Perhaps, we should have done something like this here! Wonkette, once again, has a very interesting post!
40% of incumbents tossed! Wow...
Thursday, November 30, 2006
SC Times Letter to the Editor (Choice related!)
Oh how I miss my time at SCSU. The daily reading of the SC Times chatroom and the crazy comments that inundate it on a daily basis. I actually saved some of the post Homecoming stuff where people were wishing ill will upon me during that time.
It was awesome!
I digress. Here is the letter. I think it is a solid letter. The issue is perhaps the most delicate issue in modern politics. I witnessed it firsthand while campaigning. I completely respect perspectives that I do not possess, I respect one's right to stand up and fight for what you believe in, even if it is in complete contradiction to what I believe in. As a matter of fact, I respect those that educate themselves on the issues and can engage in a dignified discussion of the matter at hand.
Letter: Positive Alternatives Act was anti-choice, woman
Alice Cowley, Becker
A very tragic bill was passed during the 2005 state legislative session titled the Positive Alternatives Act. This bill gave approximately $5 million in tax dollars to the anti-birth control, anti-choice, anti-woman clinics throughout our state.
These anti-birth control clinics lure women who may be pregnant to come into their clinics, claiming they will help you. Their brainwashing techniques are that "abortion kills babies" and that "the potential life is more important than her life."
Women who come into their clinics are already sexually active and the only birth control information they give them are "abstinence only" and natural family planning. "Abstinence only" teaches that "good girls" don't get pregnant and when "good girls" do get pregnant, many go into denial until the birth of their babies.
Desperate people do desperate things. Abandoned babies are still being found and few are found alive. Republicans who supported this anti-birth control bill were Sens. Michele Bachmann, Betsy Wergin and Rep. Mark Olson, who campaigned to cut taxes.
Is the state keeping track of the extra cost to taxpayers of the medical and welfare expenses resulting from this compulsory motherhood bill? How much of your federal taxes are paying to promote "abstinence til marriage"? And look at the recent headline — "Abandoned infant found on roadside."
How tragic! When will the anti-choice learn that their brainwashing "abstinence only" doesn't work for everyone!
For centuries the religious moral ethic has been abstinence before marriage, which worked for some, while others ended tragically with broken minds, bodies and even death.
The wise concept of Planned Parenthood needs to be preserved and improved upon — realistic, humanitarian "Prevention not Prohibition."
The comments are interesting.
Ron from Fairhaven
Posted: Nov. 30, at 6:57 AM
Ideally, of course, state-sponsored women's clinics should be ideologically neutral in addressing young pregnant women. Counseling by the various religious groups should also be available if requested. But, in the recent political environment, the fundamentalist base has distorted this approach via the legislature and the more progressive factions have, it seems, allowed this to happen, virtually unchallenged. Hopefully this can be corrected as more progressive legislators take their seats. It is not that the Christian Right is "wrong" or unscrupulous; they have a right to have input into this dilemma. What we must strive for is balance and a sense of legal neutrality here. This is one area where faith-based initiatives could be of help, to provide young women opportunities for counseling in accord with their moral inclinations. A case could still be made for abortion procedures, if that is what is desired, to be funded privately, either by the pregnant parties or interested non-profits. For these procedures to be paid from state revenues seems to violate the rights of taxpayers with strong reproductive convictions.
GBGirl from St. Cloud
Posted: Nov. 30, at 7:50 AM
I do not believe in abortion (for convenience purposes). I would never get an abortion (for convenience purposes). With that being said, I will ask all of these self-righteous persons the question I ALWAYS ask when abortion issues and lack of BC education comes up....are you ready?
Preaching "abstinece" only is irresponsible and arrogant. Can you assure me that 100% of the time, 100% of our youth will listen and do as you say, 100% of the time? If not, then what is your plan to protect the youth?
It is arrogant and irresponsible to think that your son/daughter will hear of birthcontrol or learn of sex on their wedding night. They will hear the word "condom" and "Birth control" LONG before that night....who is it you'd like them to hear it from? Their peers on the playground?
If you don't like abortions, do something proactive...attempt to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
count from countyline
Posted: Nov. 30, at 9:12 AM
VERY GOOD observation, Warning Will Robinson.
It probably is true of some of the posters here also.
Later on today/tonight the "usual " female posters will state that men should not comment as they "have no idea".
I will respond beforehand by stating that female posters who HAD an abortion, but never in their life gave birth to a child should also not post as they have nothing to compare the abortion against.
And,no GBGIRL----EA --IS-- correct in her statement about Alice Cowley. How many of her articles have you read from the --abortion rights advocate--, GBGIRL?
Alice Cowley is in a class of FEW!
GBGirl from St. Cloud
Posted: Nov. 30, at 9:58 AM
Count: Again, don't be so ignorant. People that are in support of a womans right to choose and on prevention of abortions, are NOT pro-abortion.
If you are going to make-up labels to apply negative connotations based on your skewing of their views, then I will say you and EA are "ANTI-CHILDREN". Here is why....
1) don't educate on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies (or STD's etc)....which causes the youth that don't hear your abstinence message (and yes, not everyone views you both to be the all knowing) to become young parents or inflicted with STD's.
2) If you do get pregnant and have the baby, way to go! You didn't have an abortion! What? You are a young mother who is alone? Well we don't support government "handouts" because anyone can make their way unless simply lazy, so sorry...but good luck to you and that kid!
Yes...the "ANTI-CHILDREN" crowd is alive and well today! Some want to protect the child in the mother, others show concern for when the child is also outside of the mother.
Proud Progressive from Your Neighborhood
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:14 AM
I've long hoped that at some point the fetus fetishists would simply get tired and go away. There's no question that many evangelical leaders either applauded Roe when it first came down or simply ignored it. Abortion was not the major concern of conservative Christian churches until Falwell, then the Reagan campaign, made it so in the late 1970s. Since then it has been fueled by money and the growing power of the religious right, certainly, but that does not change the facts that abortion was not a major issue for religious conservatives before the late 1970s (they were much more concerned with things like individual salvation, and yes, even poverty) and that a large majority of Americans prefer to keep abortion legal.
The only reason the anti-abortion crowd still makes headlines is because they have been co-opted by the Republican party, which has intentionally done nothing on their issue in order to keep it alive politically. Officials from the Regan and current Bush administrations have clearly stated as much, showing their disdain for the anti-abortion religious right at the same time they use them to advance their own political programs. It's a sad story for everyone involved. What if all this effort and money had been spent in promoting birth control, or even providing adequate food/housing/education for children?
Lisa from not so much Northside
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:21 AM
When the pro-birth crowd truly becomes pro-life, we will be able to make progress in this country. Until then, it's PREACH PREACH PREACH about birthin' more, and turning a blind eye to the thousands upon thousands of children whose basic needs aren't met. Children without health care, without homes, without food. Where are the advocates for these children? Not on these threads, preaching "pro-life".
Ma Cheri from SR
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:54 AM
Many years ago, I went with a friend of mine while she had abortion. At that time I was roughly 5-6 months pregnant. It was not up to me to judge her, it was up to me as her friend to go with her in a time of need.
After being a the clinic for a few hours, I went outside, and was immediately swarmed by vulgar, angry, hostile “pro-life" protesters. Leading the crusade was a minister of some type. He got in my face with his disgusting, doctored, and mainly inaccurate pictures, begged ME not to go through with this abortion, if I agreed they would take care of me financially during the remainder of my pregnancy and completely pay for all mine and the baby’s medical bills. Well, that got my attention (of course I was not there having this done, but they assumed with my bulging belly, I obviously was, regardless of the fact that it was a woman’s clinic that performed more than abortions.) So I asked if he would guarantee that statement, he said yes, I then agreed to not go through with the procedure, and asked for his name and address so I could have all my medical bills transferred into his name. UUMM, guess what, never got it.
The moral of this story is, pro-lifers only care about saving a fetus, they do not care about the ones that are born, once they take their first breath, they wipe their hands clean and leave em on their own. (Pretty sure it was Warning Will that was in the cloth with his nasty arse pictures)
I could continue, but you get the picture. Oftentimes, it's a very spirited debate in the SC Times chatrooms. I do not partake anymore...only so many hours in a day!
<$Choice$> <$St Cloud$> <$Bachmann$>
It was awesome!
I digress. Here is the letter. I think it is a solid letter. The issue is perhaps the most delicate issue in modern politics. I witnessed it firsthand while campaigning. I completely respect perspectives that I do not possess, I respect one's right to stand up and fight for what you believe in, even if it is in complete contradiction to what I believe in. As a matter of fact, I respect those that educate themselves on the issues and can engage in a dignified discussion of the matter at hand.
Letter: Positive Alternatives Act was anti-choice, woman
Alice Cowley, Becker
A very tragic bill was passed during the 2005 state legislative session titled the Positive Alternatives Act. This bill gave approximately $5 million in tax dollars to the anti-birth control, anti-choice, anti-woman clinics throughout our state.
These anti-birth control clinics lure women who may be pregnant to come into their clinics, claiming they will help you. Their brainwashing techniques are that "abortion kills babies" and that "the potential life is more important than her life."
Women who come into their clinics are already sexually active and the only birth control information they give them are "abstinence only" and natural family planning. "Abstinence only" teaches that "good girls" don't get pregnant and when "good girls" do get pregnant, many go into denial until the birth of their babies.
Desperate people do desperate things. Abandoned babies are still being found and few are found alive. Republicans who supported this anti-birth control bill were Sens. Michele Bachmann, Betsy Wergin and Rep. Mark Olson, who campaigned to cut taxes.
Is the state keeping track of the extra cost to taxpayers of the medical and welfare expenses resulting from this compulsory motherhood bill? How much of your federal taxes are paying to promote "abstinence til marriage"? And look at the recent headline — "Abandoned infant found on roadside."
How tragic! When will the anti-choice learn that their brainwashing "abstinence only" doesn't work for everyone!
For centuries the religious moral ethic has been abstinence before marriage, which worked for some, while others ended tragically with broken minds, bodies and even death.
The wise concept of Planned Parenthood needs to be preserved and improved upon — realistic, humanitarian "Prevention not Prohibition."
The comments are interesting.
Ron from Fairhaven
Posted: Nov. 30, at 6:57 AM
Ideally, of course, state-sponsored women's clinics should be ideologically neutral in addressing young pregnant women. Counseling by the various religious groups should also be available if requested. But, in the recent political environment, the fundamentalist base has distorted this approach via the legislature and the more progressive factions have, it seems, allowed this to happen, virtually unchallenged. Hopefully this can be corrected as more progressive legislators take their seats. It is not that the Christian Right is "wrong" or unscrupulous; they have a right to have input into this dilemma. What we must strive for is balance and a sense of legal neutrality here. This is one area where faith-based initiatives could be of help, to provide young women opportunities for counseling in accord with their moral inclinations. A case could still be made for abortion procedures, if that is what is desired, to be funded privately, either by the pregnant parties or interested non-profits. For these procedures to be paid from state revenues seems to violate the rights of taxpayers with strong reproductive convictions.
GBGirl from St. Cloud
Posted: Nov. 30, at 7:50 AM
I do not believe in abortion (for convenience purposes). I would never get an abortion (for convenience purposes). With that being said, I will ask all of these self-righteous persons the question I ALWAYS ask when abortion issues and lack of BC education comes up....are you ready?
Preaching "abstinece" only is irresponsible and arrogant. Can you assure me that 100% of the time, 100% of our youth will listen and do as you say, 100% of the time? If not, then what is your plan to protect the youth?
It is arrogant and irresponsible to think that your son/daughter will hear of birthcontrol or learn of sex on their wedding night. They will hear the word "condom" and "Birth control" LONG before that night....who is it you'd like them to hear it from? Their peers on the playground?
If you don't like abortions, do something proactive...attempt to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
count from countyline
Posted: Nov. 30, at 9:12 AM
VERY GOOD observation, Warning Will Robinson.
It probably is true of some of the posters here also.
Later on today/tonight the "usual " female posters will state that men should not comment as they "have no idea".
I will respond beforehand by stating that female posters who HAD an abortion, but never in their life gave birth to a child should also not post as they have nothing to compare the abortion against.
And,no GBGIRL----EA --IS-- correct in her statement about Alice Cowley. How many of her articles have you read from the --abortion rights advocate--, GBGIRL?
Alice Cowley is in a class of FEW!
GBGirl from St. Cloud
Posted: Nov. 30, at 9:58 AM
Count: Again, don't be so ignorant. People that are in support of a womans right to choose and on prevention of abortions, are NOT pro-abortion.
If you are going to make-up labels to apply negative connotations based on your skewing of their views, then I will say you and EA are "ANTI-CHILDREN". Here is why....
1) don't educate on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies (or STD's etc)....which causes the youth that don't hear your abstinence message (and yes, not everyone views you both to be the all knowing) to become young parents or inflicted with STD's.
2) If you do get pregnant and have the baby, way to go! You didn't have an abortion! What? You are a young mother who is alone? Well we don't support government "handouts" because anyone can make their way unless simply lazy, so sorry...but good luck to you and that kid!
Yes...the "ANTI-CHILDREN" crowd is alive and well today! Some want to protect the child in the mother, others show concern for when the child is also outside of the mother.
