The Republican Light Comic Opera Company Presents

The opera buffa L'amante (The Paramour)

Strib photo

In this opening scene, the faithless soprano Ginerva sings of her love for the tenor il Vacario -- the Deputy -- Fredo, who receives the message warmly. In the final stanza of the aria, Il mio amore per te, however, Ginerva reveals that her love is really for the bass, the dark stranger in the back of the hall, Luca Brasi.

Upon hearing this news, il Vacario departs, vowing dark revenge. As he exits, he sings music reminiscent of one of Handel’s most gorgeous arias, Scherza infida.

Later in the opera, il Vacario returns with vassals loyal to him, denoucing Ginerva in the chorus Lei è nient'altro che una troia.

Posterized MPR photograph

The production features heartfelt performances all around. Bravo.

Al Haig, meet the Deputy

Most readers here will remember when President Reagan was shot and wounded outside a hotel in Washington. Some will also remember this:

His most famous sound bite came the day Reagan was shot. Haig entered the White House briefing room and announced: "I am in control here." He never recovered from the imagery of a military man seeming to commandeer the government as his commander-in-chief was close to death. 

Al has nothing on the Deputy. Amy's body was still warm when this was issued:

Susan Closmore
New Media Specialist
Senate Republican Caucus 

See below for a message from Sen. Geoff Michel.

Members, 

With the resignation of Sen. Koch as our leader, I want to update you on the process for selecting a new leader.

Our caucus bylaws provide for a process for succession after the Caucus Leader resigns. Section 2.7 provides that “In the case of the resignation of the Leader, the remaining Leadership Team shall select one of the Assistant Leaders to act in the Leader’s place temporarily until a succeeding Leader is elected.”

Additionally, Section 2.8 provides “In the case of a vacancy in the position of Leader, a Caucus Meeting must be held within two weeks of the sending of the letter of resignation for the purposes of electing a succeeding Leader.”

In accordance with these bylaws, our Leadership Team met this evening and selected me to serve as Interim Leader.

We will be calling for a caucus election to elect a new leader. That election must take place by December 29. Please note that section 3.3 of our bylaws does not allow for voting by phone or proxy voting. It states “All Caucus members desiring to vote must be present to vote. No proxy voting will be allowed at any Caucus Meeting.”

We understand this is a busy time for everyone, and will try to accommodate your schedules as much as possible. Please notify Maureen Watson if you are unable to attend any of the dates after Christmas and before the 29th of December.

Sincerely,
Geoff Michel

Not "Gee, Amy, thanks for your service," or even "Sadly, now we have to begin the process of replacing our caucus leader."

Nope, just an overweening "I'm in charge!"

Bookseller? Yes. Religious educator? No way.

Although maybe in a funny way, she is

In one of the purest and most pious expressions of why the Catholic church should never, ever be in charge of civil law, Katherine Thomas writes in the Strib that the Catholic church not only should not -- it cannot -- ordain female priests. It is, after all, a received truth, and Thomas wants to know and believe what is true.

Thomas expresses a fealty to "timeless" religious authority that might remind some of you of another Katherine sometimes referred to in passing on this blog.

We might charge this off to a charming loopiness, if it wasn't for the fact that the Catholic church wants to make the rules that apply to a lot of us who aren't Catholic; for example, in the areas of abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage.

Returning once again to one of my favorite examples, it was undoubtedly a received truth centuries ago that the sun revolved around the earth. It was so received, in fact, that Galileo damned near got himself burned at the stake for saying otherwise in the seventeenth century. That was the fate of one of Galileo's pals:

On February 17, 1600, the Catholic Church made a most emphatic and brutal statement. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar, turned philosopher, was burned at the stake in Rome. In keeping with the punishment he suffered the heretic's fork, a cruel Y-shaped object, the branched end of which passed into his jaw while the lower end was positioned behind his breastbone to force his mouth shut. Bruno had been found guilty of heresy and the fork meant that he could not longer "spread the word". His crime? Well, he was a sort of "hippie" and among his rather "way out" views for the time, he believed and maintained the Copernican model of the universe - that is the Earth not the Sun was at the center of the universe - and also that the universe was infinite - with the possibility of multiple inhabited worlds. Both views were heresy in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church. 

It was too late for Galileo, of course, but even received truths change, and even if some people are a little slow on the uptake. It only took the Catholic church about 350 years to say, Well, let's let bygones be bygones; Galileo was right!

It is of -- frankly -- little moment what the Catholic hierarchy wants to browbeat its adherents into believing; it is, after all, a voluntary club. But when it wants to take its misogynistic, homophobic, anti-science show on the road; well, that's another matter entirely.

