A stadium by any other name

A new post at the Cucking Stool that should be of interest to Senate 41 voters.

A leopard . . .

Cannot change its spots. Nor a skunk its stripes. The signature you see on the left belongs to Geoff Michel, and it is on the ethics complaint filed against Majority Leader Dean Johnson. You can read the whole thing here, if you are so inclined.

Spot has already commented on l'affaire de johnson at the Cucking Stool. And he'll probably have more to say about it in coming days. Right now, though, he wants to talk about the Edina senator.

Senator Michel has spent so much time recently in the Great Pretender mode, soothing his constituents at the recent town hall meeting with his solemn pledge (sorry, Senator) that he and the Legislature would get to work and get back to basics like education and transportation.

A couple of days ago, Michel joined an effort by Michele Bachmann to try to jerk the gay marriage ban amendment bill out of committee for a floor vote in the Senate. Now this.

As Spotty's Mom used to say, Actions speak louder than words. Here, the actions are shouting.

Too many Mexicans!

Both Reps. Erhardt and Peterson voted for this bill. It is intended to override local ordinances in our center cities intended to keep cops out of the immigration business. It will inhibit cooperation with the police by undocumented aliens. This subject was raised at the town hall meeting with the legislators a few weeks ago. It was the sense of the crowd that a bill like this was a bad idea.

Spotty is disappointed in both of these legislators; this bill has a racist subtext that is one of the governor's wedge issues.

Update: Ok, those of you in Edina or Bloomington, when your kid gets roughed up or worse outside a downtown bar at closing time, and the only witness is an uncooperative undocumented alien working as a cook or server in the bar, you know who to call.

Doesn't play well with others

Geoff Michel supported Michele Bachmann's (unsuccessful) efforts to pull the anti-gay marriage amendment bill out of the committee process for a vote on the Senate floor. Watchers of Michel's voting record will recall that he tried to do this with the Conceal and Carry handgun legislation before the issue blew up in his fact in his district and he got permission from Dick Day to vote against the final bill.

The link above is to a DFLers.org story.

A picture . . .

Lies better than a thousand words. The Great Pretender is back trying to convince us he is a friend of public education. He is not. Check out Spot's post about Geoff Michel from last session. Read also about his support of the divisive, anti-public education former Education Commissioner, Cheri Pearson Yecke. And Michel is a supporter of school vouchers.

Caucusing in Cakeville . . .

That's the title of Spot's post on minvolved about the SD41 caucuses last week You can read it here.

Expressed as a percentage . . .

More on the 70% solution at The Cucking Stool. Pretty much everyone, including the governor on Almanac tonight, declared this duck dead, dead, dead.

No I'm/she's not . . .

In posting some proposed caucus resolutions written by Carol Overland, who practices law in Northfield, Spotty identified Carol as a Green party member. There were two messages in Spotty's email inbox this morning related to the post.

The first one was from Carol herself, saying that she was not a Green. Spot inferred from the rest of her message that she was sort of, kind of, not altogether cheerfully, a DFLer.

The second message was from a Green party member, saying Spot was waaaaaaaayyy (spelling approximate) off base in calling Carol Overland a Green.

Gee, that was kind of fun. Anyway, Spot regrets the error.

Well, this is different . . .

Here's a blog post that almost writes itself. A couple of correspondents have written to Spot with ideas for the caucuses tonight. Since Spot is not a party activist, he is not a big proposer of resolutions at the caucus, but he's going to pass these along, dear readers, for your consideration.

First, Pete Westre at Left in the Heartland has some resolutions directed to putting the "L" back in DFL. There has even been some talk in recent years about removing the Farmer Labor part of the DFL name in Minnesota, but these are natural groups for the Democrats. Pete has some good ideas here; have a look.

Second, Spot got an email from Carol Overland, who has not always been charitable to ol' Spotty, calling into question whether Spot had been "fixed." Carol is a Green Party member. She is also a public utilities lawyer who is a neighbor to the Prairie Island nuclear plant. Since her resolutions were in the email, and not linked to a site, Carol gives Spot the extra chore of cutting and pasting.


WHEREAS, all communities are feeling the state budget crunch because taxes are going up; and
WHEREAS, many utilities received a large reduction in utility personal property tax rates; and
WHEREAS, all communities have utility infrastructure and are affected by these cuts;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Minnesota shall grant exemptions from utility personal property tax only where the utility has a Host Fee Agreement with affected communities that fairly compensates the community for the costs of hosting, such as infrastructure, security, traffic, noise, and nuisance.

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WHEREAS, we need an estimated 6,300 MW of new electric generation in the region by 2020; and
WHEREAS, there is over 16,000 MW of new electric generation in the region in line for interconnection; and
WHEREAS, there is more than enough generation to meet our needs;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Minnesota shall pick its new generation carefully, choosing generation that can be strategically sited to add without massive infrastructure investment; and choosing generation that provides a net gain of local economic development benefits and which does not drain resources from the community.

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WHEREAS, eminent domain in Minnesota is very similar to that set out in the recent Kelo Supreme Court case; and
WHEREAS, a primary usage of eminent domain in Minnesota is for transmission lines, pipelines, and utility infrastructure; and
WHEREAS, many miles of new transmission lines and pipelines are planned in Minnesota, affecting thousands of landowners;
WHEREAS, directly affected landowners want the option of moving away from new infrastructure:

BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Legislative changes to eminent domain law must not exempt utilities; and our “Buy the Farm” provision that allows landowners to require a full taking so they can move away must cover ALL high voltage transmission lines and pipelines as defined in the statute.

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WHEREAS, eminent domain in Minnesota is to be used for provision of essential services and elimination of blight; and
WHEREAS, eminent domain in Minnesota is to be rarely used and only for public benefit;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Minnesota shall grant the power of eminent domain only to governmental units and public service corporations (utilities) and not to private entities or for the benefit of private entities.

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WHEREAS, commercial, industrial and residential development in rural areas is growing at unprecedented rates; and
WHEREAS, commercial, industrial and residential development has to be carefully planned and sited to fit in a community:

BE IT RESOLVED that commercial, industrial and residential development must strategically sited to add without massive infrastructure investment, where infrastructure is necessary costs are born by developer, and that development must provide a net gain of local economic benefits and not drain resources from the community.


Eminent domain is shaping up to be one of the hot-button issues in the current legislative session. Whatever you view of eminent domain, you had better go to your caucus tonight prepared to talk about it.

Borene gets another endorsement

Candidate for Senate District 41 (and the presumptive DFL endorsee) Andrew Borene picked the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union. MN Publius has the story.