Proud Progressive from Your Neighborhood
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:14 AM
I've long hoped that at some point the fetus fetishists would simply get tired and go away. There's no question that many evangelical leaders either applauded Roe when it first came down or simply ignored it. Abortion was not the major concern of conservative Christian churches until Falwell, then the Reagan campaign, made it so in the late 1970s. Since then it has been fueled by money and the growing power of the religious right, certainly, but that does not change the facts that abortion was not a major issue for religious conservatives before the late 1970s (they were much more concerned with things like individual salvation, and yes, even poverty) and that a large majority of Americans prefer to keep abortion legal.
The only reason the anti-abortion crowd still makes headlines is because they have been co-opted by the Republican party, which has intentionally done nothing on their issue in order to keep it alive politically. Officials from the Regan and current Bush administrations have clearly stated as much, showing their disdain for the anti-abortion religious right at the same time they use them to advance their own political programs. It's a sad story for everyone involved. What if all this effort and money had been spent in promoting birth control, or even providing adequate food/housing/education for children?
Lisa from not so much Northside
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:21 AM
When the pro-birth crowd truly becomes pro-life, we will be able to make progress in this country. Until then, it's PREACH PREACH PREACH about birthin' more, and turning a blind eye to the thousands upon thousands of children whose basic needs aren't met. Children without health care, without homes, without food. Where are the advocates for these children? Not on these threads, preaching "pro-life".
Ma Cheri from SR
Posted: Nov. 30, at 10:54 AM
Many years ago, I went with a friend of mine while she had abortion. At that time I was roughly 5-6 months pregnant. It was not up to me to judge her, it was up to me as her friend to go with her in a time of need.
After being a the clinic for a few hours, I went outside, and was immediately swarmed by vulgar, angry, hostile “pro-life" protesters. Leading the crusade was a minister of some type. He got in my face with his disgusting, doctored, and mainly inaccurate pictures, begged ME not to go through with this abortion, if I agreed they would take care of me financially during the remainder of my pregnancy and completely pay for all mine and the baby’s medical bills. Well, that got my attention (of course I was not there having this done, but they assumed with my bulging belly, I obviously was, regardless of the fact that it was a woman’s clinic that performed more than abortions.) So I asked if he would guarantee that statement, he said yes, I then agreed to not go through with the procedure, and asked for his name and address so I could have all my medical bills transferred into his name. UUMM, guess what, never got it.
The moral of this story is, pro-lifers only care about saving a fetus, they do not care about the ones that are born, once they take their first breath, they wipe their hands clean and leave em on their own. (Pretty sure it was Warning Will that was in the cloth with his nasty arse pictures)
I could continue, but you get the picture. Oftentimes, it's a very spirited debate in the SC Times chatrooms. I do not partake anymore...only so many hours in a day!
<$Choice$> <$St Cloud$> <$Bachmann$>
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Oh my god, were gonna be in Iraq til 2045!
Bush's stay the course strategy brought that out of Jon Stewart tonight! "We must stay in Iraq to we see victory for our children and grandchildren," Bush stated.
But the lowlight of the day, was seeing the Bush vs. Webb stuff evolve. Vietnam Vet, Jim Webb, beat George Allen for the US Senate seat in VA recently, putting the Senate in the hands of Democrats.
"How's your boy?" Webb, in an interview Wednesday, recalled Bush asking during the reception two weeks ago.
"I told him I'd like to get them out of Iraq," Webb said.
"That's not what I asked. How's your boy?" the president replied, according to Webb.
At that point, Webb said, Bush got a response similar to what reporters and others who had asked Webb about Lance Cpl. Jimmy Webb, 24, have received since the young man left for Iraq around Labor Day: "I told him that was between my boy and me."
Rumor on the street was that Webb wanted to hit Bush as well!
This from your "Commander in Chief". This is what happens when leaders have a complete dis-repect for those that have served this great nation. I am appalled that President Bush would act in such a manner. His actions bring great discredit upon Veterans and Servicemembers alike.
But the lowlight of the day, was seeing the Bush vs. Webb stuff evolve. Vietnam Vet, Jim Webb, beat George Allen for the US Senate seat in VA recently, putting the Senate in the hands of Democrats.
"How's your boy?" Webb, in an interview Wednesday, recalled Bush asking during the reception two weeks ago.
"I told him I'd like to get them out of Iraq," Webb said.
"That's not what I asked. How's your boy?" the president replied, according to Webb.
At that point, Webb said, Bush got a response similar to what reporters and others who had asked Webb about Lance Cpl. Jimmy Webb, 24, have received since the young man left for Iraq around Labor Day: "I told him that was between my boy and me."
Rumor on the street was that Webb wanted to hit Bush as well!
This from your "Commander in Chief". This is what happens when leaders have a complete dis-repect for those that have served this great nation. I am appalled that President Bush would act in such a manner. His actions bring great discredit upon Veterans and Servicemembers alike.
Property tax issues and the surplus
How do we get to such a large budget surplus while property taxes have risen so sharply over the past several years?
The budget surplus shows the deep cuts that were made in education, mostly higher education, health and human services, and in Local Government Aid were not necessary.
Truth in taxation hearings are beginning all throughout the state over the next several weeks, as counties, cities and other local government entities explain where these monies are going.
The truth behind that truth in taxation meetings are that they are very taxing on our counties. Obviously, I support the tax payers right to know how their monies are being used. We need truth in taxation meetings at the state and national level as well.
When I was out lobbying Senator Coleman, about three years ago now, he gave many of us copies of the US Consitution as we left his DC office. It was actually a very good meeting and the Senator has been good to higher education.
Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 7 of the Constitution states, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."
That last part is the key area I would like to focus on. A regualr statement of what we spend and take in from public funding, will be made public from time to time.
How many aspects of the Federal Budget are secretive? Now I know the righty response to this will be, "How can we let the terrorists know how much we are spending? It's not patriotic to let them know."
Secrets do not have friends. As a tax payer, we have a constitutional right to know ALL of this.
Which leads me back to truth in taxation hearings and things of that nature.
It's quite remarkable to me. Higher echelons of government make significant cuts in funding and programming and force the lower echelons of government to make up the difference. Then, the higher echelon forces the lower echelon to submit to highly bureacratic accountabililty measures while they continue to spend on pork barrel projects (See "deficit reduction act of 2005", cuts to areas important to middle and working Americans, tax cuts for the rich, and bridges to no where).
Solution?
It's simple! Hold your elected officials accountable. If elected leaders are not doing what we need them to do, fire them in the next election.
"My guy is a good guy though." "He delivered a great dairy bill 15 years ago though."
Colonel Bartran used a saying about people who worked like this. After about 60 days out in the Yakima Training Center, with maybe 4 showers and only a few nights of good sleep, I made it back to my unit at Fort Lewis. The Colonel and many others had been back for well over a week. I got back to my office, worked on a few things real quick, and then was intent on leaving to eat, shower, and feel human once again. Colonel Bartran caught me.
"Mike Gulf, what are you doing?"
"Headed home" I stated.
He put his arm around me, "You did a great job out in Yak, we did a lot of great training because of you. I'm glad you're with me. But what have you done for me today?"
I was shocked. Before I could say a word, deep down, I knew he was right. Even though my driver and I were deployed for 2 weeks longer then anyone else in my unit, it was my job.
I went back to work, and he came by 15 minutes later and kicked me out.
That's a question that should drive voters and taxpayers.
What have you done for me today Senator ______ (Representative __________).
The budget surplus shows the deep cuts that were made in education, mostly higher education, health and human services, and in Local Government Aid were not necessary.
Truth in taxation hearings are beginning all throughout the state over the next several weeks, as counties, cities and other local government entities explain where these monies are going.
The truth behind that truth in taxation meetings are that they are very taxing on our counties. Obviously, I support the tax payers right to know how their monies are being used. We need truth in taxation meetings at the state and national level as well.
When I was out lobbying Senator Coleman, about three years ago now, he gave many of us copies of the US Consitution as we left his DC office. It was actually a very good meeting and the Senator has been good to higher education.
Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 7 of the Constitution states, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."
That last part is the key area I would like to focus on. A regualr statement of what we spend and take in from public funding, will be made public from time to time.
How many aspects of the Federal Budget are secretive? Now I know the righty response to this will be, "How can we let the terrorists know how much we are spending? It's not patriotic to let them know."
Secrets do not have friends. As a tax payer, we have a constitutional right to know ALL of this.
Which leads me back to truth in taxation hearings and things of that nature.
It's quite remarkable to me. Higher echelons of government make significant cuts in funding and programming and force the lower echelons of government to make up the difference. Then, the higher echelon forces the lower echelon to submit to highly bureacratic accountabililty measures while they continue to spend on pork barrel projects (See "deficit reduction act of 2005", cuts to areas important to middle and working Americans, tax cuts for the rich, and bridges to no where).
Solution?
It's simple! Hold your elected officials accountable. If elected leaders are not doing what we need them to do, fire them in the next election.
"My guy is a good guy though." "He delivered a great dairy bill 15 years ago though."
Colonel Bartran used a saying about people who worked like this. After about 60 days out in the Yakima Training Center, with maybe 4 showers and only a few nights of good sleep, I made it back to my unit at Fort Lewis. The Colonel and many others had been back for well over a week. I got back to my office, worked on a few things real quick, and then was intent on leaving to eat, shower, and feel human once again. Colonel Bartran caught me.
"Mike Gulf, what are you doing?"
"Headed home" I stated.
He put his arm around me, "You did a great job out in Yak, we did a lot of great training because of you. I'm glad you're with me. But what have you done for me today?"
I was shocked. Before I could say a word, deep down, I knew he was right. Even though my driver and I were deployed for 2 weeks longer then anyone else in my unit, it was my job.
I went back to work, and he came by 15 minutes later and kicked me out.
That's a question that should drive voters and taxpayers.
What have you done for me today Senator ______ (Representative __________).
$2 billion surplus!
Strib is reporting the surplus over the next biennium will be over $2 billion, just obver a billion per year.
Needless to say, I think some property tax relief will be coming as well as some school funding and higher education tuition relief!
I think it will be a good year for higher education down in St Paul!
Needless to say, I think some property tax relief will be coming as well as some school funding and higher education tuition relief!
I think it will be a good year for higher education down in St Paul!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Higher Education Press Release-Winona State University Student Senate
The gavel has yet to be hit, but the new legislative leaders in both the Minnesota House of Representatives and Senate have already begun to examine the issue of higher education affordability.
Last Tuesday, members of state legislative leadership appeared on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Midday” to discuss the possible initiatives in the upcoming legislative session.
When the discussion turned to higher education, Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) was quick to point out that a tuition freeze at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, of which Winona State University is a member, was a possibility.
“There is a great opportunity to say we need to at least freeze tuition and allow families to catch up and take a breath without affecting the faculty or the great programs we have,” Seifert, soon-to-be House minority leader, said.
MnSCU has previously announced they would prefer a tuition increase capped at 4 percent. Seifert thinks there is a need for greater accountability at the MnSCU level.
“We (the legislature) are the ones knocking on doors and listening to the people so we're going to probably have to take a more direct role in some of these things,” he said.
Student leadership at Winona State is pleased that a tuition freeze is a possibility.
“It is refreshing that both sides are talking about a tuition freeze as a viable solution,” WSU Student Senate President Carl Soderberg said. “With this early dialogue the climate of our lobbying efforts should be friendlier.”
Recent tuition increases have frustrated and caused students and families hardship, says Rick Howden, legislative affairs chair of the WSU Student Senate.
“Our state was once committed to making public higher education accessible and affordable by funding 67 percent of the cost,” Howden said.
“The state has not followed through with this commitment, thus forcing the burden onto the students.” The Minnesota State University Student Association, which represents students at each of the seven state universities, has already passed a proposal calling for no increase.
One other proposal discussed on “Midday” includes one from Gov. Tim Pawlenty which would offer two years of free tuition to high achieving high school students, and was supported on the show by Sen. Dave Senjem (R-Rochester), Senate minority leader. Opinions differ on this proposal, however.
“My instinct tells me that the governor’s proposal is probably not going to fly,” Sen. Larry Pogemiller, incoming Senate majority leader said on the show. “I don’t think it’s fundamentally fair. We should focus on having stable and modestly increasing tuition.”
Winona State students are likely to be lobbying in full force on the issues of tuition and student debt once the session beings, Howden added.
“With the debt stories our students are willing to share, we can show the legislature the effects of increasing tuition,” he said.
I do not find it odd that Seifert would discuss a tuition freeze. Having lobbied him on higher ed issues the past couple of years, he has always been very open to our views and issues!
I do agree with Pogemiller in that the Governor's higher education initiative is going no where. To target the top 25%, a group that already receives a larger proportion of scholarships and such, would have less of an impact as other ideas in the higher ed community.
The idea of a tuition freeze is interesting! We lobbied for one 3 years ago now and were unsuccessful in appropriating enough money for it, but did fight MnSCU to keep tuition 2-5% lower than targeted, saving students across the state more than $3.5 million.
Keep up the good work WSU Senate, and why no love for Jared in the press release?
Last Tuesday, members of state legislative leadership appeared on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Midday” to discuss the possible initiatives in the upcoming legislative session.
When the discussion turned to higher education, Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) was quick to point out that a tuition freeze at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, of which Winona State University is a member, was a possibility.
“There is a great opportunity to say we need to at least freeze tuition and allow families to catch up and take a breath without affecting the faculty or the great programs we have,” Seifert, soon-to-be House minority leader, said.