And now, this bulletin from the Department of Utter Predictability

The sheriff

I can report -- with considerable satisfaction -- that Sheriff Rick Stanek & Co., as well as Hennepin County (being responsible for the behavior of the miscreants) have been sued by Melissa Hill for their unconstitutional behavior in ordering her to stay away from the Hennepin County Government Center and Occupy Minnesota and then arresting her for defying the order.

City Pages reports the filing of the suit at the link, and it provides this link to the complaint, filed in federal district court in Minnesota. I wrote about these incidents at the time:

I know! Let's arrest Melissa! 

I know! Let's arrest Melissa! II

I had some conversations with readers of the blog -- in the comments, and some sidebars, too -- who were tut tutting about Hill the chalker and potty mouth.

But you see, the great thing about civil rights are they belong to everybody -- not just people you like -- and you can't lose them just because the Sheriff of Nottingham, or the Sheriff of Hennepin, says so.

Melissa Hill is suing the county, the sheriff, and his deputies for the deprivation of her civil rights under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, a statute first adopted by the Congress in 1871. And this one will cost the defendants some money.

A stroll down memory lane with the Deputy

Geoff Michel -- aka the Deputy -- had a vapor lock in the Strib over commercial-industrial property taxes levied by the state. The state has levied commercial-industrial taxes state-wide since the dawn of civilization; it is time to get rid of the anachronism! Right? Well, not exactly.

The existence of the state-wide levy of commercial-industrial property taxes is almost exactly co-extensive with the Deputy's tenure in the Minnesota Senate.

A coincidence, you say? Hardly.

Perhaps some of you will recall that we had several years of budget surpluses in the late 90s (when Bill Clinton was the president, by the way), and we rebated the surpluses to taxpayers. In the final year of the Ventura administration, we made income tax reductions to the permanent income tax code in Minnesota. If memory serves, and I believe it does, even though the Senate was in DFL hands, John Marty was the only DFL senator to vote against the permanent income tax reductions.

We elected Tim Pawlenty in 2002 -- and the fresh-faced Geoff Michel, too, who campaigned on allowing conceal and carry for handguns, whether he admits it now or not -- and the worm, of course, turned. The economy was heading south, and Governor Gutshot and the other Grover Norquist vassals, like the Deputy, had pledged that they "wouldn't raise taxes." So they couldn't very well agree to raise the income taxes back to where they were. I mean, Grover would be pissed. Not to mention Davey Strom.

And thus began the decade that explains where we are now. (These permanent income tax reductions cost the state's treasury billions of dollars, and if timely reversed probably would have erased the cumulative deficit we've run up.)

What to do? Well, inter alia, kick the can down the road on public school finance, steal millions from the Health Care Access Fund, and engage in every other check-kiting scheme that Gutshot and the Deputy (who wasn't the Deputy at the time, but merely a willing apparatchik) could think of. Including leaving in place a 2001 deal that imposed a new state property tax on commercial and industrial property, and seasonal recreational property, again with the complicity of the DFL senate chamber.

We've had ten years of trying to push off state-wide obligation on to the counties and the municipalities, and this property tax is Exhibit A. Trying to cut off LGA for the core cities when they contribute the most commercial industrial property taxes to the state is another exhibit. It is shameful and shameless, a simple poaching on a local revenue source for state obligations.

It is churlish for the Deputy, in the closing days of 2011, to piss and moan about a tax that has existed only since he took office and which helped him and rest of Gutshot's vassals avoid the discussion about income taxes for ten years.

Compared to the corporate income tax, the state-wide commercial industrial property tax is stupid and regressive: more harmful to small business than large. On the other hand, the Deputy -- bright light that he is -- also advocated the elimination of the corporate income tax.

Michel's the name; eliminate's the game: just an irresponsible lickspittle for corporate interests.

Tea stains are hard to get out

This about sums it up, doesn't it? It's from Spiegel, via Scott Horton:

“Africa is a country. The Taliban rule in Libya. Muslims are terrorists. Immigrants are mostly criminals, Occupy Wall Street protesters are always dirty. And women who claim to have been sexually molested should kindly keep quiet.” 

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign. For months it has coiled through the country like a traveling circus, from debate to debate, from scandal to scandal, contesting the mightiest office in the world — and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them… These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States. 

They lie, deceive, scuffle and speak every manner of idiocy. And they expose a political, economic, geographic and historical ignorance compared to which George W. Bush sounds like a scholar. [And that, my friends, is damnation of W with faint praise.] Even the party’s boosters are horrified by the spectacle… 

Platitudes in lieu of programs: in serious times that demand the smartest, these clowns offer blather that is an insult to the intelligence of all Americans. But as with all freak shows, it would be impossible without a stage, the U.S. media, which has been neutered by the demands of political correctness, and a welcoming audience, a party base that seems to have been lobotomized overnight. Notwithstanding the subterranean depths of the primary process, the press and broadcasters proclaim one clown after the next to be the new frontrunner, in predictable news cycles of forty-five days.

