The blind leading the blind

This is exactly what we need: the ignorant deciding what our science curriculum should be. Hey, if parents think that they should decide what should be taught in schools, why certify teachers at all?

Edit: Link fixed

Busways

This is only good news. People here are finally starting to realize that building highways without transit doesn't make congestion better, it makes it worse. The Hiawatha Light Rail line was hopefully only the beginning of a comprehensive transit network in this area.

We can have the Cedar Avenue busway, the Northwest busway, the Southwest busway/light rail line, the Seventh Street busway from St. Paul to the airport, a central corridor light rail line, and Northstar commuter rail. Minneapolis/St. Paul may finally grow up and be a real metropolis!

Katrina Catastrophe

If you want to do something, a good list of charities is here.

I honestly hope that all the displaced families will be okay, but I fear that this is going to become much, much worse as time goes on.

Cheri Pierson Yecke gone

Good #%&!#!@ riddance. This combative fundie shouldn't be running our schools and shouldn't be representing us in Congress. Our gain is Florida's loss, but I'm sure that Florida, land of the Terri Schiavo, Tasering kids, and even losing them in the Child Services department, will be a perfect fit. Sounds like Florida even wants to stop teaching science, one of Yecke's goals too. A match made in ignorant Heaven.

School test scores

School test scores came out today, and the results were mainly good. Scores were up, and fewer schools were on the underperforming list. The latter result, though, is partially due to some rule changes.

I don't think I know enough about the tests to be able to comment further at this point. I heard some talk on MPR about the relative difficulties of the tests, especially in science, and I believe that tests need to be harder, not easier.

Of course, NCLB is still a horrible piece of legislation.

TV

Not in any way related to politics, but the second Family Guy shown tonight was the funniest TV show ever broadcast.

Take on me...

Book Review

I recently read The Great American Tax Dodge by Donald Barlett and James Steele, about the epidemic of income tax evasion taking place in this country. This isn't the first book by these authors I have read; long ago, I read America: What Went Wrong, an earlier book about the decline of the manufacturing sector in the U.S., and along with it, the middle class.

The Great American Tax Dodge was a good book, but not as good as America: What Went Wrong, in my opinion. It provides a lot of facts and makes a compelling case for how troublesome and costly tax evasion is (as if we didn't know that the rich get away with this already), but it seemed to be just a little bit off, as if they were running with a slight limp. The had some oddly placed opinions in there, like how bad they think Roth IRAs are, that didn't really tie into the whole tax evasion story. Their recommendations for a better income tax system are sound and sound like what I have been saying for a long time, and as a result, will never happen.

There are two things we need to abolish in this country: Congress giving special tax breaks to very narrow interests, and local governments auctioning off tax breaks to companies in an attempt to get them to relocate. Unfortunately, it seems like it would take constitutional amendments to ban these things. I fear that true reform is a long way off, if in fact it will ever come.

We got your patronage here!

Yesterday it was announced that she-of-the-concealed-carry-bill, former Republican Representative Lynda Boudreau, has been named deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health. According to the story, she "will be the department's chief lobbyist at the Legislature and will oversee the department's budget, health statistics, budgeting and health provider inspection and regulation."

Boudreau is known for the aforementioned concealed carry bill, as well as her push for the "Women's Right to Know" bill, which requires a 24-hour waiting period for abortions (though I prefer to call it the "Women Я Stupid" bill, because that's what it implies). From what I know of her, she doesn't strike me as the brightest bulb; certainly, if asked which former legislator I would expect to cover budget, health statistics, budgeting and health provider inspection and regulation, her name would not top the list. But she did head the Health and Human Services Policy Committee, but that was policy, not budget.

Also of interesting note in the story is the fact that she will be replacing another former Republican Representative, Doug Stang, who will now be a lobbyist. Stang moves from legislator to lobbyist in less than two years, and he will once again return to the Capitol, but this time he won't have to run for his job every two years, and his pay will be quite a bit higher. Good deal!

Incidentally, Stang's appointment to this post was something I commented on my first day blogging. How meta!

Separation of powers

Some House Republicans are filing suit to prevent the governor from funding state services in the event of another shutdown. I don't agree with these people on much, but I do agree on this. It did seem to me to be out of order that most state operations were still funded even after the fiscal year ended. The public and legislators will never bear the consequences of their actions if most functions of government continue on after a shutdown.

Katherine Kersten: Bizarro Columnist!

