Blanked Out

My left arm is broken. Updates and photos as they become available.

A list of new blogs or old blogs that deserve attention! Feel free to put your new blog addiction in the comments.

Minnesota Monitor
http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/

It’s like the Old Country Buffett of the MN Blogosphere and I mean that in the best way possible. On one site you have REW from Power Liberals, Matt Martin from MN Publius, Joe Bodell from MNCR, Craig Cox and Abdi Aynte from TC Daily Planet, Jeff Fecke from Blog of the Moderate Left, Leigh Pomeroy from Vox Verax, Andy Birkey from Eleventh Ave South, Sara Reller from Broken Nails and Paul Schmelzer from Eyeteeth.

If that wasn’t enough, they also have a concise but powerful blog/news aggregator.

Current highlights - an upcoming interview with Coleen Rowley by Jeff Fecke and two stories from Abdi Aynte: the first part in a series on immigration and border security in northern Minnesota and a breaking story of an attack on a Minneapolis mosque.

Aynte is a talented journalist: watch out for him in the future.

Kiffmeyer Watch
http://www.kiffmeyerwatch.com/

This blog just launched Wednesday: all Mary Kiffmeyer, all the time. Nuff said.

Migrant Worker
http://blogs.princeton.edu/pia/personal/epay/

You might wonder how a blog about being an American migrant worker in China has to do with Minnesota. Well, very little actually. But author Even Pay did attend Carleton College and that’s enough of a Minnesotan connection for me to link to my new favorite on the ground blog in China.

If Even keeps this up she’ll soon be better than Shanghaiist and One Man Bandwidth: An American Professor in China combined.

Even’s friend Chris reminds me on GoKunming that Optimus Prime has defected to China. I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but it’s probably because Optimus saw the ridiculous flames they’ve put on him for the live action Transformers movie. I don’t know how to put this in stronger terms: Optimus Prime does not need flames. Period.

Other highlights:

• Tim Walz made the Netroots ActBlue page! This could be a huge boon for Walz but only if everyone chips in - he was added late so he’s already running behind the other candidates.Show the rest of the blogosphere that Walz is one of the best new candidates this cycle - bar none. Contribute now!

  As always, Bluestem Prairie is the authoritative blog for anything regarding MN-01.
  
  

• Patty Wetterling has won $5k from the “Pick a Progressive Patriot” contest sponsored by U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D–WI) Progressive Patriots Fund!

An email has been sent out on behalf of Junge that prominently features federal charter school support as a main reason for supporting Junge. MNCR has posted a section of the email. The highlight as I see it: (emphasis added)

NEED FOR DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT FOR CHARTERS IN THE CONGRESS: A number of important decisions on the future of the federal charter school grant program and other legislation of importance to charters will be made in the next several years - along with the overall reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law. Ember wants to be a leading voice for charters in the Congress - a voice that’s sorely needed, especially among House Democrats.

The argument of this email is that there are not enough charter school supporting Democrats and that more are needed in Congress if important legislation is to pass.

The unspoken argument is that there is much greater support for charter schools among Republican members. Charter schools are often dependent on federal grant money for their start up costs.

If you support charter schools, this strategy of reaching across the aisle to create policy is perfectly acceptable. The above email originated from John Schroeder. Schroeder, along with Junge, is one of the nation’s most effective proponents of charter schools. Schroeder testified on the charter school federal grant program in 2000:

The ink was hardly dry on Minnesota’s pioneering charter school law when, in mid-1992, former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger (R-MN) introduced what we then called the “Public School Redefinition Act,” creating a federal start-up grant program for charter schools. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CN) was the chief Democratic co-sponsor.

Junge often cited Lieberman’s “morality” as the reason she supported him. It is now clear that Junge’s support was fundamentally attached to Lieberman’s support of her policy legacy: charter schools.

Phoenix Woman, at Mercury Rising, points out the discrepancy between a new study showing charter schools underperforming public schools and a press release by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

The bottom line on the study:

It says, in short, that charter schools, as a whole, are not better than the public schools they compete against and often drain resources from. In fact, their students are often in worse shape academically than their public school counterparts.

Innovation should always be promoted, but with strict quality controls and accountability. Without responsibility, charter schools will simply begin to turn into the traditional public schools they hope to improve upon. Remember the rationale behind charter schools:

Exempt from many statutory and regulatory requirements, charter schools receive increased flexibility in exchange for high accountability for improving student academic achievement.

Are charter schools making good on their promise?

UPDATE: Even the Texas GOP may be moving against electronic voting machines. 

Yesterday, Paul Schmelzer of Eyeteeh posted a solid analysis of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) the company that Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer has chosen to provide voting machines for 83 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Schmelezer called into question the political neutrality of ES&S and also gave a detailed list of problems the voting machines have been encountering in multiple states.

Today, more problems surrounding ES&S were uncovered, this time in Indiana: (emphasis added)

A Nebraska company whose voting equipment led to numerous problems during Indiana’s May primary has agreed to pay the state $245,000 and provide extra hands-on and technical support this fall.

