored a lower minimum wage and that some waiters and waitresses can make $100,000 a year. He said he was told that by the owner of a St. Paul cafe, who he says, now says he didn't say it.

Here's a Strib story and video worth watching.

Of course, he had supporters in the room ready to clap at appropriate times, but his message was still mainly clear. If you're a good servers, you should make a little more than minimum if you're not good you should "maybe" make a little less and "work your way up."

I don't think I've ever seen a candidate talk to people about how they should work and what they should be paid. It's an unusual conversation.

Editor's take: Today's news 7/14

Are felons for Democrats?

Another story getting a lot of attention is the discovery that several hundred convicted felons were allowed to vote in Minnesota.

The research by conservative watchdog group Minnesota Majority unearthed a bunch of felons who voted in Franken-Coleman election.

Ramsey County is prosecuting, but as Majority spokesman says, nothing can be done legally. Some media, including ours quoting a third party, are coming up with headlines like "Felons favor Democrats"

It's not surprising to me that our system of counting ballots and making sure people are legal that relies on volunteers at a school cafeteria is going to have some flaws.

Heck, we can't even keep track of sex offenders.

There are some kinks in this investigation. The research was unable to show if the so called felons where indeed felons when they voted. You can be convicted of a felony in Minnesota and then later be allowed to vote once you've done your time and other circumstances are right.

Here's an excellent unearthing of the facts to caution some to not get too excited just yet.

Here's a fairly complete story on this felon vote controversy.

Mauer seems kind of listless at the plate

Watching Joe Mauer over the last few games, he seemed relaxed at the plate, almost too relaxed. His facial expression is not as intense as it normally seems.

Makes one wonder if his head is not in the game and if so why not. Lots of pressure from the big contract getting to him possibly.

The moving from second on a ball hit to the right of him on the infield was simply a mental error. Little leaguers are taught that rule from day one.

Mauer, of course, was thrown out.

Strib columnist called him "tepid." I agree


Will class warfare sell in politics this year

Given Mark Dayton's clear campaign message "Tax the Rich" and his surprisingly, to me at least, strong poll numbers, one wonders if there's just enough anger at "the rich" to turn this election into a fight between the classes like we've not seen in the past.

Here's the theory: The economy is bad, people are losing their jobs or being asked to do more with less at their jobs.

Average people equate their employer or manager as the "rich" therefore they have a lot more people to be angry at as opposed to just being mad at the neighbor down the street who bought a new Lexus.

 Typical workers want to get back at how they've been treated. The "rich" are becoming their target.

The recent furor over Tom Emmer's comment about $100,000 waiters also seemed to suggest there is a bit of class angst out there.

As soon as Emmer suggested a lower minimum wage, one of his opponents, DFL candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher came out proposing a higher minimum wage. The thought here is again, creating that kind of two-class argument in the political arena.

Should be interesting to see how this develops and how the campaigns might use this emerging social trend in their messaging.

Editor's take: today's news developments

Steinbrenner dead at 80

Making big news today is the death of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who apparently had a heart attack.

The hard-nosed longtime businessman will be remembered for a lot of things, not all of them complimentary.

From an AP story of today.

After building his fortune in the shipbuilding industry, Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees from CBS in 1973 and returned them to the glory of the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle-Yogi Berra-Whitey Ford era teams.

It was later revealed Steinbrenner invested less than $200,000 in the $10-million deal — but turned the Yankees into the most valuable franchise in sports history, with an estimated worth of well more than $1 billion.

"Owning the Yankees is like owning the 'Mona Lisa,' " Steinbrenner once said.

Politics erupts on budget, deficit issue

There appears to be a lot of steam behind the story of the House of Representatives failing to pass a "budget outline" for the first time since 1974.

It's turning into a fairly spirited political debate and will heat up for the election.

Here's the best, most objective and clear story I've found on this complicated issue.

I'll be writing an editorial for tomorrow's print edition on the subject, pending approval of course.

What's great about this debate is for once we're bringing the complex subject of the federal budget to voters and typical Americans everywhere.

That can only be good.

Manufacturing program in jeopardy

Here's an interesting editorial on a program that helps manufacturing companies do business overseas.

It points out that though the program has had broad bipartisan support in the past, Republicans are now describing it as an earmark.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz is mentioned in the article as supporting it for the good of jobs and making sure we don't through another uncertainty at manufacturers who have come to rely on this program.