MnSCU has previously announced they would prefer a tuition increase capped at 4 percent. Seifert thinks there is a need for greater accountability at the MnSCU level.
“We (the legislature) are the ones knocking on doors and listening to the people so we're going to probably have to take a more direct role in some of these things,” he said.
Student leadership at Winona State is pleased that a tuition freeze is a possibility.
“It is refreshing that both sides are talking about a tuition freeze as a viable solution,” WSU Student Senate President Carl Soderberg said. “With this early dialogue the climate of our lobbying efforts should be friendlier.”
Recent tuition increases have frustrated and caused students and families hardship, says Rick Howden, legislative affairs chair of the WSU Student Senate.
“Our state was once committed to making public higher education accessible and affordable by funding 67 percent of the cost,” Howden said.
“The state has not followed through with this commitment, thus forcing the burden onto the students.” The Minnesota State University Student Association, which represents students at each of the seven state universities, has already passed a proposal calling for no increase.
One other proposal discussed on “Midday” includes one from Gov. Tim Pawlenty which would offer two years of free tuition to high achieving high school students, and was supported on the show by Sen. Dave Senjem (R-Rochester), Senate minority leader. Opinions differ on this proposal, however.
“My instinct tells me that the governor’s proposal is probably not going to fly,” Sen. Larry Pogemiller, incoming Senate majority leader said on the show. “I don’t think it’s fundamentally fair. We should focus on having stable and modestly increasing tuition.”
Winona State students are likely to be lobbying in full force on the issues of tuition and student debt once the session beings, Howden added.
“With the debt stories our students are willing to share, we can show the legislature the effects of increasing tuition,” he said.
I do not find it odd that Seifert would discuss a tuition freeze. Having lobbied him on higher ed issues the past couple of years, he has always been very open to our views and issues!
I do agree with Pogemiller in that the Governor's higher education initiative is going no where. To target the top 25%, a group that already receives a larger proportion of scholarships and such, would have less of an impact as other ideas in the higher ed community.
The idea of a tuition freeze is interesting! We lobbied for one 3 years ago now and were unsuccessful in appropriating enough money for it, but did fight MnSCU to keep tuition 2-5% lower than targeted, saving students across the state more than $3.5 million.
Keep up the good work WSU Senate, and why no love for Jared in the press release?
Monday, November 27, 2006
Enterprise Dispatch column today
Roz Kohls had a good column today at the ED. Her discussion of tobacco use, drug use, and the societal issues surrounding marketing and body issues of women is something even large urban papers fail to address.
While I still do believe that the risks of tobacco use need to be fully discussed with all teens, the body image issues are abundant in society today. Roz, I could not agree with you more! And as a liberal democrat, I am not embarassed to admit that.
Body image issues are real every day issues that fail to attract any public discourse.
Some may recall the 2004 SCSU Homecoming Queen being a bi-sexual Hmong man. The election of Fue, and for clarification, he was elected by the student body, was about both breaking down gender roles and stereotypes and also about body image issues. It's something I will always be proud of being a part of. Depsite the turmoil, we raised awareness of a lot of isues in our community and on our campus.
We look forward to more progressive and thoughtful columns in the future!
While I still do believe that the risks of tobacco use need to be fully discussed with all teens, the body image issues are abundant in society today. Roz, I could not agree with you more! And as a liberal democrat, I am not embarassed to admit that.
Body image issues are real every day issues that fail to attract any public discourse.
Some may recall the 2004 SCSU Homecoming Queen being a bi-sexual Hmong man. The election of Fue, and for clarification, he was elected by the student body, was about both breaking down gender roles and stereotypes and also about body image issues. It's something I will always be proud of being a part of. Depsite the turmoil, we raised awareness of a lot of isues in our community and on our campus.
We look forward to more progressive and thoughtful columns in the future!
A blast from the past...
Sitting over here at Dori's apartment, after eating some famous Erickson Nachos, I sifted through some old Enterpise Dispatch newspapers.
Wow...
First off, seeing Steve Dille's political ads from 1990. The only thing that has changed, other than the photo, is the district.
Then, in the October 24 1990 edition of the ED (I was 8 weeks into Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia at this time), they had a candidate survey.
Nice! It was interesting to see that Mr Dille said virtually nothing in 1990.
Question 4. What are the top 3 priorities facing public education in Minnesota? How would you deal with them?
Dille: "The top issue for many rural school districts is reform of an unfair school financing system that generally benefits urban property tax rich districts. Various solutions to this complicated problem are under consideration."
Too bad I did not find this gem a few months ago. Damn!
The issue has been significant for decades. Nothing gets done.
Question 5. Should health insurance be state-mandated? Under what conditions?
Dille: "Government, insurance compaines, health care providers, and businesses must work together to guarantee qualtiy affordable health care for every citizen."
For someone who has voted against health care for all Minnesotans or groups of Minnesotans at least three times, its frustrating to see him flip flop on this issue multiple times.
We could go on and on but will not be labor the point.
The Senator had an article in the Herald Journal today. It spoke of a bi-partisan approach to solving problems and listed several ways to accomplish this.
Let's hope it works...
If the past is indicative of the future though...
Education reform, health care, and environmental issues will be stong issues for me to run on in 2010.
Wow...
First off, seeing Steve Dille's political ads from 1990. The only thing that has changed, other than the photo, is the district.
Then, in the October 24 1990 edition of the ED (I was 8 weeks into Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia at this time), they had a candidate survey.
Nice! It was interesting to see that Mr Dille said virtually nothing in 1990.
Question 4. What are the top 3 priorities facing public education in Minnesota? How would you deal with them?
Dille: "The top issue for many rural school districts is reform of an unfair school financing system that generally benefits urban property tax rich districts. Various solutions to this complicated problem are under consideration."
Too bad I did not find this gem a few months ago. Damn!
The issue has been significant for decades. Nothing gets done.
Question 5. Should health insurance be state-mandated? Under what conditions?
Dille: "Government, insurance compaines, health care providers, and businesses must work together to guarantee qualtiy affordable health care for every citizen."
For someone who has voted against health care for all Minnesotans or groups of Minnesotans at least three times, its frustrating to see him flip flop on this issue multiple times.
We could go on and on but will not be labor the point.
The Senator had an article in the Herald Journal today. It spoke of a bi-partisan approach to solving problems and listed several ways to accomplish this.
Let's hope it works...
If the past is indicative of the future though...
Education reform, health care, and environmental issues will be stong issues for me to run on in 2010.
Smoking ban in Hutchinson
Reader letters in the November 23rd Hutchinson Leader indicated a movement towards a smoke free community emerging in Hutchinson.
Mayor Steve Cook talks of how an ordinance could be in place effective June 1, 2007. A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday November 30th at 7pm at the City Center.
Another letter from Courtney Jones, talks of her dealings with the issue from the perspective as a waitress.
I worked in a smoke free bar in Tacoma Washington, the Engine House #9. It was packed 7 nights a week. They did have a front patio in which you could smoke, but it was outside.
I too enjoy sitting in a restaurant and having a meal without being choked by smoke.
I do have concerns with local governments passing bans on smoking in bars and resaurants. First and foremost is the fact that it CAN provide decreased revenues, especially if another town is located near but outside the banned area.
Hutchinson would not necessarily be impacted in a negative way. Although I think the bar in Biscay could see increased revenue if it chose to remain smoke filled.
The same holds true for our small towns in rural MN. If Annandale were to ban smoking, townships adjacent may not. So, bars outside of the city limits could get the influx of smokers who drink.
While already an illegal activity, I would envision an increase in the numbers of those that drive drunk.
It's because of this, I believe our elected officials need to step up to the plate and be leaders. Ban smoking in all bars and resaurants in Minnesota. Work with officials in WI, ND, SD, and IA to help border town bars to remain vibrant.
Mayor Steve Cook talks of how an ordinance could be in place effective June 1, 2007. A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday November 30th at 7pm at the City Center.
Another letter from Courtney Jones, talks of her dealings with the issue from the perspective as a waitress.
I worked in a smoke free bar in Tacoma Washington, the Engine House #9. It was packed 7 nights a week. They did have a front patio in which you could smoke, but it was outside.
I too enjoy sitting in a restaurant and having a meal without being choked by smoke.
I do have concerns with local governments passing bans on smoking in bars and resaurants. First and foremost is the fact that it CAN provide decreased revenues, especially if another town is located near but outside the banned area.
Hutchinson would not necessarily be impacted in a negative way. Although I think the bar in Biscay could see increased revenue if it chose to remain smoke filled.
The same holds true for our small towns in rural MN. If Annandale were to ban smoking, townships adjacent may not. So, bars outside of the city limits could get the influx of smokers who drink.
While already an illegal activity, I would envision an increase in the numbers of those that drive drunk.
It's because of this, I believe our elected officials need to step up to the plate and be leaders. Ban smoking in all bars and resaurants in Minnesota. Work with officials in WI, ND, SD, and IA to help border town bars to remain vibrant.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Political Joke
And now for the humorous side of the blog...
Republicans in Hell
While walking down the street one day, a Republican head of state is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. "Welcome to Heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in." says the Republican. "Well, I'd like to but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in Hell and one in Heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."
"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in Heaven," says the Republican head of state. "I'm sorry but we have our rules."
And with that, St. Peter escorts the Republican to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to Hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a club and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him, everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar. Also present is the Devil (a Republican, too), who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that, before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves while the elevator rises. The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on Heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
"Now it's time to visit Heaven." So 24 hours pass with the Republican head of state joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well then, you've spent a day in Hell and another in Heaven. Now choose your eternity." He reflects for a minute, then the head of state answers: "Well, I would never have thought it, I mean Heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in Hell."
So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to Hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he is in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. The Devil comes over to the Republican and lays an arm on his neck.
"I don't understand," stammers the Republican head of state. Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and club and we ate lobster and caviar and danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. The Devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning!
Republicans in Hell
While walking down the street one day, a Republican head of state is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. "Welcome to Heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in." says the Republican. "Well, I'd like to but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in Hell and one in Heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."
"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in Heaven," says the Republican head of state. "I'm sorry but we have our rules."
And with that, St. Peter escorts the Republican to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to Hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a club and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him, everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar. Also present is the Devil (a Republican, too), who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that, before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves while the elevator rises. The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on Heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
"Now it's time to visit Heaven." So 24 hours pass with the Republican head of state joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well then, you've spent a day in Hell and another in Heaven. Now choose your eternity." He reflects for a minute, then the head of state answers: "Well, I would never have thought it, I mean Heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in Hell."
So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to Hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he is in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. The Devil comes over to the Republican and lays an arm on his neck.
"I don't understand," stammers the Republican head of state. Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and club and we ate lobster and caviar and danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. The Devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning!
Hypocracy 101
Democrats got a lot of guff for electing urban legislators to the leadership posts in both the House and Senate. Pogemiller and Kelliher were labeled polarizing figures by the GOP. Both have expressed a geniune intent to work with the Governor on accomplishing the work of the people, something that has been lacking in recent legislative history.
What do the GOPers do? Recently, they elected Tom Emmer to a leadership position in the house. We have lobbied Emmer a few times on Education issues. He will most likely not get endorsed by any education friendly group anytime soon. He also advocated for chemical castration for sex offenders and photo id's for voting.
It's politics as usual, expect...
I never saw the DFL call out Emmer and other GOP leaders on being polarizing figures. I believe he will be a significant polarizing figure in the upcoming Legislative session.
Watch out for Mr Emmer, it will be an entertaining capitol session for sure!
What do the GOPers do? Recently, they elected Tom Emmer to a leadership position in the house. We have lobbied Emmer a few times on Education issues. He will most likely not get endorsed by any education friendly group anytime soon. He also advocated for chemical castration for sex offenders and photo id's for voting.
It's politics as usual, expect...
I never saw the DFL call out Emmer and other GOP leaders on being polarizing figures. I believe he will be a significant polarizing figure in the upcoming Legislative session.
Watch out for Mr Emmer, it will be an entertaining capitol session for sure!
Foreclosures
Front Page of the Startribune today..
Twin Cities troubled by multiplying foreclosures
Home foreclosures in Minneapolis and St. Paul are rising at a rate that is beginning to alarm officials in both cities and threatening to destabilize some neighborhoods.
Similar trouble is evident in some metro suburbs and around the state, as more homeowners who plunged into the housing boom are now struggling with mortgages they can't pay.
In St. Paul, foreclosures are on a pace this year to be three times as high as they were in 2003. In Minneapolis, foreclosures have increased by about 79 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile in Dakota County, foreclosures exceeded last year's total by Sept. 1.
"There are more and more people who have purchased houses using mortgage products that they didn't fully understand," said Cliff Morse, a mortgage financial planner with American Home Mortgage in Chaska.
"Now people are falling backwards."
City officials and neighborhood leaders are struggling to respond to the problem.
This month, Minneapolis started taking calls to its 311 information line from residents facing foreclosure or having trouble making their mortgage payments. The city is also exploring the possibility of identifying at-risk homeowners before they fall victim to unscrupulous lenders.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said foreclosures are now the top housing issue in the city. "It's on some level the underside of the refinancing boom," he said, "but it also has deeper aspects including financial literacy and risky lenders who sometimes don't have the best intentions."