In exchange, the state decided not to pursue formal charges or claims against the company, Election Systems & Software, which has denied any wrongdoing.

ES&S was accused of not setting up the machines properly, “causing difficulties when it came time to open up the polls and count the ballot. Other jurisdictions said they were forced to miss deadlines because the company was late in delivering the final layout of ballots.”

The final analysis of ES&S’s performance?

“The primary election was a disaster for this company,” said Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson.

Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler said county officials would continue on their own to pursue compensation from ES&S because of primary setbacks. The county complained about the company in 2004. Sadler said things have changed little since then. “There’s a serious problem with this company,” she said. “Their performance (in the primary) was absolutely abysmal.”

One county clerk in Indiana said that ES&S has turned around completely since the primary.

In my opinion, actions speak louder than words and I don’t want to have to hope that ES&S will be able to get their act together.

A company that had serious problems seven months before a general election should not be given the keys to 83 out of 87 counties in Minnesota. Meanwhile, “Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer expresses confidence about the full-scale electronic vote counting.”

What do you think?

Both in our minds… (emphasis added)

Most Americans, according to the poll, seem to have separate opinions about the war in Iraq and terrorism, with more than half (52 percent) saying the war in Iraq is a distraction from the U.S. efforts against terrorists who want to attack targets inside the United States. - CNN

And on the ground:

President Bush has authorized the U.S. Marine Corps to recall 2,500 troops to active duty because there are not enough volunteers returning for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Marine commanders announced Tuesday.

(…)

“Since this is going to be a long war, we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those Marines to help us augment our units,” Stratton said, according to the AP. - CNN

That’s an egregious blank-out and pure spin. There have never been enough troops in Iraq and we knew that from the beginning. Gen. Shinseki did not pull any punches when in 2003 he told the government point blank that in order to secure Iraq:

…several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems.

And so it takes a significant ground- force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.

The response? Two civilians decided they knew better:

“The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.

(…)

In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq. He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo. He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that “stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible,” but would oppose a long-term occupation force.

Well, he got it half right. I’m still puzzled why the gassing of the Kurds or the campaign against the Shia after the Gulf War never counted as “ethnic strife”.

Always remember that even after the Iraq War became inevitable, it did not have to be this way.

Minvovled has just put out a new poll of the DFL Primary race in the 5th CD.

It came from three separate sources, so the poll itself is probably legitimate.  The results make it clear the race is still in play, but not much else. This probably a good time to keep in mind that even the “likely voter” model has its failings.

If you missed Mark Blumenthal’s authoritative series on the likely voter model in 2004 you can find it here.  Mark’s blog, Mystery Pollster, is a required read for anyone who wants to interpret poll results.

Via Hotline.

Intellectual property be damned, there are too many Snakes on this Senate!

MN Campaign Report is breaking news regarding the ongoing debate on financial numbers coming out of the office of the State Auditor, Pat Anderson. Turns out, Anderson may have forgotten the use of strikethrough and UPDATE in her own reports.

The blogs, due to their nature, know how important it is to issue corrections. We break news faster than anyone, thus it is our responsibility to correct news just as fast. Auditing state government is a huge undertaking. Most people would understand a single mistake in those hundreds if not thousands of calculations - if the correction was transparent.

It’s called the Minnesota Monitor. They have a huge amount of talent behind them and already have several posts and articles up.

They launched today - check them out!

UPDATE: The Monitor is still making their site presentable. I can understand.  Creating a blog of that size is a huge undertaking. Give them a day.

On March 4th, 2005 Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District Republican Committee ceased to exist. It could no longer be active in federal elections unless it re-filed with the FEC. Currently, they have not re-filed.

On June 27th, 2006, Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District Republican Committee gave $5,000 to candidate Alan Fine. They listed their FEC ID number as C10001313.

FEC ID C10001313 belongs to the Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM).

To be honest, I don’t know yet if this is illegal or just a colossal mistake. Either way, the Republican Party along with the FEC need to give voters some much needed clarity on the issue.

Keep checking back to Blanked-Out.com for updates to this and other developing stories.

UPDATE: If anyone can a find a record of the RPM disclosing their contribution to Alan Fine, please post it in the comments ASAP. I’ve been looking and I can’t find any evidence of disclosure in their most recent FEC filing.

• If the RPM gave money to Fine, why have they not disclosed it?
• If the 5th CD Republicans gave money to Fine, why did they not re-file?

UPDATE: MDE has found the committee that gave the money to Fine. Instead of refiling, they created the Fifth CD Republican Committee instead of restarting the 5th CD Republican Committee.

One discrepancy still remains on Fine’s FEC report. The FEC ID number still points to the Republican Party of Minnesota. I can understand why Fine’s campaign might have been confused, as the Republican Party of Minnesota is the only contributor to the Fifth CD Republican Committee.

I’m sure Fine will file an amended disclosure with the corrected information any day now before the FEC needs to take any action. Thanks go out to MDE for helping a first time candidate avoid an uneccessary FEC fine. I couldn’t have done it without you Michael.