Here's relevant parts of the edit from StarTribune

"With the national unemployment rate still at an alarming 9.5 percent, it's common sense that politicians back up grand talk about job growth by supporting policies that actually help the companies that do the hiring.
Unfortunately, common sense seems in short supply when it comes to an important but little-known piece of legislation called the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), which helps keep manufacturing jobs in the United States. The MTB comes up for renewal periodically, and in previous years -- most recently 2006 -- it garnered broad bipartisan support. But this year, its routine passage is jeopardized primarily because Republicans have recently redefined the term "earmark," political slang for directing appropriations to favored programs or projects.
Because of this, they now consider MTB's longstanding duty reductions or suspensions on raw materials imported by American manufacturers to be earmarks, a big problem when U.S. House Republican leadership announced an earmark moratorium. Despite this ban, the nation's political leaders need to hammer out a compromise quickly. With the economy still struggling to recover, lawmakers need to do everything they can to encourage economic growth and preserve key measures such as the MTB that have helped firms in Minnesota and across the nation stay competitive for years."

Link to full article 

Things you didn't know about this "news enterprise"

There's still a lot of gnashing of teeth about the future of newspapers out there.

Explaining our emerging new modes of operation in my social gatherings, I find people terribly out of the loop on what newspapers are doing that's new.

That's partly, perhaps mostly, our own fault.

First let's re-describe ourselves as "news enterprises" as the "paper" part is becoming less and less significant.

As a news enterprise we now:

1. Can link you and get you to all manner of news via the website, including hourly weather forecasts for Mankato or a specific GPS location in Mankato. You want the weather forecast for Franklin Rogers Park, we can provide you the easy tool to find it.

2. Can connect you to friends and neighbors engaging in enlightening discussion through our forums or chatting on our FACEBOOK site. The Free Press now has 1200 Facebook fans, who post their ideas, and especially their storm photos. We can put those photos up on a rotating widget on our website.

3. Help you to influence city hall or county board in a number of ways. You don't like something city hall's doing, you can write a letter to the editor that will, at no cost to you, go out to 60,000 readers. We still are among the few news enterprises who actually accept letters to the editor and have them reviewed before they are published by a professional editor who, incidentally requires, letter writers to provide sources for facts not generally known. Find that service on a ragtag blog or website.

4. You can interact with some dozen or so Free Press staffers who regularly write about what they do, their hobbies or what they think through our blogs.

5. You can interact with those in power by pointing out civic problems that need correcting. A interactive pothole map we posted on our website this spring garnered some 300 participants pointing out the worst potholes to Mankato City Hall. City Hall officials monitored the site and fixed the potholes. Wow.

6. Want to know monthly crime statistics for Mankato? We've posted the regular report under our police logs category.

7. This news enterprise is currently producing two magazines that according to our readers are top notch and over the top. Mankato Magazine and Minnesota Valley Business Journal are keeping people having fun and in the loop.

8. Newspapers still hire skilled reporters who are critical thinkers and can question officials and hold them accountable. Those officials don't always like it and many threaten retribution, but we take the job seriously. Bloggers, number one, often don't have the credibility to get an official to call them back, and two, they don't have the power of publicity that comes with working for an organization able to print 20,000 editions at midnight and get them on the street by 6 a.m. 7 days a week, 364 days a year.

9. Newspapers can cast public shame and the spotlight on corrupt public officials. We can call them out and write editorials about their chicanery. It often works and works pretty well to get someone fired or defeated in an election

10. The news enterprises of today still attract honest people who want to help a democratic system work. It doesn't work without good information. It's one of the few industries that still attracts a lot of smart people who are not motivated by seeing how much money they can acquire.

Your federal deficit: good news and bad

My blogging buddy Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office offers a bit of good news on the federal deficit, though he doesn't call it good news. Numbers, after all are the perfect objective fact, they're neither good nor bad, just what they are.

So far, the federal deficit is down compared to last year. Down by about $80 billion. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's still about $1 trillion. That's the amount we spend over the amount we took in for the first nine months of the year that ends Sept.30.

Part of the good news is that corporate tax revenues are up like $30 billion or so. That means businesses are earning a profit and paying more taxes, or as Elmy notes, they got fewer tax right offs for capital losses, depreciation and such.

The Dougster's a swell blogger and I have a link to his blog on my blog site (and people wonder what I do for fun!).

Anyway, he has a quick succinct way of telling you the deal on the budget. Defense spending up 6 percent over last year as is a lot of the social program spending.