Spiegel credits Fox News and the Tea Party for the GOP's descent into madness. That sounds about right to me.

After conferring with counsel

To make extra-damn sure it isn't legally enforceable!

Serial adulterer (on left) - Getty Images

Newton Gingrich signed Crazy Bob Vander Plaats' pledge. According to Slate:

In a letter explaining his support for the pledge, circulated by the Iowa Family Leader, Gingrich wrote, “I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.” Politico has the full letter here.

Newton is every lawyer's dream witness on cross examination.

Tonight on the Late Debate

Tune in tonight (10 PM to Midnight) to hear Aaron Klemz and Jeff Rosenberg (MnPublius) take on right-wingers Derek Brigham, Heather Linville, and Jamie Delton. Topics include last night's Republican primary debate, the Minnesota budget surplus, and more!

You can listen live on the radio (95.9 FM in the north metro) or streaming here.

Follow me on Twitter @aaronklemz

Nothing scares Jason Lewis more

And the sky is falling, too!

Strib Opinion Exchange 12-11-2011

Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- scares Jason Lewis more than the specter of economic and social justice. Anybody under the level of corporate v.p. or second-rate talk show host is clearly unworthy of making a living. And yet, there they are, just like that little shit Oliver Twist wanting "some more."

If we're not careful, those teachers and child care workers will crush us!

Lewis won't be happy until everyone lives in peonage to the Koch brothers. One has to wonder, though, how Lewis will fit in to the full-Koch schema. Probably not exactly where he thinks he will. Maybe just under Northern® "bath tissue."

Well, they are in allied industries.

The column is standard Chicken Little Lewis, but he reserves some extra pants wetting over the impending recall of Scott Walker in Wisconsin and the voter nullification of the public collective bargaining law in Ohio in November.

The practice of democracy is a scary thing all right, Jason. We understand your fright entirely.

Author event at Drinking Liberally on December 15th

The Minneapolis - St. Paul chapter of Drinking Liberally will close out its guest programming for the year next Thursday, December 15, 2011 with an appearance by the authors of the recently published book, The Madness of Michele Bachmann: a Broad-Minded Survey of a Small-Minded Candidate (Wiley & Sons, New York).

Eva Young, Karl Bremer, and Ken Avidor, who also author the blog Dump Michele Bachmann, will be on hand to do a reading from their book.

Our guest have also promised a rundown on the connection between between Bachmann and convicted smuggler and money launderer Frank Vennes (who is presently under indictment for his role in the Petters ponzi scheme), and Bobby Thompson, the military charity fraudster currently on the lam. Our guests are, it is no exaggeration to say, the national experts on the subject.

The program will begin at 7 PM on the 15th at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis.

Drinking Liberally is a national organization of political and social clubs around the country. The chapter in Minneapolis meets on Thursday nights at the 331 Club from 6 to 9 PM. If there is a guest, the program itself usually begins at 7 PM.

Here's a podcast of an interview that Eva, Karl and Ken did with Nancy Nelson on AM 950 on Friday, December 9th.

Diet advice from Annette Meeks

From the author of the Ten Cans of Coke® a Day is All You Need Diet, Atlanta native and nutrition expert Annette Meeks writes:

Anyone who has ever tried to shed excess pounds can tell you one hard and fast rule of weight loss. It's all about how many calories you consume, not where they come from.

Words to live by, indeed. And this why, according to Meeks, it is just plain nonsensical to put a sales tax on sugared soft drinks. It isn't fat supression; it's fat oppression!

Unless you're the gubmint, says Meeks; it will just ease its belt out a notch if we put a tax on hard working 'Mericuns and their fructose of choice.

Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? Making sure all of us have our shot at type II diabetes.

Javier Morillo-Alicea talks about organizing child care workers

During his remarks at Drinking Liberally last week (December 1st), Javier was asked about SEIU's (he the president of Local 26) efforts to organize child care workers. Here's part of his response.

The vote to organize is presently in limbo, due to a court ruling.

Regrettably, you're wasting your breath, Bishop Chilstrom

In a poignant and obviously heart-felt op-ed in the Strib, the retired Bishop Herbert Chilstrom of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America makes a plea to the Catholic bishops in Minnesota to reverse their position on gay marriage and the upcoming marriage discrimination amendment.

Doing so would mean bucking the Vatican and, inter alia, its principal hitman, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland. And that ain't gonna happen. Not in our lifetimes, anyway.

Bishop Chilstrom makes the observation that people used to use the Bible to justify discrimination against black people. Not to mention just about every other form of prejudice and discrimination known to humankind.

Get to know some gays and lesbians, says Bishop Chilstrom. If only it was that easy. But the Galileo moment will arrive for the Catholic church, certainly in the next generation -- assuming that the Catholic church desires to continue to exist. To know that, all you have to do it talk to young people.

