Neo-secessionism is alive in the MN GOP

When Tony Sutton pulls ‘em back from the brink, you know something serious is awry with the Republicans in Minnesota. At the recent Second District convention for the GOP, a resolution came within two votes of passing that said that states have the right to secede from the United States. At the link, Lori Sturdevant reminds us:

The nation's bloodiest war was fought begining in 1861 to keep the Union intact. Minnesota Gov. Alexander Ramsey was the first in the nation to promise troops to President Abraham Lincoln, the nation's first Republican president. The losses the First Minnesota regiment sustained at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 were larger, in proportion to population, than any other state's.

We did, as Sturdevant says, have a war about that.

By the sheerest of coincidence, I spent last night at the Aurora Staples House, now a lovely bed and breakfast, in Stillwater. Aurora’s husband was one of the few survivors of the Minnesota First’s heroic defense of the Union center on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg; it was astonishing and unparalleled bravery in the history of the state of Minnesota.

It is difficult to describe my distaste for the ahistorical slugs who offered this resolution, and for those who voted for it.

Chillingly, it’s not only the fringe that thinks this way. It’s also the two leading candidates for the GOP endorsement for governor, as MNO points out. Both Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert are authors of bills to amend the Minnesota Constitution to allow the nullification of federal legislation. And Emmer, who was apparently absent from law school on the day they discussed the Commerce Clause, has authored a bill to nullify the Congressional ban on incandescent light bulbs.

It would be easy to toss off Emmer and Seifert as buffoons, but they attract a following.

Technorati Tags: Tom Emmer,Marty Seifert,Minnesota First Regiment,Aurora Staples House,Alexander Ramsey,nullification,incandescent light bulbs,Commerce Clause,Supremacy Clause

A Drinking Liberally you won’t want to miss

Thursday, April 1st – and we’re dead serious here – Mayor R.T. Rybak will be our guest at Drinking Liberally.

It won’t be any old Drinking Liberally. This is our meeting during the Fifth Anniversary week of the reopening of the 331 Club as a very cool music club that draws people from all over town. A lot of good things have happened around the intersection of 13th Avenue N.E. and University in the last few years, and the 331 Club has certainly been a part of the renewed vitality of the neighborhood.

The Mayor will talk a little bit about that. Since the state DFL convention is around the corner, and he’s running for the endorsement for governor, he’ll talk about that, too.

And if the Mayor’s not enough, you can come and meet Jon and Jarret Oulman, the owners of the 331 Club, as well as Alisha, the Treasurer of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Thursday, from six to nine at, of course, the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. The Mayor’s remarks will begin around seven.

Even if you’re not a DL regular, this is one you’ll want to attend.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club,R.T. Rybak,Minnesota gubernatorial race

I call this meeting of the Capitol Press Corps to order

ML: Thanks everybody for coming. Say, can’t we get that spotlight better focused on me? Where’s my production crew? Dammit, if they lit me like this during one of my struts down the hallway in the Capitol, they’d be shooting TPT fundraisers for the rest of their lives!

Where were we? Oh, yeah; we’re here to condemn those journalistic pretenders at The Uptake. At the end of the meeting, we’ll vote to kick them off the island. Now we’ll have a discussion. Of course, I’ll go first.

[clearing her throat] The Uptake is a cancer that has infected — I say infected — the Capitol press room. That’s cancer with a “C” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for press!

Why, The Uptake doesn’t really have any on screen talent. When people do appear on camera, they’re just volunteers: amateurs.

TVR1: Gosh, that’s right.

PR1: Well, to be fair, our paper doesn’t have any onscreen talent, either. There are a lot more print journalists than television types here.

ML: Be that as it may, television is the flagship of journalism, as you know, and I feel so, well, tainted by these people. Do you know they produce hours of video every week of committee hearings, speeches, and interviews? Well, they do.

PR1: Yes, and they covered the Franken/Coleman recount virtually beginning to end, day in and day out. They made the whole thing transparent, right down to the examination of individual contested ballots and the discussions about them. You surely didn’t do that.

ML: [her voice rising] But where’s the media filter, the context?

PR2: You can’t provide a filter and context if you never follow something in the first place, Mary.