Ah, good old Katherine Kersten. Is she one of the most ignorant, "clap harder!" conservatives in the world, or does she simply have bad luck? It's not as if she bats well to begin with, but today does seem to take the cake in terms of great juxtapositions.

Kersten's headline today: Iraq? It's A-OK!
Iraq news headlines today: Er, not so much.

I have a question out there for Ms. Kersten, or whoever can fill me in. What does it take to be that disconnected from reality? Do Republicans like yourself pass around a special type of crack? Some other drug? Does it take meditation? Carbon monoxide exposure? Please, let me in on the secret. I would really like to know how people can write stuff like you can without dissolving into fits of guilty laughter. Do you just stare at yourself in the mirror every night and giggle? Or do you avoid eye contact with yourself due to shame? Inquiring minds want to know!

Exposed?

Okay, I read the story at Minnesota Democrats Exposed that said that House Minority Leader Matt Entenza has hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Attorney General Mike Hatch to discourage the latter from running for governor so Entenza can do so. Now, my sources may not be as good as ol' "Exposer" over there, but from what I hear, it's not terribly factual. Actually, I don't think it is factual at all.

Aside from the obviously over the top "cloak and dagger"-like bizarreness of the story, this just doesn't sound like the M.O. of these two people. What is generally accepted to be the thinking in these parts is that Hatch will run for governor, opening up the A.G. spot for Entenza. Now, maybe Entenza does want to run for governor instead. I'm not inside of his head, and I doubt that Minnesota Democrat Exposer is either. But private eyes? Come on now.

I do have to admit, though, it's a funny story.

Religious freedom?

I could care less about the concealed carry law at this point, but the lawsuit brought about by several churches against it seems to be arguing on pretty tenuous grounds. To say that their religious freedom is being infringed upon by having to put up specifically-worded signs seems like a rather large stretch to me. What about handicapped-parking signs? Traffic control devices? Fire exit signs? All of those are mandated by government in one form or another, and these don't seem to be interfering with religion.

Look, I'm sympathetic to the concerns of the churches (and of other people) about the inability to ban guns in parking lots, or the whole landlord/tenant issue. However, I don't know if "religious freedom" is the way to go about arguing against these issues.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...

Mark Kennedy and the state DFL party: both idiots.

And arguing "it's not the same thing that Kennedy did" really doesn't cut it. It is. Somebody in both these offices should know better.

A bold stand

Senator Coleman comes out against murder. In recognition of this extremely risky stance, I will give him two finger claps of appreciation.

Northwest Airlines strike

There's not much to say about this because it is bad all around. The strike was inevitable; union members aren't going to vote to fire their coworkers and slash their own pay. So, as Nick Coleman says, this really is a funeral march with picket signs. Everybody is screwed.

The Aristocrats

On a non-political note, I went to see The Aristocrats tonight. It was quite funny, although certainly over the top. What I don't get is the fact that shortly after the movie started, a couple walked out. I assume that they left because of the content, and to that, I had to wonder, what were they thinking when they decided to see the movie in the first place? This isn't the kind of movie you can take a bunch of nuns and your Cub Scout troop to (although there was a joke in there that involved priests and Cub Scouts...)

The question of Ethanol

Pharyngula has a copy today of a good editorial on the use of ethanol. It's definitely worth a read.

I'm ho-hum about ethanol. Insofar as it makes a good oxygenate, it's a fine additive. I also think that this country needs one gasoline formulation, not dozens, so if ethanol is the best additive for everybody, that's fine. But I'm wholly against agricultural subsidies, and ethanol isn't going to replace oil. It just can't.

But read the article for yourself.

Just say NO!

I like this idea a lot. No legislators, no special session.

Complete and utter morons

Idiots.

(Note: MPR cite!)

Twin Cities liberal?

Yes, the Twin Cities are liberal, but this study is faulty. Presidential voting patterns are not a way to measure ideology. Probably the proper way to measure these things is to look at city ordinances and politics like gay issues, living wage ordinances, health care, and so on.

Gone daddy gone

....speaking of unintended, there was a brief unintended interruption in bloggy goodness, but it's been taken care of.

Welfare reform

I was thinking today about unnecessary abortions and such fun stuff, and I thought of a way to wed the conservative favorite of "welfare reform" to a program that is another conservative (and, to be quite honest, a liberal) favorite: reducing abortion. A win all around in my opinion.

I'm not a fan of work-based conditions for receiving welfare, although I see how they can be good if done properly. However, I am a fan of education. So how about this: as a condition of receiving TANF, all recipients must take a comprehensive course on sex education. In addition, contraceptives will be made available free of charge to parents on TANF.

