Almanac: At the Capitol

You have to eat your greens we were always told when we were young. Some creative moms would offer you choices. Do you want them steamed, fresh in a salad, with melted cheese, perhaps. No, thank you, I don't want greens [cue kicking and screaming].

That's how I feel today. We have the choice of Obama, Clinton or McCain all pushing greens greens greens, and McCain's speech yesterday sealed it with a sloppy green kiss [Groan]. So take it anyway you want to take it, but you're gonna take it. What is the big problem here is not just that this global warming business is a sham based on evidence that is counter to what is being purported by theorists, but that the do-something virus will result in massive world-wide money and power grab with terrible consequences for the U.S. economy.

Will the results from Cap 'n Trade™ do anything positive for the environment? Who knows, it may just as well do the opposite of what is hoped. Color me highly skeptical. But as sure as polar bears can swim it will put in place yet another big government bureaucracy to shuffle papers on carbon credits like currency. Meanwhile, I'm still wearing fleeces and my crabapple trees have still not flowered on May 13th.

Warming... Really. Man made? Has anyone seen the images of the Chilean volcano? Is that man made. I'm rambling, but this has gone off the rails. I can't turn on the tele, radio, or open a single magazine without seeing over the top, predictable green marketing on every product from car sales, maid service, higher ed, dog food, and Barbie dolls.

Roy Spencer at NRO today had a great deconstruction in Assault on Reason.

What worries me is the widespread misperception that we can do anything substantial about carbon emissions without seriously compromising economic growth. To be sure, forcing a reduction in CO2 emissions will help spur investment in new energy technologies. But so does a price tag of $126 for a barrel of oil. Finding a replacement for carbon-based energy will require a huge investment of wealth, and destroying wealth is not a very good first step toward that goal.

When the public finds out how much any legislation that punishes energy use is going to cost them, with no guarantee that anything we do will have a measurable impact on future climate, there will be a revolt just like the one now materializing in the U.K. and the EU. At some point, as they are faced with the stark reality that mankind’s requirement for an abundant source of energy cannot simply be legislated out of existence, the public will begin asking, “Just how sure are we that humans are causing global warming?”

And this is where the science establishment has, in my view, betrayed the public’s trust.

Even though there has never been a single scientific paper published that has ruled out natural variability for most of the warming we’ve seen since 1850, Big Science has managed to convince politicians and much of the public that the science is settled. Apparently, our addition of nine molecules of carbon dioxide to each 100,000 molecules of air over the last 150 years can now be blamed for anything and everything we choose. Hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, floods, glaciers flowing toward the sea…. all of these used to happen naturally, but no more.

The warming that allowed the Vikings to farm in Greenland 1,000 years ago was surely natural. But we are now told that warming in Greenland today is surely manmade. Glaciers retreating in western Canada have revealed evidence of previous forests, showing that warming and cooling cycles do indeed occur, even without SUVs. Yet the SUV is now the scapegoat for retreating glaciers.

McCain pointed to shrinking Arctic sea ice and collapsing Antarctic ice shelves as obvious evidence that humans are to blame, even though the sea ice did the same thing in the 1920s and 1930s, and those ice shelves must break off eventually, as new glacial ice flows toward the sea to take their place.

But McCain has made it clear that the science really does not matter anyway because, even if humans are not to blame for global warming, stopping carbon-dioxide emissions is the right thing to do. And if we had another choice for most of our energy needs, I might be willing to accept such a claim as harmless enough.

But carbon dioxide is necessary for life on Earth, and I have a difficult time calling something so fundamentally important a “pollutant.” Maybe the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is higher now than it has been in hundreds of thousands of years. So what? I am increasingly convinced that its influence on climate pales in comparison to the influence that natural climate events like El Niño and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have on regional climate. Indeed, most of the warming we’ve seen in the last century might well be due to these natural modes of climate variability alone.

Frankly, the best thing McCain can hope for is to lose and lose big. Because whoever puts this policy into play will be remembered for initiating the biggest train wreck since the Carter years.

Part of the Family Council's objections to a comprehensive sex education bill is that it would teach teens about certain sex acts and the risks inherent in those acts. The group opposes sex education that includes anal sex and anal-oral sex -- a point it make clear in its robo-calls. However, the bill itself would not mandate the teaching of these sex acts, only the teaching of "medically accurate and age-appropriate" sexual health information with curriculum decisions left to parents and school boards.

But, in its zeal to have the bill defeated, the Family Council inadvertently taught teens a little bit about anal and anal-oral sex. A colleague of mine shared a story she heard at her son's soccer game last week. A local parent's teen-ager picked up the phone and learned about anal sex from the Minnesota Family Council. 