What's behind the problem
Mortgage bankers and housing advocates cannot point to a single cause of the problem, but cite several factors:
• Relaxed lending standards since 2000 have enticed marginal borrowers into the market with risky and subprime mortgages that are generally at higher than prevailing interest rates.
• Rising short-term interest rates are increasing monthly expenses for families who have adjustable-rate mortgages.
• Stagnant sale prices are making it difficult for homeowners in crisis and investors on the edge to cash out.
Still, the foreclosure problem in the Twin Cities and the state is not as severe as it is in other parts of the country where job losses are higher and incomes are stagnant. Minnesota ranked 34th among the states in the number of properties entering foreclosure in October, according RealtyTrac, which keeps a national database of foreclosed properties.
Foreclosures in local suburbs, while increasing, are not as widespread as in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Dakota County, the state's third-largest in population, foreclosures have been rising by double-digit percentages since 2002, according to officials at the county's Community Development Agency.
The largest increases have come in the past two years. Last year, 454 homes were foreclosed, a jump of 35 percent. So far this year, 523 have gone into foreclosure.
Even in Minneapolis and St. Paul, foreclosures remain a small fraction of the total number of mortgages. But city leaders are most concerned about the concentration of foreclosed homes in certain neighborhoods.
As of Nov. 3, there were 1,353 sheriff foreclosure sales in Minneapolis, according to data released by the city. During all of 2005, there were 870. And there were 414 in 2002.
Adding to blight
A disproportionate number of those foreclosures are in low-income neighborhoods on the city's north side. Some newly boarded-up and vacant houses are being stripped of copper pipes and anything else that can be carried out -- creating new blight in places already struggling with crime and poverty.
"It's an epidemic of grand proportion and a lot of it starts with foreclosures," said Tait Danielson Castillo, executive director of the Minneapolis Hawthorne Area Community Council.
Roberta Englund, a neighborhood leader on the north side, said she is watching with dismay as homes whose owners can no longer pay their mortgages get taken over by banks and become vacant.
About six weeks ago, she said, a house on the 3400 block of Newton Avenue N. that was home to a single mom and her four children was foreclosed. Now it sits empty with unraked leaves, peeling trim, a roof propped up by a board, and campaign literature still adorning the front lawn.
"I don't think there's any way to explain adequately how devastating one or more vacant houses on a block is to a community," Englund said.
The same thing is happening in St. Paul, where there were 623 foreclosures in 2005. As of July 1 this year, there were already 705.
The East Side and central city neighborhoods of Frogtown, North End, Payne-Phalen and Dayton's Bluff neighborhoods are where the problem is most apparent.
St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry said that part of the city's strategy will be to strengthen counseling programs to home buyers and residents with burdensome mortgages.
The nonprofit Family Housing Fund, for example, is working with both St. Paul and Minneapolis to come up with ways to reach out to those residents.
Tom Fulton, the president of the fund, said it is looking for ways to have properties purchased, rehabbed and sold to people who can afford them so they don't stand empty.
Get help early
Aside from the perils of living near a vacant house, neighborhood organizations are concerned the properties are falling into the hands of absentee owners who don't have the same interest in maintaining them as owner-occupants do.
Housing industry officials say it's important for people who are in or near financial trouble to seek help early.
Kristin Wells is among those who dodged the problem.
When she received notice that foreclosure proceedings on her home were imminent, she panicked, then became resigned to the idea that she would have to move out of her house in the north Minneapolis neighborhood where she was born and raised.
Wells got into financial trouble in part because of a brief period of unemployment. By the time she was able to catch up on bills, she learned that her mortgage lender would accept only the entire amount she owed in order to stop foreclosure proceedings.
Northside Residents Redevelopment Council helped her set up a repayment plan she could afford. She said she feels lucky her house was saved.
"When you're in trouble," she said, "don't wait."
Again, I ask the question...
We saw the impact out here in rural MN long before the Strib story. We saw the foreclosed homes in Stewart, Glencoe, Eden Valley, Watkins and Darwin. We talked to people who told us that the number of homes being foreclosed upon has increased significantly over the past year.
What can we do about it? I would legislate against predatory lenders. Secondly, as I talked about extensively on the campaign trail, we must stimulate the rural economies. We need real jobs in our area that pay a living wage and offer benefits.
With 50% of bankruptcy's caused by catastrophic health events, we need reform minded leaders who will advocate for the proverbial little guy.
Twin Cities troubled by multiplying foreclosures
Home foreclosures in Minneapolis and St. Paul are rising at a rate that is beginning to alarm officials in both cities and threatening to destabilize some neighborhoods.
Similar trouble is evident in some metro suburbs and around the state, as more homeowners who plunged into the housing boom are now struggling with mortgages they can't pay.
In St. Paul, foreclosures are on a pace this year to be three times as high as they were in 2003. In Minneapolis, foreclosures have increased by about 79 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile in Dakota County, foreclosures exceeded last year's total by Sept. 1.
"There are more and more people who have purchased houses using mortgage products that they didn't fully understand," said Cliff Morse, a mortgage financial planner with American Home Mortgage in Chaska.
"Now people are falling backwards."
City officials and neighborhood leaders are struggling to respond to the problem.
This month, Minneapolis started taking calls to its 311 information line from residents facing foreclosure or having trouble making their mortgage payments. The city is also exploring the possibility of identifying at-risk homeowners before they fall victim to unscrupulous lenders.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said foreclosures are now the top housing issue in the city. "It's on some level the underside of the refinancing boom," he said, "but it also has deeper aspects including financial literacy and risky lenders who sometimes don't have the best intentions."
What's behind the problem
Mortgage bankers and housing advocates cannot point to a single cause of the problem, but cite several factors:
• Relaxed lending standards since 2000 have enticed marginal borrowers into the market with risky and subprime mortgages that are generally at higher than prevailing interest rates.
• Rising short-term interest rates are increasing monthly expenses for families who have adjustable-rate mortgages.
• Stagnant sale prices are making it difficult for homeowners in crisis and investors on the edge to cash out.
Still, the foreclosure problem in the Twin Cities and the state is not as severe as it is in other parts of the country where job losses are higher and incomes are stagnant. Minnesota ranked 34th among the states in the number of properties entering foreclosure in October, according RealtyTrac, which keeps a national database of foreclosed properties.
Foreclosures in local suburbs, while increasing, are not as widespread as in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Dakota County, the state's third-largest in population, foreclosures have been rising by double-digit percentages since 2002, according to officials at the county's Community Development Agency.
The largest increases have come in the past two years. Last year, 454 homes were foreclosed, a jump of 35 percent. So far this year, 523 have gone into foreclosure.
Even in Minneapolis and St. Paul, foreclosures remain a small fraction of the total number of mortgages. But city leaders are most concerned about the concentration of foreclosed homes in certain neighborhoods.
As of Nov. 3, there were 1,353 sheriff foreclosure sales in Minneapolis, according to data released by the city. During all of 2005, there were 870. And there were 414 in 2002.
Adding to blight
A disproportionate number of those foreclosures are in low-income neighborhoods on the city's north side. Some newly boarded-up and vacant houses are being stripped of copper pipes and anything else that can be carried out -- creating new blight in places already struggling with crime and poverty.
"It's an epidemic of grand proportion and a lot of it starts with foreclosures," said Tait Danielson Castillo, executive director of the Minneapolis Hawthorne Area Community Council.
Roberta Englund, a neighborhood leader on the north side, said she is watching with dismay as homes whose owners can no longer pay their mortgages get taken over by banks and become vacant.
About six weeks ago, she said, a house on the 3400 block of Newton Avenue N. that was home to a single mom and her four children was foreclosed. Now it sits empty with unraked leaves, peeling trim, a roof propped up by a board, and campaign literature still adorning the front lawn.
"I don't think there's any way to explain adequately how devastating one or more vacant houses on a block is to a community," Englund said.
The same thing is happening in St. Paul, where there were 623 foreclosures in 2005. As of July 1 this year, there were already 705.
The East Side and central city neighborhoods of Frogtown, North End, Payne-Phalen and Dayton's Bluff neighborhoods are where the problem is most apparent.
St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry said that part of the city's strategy will be to strengthen counseling programs to home buyers and residents with burdensome mortgages.
The nonprofit Family Housing Fund, for example, is working with both St. Paul and Minneapolis to come up with ways to reach out to those residents.
Tom Fulton, the president of the fund, said it is looking for ways to have properties purchased, rehabbed and sold to people who can afford them so they don't stand empty.
Get help early
Aside from the perils of living near a vacant house, neighborhood organizations are concerned the properties are falling into the hands of absentee owners who don't have the same interest in maintaining them as owner-occupants do.
Housing industry officials say it's important for people who are in or near financial trouble to seek help early.
Kristin Wells is among those who dodged the problem.
When she received notice that foreclosure proceedings on her home were imminent, she panicked, then became resigned to the idea that she would have to move out of her house in the north Minneapolis neighborhood where she was born and raised.
Wells got into financial trouble in part because of a brief period of unemployment. By the time she was able to catch up on bills, she learned that her mortgage lender would accept only the entire amount she owed in order to stop foreclosure proceedings.
Northside Residents Redevelopment Council helped her set up a repayment plan she could afford. She said she feels lucky her house was saved.
"When you're in trouble," she said, "don't wait."
Again, I ask the question...
We saw the impact out here in rural MN long before the Strib story. We saw the foreclosed homes in Stewart, Glencoe, Eden Valley, Watkins and Darwin. We talked to people who told us that the number of homes being foreclosed upon has increased significantly over the past year.
What can we do about it? I would legislate against predatory lenders. Secondly, as I talked about extensively on the campaign trail, we must stimulate the rural economies. We need real jobs in our area that pay a living wage and offer benefits.
With 50% of bankruptcy's caused by catastrophic health events, we need reform minded leaders who will advocate for the proverbial little guy.
Great day for Startribune Opinion Exchange
From Blue Dog Democrat discussions by former US Congressman Tim Penny...
To the future of Congresswoman McCollum...
To a solid editorial on the Farm Bill...
And a discussion of a military draft...
It was an interesting day to read the Strib!
Collin Peterson, a Blue Dog Democrat, will lead Congress in the passage of the new Farm Bill.
Betty McCollum will play a large role in replacing our elder statesman in Congressman Sabo, and has posited herself for an even stronger future!
And now a draft.
As a Vet, I have mixed feelings of a draft. I understand that a true draft, without exemptions, would make the decisions of our elected leaders a bit more difficult. It could place their children in harms way now. But, as a former non-commissioned officer, I know how difficult it is to train fighting men and women. Now, train men and women who were drafted, who do not want to be their. Yeah, fear of death makes people do things they normally would not do.
I'm tired of fear as a motivator. Our current administration has used fear to motivate or hinder American progress ever since 9-11-01.
I would like to see a requirement for every American to serve two years in either the military or in a community service organization. You could serve in urban teacher programs, Americorps, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, or a plethora of other service organizations. Germany and South Korea are two such nations that require service.
I suppose though, the need for the draft discussion is due to the fact that we have been in a quagmire called Iraq for longer than our WW II service. We need more and more men and women to serve in Iraq.
Perhaps if we did not get involved in conflicts such as Iraq, or had a solid plan for a situation such as this, we would not need a draft.
Naw, that's too easy!
To the future of Congresswoman McCollum...
To a solid editorial on the Farm Bill...
And a discussion of a military draft...
It was an interesting day to read the Strib!
Collin Peterson, a Blue Dog Democrat, will lead Congress in the passage of the new Farm Bill.
Betty McCollum will play a large role in replacing our elder statesman in Congressman Sabo, and has posited herself for an even stronger future!
And now a draft.
As a Vet, I have mixed feelings of a draft. I understand that a true draft, without exemptions, would make the decisions of our elected leaders a bit more difficult. It could place their children in harms way now. But, as a former non-commissioned officer, I know how difficult it is to train fighting men and women. Now, train men and women who were drafted, who do not want to be their. Yeah, fear of death makes people do things they normally would not do.
I'm tired of fear as a motivator. Our current administration has used fear to motivate or hinder American progress ever since 9-11-01.
I would like to see a requirement for every American to serve two years in either the military or in a community service organization. You could serve in urban teacher programs, Americorps, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, or a plethora of other service organizations. Germany and South Korea are two such nations that require service.
I suppose though, the need for the draft discussion is due to the fact that we have been in a quagmire called Iraq for longer than our WW II service. We need more and more men and women to serve in Iraq.
Perhaps if we did not get involved in conflicts such as Iraq, or had a solid plan for a situation such as this, we would not need a draft.
Naw, that's too easy!
More school funding thoughts...
As you may recall, the Twins Stadium never went before the tax payers of Hennepin County for a formal vote, although Senator Dille voted for the stadium.
Why should we let the people vote? Because the law clearly states the imposition of a local sales tax is subject to approval by the voters of the political subdivision at a general election (Minnesota Statute Annotated 297A.99.)
So, we let County Commissioners decide the fate of the stadium, with the Legislature being the rubber stamp, deciding which laws to abide by and which ones to dismiss.
What would be wrong with letting City Councils decide local government tax increases without a vote of the people then?
What would be wrong with School Boards being the final decison making authority on levy increases for our schools?
Then, the voting tax payer will have incentive to hold their elected leaders accountable.
You want to talk local control...
This is the ultimate in local control.
Why should we let the people vote? Because the law clearly states the imposition of a local sales tax is subject to approval by the voters of the political subdivision at a general election (Minnesota Statute Annotated 297A.99.)