We're also getting more money for the Federal Reserve because it's buying riskier investments in housing (isn't that reassuring), and spending for the Trouble Assets Program is down.

So, all in all, the deficit's down, not by much, but maybe that's a start.

Here's the short and easy to read summary of how we're spending and how much we've got coming in.



http://www.cbo.gov/aboutcbo/organization/od.htm

Political coverage: how to be fair

Every election season it usually doesn't take too long for one political candidate or political party to accuse The Free Press of bias or favoritism in coverage of candidates.

Sometimes, it may look like we're covering one side more than the other. Believe me, we really try to play it pretty even, and we rely on our reporters to tell us why they think a certain event should be covered and why one can be listed in our campaign notebook as an item of interest.

Local newspapers must focus on local people. So the local candidates will get top priority in coverage in many, but not all cases. Relevance to our readership is another consideration. A candidate discussing local government aid might get more attention than one speaking say on U.S. foreign policy.

Above all, we must focus on information that will be useful to our voters. I'm always amazed how candidates want to get coverage for every stump speech they make, even if it's the same one time after time, but are less willing to answer hard questions about their voting record.

But we know the public and our readers want us to be fair in our coverage and that is what we strive to do with the added criteria of local relevance.

One thing we want to make clear to all candidates: We don't endorse any candidates for any office. We discontinued our endorsement practice in the 2008 election.

We don't want to be viewed as "kingmakers" and suggest that our endorsement would somehow translate to our readers feeling we favor one candidate over the other in news coverage. The editorial page opinion decisions were and are always made separate from the decisions on coverage.

It doesn't mean however, we won't take it upon ourselves to criticize a particular candidate's position on an issue.

Our readers expect us to use our knowledge of the issues from covering things  for decades to inform them about the impact policies may have on them.

Riverfront Park fireworks

From where I was sitting Sunday night, the Riverfront Fireworks were a hit.

One tip: don't sit behind the street lights, they will dull the full effect of the fireworks. I'm guessing the streetlights can't be turned off for safety reasons.

But there was plenty of room for pulling up a chair at Riverfront Park, even when the band was still playing.

I parked a few blocks away on 4th Street and had no problem getting out. The traffic seemed fairly well dispersed.  The crowd estimate was about 5,000 at the park, with a capacity to comfortably hold twice that amount.

The allowance of alcohol in coolers didn't seem to create any problems. Everyone seemed pretty well-behaved. The music could be heard fairly well in front of the bandstand, but not off to the side, probably good by design.

Lots of folks watched from their homes and their yards and parked at different places around the city. The map the city provided offered ratings of the view from various places around town. That was a good idea.

The map was published big in the Valley Section of Saturday's Free Press and online.

All in all, the new location for fireworks worked well, and is worth considering doing it there again next year.

New face of blogs

We're in the process of making our blogs a little easier to find and hoping you can access what we believe to be some added value to all the news we are now providing in print and online.

One of the best ways to access all blogs at once so you can find the writer you're looking for is simply to go to the green navigation bar at the left side of our website and find "Free Press Blogs" and then click on it.

You'll find some 10 blogs there on everything from sports and fitness to pets.

Our Pets on Parade blog also asks readers to submit entries as the title says showing off their pets or just exchanging some helpful information on pets.

Mankato high school sports: All children above average?

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

I didn't grow up in Mankato, and I'm always struck by how many of the high school sports teams not only make it to state championships but win a good share of them.

When I ask our sports staff if Mankato doesn't have an unusual share of state tourney appearances and wins, they doubt that is the case. They would have more knowledge than I would on it, but it always seems like Mankato high school athletes, like the children of Lake Wobegone, are "all above average."

Just the championships I can remember, give West at least two football state titles and two basketball state titles or near in the past 10 years or so. Both East and West have made the high school hockey tournament as well. East has been in the state basketball tourney several times and lost a very close game in the state football championship, if I remember right.

Excelling in hockey and basketball also seems to run counter intuitive as you see schools usually good in one major winter sport, not two.

East track team is well known for its success at state tournaments and now we again have the East girls golf in the state tournament.

Again, maybe it's just me. Where I went to high school, we made it to the final game in the State High School Hockey Tournament last in 1961. Washington High School in St. Paul never got past the second game of sections as far as I can remember in the last 30 years.

When I was a junior we did make it to the finals in our section baseball tournament, losing our bid to state to St. Thomas Academy, I believe.

