EckerNet.Com

In an attempt to prop up the failing campaign of Shelley Madore, the incorrectly named “Minnesota Independent” recently published a boilerplate “Oh a poor Democrat is being picked on by mean Republicans!“. Unfortunately the author has sanded off quite a bit of the truth.

Let’s start with the most egregious…

Campaign Funding

The liberal hacks at MN Independent start out by pointing out that Madore’s Republican candidate Tara Mack has raised more than $27000, a rather impressive sum for an unknown challenger. They then criticize Mack for having contributors such as “big-time GOP givers from outside the district such as local TV/radio mogul Stanley Hubbard, Minnesota Timberwolves owners Glen Taylor and former Target chief executive officer Robert Ulrich.” This is obviously meant to leave the impression that Mack’s campaign is mostly funding by big-wig rich fat-cats.

However, the truth is much much different…here are the contributions from those “big-time GOPers”

• Stanley Hubbard - $500
• Glen Taylor - $250
• Robert Ulrich - $500

For those of you that went to public school that’s a grand total of $1250…out of $27000, roughly 4.5%. In fact, most of Mack’s contributions are small donations from individuals. Wow, that’s not the impression you get from the article.

If you look at Madore’s records on the other hand, you see an entirely different story. She’s raised a rather anemic $14397, especially for an incumbent. The big issue there is that $6700 of that is from lobbyists and PACs. And many of those PACs directly benefit from the big transportation tax increase that Madore voted for.

So the implication that Tara Mack is being supported by special interests just is not reflected by reality. Instead it’s Shelley Madore who appears to be acting in the best interest of those PACs and lobbyists supporting her campaign. Not that she has much of a choice since few of her constituents appear willing to support her.

Media Access

The article also accuses Tara Mack of hiding from reporters…LOL, for those of you confused, lefty bloggers like to call themselves journalists and reporters….it’s a vanity thing I guess. Anyway, they claim that Tara Mack is hiding herself from reporters because…

• She skipped one of twelve debates because she was out knocking on doors talking to residents of her district instead. She has committed to attending four of the twelve.
• She won’t return a phone call from a lefty hack

So basically because she won’t follow the schedule and be at the beck-and-call of reporters lefty hacks she’s hiding from the media. Instead she deems it more important to go out to the actual neighborhoods of those she means to represent and talk with the people that could vote for her. Wow…that’s damning “evidence”.

UPDATE : The article makes the accusation that she won’t return a phone call from a lefty hack.  I just talked to Tara Mack and she stated that she actually DID call him back several times but he has no voicemail.  A “reporter” without a voicemail….huh.  She then tried to email him.  He responded with an email acknowledging her attempts to call and stated he’d talk to her before he went forward with the article…

Now he publishes an article stating she refused to call him back.  Just who is avoiding who here?

SCANDAL!

The article tries to manufacture a scandal out of….well, nothing. Here’s the scandal…seriously. The Apple Valley City Council (headed by a Democrat) having learned that the usual polling place for Precinct 14 wasn’t going to be available in 2008 had to pick a new polling place. Best they could manage was the River Valley Church which unfortunately isn’t in Precinct 14.

Now here’s the scandal part….Tara Mack’s husband Justin is an assistant pastor at that church. However, even the Secretary of State (a Democrat) says there is nothing wrong with the arrangement. And the change was made before Tara Mack even filed for office.

Yeah….that’s it…that’s the scandal. Apparently we can’t even trust a man of the cloth anymore. The Minnesota “Independent” mentions it in a “oh well this may or may not be a scandal, but since I mention it it must be newsworthy!” sort of way. Clearly the intent is to leave the impression that election fraud is taking place despite all evidence to the contrary….and lack of evidence to support it.

Big Bad Mean Republicans

And then there is the obligatory “Republicans are mean!” angle. In this case a local GOP activist (that would be me) has been publishing a site that has been pointing out the less flattering parts of Madore’s record, especially those areas where she isn’t exactly in line with the beliefs of her district. Every item is documented with a link to the legislation and voting record so that anyone that needs to can verify it themselves.

Reality

Fact of the matter is that Madore has been a horrible legislator with a record of voting that does not match the value of her constituents. The fact that she has received very few donations from residents of her district and has generated very little traction for her campaign says quite a bit about her as a candidate. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the DFL chooses to cut the umbilical cord and cut her loose. They wouldn’t be losing much.

[Crossposted at True North]

I think I’ll be the only blogger on the planet today that isn’t bitching about the economy when I bitching about Congress. No my bitching is about my pet issue….illegal immigration.