So, we let County Commissioners decide the fate of the stadium, with the Legislature being the rubber stamp, deciding which laws to abide by and which ones to dismiss.
What would be wrong with letting City Councils decide local government tax increases without a vote of the people then?
What would be wrong with School Boards being the final decison making authority on levy increases for our schools?
Then, the voting tax payer will have incentive to hold their elected leaders accountable.
You want to talk local control...
This is the ultimate in local control.
You gotta be kidding me...
Kick off return for a touchdown! Wow...we are bad! A new outdoor stadium would not help us at all, nor would I vote for one!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Schoolsgiving, Editorial in the Hutchinson Leader
Let's get to the point, once again, Matt McMillan and Doug Hannemann are spot on in their analysis.
This time, its about school funding.
The editorial points out that in 2001, the state cut local property taxes going for schools and took over paying for schools. It (the state, those elected officals some of us voted for in November), would use general fund monies to pay for our schools and create more equity in the system.
Indeed, they are correct. Some of us on the campaign trail talked about working to create a more equitable funding model for our schools.
Ron Shimanski...no.
Dean Urdahl...no.
Steve Dille...not at all!
Some of us recognize the importance of ensuring that schools in Greater Minnesota are funded at levels to provide quality education opportunities.
With the failure of the Dassel Cokato levy, the school will be forced to cut another $300,000. This, after cutting more than $700,000 over the past couple of years.
Glencoe Silver Lake is in the same boat. They have made enormous cuts over the past several years and will be forced to make more cuts after their levy failed.
A review of the Hutch Leader's summary of levies indicates that ACGC failed (1364-1551), DC failed (2217-2427), Glencoe Silver Lake failed twice (1152-1220 and 2090-2568), Howard Lake Waverly Winsted passed (1601-1375), Hutchinson failed (1867-3498), and McLeod West failed once and is set for another vote (674-866). Annandale passed a levy this past November as well.
We heard a lot about conservative values and accountability while out campaigning.
"If you are worried about all of these extra requests from schools for money, it is time to ask your state senator or state representative how much failure of this state experiment we need to see before it is expelled."
I could not agree more! Hold your elected officials accountable.
This time, its about school funding.
The editorial points out that in 2001, the state cut local property taxes going for schools and took over paying for schools. It (the state, those elected officals some of us voted for in November), would use general fund monies to pay for our schools and create more equity in the system.
Indeed, they are correct. Some of us on the campaign trail talked about working to create a more equitable funding model for our schools.
Ron Shimanski...no.
Dean Urdahl...no.
Steve Dille...not at all!
Some of us recognize the importance of ensuring that schools in Greater Minnesota are funded at levels to provide quality education opportunities.
With the failure of the Dassel Cokato levy, the school will be forced to cut another $300,000. This, after cutting more than $700,000 over the past couple of years.
Glencoe Silver Lake is in the same boat. They have made enormous cuts over the past several years and will be forced to make more cuts after their levy failed.
A review of the Hutch Leader's summary of levies indicates that ACGC failed (1364-1551), DC failed (2217-2427), Glencoe Silver Lake failed twice (1152-1220 and 2090-2568), Howard Lake Waverly Winsted passed (1601-1375), Hutchinson failed (1867-3498), and McLeod West failed once and is set for another vote (674-866). Annandale passed a levy this past November as well.
We heard a lot about conservative values and accountability while out campaigning.
"If you are worried about all of these extra requests from schools for money, it is time to ask your state senator or state representative how much failure of this state experiment we need to see before it is expelled."
I could not agree more! Hold your elected officials accountable.
More great education analogies!
Again, from Centrisity!
The New Education System ---The Football Version
1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents.
ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!
3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game.It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals.
If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind.
Indeed another great analogy! I do agree that in some respects, comparing schools across different tests is like comparing apples and oranges. However, schools are being sanctioned based on test results I have posted previously.
It reminds me of my friend Adam Hughes and his line, "Do I come to your job and..."
Adam and Nicole Hughes are teachers in Southern MN, they face the realities everyday. I thought the GOP was the small government party? By putting more and more guidelines in place, we keep our teachers from doing what they really want to do...teach!
It was the same in the Army. More bureacracy creates more bureracracy. Inspecting my Bradley Fighting Vehicles became more and more labor intensive, taking soldiers away from more training opportunities. Mantenance is important, but should not compromise the mission.
The same is happening in our schools. We must focus on the mission at hand, making sure our kids are prepared and ready for the real world, a global economy!
The New Education System ---The Football Version
1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents.
ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!
3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game.It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals.
If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind.
Indeed another great analogy! I do agree that in some respects, comparing schools across different tests is like comparing apples and oranges. However, schools are being sanctioned based on test results I have posted previously.
It reminds me of my friend Adam Hughes and his line, "Do I come to your job and..."
Adam and Nicole Hughes are teachers in Southern MN, they face the realities everyday. I thought the GOP was the small government party? By putting more and more guidelines in place, we keep our teachers from doing what they really want to do...teach!
It was the same in the Army. More bureacracy creates more bureracracy. Inspecting my Bradley Fighting Vehicles became more and more labor intensive, taking soldiers away from more training opportunities. Mantenance is important, but should not compromise the mission.
The same is happening in our schools. We must focus on the mission at hand, making sure our kids are prepared and ready for the real world, a global economy!
Great school accountability/merit pay analogy
Read this analogy over at Centrisity, originally from American Association of School Administrators
The Best Dentist ---"Absolutely" the Best Dentist
My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great."
Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said."
No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, Below average, and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better. Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."
"That's terrible," he said.
"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"
"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."
"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele; so much depends on things we can't control.
For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem; I don't get to do much preventive work.
Also," he said, "many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay.
To top it all off," he added, "so many of my clients have well water, which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"
"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. I couldn't believe my dentist would be so defensive. He does a great job.
"I am not!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."
"Don't get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth."
Try furious. In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. My more educated patients who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating actually is a measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"
"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.
"What's the DOC?" he asked.
"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."
"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.
The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"
"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."
"That's too complicated and time consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.
"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."
"How?" he said.
"If you're rated poorly, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.
"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? Big help."
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score on a test of children's progress without regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools.
"I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senator," he said. "I'll use the school analogy -surely they will see the point."
He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed anger that I see in the mirror so often lately.
Great analogy! I spoke to a lot of teachers across the district about merit pay and other T-Paw and GOP initiatives looking to boost accountability and efficiency in our schools. This analogy is a riot! Thanks Centrisity!
The Best Dentist ---"Absolutely" the Best Dentist
My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great."
Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said."
No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, Below average, and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better. Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."
"That's terrible," he said.
"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"
"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."
"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele; so much depends on things we can't control.
For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem; I don't get to do much preventive work.
Also," he said, "many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay.
To top it all off," he added, "so many of my clients have well water, which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"
"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. I couldn't believe my dentist would be so defensive. He does a great job.
"I am not!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."
"Don't get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth."
Try furious. In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. My more educated patients who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating actually is a measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"
"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'... I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.
"What's the DOC?" he asked.
"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."
"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.
The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"
"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."
"That's too complicated and time consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.
"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."
"How?" he said.
"If you're rated poorly, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.
"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? Big help."
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score on a test of children's progress without regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools.
"I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senator," he said. "I'll use the school analogy -surely they will see the point."
He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed anger that I see in the mirror so often lately.
Great analogy! I spoke to a lot of teachers across the district about merit pay and other T-Paw and GOP initiatives looking to boost accountability and efficiency in our schools. This analogy is a riot! Thanks Centrisity!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Great post on the "Choice" issue!
I normally would not post something so controversial...
Who am I kidding, of course I would!
Having watched a bit of Season 7, West Wing, it reminds me of the Abortion discussions of Vinnick and Santos.
Vinnick, the GOPer, was mostly pro-choice. Santos, the Democrat, was mostly pro-life. When Santos' VP candidate found out about it, Santos came back with a discussion of whether one would oppose an abortion for the sole reason of selection of the gender, or IQ and things of that nature. Anyway...I came across this at Pandagon and found it very thought provoking.
Without further adieu...
Funhouse mirror world of anti-choicers
Published by Amanda Marcotte November 21st, 2006 in Reproductive Rights, Feminists For Life
The nice thing about being pro-choice is you have the breathing room that intellectual honesty and consistency affords a person. All your views on the subject of reproductive rights stem from the simple notion that women are fully human. Should a woman get to have sex without “consequences”? Should a woman be free to choose how many children she has? Should a woman who’s been raped be forced to bear her rapist’s child? Should a woman who has a pregnancy with complications be forced to ruin her health or lose her life? The answers are all fairly straightforward and simple when you believe a woman deserves basic human rights.* To be fair, anti-choicers are pretty consistent in their worldview, too—they believe that women are second to men, that women should be punished for having sex, and that pregnancy is god’s way of enforcing women’s second class status. They are extremely consistent in this view. In all but their rhetoric. For some reason, anti-choicers cannot advance an intellectually consistent position, jumping all around the place, casting about for some other reason than the real ones that they have the policy goals that they have.
It’s tough to say why this is, but I suspect the reason might be similiar for the reasons that BushCo claimed, at various times, that we’re in Iraq to advance democracy, stop terrorism, take out some non-existent weapons of mass destruction, or because it makes puppies happy.**
One of the most irritating intellectual inconsistencies of anti-choicers is that they assert that they are anti-choice because of “life” and yet their big project over the past few years is passing and defending a federal ban on a specific abortion procedure called a D&X. This is the sort of ban that will not save a single life but could in fact take many, since the reason D&Xes are used by doctors rather than other procedures is because they feel it’s safer in some circumstances. The policy is effectively anti-life, unless you secretly believe that women don’t count and you don’t care if you get some of them killed in your pursuit to erode women’s rights. Scott Lemieux has an article up at the American Prospect detailing exactly how stupid this ban is and why the Supreme Court will probably approve it anyway, now that it’s headed up by judges who don’t care about niceities like clear, consistent arguments when it comes to hurting women. Highly recommended. Needless to say, the other asinine intellectual inconsistency that will result from all this is that “federalist” legislators and judges—all who claim they want to leave these issues up to the states—are all eagerly signing onto federal anti-woman legislation. But you’ll rarely catch them admitting this.
The downside to siding with the coherent folks is that sometimes you feel a bit sorry for the anti-choicers, with their wildly inconsistent positions. (We’re for life except when it’s a pregnant woman’s! We want women to resort to the coathanger because we just respect them so much!) They get called out on the fact that they’re sleazy liars who won’t be straight about their views on such a regular basis that it’s almost unfair that they don’t get to flip that shit around on their opposition. Not that they don’t try, of course, but such attempts are so dreadfully weak it gives me a pity rush. I got a trackback from a woman defending “Feminists” for Life who wants to tell the world what feminists are really like.*** She’s found us out—we’ve committed the dreadful sin of being just what we say we are, which is supportive of women’s full rights and therefore of the idea that women are a diverse group with diverse desires.
Confronting such intellectual consistency apparently gave Sharon a shock to the system, because she totally mistakes it for the sort of disingenous bullshitting that her side engages in.
I despise what Pandagon calls feminism because it tends to be selfish self-centered BS focused entirely on personal pleasure versus what used to be known as caring about family and society. I think it’s very telling when someone says that they want an abortion (but presumably didn’t mind the process of creating a baby) because they just don’t want kids. It definitely flies in the face of the way NARAL and NOW describe women facing abortion:
While it’s critical to promote policies that help prevent unintended pregnancies and make abortion less necessary, NARAL Pro-Choice America also fights to protect the right to safe, legal abortion.
How, I’m not sure. I read this statement up and down and didn’t see anywhere that NOW or NARAL advocated for the idea that women with unwanted pregnancies should be forced to have the babies as punishment for not being proper women who wants lots of babies. It says something about protecting legal abortion while reducing its necessity by preventing unwanted pregnancies. Unless Sharon thinks that I said that I really enjoy getting pregnant a few times a year because I love nothing better than a painful, expensive abortion, her notion that she’s “caught” me makes no sense. Going back to the intellectual consistency of pro-choicers—we believe women are fully human and deserve a right to control their bodies. This actually means they have a right to prevent unwanted pregnancy as well as terminate it. Interestingly, it’s not the feminists who want to take away the right to prevent unwanted pregnancy. The major organizations that want to increase the abortion rate by increasing unwanted pregnancy through contraceptive deprivation are all the anti-abortion groups. Talk about inconsistent! They say they’re against abortion but want to increase the rate.
The funniest part of this entire rant, for my purposes, is that Sharon claims that feminists both scramble to get abortions left and right while stating at the exact same time that we don’t mind the process of creating a baby. Which is it? To me, the stated eagerness to terminate pregnancies seems to contradict the stated adoration of being pregnant, which is of course the process that creates babies. Do we hate pregnancy or love it? Who knows, but the important part is to know that feminists are all the same and whether that means they love pregnancy or hate it, they are evil, wicked, man-hating beasts. Who are selfish.