In fact the Family Council's tirade about anal sex is left on answering machines and voicemails if no one picks up -- answering machines and voicemails that children often check for messages.

The Family Council did not return a request for a transcript of the calls it made this year, but it made similar calls last year. Local blogger, Eva Young, saved the recording about anal sex from the Family Council's robo-calls last spring.

Partial transcript: "...anal sex and oral anal sex. Here's how you can help Gov. Pawlenty protect your children from unhealthy sex ed. Press one to be connected to Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Politely ask Speaker Kelliher to protect our children and remove unhealthy sex education..."

Regarding C&I loans to small firms, about 50 percent of domestic respondents reported tightening their lending standards on such loans over the survey period, compared with about 30 percent who reported doing so in the January survey. On net, about 65 percent of banks—up from about 40 percent in the January survey—also noted that they had increased spreads of C&I loan rates over their cost of funds for these firms. In addition, large net fractions of domestic respondents reported tightening other price-related terms, and smaller fractions tightened non-price-related terms on C&I loans to small firms.

RNC president Maria Cino noted that the convention will kick off in 100 days and expressed her adoration for the Twin Cities. "A big part of what we love is right here," she noted, "the Mall of America."

Based on today's fashion show, the RNC believes delegates also love cheesy T-shirts ("when in Minnesota fly Air Force One"), goofy hats -- and Zubaz. Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead, who looks uncannily like Rudy Guiliani, seemed particularly keen on the latter fashion accessory. Here's a slideshow of the event:


Created with flickrSLiDR.

Earlier today, we noted that Norm Coleman has accepted several thousand dollars of money connected to the disgraced lobbying consortium, DCI Group.  The DFL has just put out a release calling for Norm to donate the money to charity.  From the release:

“We are calling on Senator Coleman to immediately divest himself of all contributions from DCI employees and the company’s PAC, and to donate the money to charity,” said Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez. “Senator Coleman should rid himself of tainted contributions from DCI, a lobbying firm that has represented an oppressive regime that is denying vital assistance to its own people during a time of crisis.”

“For the sake of transparency, Senator Coleman needs to be fully open about his relationship with the DCI Group,” continued Melendez. “How often has he met with them? What did they discuss? On whose behalf has the DCI Group lobbied him, and have they ever lobbied him on behalf of the military junta in Myanmar? What has the DCI Group asked of him, and when?”

The DFL release also notes an oddity in Coleman’s connections to DCI. Coleman received three $1,000 donations from three different DCI employees on the same day (Oct 7, 2007). The context of this seemingly coordinated donation deserves exploration. Did all three attend a Coleman fundraiser? Or perhaps the donations came after a meeting with Coleman? Norm should clear this up.

Full DFL release after the jump:

DFL Party Calls on Coleman to Return Contributions from DCI Lobbying Firm

Coleman Takes Nearly $10,000 from DCI Group Employees, PAC Linked to Myanmar Regime;

Party Calls on Coleman to Answer Questions About Relationship with Firm

St. Paul, MN (May 13, 2008) Upon learning that Senator Norm Coleman’s campaign took contributions from the political-action committee and employees of DCI Group, a firm that has lobbied in Washington for the oppressive military regime of Myanmar, the Minnesota DFL Party called on Coleman to immediately donate the nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from DCI employees and the company’s PAC to charity and to reveal the extent of his relationship with the lobbying firm.

“We are calling on Senator Coleman to immediately divest himself of all contributions from DCI employees and the company’s PAC, and to donate the money to charity,” said Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez. “Senator Coleman should rid himself of tainted contributions from DCI, a lobbying firm that has represented an oppressive regime that is denying vital assistance to its own people during a time of crisis.”

“For the sake of transparency, Senator Coleman needs to be fully open about his relationship with the DCI Group,” continued Melendez. “How often has he met with them? What did they discuss? On whose behalf has the DCI Group lobbied him, and have they ever lobbied him on behalf of the military junta in Myanmar? What has the DCI Group asked of him, and when?”

Norm Coleman’s DCI Connections:

Coleman And His PAC Have Accepted Nearly $10,000 From DCI Employees and The DCI Group PAC. As of May 13, 2008, Coleman and his Northstar Leadership PAC have accepted $9,861 from DCI employees and the DCI Group PAC. [Center For Responsive Politics]

* Coleman Accepted $4,000 From DCI Employees. On one day, October 24, 2007, Coleman accepted $1,000 each from three DCI employees: Doug Goodyear, Justin Peterson, and Angela Flood. Later in December 2007, Coleman accepted another $1,000 from DCI employee Justin Peterson. [Center For Responsive Politics]

* Coleman Accepted $2,000 From DCI’s PAC. On October 16, 2007, DCI Group PAC gave Coleman $2,000. [Center For Responsive Politics, accessed 5/13/08]