I like this. It will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, and thus the number of abortions. It will also keep families on TANF from growing larger, putting more strain on both the parents and the financial system. In short, this plan benefits everybody.

So how about it? Is this a good idea? Has it been tried elsewhere (I did a quick search and didn't find anything). I think this is definitely something to think about.

Profile of Red Lake

Salon has a profile of Red Lake today. It's a pretty good read, but depressing. How we can allow closed areas full of so much poverty and so little hope is beyond me.

Creationism in Minnesota

Speaking of Creationism, on the Minnesota Politics Discussion list, there is a debate going on about creationism in legislation in our own state. This is the post that started it all, from Eva Young, a Republican who is taking some Democrats to task for allegedly voting for creationism. Also of note, this post from the purported author of the language, and this post from a person who apparently talked to some legislators. Apparently, Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba (D-Long Prairie) seems to think that Creationism is what her constituents want, Sen. Mady Reiter (R-Shoreview) definitely wants Creationism herself, and Rep. Doug Meslow (R-White Bear Lake) was a no-show.

A couple thoughts on this. First, the language that seems to be in question, "[being] able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories and models", doesn't seem to be too bad to me. All scientific theories are just that: theories. They can always be challenged by new facts and technological innovations. The "luminiferous aether" model of light transmission worked well until the Michelson-Morley experiment came along. Newtonian motion works until you can interact with subatomic particles moving at 99% of the speed of light. So this language isn't bad. It doesn't say anything about replacing a scientific theory with a nonscientific one.

Second, while I can understand that it is tough for a legislator to tell his or her constituents that they are plain ignorant on an issue, sometimes it needs to be done. No matter how much a certain segment of the population wants Creationism, it shouldn't be taught. If people were demanding that the racial supremecy of whites be taught as science, would it be okay to give them what they wanted?

Junk mail

How do I end up on these right-wing mailing lists? First it was Progress for America, the group set up to push Bush's Supreme Court nominee. Now it's some crap about how "courageous" Bush was for saying that science hurts his head and he thinks we should teach a story book in school.

Note to wingnuts: you aren't impressing or converting anybody.

A big sloppy kiss for Northworst Airlines

I'll cite a source other than the Star Tribune for this one: Channel 11 just did a story about what would happen if Northwest Airlines disappeared that was basically an in-kind donation to the NWA public relations department. It was basically a story about how the world would stop spinning if anything were to happen to Northwest, with the implied message that the state should do whatever it takes to keep them afloat.

Yes, Northwest is one of the largest companies in this state, and as such, any tragedy that befalls them would have a huge impact on our state's economy. However, there are two sides to every story, and we only saw one of them. There was nothing about the promises that Northwest broke after it got help from the state in the past. Nothing about what the workers have had to give up in recent years in terms of their contracts. Nothing about the issues facing the mechanics and flight attendants right now. It was basically a story about how wonderful Northwest is for bringing a hub to Minnesota, and like the goose that laid the golden egg, we can't do anything to tick them off.

I wonder if Northwest will start showing Kare 11 newscasts in their planes as a show of gratitude?

Narrow viewpoint

I completely missed this one a month ago from MPR. Heck, I didn't even know it existed.

The political blog Minnesota Politics, which spends way too much time citing only the Star Tribune as its information source, provides this assessment in the who won-who lost competition.

Point taken. Yes, a lot of my citations are from the Star Tribune. Why? Well, there are many reasons for this. First, I read my news online. I just don't have time to read the dead tree versions of newspapers. So that means that I get my news from websites. And face it, the Pioneer Press website sucks. It's awful, it's one big advertisement, with little in the way of actual news. I'm not the only one to complain about the website; even people from within the organization say that it is horrible.

As for the other major papers, again, it's a matter of limited time. I'll read things once in a while when I know something is going on in Duluth, Rochester, or St. Cloud, but I'm not reading them every day. This is a hobby, not a career, and I pretty much post when I feel like it. Ease of use and laziness cause me to sometimes sound like a house organ for the Star Tribune, but it's not by design.

Things probably won't be changing anytime soon. Given the choice between going to the lake and reading more newspapers to get a more balanced view of Minnesota politics, right now the lake wins. Sorry.

A picture of Mike Hatch

Want to know some more information on Mike Hatch, who is going to be running for governor? Check here.

As an aside, I saw the movie "As Good As It Gets" in the theater too. When Helen Hunt ranted about HMOs, I was pretty surprised; most movies avoid anything that smacks of politics, probably for fear of alienating one half or another of the electorate. The people in the theater I was in ate it up too.

