Blanked Out

It’s called “Think Again”.  I’ll have more on this later.  In the meantime, check out what Kersten has listed as “Great Minnesota Blogs”:

• Power Line
• Captain’s Quarters
• SCSU Scholars
• Shot in the Dark
• Lileks

What happened to MDE?

On August 2^nd, in my first substantive post at Blanked-Out, I laid out the three major goals of my blog. One of the principal goals was to provide context to political news.

Blanked-Out will fully re-launch soon. My broken arm is making great progress after some initial setbacks. Therefore, I think this is an opportune time to lay out some clarifications regarding my blog.

Financial Relationships

I have never and will never be paid to blog at Blanked-Out. I have never been paid to do any work of any kind (research, consulting, etc.) that was later used at Blanked-Out.

If I engage in a personal financial transaction with a political organization whether through employment or consulting work, I will not write posts on my employer or client.

Any such relationship will be immediately disclosed on Blanked-Out.

Partisanship and Bias

My volunteer hours are my own and reflect my passion for political involvement. If I post on any organization I volunteer with, this bias will be immediately disclosed on Blanked-Out.

Content

Blanked-Out is completely independent. It is written by Noah Kunin. Suggestions and press releases are always welcome but do not shop any pre-packaged stories here.

They will be rejected outright.

—

On the right, you will see a new page titled “Disclosure”. The above information and any specific disclosures will be posted there.

Thanks again for reading Blanked-Out. You can contact me at: noah AT blanked-out DOT com

I would like to begin by apologizing to the Klobuchar campaign for placing the organization under inappropriate scrutiny and diverting the public from the issues that are important in this campaign.

This campaign should be about the issues that are important to Minnesotans. This is not one of those issues.

Several days ago, after Mark Kennedy’s campaign launched the first negative campaign ad against Amy Klobuchar, I decided to research Kennedy’s media consultant, Scott Howell. This research led me to the website of Scott Howell’s consulting company. Several of Scott Howell’s previous political ads for his clients were no longer on this website, nor were they on the websites of his clients.

While searching for political ads, I clicked on a link titled ‘netview,’ which then brought me to another webpage. No other information was requested. I therefore typed in the name ‘Allen.’ Nothing more, nothing less. This redirected me to a webpage containing three pieces of information. Kennedy for Senate, a date, and a hyperlink. Upon clicking the hyperlink, I was directed to the aforementioned political advertisement. At no point in this process did I circumvent or misrepresent myself. The website containing this ad can be accessed by anyone online. It is possible to directly go to this website. It is in no way secured.

CLARIFICATION: The word “Allen” was used because Scott Howell has also been retained by Senator George Allen.  No user was asked for.

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?

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.

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.

Why are Republican donors, including a Bush Pioneer, contributing to Ember Reichgott Junge’s campaign for Congress?

For some of Ember’s Republican supporters, including Bush Pioneer J.C. Huizenga , the answer may lie with Junge’s position as a nationally recognized proponent of charter schools.

In 1991, Junge made history by authoring and passing the nation’s first charter school legislation.

J.C. Huizenga is founder and chairman of National Heritage Academies (NHA), a for-profit educational management company based in Grand Rapids, MI. NHA was sued by the Michigan ACLU who accused NHA for evangelizing in the classroom and teaching creationism as science.

John Sackler, a Republican donor who has given considerable funds to George W. Bush, the RNC, Ted Stevens, Joe Lieberman and Ember Reichgott Junge can be seen here testifying for Connecticut’s General Assembly in support of charter schools.

In the “Education” section of Junge’s campaign website charter schools are never mentioned. Under the section labeled “The Gift of Public Service”, charter schools are mentioned once in item 6.

However, the section used to link to this page which featured charter schools prominently.

Why is Junge actively downplaying her support of charter schools?

UPDATE: MN Publius has their take here.

In the September issue of Minnesota Monthly there is a feature on the Center for the American Experiment (CAE). The CAE broke ground as Minnesota’s first conservative think tank and is widely credited as creating the intellectual infrastructure that would back Minnesota’s new generation of conservative leaders: Pawlenty, Coleman, Kline, etc. The CAE is over $300,000 in debt. Not even an appearance by Gen. Tommy Franks in May could rally the troops: (emphasis added)

…[it] drew less than half the attendees, and brought in less money, than previous CAE dinners featuring such speakers ads Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.

At least it gave Gen. Franks the opportunity to again put Saddam Hussein and bin Laden in the same sentence. It’s unfortunate that more people don’t realize that the transitive property of equality only holds true in mathematics. “If Saddam was doing the same thing as bin Laden, and bin Laden planned 9/11, then Saddam also planned 9/11!” Eh, not quite.

CAE’s problems are not just financial: (emphasis added)

This past spring, the CAE board of directors stunned Minnesota political observers when it abruptly fired most of he center’s staff, including president and CEO Annette Meeks. Her ouster prompted the resignation of a key longtime supporter and board member, former Minnesota congressman vin Weber; in the wake of his departure, several high-profile conservatives who had been poised to sign on as directors begged off to avoid the chaos.

As CAE struggles to maintain its base of donors in the midst of mounting long-term debt, its very mission, which had lurched rightward during Meeks’s tenure, is now in question. Many observers wonder if the Experiment can even continue.

Part of CAE’s current troubles might be connected to Meeks herself. While CAE always put forth assertive arguments for its vision and policies, the debate was always civil under their founder Mitch Pearlstein. Not so with Meeks:

…the fact that to survive, liberals have to tell us, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ And this hypocrisy will ultimately doom liberals to what the great president Ronald Reagan called the ‘great ash heap of history’.”

Again, the refrain of “liberals = communists”. First off, while Reagan used that line to great effect, the phrase “ash heap of history” was actually coined by Leo Trotsky during the 1917 walkout from the Second Congress of Soviets. To be precise, you would have to say “doom liberals to what the great president Ronald Reagan referenced”. I know it doesn’t have as much zing, but such are the restrictions of living in a reality based-community.

Perhaps it is time for former CAE staffer Katherine Kersten to rejoin her conservative brigade? Your ideas on what policy positions or fundraising plans might save this venerable Minnesota institution are welcome in the comments.

NOTE: I will ad hyperlinks to the original article as soon as it’s online.  Hyperlink is up.

Amy Klobuchar has redesigned and re-launched her campaign website. It looks great and is even W3C compliant now! Congratulations go to web designer David Krewinghaus and the campaign staff at Klobuchar HQ.