* Coleman’s Northstar Leadership PAC Took $3,861 from DCI Employees in One Day. On August 11, 2004, 5 employees of DCI gave a total of $3,861 to Coleman’s Northstar Leadership PAC. The group of donations included $855 from Doug Goodyear and $370 from Doug Davenport. Coleman’s DCI haul on August 11, 2004, also included an $855 donation from Timothy Hyde, an $855 donation from Thomas Synhorst, a $556 donation from Charles Francis, and a $370 donation from James Murphy. [Center For Responsive Politics]

Goodyear Resigns as Convention Coordinator After Myanmar Revelations. The Associated Press reported, “The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator, saying, ‘Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign.’ Goodyear, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned a few hours after Newsweek posted a story online that the company was paid $348,000 in 2002 and 2003 to represent the government in Myanmar, also called Burma.” [Associated Press, 5/11/08]

Second Campaign Aide Resigns over DCI Connections. According to Atlantic Monthly’s blog, “Doug Davenport, the regional campaign manager for the mid-Atlantic states, founded the DCI Group’s lobbying practice and oversaw the contract with Myanmar in 2002. ‘Doug has tendered his resignation and we have accepted it,’ Jill Hazelbaker, McCain’s communications director, wrote in a e-mail. He joins former DCI Group CEO Doug Goodyear, who resigned yesterday from the post of convention CEO after Newsweek reported that DCI was paid more than $300,000 to represent Myanmar’s ruling junta.” [Atlantic Monthly Blog, 5/11/08]

While Burmese Suffer in Aftermath of Deadly Cyclone, Myanmar Regime Hoards High-Quality Relief. “Many cyclone victims are getting spoiled or poor-quality food from Myanmar’s junta instead of the enriched supplies being delivered by foreign governments and charities, victims and aid workers said Tuesday. A longtime foreign resident of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, told The Associated Press in Bangkok by telephone that angry government officials complained to him about the military misappropriating aid. … The government has barred nearly all foreigners experienced in managing such catastrophes from going to the delta west of Yangon and is expelling those who have managed to go in.” [AP, 5/13/08]

Minnesota Home to Refugees from Myanmar. Minnesota is home to roughly 1,000 refugees from Myanmar, including the America’s highest concentration of Karen refugees, an ethnic minority that has been persecuted in Myanmar. Refugees from Myanmar demonstrated at the Minnesota Capitol last fall to raise awareness of their country’s fight for democracy. [Office of Senator Amy Klobuchar, 5/6/08; Pioneer Press, 9/30/07]

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This has been an incredibly long primary season, and some of us have become extremely frazzled and sometimes upset. I am as guilty as others of falling into the pit of despair because we can't go after McCain yet, our candidates are alienating voters against each other, or there is negative and divisive rhetoric dominating the media.
Well, I think that it would be nice to just take a step back from it all for a moment and look at all the positive. Just look at all the new voters that having two candidates has brought in. So, there is much to be joyful about in the progressive world. In that spirit, I propose a fun diversion from the campaign season. As an admitted Fantasy Football nut, I propose we have a Fantasy Government competition.

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Via Americablog, here is a new house ad for the Mexican newspaper Milenio. You can get a larger view by clicking on the image; the tagline, in English, is "A world so complex needs a good explanation."

No kidding, he's thinking about it! He was already baptized when he was a baby, but that was Episcopalian so it "doesn't count" with the religious right.

So he's thinking about doing it again, because, goddammit, he needs the religious right. Look:

(continued)

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The Minneapolis Police Department takes a bow on cable reality TV this week. MPD homicide detectives Rick Zimmerman and Tammy Diedrich (pictured above) will be featured in A&E's The First 48. The show first airs this Thursday, May 15, at 8 p.m.

What is The First 48? "Gritty and fast-paced, it takes viewers behind the scenes of real-life investigations with unprecedented access to crime scenes, autopsies, forensic processing, and interrogations," according to A&E's website.

Don't miss it if you can. 

DecaBDE is a chemical flame retardant that has many industrial applications. Concerns that the chemical may be harmful to humans, while inconclusive, have resulted in similar bans in Washington and Maine, with legislation being considered in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana and New York.

DecaBDE is classified as a "possible human carcinogen" by the Environmental Protection Agency on the basis of evidence for cancer in animals. In 2004, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reported that "we don't know if PBDEs can cause cancer in people, although liver tumors developed in rats and mice that ate extremely large amounts of decaBDE throughout their lifetime."

Pawlenty declared in his veto letter that "the legislative mandate overreaches and goes beyond current scientific research."

"Sen. Obama won my district by a pretty good margin. So that'll be heavily weighted in my decision," Peterson said on Tuesday.

