"The Patriot" boldly violates corporate contribution law

Since alleged violations of Minnesota's corporate contribution law are the topic of several Republican blogs, I thought it would be appropriate to remind everyone about a very blatant, brazen disreguard for that same law by WWTC-AM aka "The Patriot" and KKMS-AM. Both of them are owned by a large corporation that should know better.

MN statute:211B.15, subdivision 11 says:

Messages on premises. It is not a violation of this section for a corporation selling products or services to the public to post on its public premises messages that promote participation in precinct caucuses, voter registration, or elections if the messages are not controlled by or operated for the advantage of a candidate, political party, or committee.

Simply put, posting campaign signs on corporate property is a violation of the law.
The violation is very well documented here with video, a statement from a station employee that the station put the sign up, maps and links to the relevant laws.

Gov. Fee-lenty's syn-tax lands state in court

The State of Minnesota will be spending more of your hard earned tax ...er fee dollars to defend a law suit thanks to our Governor's playing word games to avoid breaking his "no new tax" pledge. Of course, that syn-tax dodge fooled nobody, not even the Taxpayer's League.

More Evidence MN GOP Wanted Gov't Shutdown

Apparently it wasn't enough that some government services had to be shut down for more than a week. House Republicans would rather see all of the state government and all of its employees laid off should the state not have a budget in place by the end of the fiscal year. That would include the folks who patrol your highways, catch the bad guys and prevent fraud.

A majority of the states (even the red ones) don't put public safety at risk because there's a political dispute.

While the Republicans are trying to paint this as a "separation of powers" issue, it really boils down to wanting to have the power to crush the opposition. Valuing political power over public safety is inexcusable.

Klobuchar Klobbers Kompetition

It's not a scientific poll, but it is significant. Amy Klobuchar appears to have the support of the DFL party delegates and activists all sewn up. Interesting analysis of the U.S. Senate Race numbers over at "Inside Minnesota Politics".

Ford Bell says Democrats "Made Mistake" On Abortion

Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Ford Bell says he's 100% pro-choice -- yet he says the Democratic Party is making a mistake on the abortion issue. The Dems get labled "pro-abortion" when the policies they propose mean fewer abortions. It's a nuanced position worth listening to on "Inside Minnesota Politics With Peter Idusogie".

Today's Stupid Question

Why can't our President who says he personally feels the pain of each U.S. Soldier death in Iraq take 30 minutes to meet with Cindy Sheehan to talk about her son who died in Iraq?

John Kline says growing number of bartenders is encouraging economic news

This is funny. From a new blog --"Dump John Kline".

A Primary Pursuit

He won't say yes and he won't say no. U. S. Senate Candidate Kelly Doran is "undecided" about going through the DFL's endorsement process. He also says a primary would be a "good thing for the state".

You can bet that he's going to be running all the way until the September primary. Not getting an endorsement from the DFL is not going to stop him.

Hear the interview on "Inside Minnesota Politics With Peter Idusogie" and decide for yourself.

Today's Stupid Question

If our country is at war, why is our President taking a five week vacation?

Updated: Kennedy Campaign Eliminating Facts From News Stories

Read down for update:

It's not unusual for campaigns to post or link to news stories about their candidate. What is unusual is the sentence-by-sentence editing the Mark Kennedy for U.S. Senate campaign has done to remove balance and any dissenting remarks about their candidate from news stories. The stories did not link back to the original content. So there was no way to tell they were altered.

The Kennedy website editing included:

Making up new headlines that made Kennedy look good

Removing analysis that Kennedy's votes in the past year are an attempt to portray him as a moderate, when it is likely he will go back to his far right voting patterns as soon as he gets in the Senate.

Removing critical descriptions that provide balance:

For example, in a New York Times story about the House's recent passage of the energy bill, the phrase "despite objections that the energy plan was flawed by subsidies to industry and a failure to curb national demand for gasoline" was deleted.

So if anyone points to the Kennedy website as a legitimate news source, just link back to this story when you comment on it.

UPDATE: The Star Tribune reports Kennedy's campaign has agreed to post links to the full articles. When I checked at 5:20pm CDT, nothing had changed. However, Kennedy's campaign did find time to post new stuff about Bush signing the transportation bill today. It's pretty clear where the priorities are on this campaign. Promotion first. Promises fullfilled...later...maybe.

10:30 PM -- Still no changes, or promises fullfilled, on the Mark Kennedy campaign website.

Thurs August 11, 2005 2:40 PM - Still no changes. Are the promises from Kennedy's campaign staff as hollow as the promises from the candidate himself?

Peeking Behind Doran's Billboard

To most people in Minnesota, Kelly Doran is a Billboard along the highway going up north. "Inside Minnesota Politics with Peter Idusogie" got to look behind that billboard and found a real passionate person running for U.S. Senate.

He has business savvy, is liberal on social issues and puts his money where his mouth is. Not only has he put his own money on the line for his campaign (about $500K), but he also pays the full premium for his employees' health care (minus the co-pay). Interesting guy. Interesting interview.

Move On Targets Rep. John Kline

Sweet news for those who want to see our "good soldier, lock step Republican" Representative go back to Texas.

Inside Minnesota Politics has the details and more evidence that Kelly Doran is going to skip the DFL endorsement and run in the primary for U.S. Senate.