We’ve known for a long time that E-Verify was going to expire in November if Congress didn’t reauthorize it. Instead of making progress on this, Congress has done the exact opposite. There is a bill (HR 6633) floating around that would re-authorize E-Verify and all the Senate has to do is vote on it.

Congress is scheduled to adjourn after this week, and this is the last change to re-authorize E-Verify before it expires. And since Congress is busy dealing with bailout after bailout, it is unlikely they will get around to authorizing E-Verify. As a result, we will lose one of the best tools we have to fight illegal immigration due entirely to Congressional incompetence.

The leader of that incompetence is Senator Menendez who has placed a block on that HR 6633, which would reauthorize E-Verify. In fact, Senator Menendez is uping the ante on his block. He’s release his block if we allow 550,000 more foreign workers in the US, in addition to the 1.1 million already scheduled to arrive.

Our economy is experiencing quite a bit of trouble right now. Instead of at least ensuring a level playing field for Americans in the job market, Congress is going to allow illegal immigrants to have the upper hand competing for jobs. With a five-year high in unemployment rates, are more foreign workers really the answer we need!?

And it doesn’t help that both of our Presidential candidates are trying to out-amnesty each other. Both declaring that their version of amnesty will be bigger and more repulsive than the others. This despite clear public support for enforcing the border rather than passing amnesty.

I’d love to tell you that we have a chance to save E-Verify, but I’d just be blowing smoke up your ass. And with it being Election Season, you’re getting enough of that as it is. So I’ll just tell you that it is important that the Senate realize the public view on all this.

You can let Senator Menendez what you think by calling him at the following numbers:

DC Office - (202) 224-4744
Newark Office - (973) 645-3030
Online Form

Minnesotans you can also call your Senators at:

Senator Coleman (202) 224-5641
Senator Klobuchar (202) 224-3244

And then you can call Senate leadership at:

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) (202) 224-2158
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (202) 224-3135

Otherwise the Senate Switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.

[Crossposted at True North]

John Kline recently released a new ad that spotlights one of the aspects I’ve most admired about the man. It’s worth the watch…

[crossposted at True North]

In my BPOU, I have the dubious honor of being the “tech” guy. Among my other “duties” has included the design, operation and maintenance of our database of our district. The idea being that having this database makes us more efficient and effective in our communications and organization.

Among the more valuable pieces of information has been email addresses. It’s a non-intrusive way of distributing information, setting up events, and getting feedback. And more important for a non-profit, it’s free!*

Well thanks to Obama’s much lampooned 3AM announcement of “the other Vice Presidential candidate”, it appears as if I might not be thinking creatively…

But this may seem like a genius move come November, since the campaign can use that same database to send “get out and vote” reminders directly to voters nationwide on election day. Messages can be targeted by area code and exchange to boost turnout in marginal states and districts.

Well hell… Get out the vote efforts require lots of volunteers, lots of volunteer time and really aren’t that much fun. This would be a great work-around on all three counts.

One possible drawback would be the ultimate cost. Let’s say you got the phone numbers of 1000 people in each district, you’re still looking at $50 just in text messages. But realistically that’s a fairly minimal costs and you’re likely to spend at least that in refreshments/food alone for your volunteers the standard way.

One very real drawback is whether it works or not. To determine that would probably require it to be used on a widescale, but it’s worth considering it’s potential. The standard way involves phone calling, but people quickly learn to just stop answering their phones on Election Day. Plus it tends to irritate people after all, and you don’t want your voters irritated at you. Text messages I would suspect would not generate the same irritation but at the same time, it’s something that people are going to look it. Whether they act on it any more or less than a phone call is probably the determining factor, but it seems like a worthy idea.

* Well technically not free, it costs us money to lease use of a server and it requires some of my time to do it.

[Crossposted at True North]

An email arrived in my inbox today that is pure comedy gold due to the irony inherent throughout. Team Obama has repeatedly declared that women aren’t going to flock to McCain just because of Palin, because they aren’t stupid enough to fall for a simple plea to their extra X chromosome. So now Michelle Obama sends out an email to rally women by…..well, appealing to their extra X chromosome.

Oh but the fun doesn’t stop there…I didn’t even get past the title of the email before I starting giggling.

Women can make the difference

Well…actually they are only allowed to make a difference in a liberally approved way. Because you know if they choose to have a lots of kids and pursue a career, well there is just something nutty about that.

Anyway, let’s read the email shall we??

Kevin –

It’s hard to believe there are less than 50 days before Election Day.

No kidding. It’s not much time for you to figure out if you love America or not…better get cracking.