Out of 14 Minnesota superdelegates, only three have promised support for Sen. Hillary Clinton: Vice President Walter Mondale, and DNC members Rick Stafford and Jackie Stevenson. Obama has picked up the support of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Reps. Tim Walz, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison and James Oberstar, DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez, DFL Associate Chair Donna Cassutt and DNC members Ken Foxworth, Nancy Larson and State Sen. Mee Moua.

Strib land bids due: Bids, due yesterday, on the Star Tribune's five blocks of prime downtown Minneapolis real estate are expected to go for as much as $4 or $5 million per acre, for a potential sale price of $60 million, the Pioneer Press reports. Strib owner Avista needs it: according to an Avista document uncovered by the St. Paul paper, the Strib is the worst-performing company in its portfolio.

Pentagon analysts deliver on MSM: Media Matters follows up on the New York Times expos? about Pentagon-directed "military analysts" who appear in the mainstream media as objective commentators but really make up a "Pentagon information apparatus" used "in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance." It researched media appearances by all analysts mentioned in David Barstow's Times piece and found that, since Jan. 1, 2002, they've been quoted on major cable, network and radio outlets more than 4,500 times.

And as Best Buy continues to gobble up space and present itself in nearly every region of the world--the company opened or acquired 127 new stores last year--analysts have questioned the company's moves that come in tough economic times and as competition for the retailer has greatly increased. Just this week Best Buy announced it will spend $2.2 billion for a 50 percent stake in Carphone Warehouse, a company with a horrible name that has 2,400 stores in nine different countries.

The seemingly endless yellow-tag proliferation hasn't produced favor among many consumers, either. In the Consumerist's annual "Worst Company in America" contest, Best Buy is currently topping the evil meter with 13,081 votes, scoring more hate than such customer-loathing vets as Wal-Mart, Comcast, Clear Channel, CitiBank, and Sallie Mae. It even beats out United HealthCare, a local company that's been seriously publicity damaged by scandal and greed, among other things, over the years.

Of course, a company that denies its customers health care versus a retailer that can't stop producing stores and unnecessary rip-off add-ons wins out as the worst in my book every time. But the contest has just begun. What do you think is the worst local company that deserves to top the list?

In the last week, two senior McCain staffers have resigned due to their ties to the DCI Group, a lobbying consortium that has done extensive work on behalf of the oppressive military junta in Myanmar, which has an atrocious human rights record and has limited access to their country in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Nargis.

Today, Andy Birkey at Minnesota Monitor is reporting that Norm Coleman has accepted some $6,000 from DCI lobbyists and the group’s PAC.

This is a no brainer.  Coleman should return the money, or better yet, donate it to relief efforts in Myanmar.

Smart Politics will blog live Tuesday night as the primary results from West Virginia come in. Some questions Smart Politics will track tonight in measuring the impact of Clinton's expected big victory: What is the voter turnout? Will a large Clinton gain in the popular vote shift the media coverage once again and put Obama back on the defensive? Or will the coverage mirror last Tuesday night in which there was near uniformity among media commentators and anchors that Clinton needs to exit the race? Live blogging will commence at 6:30 p.m. CST when polls close in the Mountain State.

A kind congressional staffer just sent us news that the Farm Bill Conference Report has been posted online at the House Ag Committee's web site. We'll be taking a look after we finish reading the district newspapers this morning.

We recommend the title-by-title Fact Sheets for those wishing to gain a quick understanding of what's in the conference report that both houses of congress will have to consider.

Representative Walz serves on the House Ag committee.

The Hill polled all 97 senators who are not running for president on whether they would accept an offer to be the VP nominee. Most of the answers are unsurprisingly dull and circumspect. But bathroom stall aficionado Larry Craig came up with one of the better responses: "I would say `No, Hillary.' "

Norm Coleman used the opportunity to plug Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "No. I'm up for reelection and I've got the guy who should be vice president," Coleman said. "He's my governor. My governor is my candidate." Amy Klobuchar, a darkhorse candidate on the Democratic side, simply denied interest in the post. "No. I'm focused on being a senator from Minnesota," she said.

It gets even stupider than that, though. Coleman is not even accusing Franken of changing his stance on the issues. He's saying that Franken has changed his demeanor:
...his extremely liberal viewpoints are couched in softer, more acceptable terms

What an outrage!

What's difficult to understand is why Coleman persists in using this attack. Surely there are other aspects of Franken's candidacy Coleman could find to attack? Ultimately, I think there's a simple answer here: Coleman cannot think for himself. He used the "flip-flopping" line in 2004 because it was fed to him by the Bush administration, just like he has voted with Bush 86% of the time. Now he's going to keep using it, until some other high-ranking Republican tells him to think something else.