Of course, there’s the outside chance that Sharon doesn’t understand biology and in her eagerness to imply that feminists are sluts, she mistakenly said conflated the process of creating a baby with Teh Sex. If so, it’s kind of cute that she can’t bring herself to say that a woman could actually want sex, just that we sluts don’t mind it like good women should. Regardless, this notion that sex and not pregnancy is the process that creates a baby makes me wonder if she’s quite aware of what an abortion even is, since it has to happen during that pregnancy phase, where Sharon seems to think that as soon as you light up that post-coital cigarette a bassinet pops up at the end of your bed and starts emitting baby wails, much like on “The Sims”. And hell, even in “The Sims” you only got a baby once out of every few times you had sex and in the real world, a lot of us manage to go years having Teh Sex without ever even beginning the baby-making process called “pregnancy”. My inclination is to point to this entire misunderstanding of what the process of baby-making is as further evidence that science education in America is sorely wanting. How can they even work up to evolution when so many people don’t know where babies come from?
*For the dumbasses who don’t get it, the proper answers are: Yes, yes, no, and no.**This might be why we’re going to invade Iran. I can’t keep the bullshit straight.***Interestingly enough, by slamming the existence of feminism while defending FFL, she inadvertantly admitted that FFL is not feminist.
Who am I kidding, of course I would!
Having watched a bit of Season 7, West Wing, it reminds me of the Abortion discussions of Vinnick and Santos.
Vinnick, the GOPer, was mostly pro-choice. Santos, the Democrat, was mostly pro-life. When Santos' VP candidate found out about it, Santos came back with a discussion of whether one would oppose an abortion for the sole reason of selection of the gender, or IQ and things of that nature. Anyway...I came across this at Pandagon and found it very thought provoking.
Without further adieu...
Funhouse mirror world of anti-choicers
Published by Amanda Marcotte November 21st, 2006 in Reproductive Rights, Feminists For Life
The nice thing about being pro-choice is you have the breathing room that intellectual honesty and consistency affords a person. All your views on the subject of reproductive rights stem from the simple notion that women are fully human. Should a woman get to have sex without “consequences”? Should a woman be free to choose how many children she has? Should a woman who’s been raped be forced to bear her rapist’s child? Should a woman who has a pregnancy with complications be forced to ruin her health or lose her life? The answers are all fairly straightforward and simple when you believe a woman deserves basic human rights.* To be fair, anti-choicers are pretty consistent in their worldview, too—they believe that women are second to men, that women should be punished for having sex, and that pregnancy is god’s way of enforcing women’s second class status. They are extremely consistent in this view. In all but their rhetoric. For some reason, anti-choicers cannot advance an intellectually consistent position, jumping all around the place, casting about for some other reason than the real ones that they have the policy goals that they have.
It’s tough to say why this is, but I suspect the reason might be similiar for the reasons that BushCo claimed, at various times, that we’re in Iraq to advance democracy, stop terrorism, take out some non-existent weapons of mass destruction, or because it makes puppies happy.**
One of the most irritating intellectual inconsistencies of anti-choicers is that they assert that they are anti-choice because of “life” and yet their big project over the past few years is passing and defending a federal ban on a specific abortion procedure called a D&X. This is the sort of ban that will not save a single life but could in fact take many, since the reason D&Xes are used by doctors rather than other procedures is because they feel it’s safer in some circumstances. The policy is effectively anti-life, unless you secretly believe that women don’t count and you don’t care if you get some of them killed in your pursuit to erode women’s rights. Scott Lemieux has an article up at the American Prospect detailing exactly how stupid this ban is and why the Supreme Court will probably approve it anyway, now that it’s headed up by judges who don’t care about niceities like clear, consistent arguments when it comes to hurting women. Highly recommended. Needless to say, the other asinine intellectual inconsistency that will result from all this is that “federalist” legislators and judges—all who claim they want to leave these issues up to the states—are all eagerly signing onto federal anti-woman legislation. But you’ll rarely catch them admitting this.
The downside to siding with the coherent folks is that sometimes you feel a bit sorry for the anti-choicers, with their wildly inconsistent positions. (We’re for life except when it’s a pregnant woman’s! We want women to resort to the coathanger because we just respect them so much!) They get called out on the fact that they’re sleazy liars who won’t be straight about their views on such a regular basis that it’s almost unfair that they don’t get to flip that shit around on their opposition. Not that they don’t try, of course, but such attempts are so dreadfully weak it gives me a pity rush. I got a trackback from a woman defending “Feminists” for Life who wants to tell the world what feminists are really like.*** She’s found us out—we’ve committed the dreadful sin of being just what we say we are, which is supportive of women’s full rights and therefore of the idea that women are a diverse group with diverse desires.
Confronting such intellectual consistency apparently gave Sharon a shock to the system, because she totally mistakes it for the sort of disingenous bullshitting that her side engages in.
I despise what Pandagon calls feminism because it tends to be selfish self-centered BS focused entirely on personal pleasure versus what used to be known as caring about family and society. I think it’s very telling when someone says that they want an abortion (but presumably didn’t mind the process of creating a baby) because they just don’t want kids. It definitely flies in the face of the way NARAL and NOW describe women facing abortion:
While it’s critical to promote policies that help prevent unintended pregnancies and make abortion less necessary, NARAL Pro-Choice America also fights to protect the right to safe, legal abortion.
How, I’m not sure. I read this statement up and down and didn’t see anywhere that NOW or NARAL advocated for the idea that women with unwanted pregnancies should be forced to have the babies as punishment for not being proper women who wants lots of babies. It says something about protecting legal abortion while reducing its necessity by preventing unwanted pregnancies. Unless Sharon thinks that I said that I really enjoy getting pregnant a few times a year because I love nothing better than a painful, expensive abortion, her notion that she’s “caught” me makes no sense. Going back to the intellectual consistency of pro-choicers—we believe women are fully human and deserve a right to control their bodies. This actually means they have a right to prevent unwanted pregnancy as well as terminate it. Interestingly, it’s not the feminists who want to take away the right to prevent unwanted pregnancy. The major organizations that want to increase the abortion rate by increasing unwanted pregnancy through contraceptive deprivation are all the anti-abortion groups. Talk about inconsistent! They say they’re against abortion but want to increase the rate.
The funniest part of this entire rant, for my purposes, is that Sharon claims that feminists both scramble to get abortions left and right while stating at the exact same time that we don’t mind the process of creating a baby. Which is it? To me, the stated eagerness to terminate pregnancies seems to contradict the stated adoration of being pregnant, which is of course the process that creates babies. Do we hate pregnancy or love it? Who knows, but the important part is to know that feminists are all the same and whether that means they love pregnancy or hate it, they are evil, wicked, man-hating beasts. Who are selfish.
Of course, there’s the outside chance that Sharon doesn’t understand biology and in her eagerness to imply that feminists are sluts, she mistakenly said conflated the process of creating a baby with Teh Sex. If so, it’s kind of cute that she can’t bring herself to say that a woman could actually want sex, just that we sluts don’t mind it like good women should. Regardless, this notion that sex and not pregnancy is the process that creates a baby makes me wonder if she’s quite aware of what an abortion even is, since it has to happen during that pregnancy phase, where Sharon seems to think that as soon as you light up that post-coital cigarette a bassinet pops up at the end of your bed and starts emitting baby wails, much like on “The Sims”. And hell, even in “The Sims” you only got a baby once out of every few times you had sex and in the real world, a lot of us manage to go years having Teh Sex without ever even beginning the baby-making process called “pregnancy”. My inclination is to point to this entire misunderstanding of what the process of baby-making is as further evidence that science education in America is sorely wanting. How can they even work up to evolution when so many people don’t know where babies come from?
*For the dumbasses who don’t get it, the proper answers are: Yes, yes, no, and no.**This might be why we’re going to invade Iran. I can’t keep the bullshit straight.***Interestingly enough, by slamming the existence of feminism while defending FFL, she inadvertantly admitted that FFL is not feminist.
Rural Schools and the Local Economy
Excellent essay from the Fillmore County Journal. (H/T to our friends over at Bluestream Prairie)
Essay: Rural schools and the local economy
By Tom Driscoll
Frost has burnt the bluff grass prairie-gold and red. Barely any green left on trees as even the near-black cedars have shed color. And despite an occasional day-or-two of wind warmed by the sun, weeks of unseasonably cool, gloomy weather slowly freezes the soil, driving ice crystals down, turning fall into winter. As the heat moves ever toward the cold, frost expands deeper and deeper, buckling anything that isn't anchored to the soft, warm sub-terrain.
Consider then JFK's often quoted economic analogy, that a rising tide lifts all boats, and re-imagine the odd inverse, an imperceptible upheaval, hard as concrete, powerful as a drifting continent, of frozen soil. Not a warm tide of economic prosperity, but winter.
The economic landscape of rural schools - here in Fillmore County and across the Nation - seems sometimes to be stuck in a long winter. And as cold persists, the frost creeps deeper, eventually prying-up the very foundations of a rural education system designed long ago to resist the destructive force of inaction.
Consolidation as a means of addressing the fundamental issue of small rural schools, that is, the inefficiency of delivering educational services to a small number of students in many locations instead of a larger number of students in fewer locations, began in the late-1800s, but really took hold in the form of local action on a national-scale in the 1950s. Now, almost 60-years-later, consolidated schools everywhere are asking for action to be taken again as the proverbial frost permeates rural economies.
Positive economic news in Fillmore County is often measured in single-digit job-growth, mainly in the agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. Negative news comes with the announcement of far more job-losses. Towns with a certain je ne sais quoi like Lanesboro can reinvent themselves into a tourist boutique, but there is certainly not enough je ne sais quoi to salvage all the small towns in need of an economic boost.
The link between the rising global economic tide and the deepening frost in rural Minnesota is implicit. Small farms give way to ever-larger operations. Small town manufacturing evaporates only to rain down in some far-away country where plentiful labor is dirt cheap. Towns lose the grocery and hardware stores, restaurants, doctors, dentists, plumbers, garages, residents and school kids. The pattern, easily recognized by now, has become more-or-less an accepted fact of rural life. Increasingly, small town wage earners commute to-and-from employment in La Crosse, Rochester, Winona, or even farther, to the Twin-Cities, where salaries and benefits are good. According to the Socioeconomic Profile annexed to the 2006 Fillmore County Comprehensive Plan, 89-percent of workers commute to other towns. While back on Main Street, small businesses struggle, and often fail, to compete with big-boxes in those same distant cities: Wal-Mart to be sure, Target, Menards, Econo-Foods, to name just a few.
The exact effect of America's economic reconfiguration on rural school districts is difficult to define. And it is the subject of much debate. Some assert that the local school is the main economic engine powering small towns, citing the combined economic force of teachers, students and parents, especially those who actually live in the district. Indeed, as a 2005 USDA report, The Role of Education in the Social and Economic Viability of Rural America, points out, "In many rural counties, the education system is often the largest employer."
The same report identifies a multiplier effect, a positive economic spin-off of indirect jobs and spending caused by direct employment at the school district. Lending credence to the economic-engine-argument, the study found that in a rural Oklahoma school district employing 332 teachers, administrative staff and support personnel, an additional 195-jobs were created outside the education sector, amounting to a 1.56-multiplier.
But critics of rural school districts are hard to convince. They cite the perennial demand for more funding, more taxpayer-funded levies, levy-overrides, especially in view of small town demographics: smaller families, fewer students, a large number of taxpayers on fixed retirement incomes with no children in school. They complain about unequal state funding formulas that fail to adjust for the fact that the per-pupil cost of educating students in small schools is higher than educating them in large schools. Data maps offered by the Minnesota Rural Education Association show that, largely due to insufficient tax capacity of business and agriculture in rural areas, property-owners in southeastern Minnesota, like property-owners in counties throughout the state, pay 3-to-4 times the minimum rate to provide $100 for one pupil, a situation they claim could be "equalized" across all districts with increased state aid.
There are 1,895-public, non-charter schools operating in Minnesota's 339-school districts employing 52,479-teachers to educate 828,364-students in grades K-to-12. About one-quarter of all students attend school in rural districts. Statewide, school funding and achievement issues range from the rising cost of teacher health care and student transportation to dwindling enrollment; from curriculum and test scores, to the demand for technology upgrades and the need to address the problem of crumbling, often obsolete buildings and facilities. According to a 2002 report, Small Schools Under Siege, prepared by the Mankato-based Center for Rural Policy and Development, a clear link exists between school district size and quality of district infrastructure: "As the enrollment of the school district decreased, so did the conditions of its facilities," the report states.
So what can be done to begin to thaw this seemingly intractable ground? At the extremes, school closures, redistricting and consolidation of already consolidated districts into county elementary, middle and secondary schools are options some appear willing to consider. Such solutions might of course provide economies of scale, but would not address the core issue for most small communities: the community itself.
Issues of community and taxes fuel the sometimes heated local debate over schools. After the failure of two earlier school referenda, in September, Kingsland voters approved a referendum to build an elementary school addition to the high school in Spring Valley, and to make improvements to the middle school in Wykoff. Voters in Spring Valley generally supported the proposal, while 63-percent of Wykoff voters opposed it. Now, all voters stand to benefit from the improved facilities paid for by all district property owners.
In the general election 3-weeks-ago, Chatfield voters considered a 2-option building referendum, the first a proposal to buy land and construct a new elementary school; the alternative, to expand the current high school. Both options were defeated by narrow margins, revealing a fault line dividing the community.
A few years ago, Rushford-Peterson district voters soundly rejected a referendum to construct a new high school. In the meantime, the current building, 100-years-old this year, requires considerable, and mounting, major maintenance and renovation.