That’s not a lot of time. And since women voters could decide this election, we have to take this opportunity to talk to our friends and family about what’s at stake.

We’ve seen the power of women throughout this campaign — educating each other about the issues and building this movement by sharing our personal stories.

Well except the only female candidate in the presidential race. She shared her story and liberals are busy dragging her and her family through the mud for it. Although to be fair you’re just treating her like “one of the guys” because you appear perfectly willing to ridicule McCain for war injuries. And to be even more fair, you did the same thing to Hillary. Yup you’re a real champion of women there Obama.

As far as educating each other about the issues. According to the treatment of Palin, unless you’ve embraced the sacriment of abortion and killed all your kids, you don’t have time for issues and public service. You obviously don’t have time for that and belong in the kitchen.

And let’s not forget that apparently the only issue that is suppose to matter to women is abortion, as evidenced by the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) endorsement of Obama. So all those women voters that apparently don’t vote on a block are expected to vote as a block on a single issue.

That’s why, over the next few weeks, women all across Minnesota will be reaching out to one another through special Women’s Week of Action phonebanks and canvasses.

Because McCain selected a woman running mate to appeal to women is just cheap political pandering, but having women appeal to other women over the phone is a noble and beautiful thing.

On every issue important to women –

Read : Abortion

from access to healthcare and universal pre-school to equal pay for equal work — Barack is the only candidate who can bring about the change we need.

Ahhh yes, universal healthcare and government sponsered youth indoctrination programs. Because there is nothing a mother appreciates more than having the government make all parental decisions for her!

Join a Women’s Week of Action event and let other women in your community know why you’re supporting Barack.

Because there is nothing like another woman telling them what to do, right?

Barack wasr aised by a single mother and grandmother.

One of which is “a typical white person” he has thrown under the bus. The other would have been thrown under the bus, but it’s getting damn crowded under there!

He understands the tough choices that working women in this country face every single day — because he lived it.

Unlike Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton right??

And now, he and I are raising two young girls.

Whom, according to Barack Obama, depending on the circumstances of their conception may or may not be punishment for a mistake.

They are the reason we’re in this race — to make the world a better place, full of opportunity, for them and for all of our children.

For all our children?? Except the ones you support aborting right?? Even the ones that survive the initial abortion attempt and you support leaving to die??

Wait!!! I get it…the better place you’re talking about is heaven!?! Gotcha, I’m picking up what you’re saying now!

I know that Barack and Joe Biden are a strong team for women and families across the country because they have the record and the commitment to prove it — but it’s up to supporters like you to help get this message of change out into your communities.

Yes they have the reocrd to prove it. The first and third most extreme liberals in the Senate. Although Obama has really done nothing of record himself. He’s just attached himself to other people’s legislation. So that doesn’t show much committment.

Barack and Joe will pass tax cuts for 95% of American families, ensure that women get equal pay for the same jobs as men, put the needs of working and middle class families ahead of special interests, and change our broken school system so that every single child in this nation has a world-class education from pre-school through college.

Even though Barack Obama has never voted for a tax cut, despite a plethora of chance, he promises to do so this time in spite of voting for 92 tax increases. Really!! Why can’t you just have the audacity to hope he does??? Remember, he comes from the town of Hopenchange, where he makes lots of promises about stuff, but has never really shown the ability to do any of them.

But they can’t do it alone. This campaign is counting on us. If women come together to support Barack and Joe, we can bring about the change we need.

Ahhh, now women know their place. Their supposed to get behind Obama and help him rather than, you know, running for office themselves.

Get started today by reaching out to other women in your community:

http://mn.barackobama.com/MNwomensweek

Will you be reaching out to Hillary too??

The future of women and all of our families is at stake in this election.

Yes, because McCain is going to take away your right to abort your family!

Thank you so much for all that you do,

Michelle

No problem sweetie, glad I could help.

[Crossposted at True North]

It wasn’t long ago that things weren’t looking so good for Republicans. Fewer and fewer voters were self-identifying as Republicans. And those that did were dejected and less than enthusiastic about their chances in 2008. Donations weren’t happening. Conservatives were just as likely to bash the Republican party as support it. Opinion polls were downright apocalyptic.

Now things have turned around. Republicans are motivated and excited. Donations are aplenty. Conservatives are back on board, attacking their opponents and defending Republicans. Republican voter Id is up. Opinion polls are either tied or trending Republican. And not a day goes by where one doesn’t hear of another battleground or “solid blue” state that is starting to break for McCain.