Anyway, it's good to see so many Mankato kids doing well in athletics at the state level. If someone has a little time, I'd be interested in a history of state titles for Mankato schools. There must be a record book somewhere that could indeed prove if the kids in Mankato were "all above average," compared to students in the rest of the state.

For Helen Thomas, the ax just fell

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

The ax finally fell on Helen Thomas, longtime White House correspondent who started her career as a beat reporter with UPI and covered 10 presidents starting with John F. Kennedy.

Hearst Newspaper Corp. helped her decide to retire quickly and suddenly after some untoward remarks about Israel and the Jewish people, telling them to get the "hell" out of Palestine and go home.

Her dismissal isn't as surprising as it is in leading one to think about the rather powerful interests that can get one canned in the news business. She admits what she said was wrong, and apologized. We suspect she wasn't fully aware of what she was saying and the tone.

Nonetheless, it was interesting to me that even the White House Correspondents club? voted to rebuke her and remove her front row seat. I didn't realize the White House correspondents had jurisdiction over seating in the briefing room.

Learn something new every day.

This should be some good fodder for the news cycle, and I'm sure Howard Kurtz will be talking a week after the fact on his "Reliable Sources" media show on CNN. By Sunday, I would think we would have explored every angle, but then again, this business needs news, and the death of one of its own is sort of a morbid, macabre curiosity

Gubernatorial candidate budget plans

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

Here's a look at the plans of gubernatorial candidates for solving Minnesota's budget deficit as submitted to the StarTribune.

It's a crucial issue, and voters should demand these candidates have a plan as soon as possible.

In my assessment of the plans below, Mark Dayton has by far the most detailed plan. We give him credit for taking the politically risky move, thought a move of integrity, for telling people what exactly what he plans to do.

Kelliher's plan seems second most detailed.

I would give Horner and Entenza's plan a tie for details

Emmer has the least detailed plan, relying on slogans and somewhat unclear plan to "peel back the onion" of spending.

Here's a StarTribune editorial calling for more details from candidates

Mark Dayton's plan

Tom Emmer's plan

Matt Entenza's plan.

Tom Horner's plan

Margaret Anderson Kelliher's plan

Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

Readers of The Free Press print edition may notice that longtime comic strip Doonesbury now has an ideologically diverse partner on the opinion page.

Mallard Fillmore is a politically-oriented comic strip we have been running above Doonesbury in the Monday through Saturday editions. It is billed as a politically conservative strip and we've added it to provide readers with a little more variety of political viewpoints in terms of comic strips and cartoons.

The strip has been around since 1994 and is in 400 newspapers nationwide.

Here's how Mallard's distribution syndicate King Features describes the comic strip.
"Mallard Fillmore first hatched from the pen of Bruce Tinsley at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va.

Today, the celebrated comic strip about Tinsley's conservative reporter-duck fills the bill in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide.

Distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1994, readers of newspapers across the country enjoy the duck's right-wing viewpoint.

Tinsley created Mallard for what he saw as the conservative underdog. The strip is for "the average person out there: the forgotten American taxpayer who's sick of the liberal media and cultural establishments that act like he or she doesn't exist," he says.

"Mallard" almost did not see the light of day. When asked to come up with a mascot for The Daily Progress entertainment section, artist Tinsley showed editors three ideas: a blue hippopotamus; a big nose in tuxedo and cane; and a duck.

Tinsley says the hippo went unused for fear of offending overweight people, and the nose was axed because it would "offend people of Jewish and Mediterranean descent, not to mention Arabs and anyone else with a big nose." Tinsley says he thought his editors were kidding, but they were not.

Once Mallard Fillmore was off and running, his editors requested Tinsley tone down its conservative bias. When he refused, he was fired.

The strip caught the attention of The Washington Times, which used Tinsley's wise-quacking journalist in the commentary section before moving the strip to the comics pages. The rest, as they say, is history."

Always interesting insight into how editors view comic strips.

 Have only a couple of comments so far from readers on the new strip. One only saw the first couple of days and decided it was "another liberal" comic strip. I informed him otherwise and told him to keep watching.

It should be apparent by now to many that Mallard does have a right wing point of view.

Another said it provides what he thought was a fitting contrast to Doonesbury, being Doonesbury is more subtle and clever and Fillmore is more loud and unsubtle by frequent use of capital letters.

In any case, let us know what you think of the new comic strip.