It is no secret that referendum campaigns can be divisive, often pitting farm versus in-town property-owners, retirees versus families with young children. District vs. district. School vs. school. Academics vs. athletics. Music vs. math. Student vs. student. There are in fact often so many issues in play that a seemingly straightforward ballot question, whether-or-not to build a new facility or raise pupil-funding, sounds like rocket science. Proponents and opponents, faced with making complicated economic arguments, often revert to moral blackmail. Do this for the children. Or, This will hurt senior citizens. Or, Education is too important. Or, Taxes are too high.
Few dare to deny that a good basic education and adequate educational infrastructure is vital. And taxes, by definition, are always too high. Statements of the obvious are just that. No one wins when banalities fail to address real problems underlying the declining health of rural communities.
According to the USDA report cited above, "If the education sector increases or decreases in size, the economic health of the community is greatly affected. For the attraction of industrial firms, businesses, and residents, it is crucial that the area have quality education. Often overlooked is the fact that a prosperous education sector also contributes to the economic health of the community."
The Center for Rural Policy and Development points to the referendum-process as proof of education-funding inequality between rural and non-rural areas of the state. Property-owners in small districts with low enrollment provide significantly more funding in support of their schools through referendum than any other size district, which are classified much like state sport divisions, one-A-through five-A. Taxpayers in the smallest 20-percent of districts pay through referendum 63.7-percent more than the state average.
Though nearly all rural districts funds their schools through these "unequalized" referenda, there is a caveat: districts that raise insufficient or low amounts by referendum report more problems with "infrastructure, resources and staffing," according to the CRPD, than same-size districts with higher referendum amounts. Put another way, small district property-owners pay more by referendum than larger district residents, yes, but if the amount is too low, it fails to solve the problem.
Frost runs deep. The problem of adequately funding rural schools is a reflection of the overall economic health of rural areas faced with a withering tax base and rising costs. For small districts considering going to the voters anytime soon, the experts recommend tackling the community-health issue head-on by collecting economic data and developing a snapshot of the relationship between the school and the area it serves. Involvement of local business and individual citizens through public meetings and focus groups is considered critical in both assessing real needs and developing broad support before taking action.
A key point to ponder here is the discussion that schools are actually economic engines in our communities. I could not agree more. In most towns throughout the district, the school is the largest employer. When we consolidate schools, educators, administrators, janitors, and others lose jobs. Towns also lose their identity. Unless you feel a strong connection to Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato-Atwater-Grove City (McLeod County North?), or Annandale-Maple Lake-Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Wright County West?). Having grown up in small town USA, we feel strong bonds to our communities. While adding more schools may start to solve some fiscal problems, our small rural communities will continue to die.
These campaigns can be divisive. I witnessed the divisiveness while campaigning throught our Senate District with 5 levies on the ballots. Some say labeling these campaigns for our children is a moral argument. I disagree to a certain extent.
Until we push our elected officials to find alternative funding models for funding education in Greater Minnesota, this problem will grow.
After the recent election, Phil Krinkie, a 16 year GOPer from Lino Lakes had this to say after his recent loss, quoting former New York mayor Ed Koch.
"The voters have spoken and now they must be punished."
Essay: Rural schools and the local economy
By Tom Driscoll
Frost has burnt the bluff grass prairie-gold and red. Barely any green left on trees as even the near-black cedars have shed color. And despite an occasional day-or-two of wind warmed by the sun, weeks of unseasonably cool, gloomy weather slowly freezes the soil, driving ice crystals down, turning fall into winter. As the heat moves ever toward the cold, frost expands deeper and deeper, buckling anything that isn't anchored to the soft, warm sub-terrain.
Consider then JFK's often quoted economic analogy, that a rising tide lifts all boats, and re-imagine the odd inverse, an imperceptible upheaval, hard as concrete, powerful as a drifting continent, of frozen soil. Not a warm tide of economic prosperity, but winter.
The economic landscape of rural schools - here in Fillmore County and across the Nation - seems sometimes to be stuck in a long winter. And as cold persists, the frost creeps deeper, eventually prying-up the very foundations of a rural education system designed long ago to resist the destructive force of inaction.
Consolidation as a means of addressing the fundamental issue of small rural schools, that is, the inefficiency of delivering educational services to a small number of students in many locations instead of a larger number of students in fewer locations, began in the late-1800s, but really took hold in the form of local action on a national-scale in the 1950s. Now, almost 60-years-later, consolidated schools everywhere are asking for action to be taken again as the proverbial frost permeates rural economies.
Positive economic news in Fillmore County is often measured in single-digit job-growth, mainly in the agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. Negative news comes with the announcement of far more job-losses. Towns with a certain je ne sais quoi like Lanesboro can reinvent themselves into a tourist boutique, but there is certainly not enough je ne sais quoi to salvage all the small towns in need of an economic boost.
The link between the rising global economic tide and the deepening frost in rural Minnesota is implicit. Small farms give way to ever-larger operations. Small town manufacturing evaporates only to rain down in some far-away country where plentiful labor is dirt cheap. Towns lose the grocery and hardware stores, restaurants, doctors, dentists, plumbers, garages, residents and school kids. The pattern, easily recognized by now, has become more-or-less an accepted fact of rural life. Increasingly, small town wage earners commute to-and-from employment in La Crosse, Rochester, Winona, or even farther, to the Twin-Cities, where salaries and benefits are good. According to the Socioeconomic Profile annexed to the 2006 Fillmore County Comprehensive Plan, 89-percent of workers commute to other towns. While back on Main Street, small businesses struggle, and often fail, to compete with big-boxes in those same distant cities: Wal-Mart to be sure, Target, Menards, Econo-Foods, to name just a few.
The exact effect of America's economic reconfiguration on rural school districts is difficult to define. And it is the subject of much debate. Some assert that the local school is the main economic engine powering small towns, citing the combined economic force of teachers, students and parents, especially those who actually live in the district. Indeed, as a 2005 USDA report, The Role of Education in the Social and Economic Viability of Rural America, points out, "In many rural counties, the education system is often the largest employer."
The same report identifies a multiplier effect, a positive economic spin-off of indirect jobs and spending caused by direct employment at the school district. Lending credence to the economic-engine-argument, the study found that in a rural Oklahoma school district employing 332 teachers, administrative staff and support personnel, an additional 195-jobs were created outside the education sector, amounting to a 1.56-multiplier.
But critics of rural school districts are hard to convince. They cite the perennial demand for more funding, more taxpayer-funded levies, levy-overrides, especially in view of small town demographics: smaller families, fewer students, a large number of taxpayers on fixed retirement incomes with no children in school. They complain about unequal state funding formulas that fail to adjust for the fact that the per-pupil cost of educating students in small schools is higher than educating them in large schools. Data maps offered by the Minnesota Rural Education Association show that, largely due to insufficient tax capacity of business and agriculture in rural areas, property-owners in southeastern Minnesota, like property-owners in counties throughout the state, pay 3-to-4 times the minimum rate to provide $100 for one pupil, a situation they claim could be "equalized" across all districts with increased state aid.
There are 1,895-public, non-charter schools operating in Minnesota's 339-school districts employing 52,479-teachers to educate 828,364-students in grades K-to-12. About one-quarter of all students attend school in rural districts. Statewide, school funding and achievement issues range from the rising cost of teacher health care and student transportation to dwindling enrollment; from curriculum and test scores, to the demand for technology upgrades and the need to address the problem of crumbling, often obsolete buildings and facilities. According to a 2002 report, Small Schools Under Siege, prepared by the Mankato-based Center for Rural Policy and Development, a clear link exists between school district size and quality of district infrastructure: "As the enrollment of the school district decreased, so did the conditions of its facilities," the report states.
So what can be done to begin to thaw this seemingly intractable ground? At the extremes, school closures, redistricting and consolidation of already consolidated districts into county elementary, middle and secondary schools are options some appear willing to consider. Such solutions might of course provide economies of scale, but would not address the core issue for most small communities: the community itself.
Issues of community and taxes fuel the sometimes heated local debate over schools. After the failure of two earlier school referenda, in September, Kingsland voters approved a referendum to build an elementary school addition to the high school in Spring Valley, and to make improvements to the middle school in Wykoff. Voters in Spring Valley generally supported the proposal, while 63-percent of Wykoff voters opposed it. Now, all voters stand to benefit from the improved facilities paid for by all district property owners.
In the general election 3-weeks-ago, Chatfield voters considered a 2-option building referendum, the first a proposal to buy land and construct a new elementary school; the alternative, to expand the current high school. Both options were defeated by narrow margins, revealing a fault line dividing the community.
A few years ago, Rushford-Peterson district voters soundly rejected a referendum to construct a new high school. In the meantime, the current building, 100-years-old this year, requires considerable, and mounting, major maintenance and renovation.
It is no secret that referendum campaigns can be divisive, often pitting farm versus in-town property-owners, retirees versus families with young children. District vs. district. School vs. school. Academics vs. athletics. Music vs. math. Student vs. student. There are in fact often so many issues in play that a seemingly straightforward ballot question, whether-or-not to build a new facility or raise pupil-funding, sounds like rocket science. Proponents and opponents, faced with making complicated economic arguments, often revert to moral blackmail. Do this for the children. Or, This will hurt senior citizens. Or, Education is too important. Or, Taxes are too high.
Few dare to deny that a good basic education and adequate educational infrastructure is vital. And taxes, by definition, are always too high. Statements of the obvious are just that. No one wins when banalities fail to address real problems underlying the declining health of rural communities.
According to the USDA report cited above, "If the education sector increases or decreases in size, the economic health of the community is greatly affected. For the attraction of industrial firms, businesses, and residents, it is crucial that the area have quality education. Often overlooked is the fact that a prosperous education sector also contributes to the economic health of the community."
The Center for Rural Policy and Development points to the referendum-process as proof of education-funding inequality between rural and non-rural areas of the state. Property-owners in small districts with low enrollment provide significantly more funding in support of their schools through referendum than any other size district, which are classified much like state sport divisions, one-A-through five-A. Taxpayers in the smallest 20-percent of districts pay through referendum 63.7-percent more than the state average.
Though nearly all rural districts funds their schools through these "unequalized" referenda, there is a caveat: districts that raise insufficient or low amounts by referendum report more problems with "infrastructure, resources and staffing," according to the CRPD, than same-size districts with higher referendum amounts. Put another way, small district property-owners pay more by referendum than larger district residents, yes, but if the amount is too low, it fails to solve the problem.
Frost runs deep. The problem of adequately funding rural schools is a reflection of the overall economic health of rural areas faced with a withering tax base and rising costs. For small districts considering going to the voters anytime soon, the experts recommend tackling the community-health issue head-on by collecting economic data and developing a snapshot of the relationship between the school and the area it serves. Involvement of local business and individual citizens through public meetings and focus groups is considered critical in both assessing real needs and developing broad support before taking action.
A key point to ponder here is the discussion that schools are actually economic engines in our communities. I could not agree more. In most towns throughout the district, the school is the largest employer. When we consolidate schools, educators, administrators, janitors, and others lose jobs. Towns also lose their identity. Unless you feel a strong connection to Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato-Atwater-Grove City (McLeod County North?), or Annandale-Maple Lake-Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Wright County West?). Having grown up in small town USA, we feel strong bonds to our communities. While adding more schools may start to solve some fiscal problems, our small rural communities will continue to die.
These campaigns can be divisive. I witnessed the divisiveness while campaigning throught our Senate District with 5 levies on the ballots. Some say labeling these campaigns for our children is a moral argument. I disagree to a certain extent.
Until we push our elected officials to find alternative funding models for funding education in Greater Minnesota, this problem will grow.
After the recent election, Phil Krinkie, a 16 year GOPer from Lino Lakes had this to say after his recent loss, quoting former New York mayor Ed Koch.
"The voters have spoken and now they must be punished."
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Recovery
Other than policing up signage lately, which is incredibly hard to do after you lose a campaign, I have been simply trying to recover from a recent surgery.
So, while I have been in recovery mode, I have been able to read a lot and reconnect with not only my liberal roots, but some great liberal blogs too. Wonkette is perhaps my favorite national political gossip blog!
Check out this Bachmann story.
So the Bachmann's potentially made over $1.2 million in raising foster children? Wow...
So, while I have been in recovery mode, I have been able to read a lot and reconnect with not only my liberal roots, but some great liberal blogs too. Wonkette is perhaps my favorite national political gossip blog!
Check out this Bachmann story.
So the Bachmann's potentially made over $1.2 million in raising foster children? Wow...
Sunday, November 19, 2006
House Minority Leader Seifert
Saturday, the GOP House elected Marty Seifert as its leader. Watching Channel 5, we even got to see Dean Urdahl sitting around! Camera shy he is not.
He beat other GOPers like Tom Emmer, Steve Smith, and Erik Paulsen.
Great choice. As a Dem, I think its a great choice for everyone.
I was able to lobby Rep Seifert on a lot of higher education issues the past several years. Last year, he carried our bill to restrict municialities from enacting fees on college students.
I think his leadership will be good for getting a lot of good things done for Minnesota.
He beat other GOPers like Tom Emmer, Steve Smith, and Erik Paulsen.
Great choice. As a Dem, I think its a great choice for everyone.
I was able to lobby Rep Seifert on a lot of higher education issues the past several years. Last year, he carried our bill to restrict municialities from enacting fees on college students.
I think his leadership will be good for getting a lot of good things done for Minnesota.