Yes, kids today, as Kathrine Kersten might say.

Drinking Liberally Holiday Party this week!

Graphic by Tild

Thursday night, six to nine, at the 331 Club to be exact. We'll play some classic holiday music. Santa is expected to make an entrance around seven thirty, and believe me, you won't want to miss that.

This is our annual Toys for Tots drive, too, so bring a new, unwrapped toy or gift for a youngster or teen. Santa tells me that he'll be collecting cash, too!

Complete, grandstanding horse s**t

Describing Amy's hearing charitably

Strib photo

Kevin Diaz has a post on Hot Dish Politics about a hearing that Amy Klobuchar intends to conduct on televising U.S. Supreme Court hearings:

Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing Tuesday on televising proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court, which currently doesn’t even allow note-taking in view of the Justices. 

Klobuchar calls it an effort to increase transparency and access for the public, which now often gets a very time-limited view of Supreme Court hearings.

The ever cautious Diaz says:

Given the separation of powers provisions in the U.S. Constitution, it's unclear what Congress could do even if Klobuchar's push were to gain traction on Capitol Hill.

The power of Congress to conduct hearings is supposed to be in furtherance of its legislative authority, to help it write intelligent legislation. There have been many abuses of that power, of course, think Joe McCarthy.

But this doesn't even rise to the level of abuse of authority.

Congress has no authority - none, zero, zip, zilch, nada - in deciding whether Supreme Court hearings are televised.

The queen of small ball wiffs again.

In a moment of candor

Michael Brodkorb speaks

No, I'm not talking about his remarks about Tom Emmer. Well, not entirely. Here's what caught my eye:

Brodkorb said that after Emmer was endorsed by the Republicans in the spring of 2010, he did little to rework his campaign for the general election and became so toxic that GOP phone bankers couldn't mention his name as they made their calls. 

"That campaign had ample opportunity to readjust," he said. "At the end of the day [beginning of the day?] we can endorse all the candidates we want. But at the end of the day, it's about winning elections...Mr. Emmer was probably the one candidate on the Republican side that couldn't win."

Let's deconstruct that, just a little. What Brodkorb is saying is that after appealing to people like this, Tom Emmer had trouble appealing to moderates in the RPM (what remain of them, anyway). Imagine our surprise.

Or even animals like this:

But wait! There's one more:

That's Mike Parry on the right at a Tea Party rally. Perhaps some of you will find it odd that Brodkorb is now putting in time on behalf of Parry's quixotic campaign to unseat Tim Walz.

The true moment of candor in all of this is, though, that Brodkorb believes that Emmer just didn't do enough to bamboozle moderate voters.

Javier Morillo-Alicea: the "Week of Action"

Javier Morillo-Alicea was our guest at Drinking Liberally at the 331 Club on December 1, 2011; he is the president of SEIU chapter 26 and a well-known activist in the Twin Cities. In this clip, he talks about the October "Week of Action" involving SEIU, ISAIAH, Take Action Minnesota, and Occupy Minnesota.

The Minneapolis school district is considering the payroll agent change that Javier describes.

Javier's remarks to the group ranged over several topics; there will be more video clips in coming days.

Unmarried Women: a Hermanic calumny

The Cain campaign used a stock photo - really classy

Unmarried women, Herman is sorry to say,
May now go about in the middle of the day.
If it's not quite enough that we've loosed them to walk,
It's an outrage for sure they're permitted to talk.


From under the rocks these Jezebels slither,
Tempting our Herm with a look of come hither.
And who could blame Herm when met with such shrews
To think he could arrange for a couple of, um, encounters.


Today Christian men are hunted like hares,
Pursued by the weak, wicked woman who bares
Not her troubles with a virtuous mien,
But seeks out good men to inflict with her pain.


But the answer is not to keep it all zipped,
That would leave Herm feeling cranky and hipped!
So let's slander Unmarried Women instead,
And hope Herm's book earns him plentiful bread.

And the Angel Mikey foretold it

Tony Sutton resigned as the RPM chair today:

The [resignation] comes a day before a party central committee meeting, where GOP activists plan on scrutinizing the party’s budget and its unmanaged debt. Activists have also recently eyed Sutton’s $100,000 yearly salary, which he recently voluntarily cut to [only] $90,000.

But the handwriting has been on the wall over the urinals for a while now. When Michael Brodkorb left as deputy chair of the RPM to volunteer on the Mike Parry campaign, it was obvious that Sutton's days were numbered.

The Angel Mikey surely wanted to put some real estate between him and Tony.

Unmarried Women

A poem in progress

Unmarried women, Herman is sorry to say,
May now go about in the middle of the day.
If it's not quite enough that we loose them to walk,
It's an outrage for sure they're permitted to talk.