All this is well and good, and Republicans and conservatives alike should be counting their blessings. However, there is also a very important lesson to be learned in this. And if the Republican Party has any hopes of building upon our current situation, they would do well to learn it and learn it fast.

The catalyst, if not the primary cause, of this turn around was the selection of Sarah Palin as vice-presidential candidate. Since then her rise in the Republican Party has reached near cult hero worship status. Sure she has a compelling story and she’s right on the issues, but she’s mostly just plain normal. Yet conservatives have rallied to her side. Why??? Well she’s a conservative.

For years the Republican Party both national and local, have not only tolerated RINOs but embraced them. Then they’ve wondered why conservatives won’t volunteer their time and money to the party. Enthusiasm flags more and more with every flaunt of conservative values.

This presidential election should serve as a proof of what can happen when an actual conservatives is put up rather than the customary RINO. Will the Republican Party learn the lesson?? Let’s hope so, their very future depends on it.

[Crossposted at True North]

McCain and Palin are about to embark upon a rather high-stakes gamble, although it is unlikely that it is of their own design. Instead of splitting off and attending campaign events seperately, and thereby covering more ground, it sounds like they are going to do the home stretch of the campaign together in tandem.  Interesting, unprecedented, and fraught with both pros and cons.

The logic being that with this they have a “magical chemistry” that works so well. And that with our 24-hour news national media these days, local events aren’t as necessary in an campaign. There is a certain degree of sense to that. Each campaign is viciously watching the others slightest move, ready to pounce on the smallest gaffe. Plus the pundits in television are ready to sign praises of every Democratic sneeze, and talk radio hosts are ready to obsess glowingly over every Republican hiccup. And their respective armies in the blogosphere, it’s unlikely that any move/phrase/action, whether good or bad is likely to be dutily reported instantly to an already weary public. One need look no further than the fact that “lipstick on a pig” was apparently so noteworthy as to dominate an entire news cycle.

So there is a certain bit of truth to the idea that even if the candidate is campaigning in say….Germany, you’re gonna hear every little detail, and analysis of every inflection. And local news stations do tend to just parrot whatever the new networks have to say, so that they can concentrate on cutesy local “human interest” stories about someone’s particularly clever cat or other nonsense.

However, the McCain campaign can talk about their “magical chemistry” all they want, but it is highly unlikely that is the sole, or even major, reason for the tandem campaign events. Fact of the matter is that McCain has become Palin’s running mate. McCain’s campaign was flat-lining and the road ahead was rough.

Since Palin was announced the money has flowed in and the enthusiasm has soared. And the crowds, oh the crowds, they have turned out…..for Sarah Palin. Were they to split McCain would likely have to deal with the embarassment of anemic lethargic crowds once again, while his running mate is packing, and rocking, the house. So McCain is forced to accept the fact that he has to ride Palin’s coattails all the way to November, or suffer the public emasculation of being relegated to secondary status.

For Obama, every cloud has a silver lining. He may not know how to deal with Sarah Palin. His tragic attempts to do so have only resulted in him not even shooting himself in the foot, but blowing the whole leg off. On the other hand, the presence of Sarah Palin does shorten McCain’s reach quite a bit.

So what’s faster? A hobbling Obama? Or Sarah Palin, with McCain on her back? We’ll find out in November.

[Crossposted at True North]

It seems like only just the other day (actually it was!) that I was reading an article debunking the frequently cited myth that liberals are smarter than conservatives.

Liberals wish. Democrats like to think that voters who sympathize with their views are smarter than those who vote Republican. But a 2007 Pew survey found that the knowledge level of viewers of the right-wing, blustery “The O’Reilly Factor” and the left-wing, snarky “The Daily Show” is comparable, with about 54 percent of the shows’ politicized viewers scoring in the “high knowledge” category.

Ok fair enough, we’re equally smart, we just differ in opinion. I can live with that. Oh happy world, what a wonderfully balanced utopia we live in

[That screeching sound you hear is reality interjecting itself.]

Wait…what’s this?

While 82% of voters who support McCain believe the justices should rule on what is in the Constitution, just 29% of Barack Obama’s supporters agree. Just 11% of McCain supporters say judges should rule based on the judge’s sense of fairness, while nearly half (49%) of Obama supporters agree.

Um, what?? Seriously? Only 29% of Obama’s supporters believe the Supreme Court should rule based upon the Constitution??? And a full 49% believe they should just pull their opinion out of their ass??? Really!???

[Checks calendar and notices today is in fact not April 1st.]

Wow.