Bush and the war in Iraq
Browsing yahoo news tonight, I came across the perfect storm, a trifecta of headlines, if you will.
"Bush opens stock exchange in Vietnam"
"Kissinger: Iraq military win is impossible"
"McCain says more troops needed in Iraq"
Wow!
Which leads me to the headline of the day. "Bush reinvigorated abroad"
I must say...35 years ago...
Bush skipped Vietnam to drink with his Texas buddies and have a good ol time. Now, to avoid newly elected Democrats and facing a new Democratic storm in Washington, Bush heads to Vietnam. Alanis would be proud!
I am glad that Bush is reinvigorated. Perhaps on his way back to the White House, he will stop by the Vietnam Memorial and run his oily fingers across the names etched in granite.
Perhaps he will embrace a policy other than stay the course in the quagmire that has become Iraq. The names of 58,000 are etched in perpetuity in that memorial, they did not have the option of going abroad to be reinvigorated.
The 250,000+ Vietnam Veterans that have committed suicide in the decades after Vietnam did not have the option of being reinvigorated, in Vietnam nor when they came home.
The homeless veterans, from small towns across the United States, did not have the option of being reivigorated, they struggle day to day for survival.
The 2,800+ that have perished in Iraq and more than 25,000 that have been wounded surely are not reinvigorated either.
As a Veteran, the headline slapped me right in the face. On the campaign trail the past several months, I have met more and more veterans.
Reinvigorated?
After this blog post...u betcha!
"Bush opens stock exchange in Vietnam"
"Kissinger: Iraq military win is impossible"
"McCain says more troops needed in Iraq"
Wow!
Which leads me to the headline of the day. "Bush reinvigorated abroad"
I must say...35 years ago...
Bush skipped Vietnam to drink with his Texas buddies and have a good ol time. Now, to avoid newly elected Democrats and facing a new Democratic storm in Washington, Bush heads to Vietnam. Alanis would be proud!
I am glad that Bush is reinvigorated. Perhaps on his way back to the White House, he will stop by the Vietnam Memorial and run his oily fingers across the names etched in granite.
Perhaps he will embrace a policy other than stay the course in the quagmire that has become Iraq. The names of 58,000 are etched in perpetuity in that memorial, they did not have the option of going abroad to be reinvigorated.
The 250,000+ Vietnam Veterans that have committed suicide in the decades after Vietnam did not have the option of being reinvigorated, in Vietnam nor when they came home.
The homeless veterans, from small towns across the United States, did not have the option of being reivigorated, they struggle day to day for survival.
The 2,800+ that have perished in Iraq and more than 25,000 that have been wounded surely are not reinvigorated either.
As a Veteran, the headline slapped me right in the face. On the campaign trail the past several months, I have met more and more veterans.
Reinvigorated?
After this blog post...u betcha!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Mark Olson...the domestic violence problem none of our candidates talk about.
State Rep Mark Olson was arrested over the weekend for dometic violence against his wife. He left jail earlier this week, clutching a bible and asking his wife, family, and God for forgiveness.
Being a spiritual man, I am sick of politicians and others for that matter, deflecting responsibility and using religion and other excuses to justify their actions.
Now, I know Rep Olson is not using religion to justify abusing his wife, but walking out a of a jail, knowing that he would be the target of all major news outlets in MN, clutching a bible, smells suspect to me.
Perhaps Rep Olson should have clutched a bible on Saturday night when he repeatedly (allegedly...thanks OJ), shoved his wife to the ground.
Domestiv violence was an issue out here in rural central MN that did not get discussed in any forums. The only time it was discussed was at the Health and Human Services Forum in Hutchinson, when I spoke about the gross nature of the problem here in our area.
The closest shelters are in St Cloud, Alexandria, and the Twin Cities! Absurd!
And then...
OJ writes a book, "If I did it", describing how he would have committed the heinous acts against his former wife and her friend. Wow...
I support the first amendment, but wow. All proceeds from that book need to go the Goldman and Brown families and I hope it creates even more awareness of the domestic violence problems in our communities.
My disdain for the OJ book reminded me of a speech given during the "American President" in regards to flag burning.
Being a spiritual man, I am sick of politicians and others for that matter, deflecting responsibility and using religion and other excuses to justify their actions.
Now, I know Rep Olson is not using religion to justify abusing his wife, but walking out a of a jail, knowing that he would be the target of all major news outlets in MN, clutching a bible, smells suspect to me.
Perhaps Rep Olson should have clutched a bible on Saturday night when he repeatedly (allegedly...thanks OJ), shoved his wife to the ground.
Domestiv violence was an issue out here in rural central MN that did not get discussed in any forums. The only time it was discussed was at the Health and Human Services Forum in Hutchinson, when I spoke about the gross nature of the problem here in our area.
The closest shelters are in St Cloud, Alexandria, and the Twin Cities! Absurd!
And then...
OJ writes a book, "If I did it", describing how he would have committed the heinous acts against his former wife and her friend. Wow...
I support the first amendment, but wow. All proceeds from that book need to go the Goldman and Brown families and I hope it creates even more awareness of the domestic violence problems in our communities.
My disdain for the OJ book reminded me of a speech given during the "American President" in regards to flag burning.
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".
Pissin off the base
I held back a bit, trying not to be too critical of Governor T-Paw and his move towards the center. His press conference earlier in the week calling for universal health care for all children was a DFL issue this entire campaign and will work to open the door towards universal health care for all Minnesotans.
Where are the elected GOPers in the area on this one? Shimanski? Dille? Urdahl?
All opposed universal health care in forums, Shimanski offering no ideas at all, Dille telling us for the fiftieth time he serves on the MMA Task Force, and Urdahl calling for more Health Care Savings Accounts. At least Dean has ideas!
The lead GOPer in the state comes out and calls for universal health care for all children.
Great!
Do not forget that it was his budget cut in 2003, supported by Dille and Newman, that exasserbated the health care problems in MN. They gutted MN Care and put many of these 90,000 kids at risk.
Let's not be so quick to give out a good ol "ata boy Timmy" for becoming more centrist. T-Paw is a masterful politician, even though he has never caputered a majority vote as Governor (both elections T-Paw scored under 50% thus a plurality). If instant run-off voting were in play, Roger Moe might be looking at his second term as Gov.
I digress...
Crazy Startribune woman came out and blasted T-Paw in her very conservative column.
Maybe Roz will write about how liberal T-Paw has become, that would be fun!
Where are the elected GOPers in the area on this one? Shimanski? Dille? Urdahl?
All opposed universal health care in forums, Shimanski offering no ideas at all, Dille telling us for the fiftieth time he serves on the MMA Task Force, and Urdahl calling for more Health Care Savings Accounts. At least Dean has ideas!
The lead GOPer in the state comes out and calls for universal health care for all children.
Great!
Do not forget that it was his budget cut in 2003, supported by Dille and Newman, that exasserbated the health care problems in MN. They gutted MN Care and put many of these 90,000 kids at risk.
Let's not be so quick to give out a good ol "ata boy Timmy" for becoming more centrist. T-Paw is a masterful politician, even though he has never caputered a majority vote as Governor (both elections T-Paw scored under 50% thus a plurality). If instant run-off voting were in play, Roger Moe might be looking at his second term as Gov.
I digress...
Crazy Startribune woman came out and blasted T-Paw in her very conservative column.
Maybe Roz will write about how liberal T-Paw has become, that would be fun!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
No Child Left Behind numbers for MN and levies
Startribune had a disturbing story of how 483 schools in MN are under-performing under the auspice of NCLB.
Too bad this was not released before the election.
Statewide proficencies
Math: 06: 58%
05: 76%
Reading: 06: 72%
05: 79%
Anyway, here is a breakdown of SD 18 Schools
Atwater Grove City Cosmos
North el 51% math 67% reading
Secondary 41% math, 64% reading
South el 68% math, 79% reading
All schools made progress
Annandale
Middle 57% math, 70% reading
Sr High 20% math, 68% reading
Bendix 88% math, 87% reading
The Middle school failed to meet goals but will not be sanctioned. Good job Bendix!
Dassel Cokato
Cokato El 70% math, 84% reading
Dassel El 84% math, 80% reading
DC Alt Ctr 0% math, 57% reading
DC Middle 66% math, 70% reading
DC Sr high 27% math, 62% reading
The DC Alt Ctr failed to make progress and the Middle school shall recieve a warning. Perhaps the administration should focus on the school and not people putting literature on cars...
Eden Valley Watkins
EV El 82% math, 85% reading
EV Sec 58% math, 65% reading
All schools made progress
Glencoe Silver Lake
ALP 0%, 0%
Sr High 21%, 56%
Lakeside El 68%, 71%
Lincoln, Jr 61%, 66%
All schools made progress
Howard Lake Waverly Winsted
Middle 68%, 68%
High School 30%, 76%
Humphrey El. 73%, 82%
Winsted El. 76%, 79%
All schools made progress
Hutchinson
Middle 60%, 72%
Park El. 71%, 82%
Sr High 27%, 68%
Mid ALC 14%, 16%
All schools made progress.
Lester Prairie
El. 65%, 79%
Secondary 38%, 59%
The Secondary school failed to make progress but will not be sanctioned.
Litchfield
Lake Ripley 75%, 83%
Middle 61%, 69%
Sr High 28%, 66%
Wagner El. 65%, 74%
All schools made progress.
McLeod West
El. 71%, 81%
Jr. 24%, 49%
Sr. 15%, 60%
All schools made progress.
So, for the most part, schools in our district scored fairly well. Some lag behind the statewide aggregate figurues but when you compare schools across the district, smaller schools faired better in many respects.
How many of the levies passed this past election?
ACGC? No, also failed Dec 05
Annandale? Yes
Dassel Cokato? No
Glencoe Silver Lake? No
McLeod West? Vote at a later date
3 of 4 districts that voted failed operating levies at this time.
We know that the DFL controlled House and Senate will be kind to education, but what progress will a newly elected GOP Rep and two veteran legislators make in today's political climate?
All I know, is that cuts at many of our schools are forthcoming...
It's about the kids people...fund education!
Too bad this was not released before the election.
Statewide proficencies
Math: 06: 58%
05: 76%
Reading: 06: 72%
05: 79%
Anyway, here is a breakdown of SD 18 Schools
Atwater Grove City Cosmos
North el 51% math 67% reading
Secondary 41% math, 64% reading
South el 68% math, 79% reading
All schools made progress
Annandale
Middle 57% math, 70% reading
Sr High 20% math, 68% reading
Bendix 88% math, 87% reading
The Middle school failed to meet goals but will not be sanctioned. Good job Bendix!
Dassel Cokato
Cokato El 70% math, 84% reading
Dassel El 84% math, 80% reading
DC Alt Ctr 0% math, 57% reading
DC Middle 66% math, 70% reading
DC Sr high 27% math, 62% reading
The DC Alt Ctr failed to make progress and the Middle school shall recieve a warning. Perhaps the administration should focus on the school and not people putting literature on cars...
Eden Valley Watkins
EV El 82% math, 85% reading
EV Sec 58% math, 65% reading
All schools made progress
Glencoe Silver Lake
ALP 0%, 0%
Sr High 21%, 56%
Lakeside El 68%, 71%
Lincoln, Jr 61%, 66%
All schools made progress
Howard Lake Waverly Winsted
Middle 68%, 68%
High School 30%, 76%
Humphrey El. 73%, 82%
Winsted El. 76%, 79%
All schools made progress
Hutchinson
Middle 60%, 72%
Park El. 71%, 82%
Sr High 27%, 68%
Mid ALC 14%, 16%
All schools made progress.
Lester Prairie
El. 65%, 79%
Secondary 38%, 59%
The Secondary school failed to make progress but will not be sanctioned.
Litchfield
Lake Ripley 75%, 83%
Middle 61%, 69%
Sr High 28%, 66%
Wagner El. 65%, 74%
All schools made progress.
McLeod West
El. 71%, 81%
Jr. 24%, 49%
Sr. 15%, 60%
All schools made progress.
So, for the most part, schools in our district scored fairly well. Some lag behind the statewide aggregate figurues but when you compare schools across the district, smaller schools faired better in many respects.
How many of the levies passed this past election?
ACGC? No, also failed Dec 05
Annandale? Yes
Dassel Cokato? No
Glencoe Silver Lake? No
McLeod West? Vote at a later date
3 of 4 districts that voted failed operating levies at this time.
We know that the DFL controlled House and Senate will be kind to education, but what progress will a newly elected GOP Rep and two veteran legislators make in today's political climate?
All I know, is that cuts at many of our schools are forthcoming...
It's about the kids people...fund education!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Why would anyone put themselves through this?
It's a thought I have had over the past day. It's been just short of 24 hours since we figured out we were going to lose our race in SD 18. The feeling of losing a race, one in which you have poured your heart and soul into, is such a hopeless feeling.
However, I plan on doing it again.
Why?
It was a great honor meeting so many great people around our district. We swung 19 points in this race, against a 20 year State Senator, we gained 12 and he lost 7.
I know what it feels like to be a GOPer on the Iron Range or in Minneapolis!
However, I plan on doing it again.
Why?
It was a great honor meeting so many great people around our district. We swung 19 points in this race, against a 20 year State Senator, we gained 12 and he lost 7.
I know what it feels like to be a GOPer on the Iron Range or in Minneapolis!
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