Coming soon to a judicial race near you...

This article has some reasons why allowing judicial races to be partisan is a bad idea.

Baxterization

Yesterday, the City Pages had a good article about what is happening to Minnesota's northern regions. The writer uses the term "Baxterization" to describe the invasion of former small towns and resort areas with strip malls and big box retail.

The first part of the story, about the damage that ATVs are doing on public land, paints a disgusting picture. Last year, the legislature passed an ATV bill that would have closed state forests to ATVs unless specifically posted. However, this year, the legislature threw a huge loophole in there, exempting state forests north of U.S. Highway 2. So ATV riders can trash our forests all they want, and they are doing so.

ATV riders should be able to enjoy their sport, yes, but only on designated trails. State forests are our forests. I was brought up to respect public property; apparently, these people weren't. I really have to wonder what they are thinking.

The, there's the issue of what is happening in Baxter. I haven't been up there in many years; certainly not since MnDOT widened the highway. Now, I'm not sure I want to go there. They took away Paul Bunyan even. Why bother going there at all anymore?

Performance pay for legislators

Governor Pawlenty, fully energized after eating walleye, is proposing performance pay for legislators. If legislators go into special session, they will get part of their annual salary of $31,140 docked. Color me unimpressed. The salary is so low, legislators aren't doing this for the money. This would mainly be symbolic instead of actually accomplishing anything, so of course Pawlenty supports it.

Instead, how about some real reform, like even-year budgeting? Electing bunches of new legislators and expecting them to come up with a $30 billion budget in six months isn't a recipe for success. Odd years = policy. Even years = money.

PETA says stop fishing

PETA apparently wants people to stop fishing for walleye. Governor Pawlenty says "no" while telling said fish to "get in my belly!"

Um, PETA? I'm all against the mistreatment of animals, but dial it back a few notches. These are fish. They are meant to be caught and eaten. They are good for you (except when full of mercury). Telling people to "think of the fish" and stop fishing is not going to win you any supporters.

Judicial elections

Well, I just wrote a long post on this interview about judicial elections, which promptly disappeared when Firefox crashed inexplicably. I don't feel like writing it again, so here's the summary: judicial elections bad. We don't need any more partisanship. Judges should be chosen by the executive after being vetted by a judicial panel, with optional legislative confirmation. To ensure things don't get too wacky, there can be one election after five years of service, recall of judges, or mandatory retirement (or any combination of the above). Save the partisanship for the legislature and constitutional offices.

Duh - - 'oh!

It's official: fancy-schmancy uppity book lurnin' thinkification is no longer the goal of the United States. Feel free to become stupid. More here.

Seriously, this is outrageous. This is no different from the president saying that the theory of gravity is wrong and instead we are held on the surface of the Earth, and our planet is held in orbit around the Sun, by invisible 1.5-dimension golden millipede lassos. That theory and Intelligent Design have the exact same amount of real, scientific evidence backing them up: none. Zero. Squat. Bush has basically come out and said that when it comes down to believing in ghosts or the world in front of his face, he'll pick ghosts.

Either this country will rebound from its current plague of anti-intellectualism and look at this incident today as the lowest point in the history of science in the U.S., or we will continue to forego science and our way of life will be destroyed. Either way, today I am ashamed.

Less snark, more action

This is definitely a worthy idea. If you tire of pointless political squabbling and feel like doing something that actually benefits a person's life, then I can't think of a better thing to do than to donate to organizations that are working to prevent child starvation.

New law summary

Don't spend all of your raise on liquor or you'll be sorry, and save some money for cigarettes.

More gun law stuff

Churches are going after the gun law again, arguing that it's an infringement on religious freedom to require churches to tell people not to bring guns inside, and to let people have guns in their cars in church parking lots.

I understand where they are coming from, but I don't think this has anything to do with religious freedom. Joe Olson is right: they just don't like guns, which is their right (and something I agree with in theory). I'm pretty damn sick of this issue. I don't feel the need to have a gun, and unlike some concealed-carry backers who live in Eagan I actually am much more likely to be the victim of a crime. However, it seems that this issue has jumped the shark as it were. Passing the law hasn't had a noticeable effect one way or another. And yes, I am fully aware of the shooting of the bouncer at Nye's earlier this year; much more aware that about 99% of people, given the circumstances. But horrible as that was, I don't know if the gun law was to blame; a drunk idiot doesn't need a permit to be a murderer, just a gun.

So let's move on.