I’m a little bewildered. I’m not sure what angle to approach this from. Because this is a concept I’m pretty sure was covered in my elementary school social studies/civics classes….if not then, certainly by Junior High. How could only a small number know that a SCOTUS justic rules by the Constitution? Otherwise how could a reasonable adult, most of whom probably tied their own shoes that morning, admit to a pollster, they are a complete and utter dumbass??

[Crossposted at True North]

As I indicated earlier, I was helping to monitor the protests downtown as part of the True North team. Disappointed by the pitiful protest staged at noon, which you can read about here, we came back to our super-secret bunker in the heart of the beast and tried to get a sense of what the protesters had planned. We were getting tips and hearing rumors all over the city. In fact, the city of St. Paul itself informed it’s downtown business to send home workers by 3 pm, so we knew they were expecting trouble. Right on cue, our observer on scene, Mitch Berg, reported numbers gathering on the capitol grounds, so I high-tailed it down there to join him.

This crowd was definitely bigger. I’d estimate between 1000 and 1500 people. Before I knew it the crowd started moving and Mitch and I had to move to keep in front of them. That was kinda fun, trying to outguess a crowd and guessing what the mob mentality was going to achieve. When the crowd deviated from their approved route, the police revoked their permit and trapped them on the John Ireland bridge. Fortunately Mitch and I were on the “good” side of the police line and was able to watch riot police, mounted police, bike police, police on ATVs, motorcycle police, BCA and Secret Service deploy and redeploy. Put on gas masks, then take them off, put them on and then off again. You can see the live blog of the event here, and apparently KSTP had a camera on the opposite side of the protest and you can see that report here.

Despite claims that they’d stay there all night if they had to, the protesters eventually dispersed. Or did they??

Well as it turns out, a couple hours later, assuming every thing was petering out and was going to be limited to small skirmishes I headed out of downtown with Andy, whom I had since linked up with. We had just managed to find our way back over I-94, when suddenly a protest march was coming right at us. Less than a 1000 people but still sizeable, 400-500 likely. Where they managed to assemble that number of people is unsure, but they were trying to find a way across I-94 and apparently tried to use the same method we did. The highway (I-94) plays a very strategic role. It’s a natural barrier and with limited number of crossings to “defend”.

But it appears the police might have been caught off guard by this one because they really had to struggle to redeploy in time to block them. It was nothing like the very organized responses I saw earlier, in which the police appeared to know what the protesters were gonna do before they did. This was obviously very ad hoc, but they managed to prevent the protesters from taking the Marion overpass. Protesters were turned back north toward the Sears by the Capitol and the next thing we knew the parking lots were filled with flashbangs and tear gas and we were briefly caught within police lines. Turns out the police had formed a police line north of Sears using cops on bicycles, the crowd challenged the line and tried to force their way through.  Police responded.

Fortunately the crowd moved back toward the Marion overpass and police redeployed toward them. Further flashbangs and tear gas announced another confrontation. Once the gas had cleared we discovered that police had trapped and arrested about 200 protesters. That number is not confirmed, only my guesstimation from looking at the number of people on the ground, in cuffs.

Protesters were still gathered around the area but the police now had proper police lines in place and reserves at the ready and kept them back so the arrested could be processed. However, the police had also ordered gawkers to disperse as well.

The tear gas and flashbangs took the fight out of most of the crowd, because most of the protesters scattered and there were many pulling out their cellphones trying to find lost, and potentially arrested, comrades. What little group that was still assembled (maybe 150) is mostly “street medics”, lawyers and “peace groups”. So I wouldn’t expect much more trouble now. Likely there will be small groups blocking intersections all night long but I doubt they’ll have the numbers to “smash the Xcel” as was their intended goal earlier.

Many compliments go to the St. Paul police, the Ramsey County Deputies and the other agencies involved. They showed great restraint today. There were several instances where things could have turned very ugly very quickly. But police kept their powder dry and were very tolerant of the protesters….which is as it should be.

And thus comes to a close the protests of the RNC. The GOP was able to have it’s convention. The protesters were able to say whatever it is the hell they had to say. Nobodies rights were violated and we can all go home….well except for those that apparently can’t be bothered to follow the law.

[Crossposted at True North]

Ok so I’m currently in the super-secret True North protest watch bunker at the moment.  We’ll be keeping an eye on the protests going on.  There will be a school walk out starting at 11.  They’ll converge on the state capitol.  And then there is a protest march and “theater” at the Xcel around 4.  Myself and the rest of the True North crew will be doing what we can to report on that.  I’ll be fairly busy myself, so I probably won’t put it up here.  Instead I’d suggest you hang out at True North for the day and catch the updates from both myself and others as they come in.