TVR2: Aw come on, you guys. Nobody in broadcast media would do a play-by-play of paint drying.

PR2: Well, The Uptake did, and some of it was pretty damn compelling; I watched. It gave me some story ideas. [muttering under her breath] Which is more than I can say for ever watching TPT Confidential with Mary Lahammer.

ML: [glaring at PR2] The Uptake isn’t objective, either. It has a point of view.

PR1: In case you hadn’t noticed, every newspaper here has a point of view; it’s called the editorial department.

ML: Well, TPT doesn’t.

PR3: TPT is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation; it can’t have an editorial department, Mary. It would lose its tax-exempt status. Then there would be no more Sesame Street and the toddlers would be inconsolable.

ML: Really? I mean, I knew that!

PR3: The Uptake is more like the newspapers in that regard.

ML: The Uptake is not objective; you must admit that.

PR1: The question is: are they fair? Was Ed Murrow objective when he went after Joe McCarthy?  Or Upton Sinclair when he exposed the meat packing industry? Or Josh Marshall, who helped expose Congressman Duke Cunningham and the US Attorney firing scandal that touched pretty close to home? Or —

ML: Okay, that’s enough! I mean, we understand.

PR1: I come back to the question. Have you ever seen The Uptake being unfair to a politician or interviewee, by trying to trick them, for example?

ML: Well, they make Himself, Brian McClung, very uncomfortable at press conferences.

PR2: [muttering] Out of the mouths of babes. [full voice] If that’s unprofessional, I say we could use some more of it. Bringing truth to power is what we’re supposed to be about. Not stenography.

ML: I guess in the final analysis, we’re journalists and we have to protect our turf.

PR1: What is this, a guild hall? I doubt that the people who wrote the First Amendment had that in mind.

ML: Well, are we ready for a vote? All in favor —

Technorati Tags: Capitol press room,Mary Lahammer,The Uptake,Brian McClung,Edward R. Murrow,Upton Sinclair,Josh Marshall,TPT,Sesame Street

She gives her poodle skirt an angry little flounce

And then complains that the Uptake is so icky:

TPT’s political reporter and “Almanac at the Capitol” host Mary LaHammer confirms that TPT also has concerns about The Uptake’s presence in the press room, noting that TPT is “zealous” about anyone or any organization using any TPT resources for partisan purposes, because of the public television company’s nonprofit status.

LaHammer doesn’t think that the Uptake is fit to share the Capitol basement with her.

Perhaps someone will take Mary aside and explain to her the difference between a sec. 501 (c) (3) non profit and a sec. 501 (c) (4) one.

LeHammer’s reporting, a cross between a fashion shoot and a gossip column, does not, of course, compare favorably with an organization that asks a difficult question once in a while.

I don’t blame her for wanting the Uptake out of the locker room.

Technorati Tags: the Uptake,Mary LaHammer,nonprofit corporations

In which Rep. Emmer gets a civics lesson

United States Constitution, Article VI, clause 2 provides:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwith-standing.

This clause, known as the Supremacy Clause is based on the principle that federal law is supreme and preempts state law when it conflicts with federal law. It's been there from the beginning, it is a good part of what holds the nation together.

We also have this thing known as the Fourteenth Amendment, which says in pertinent part:

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

But now we learn that Rep. Tom Emmer, who is running for Governor, has decided to throw off the bonds that join us with the remainder of the United States and has proposed a constitutional amendment (HF3738) that would read:

Citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government's enumerated constitutional powers. A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor. Before voting to approve a federal law, each legislator must individually affirm that the legislator has read the federal law and understands it. Citizens of Minnesota enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights as reflected in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution. Minnesota citizens have the right to seek redress for any alleged violation of these rights committed by the state of Minnesota exclusively through a jury trial in a Minnesota court and through enactment of a change in Minnesota law.

The specific question to be placed before the citizens is:

Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to affirm the sovereignty of Minnesota citizens by requiring two-thirds legislative approval before a federal law becomes effective in Minnesota, and by ensuring the right of citizens to seek redress for any alleged violation of constitutional rights?

One almost doesn't know where to begin with this one. This makes the Light Bulb Freedom Act look like really small stuff. Bob Collins had it right when he said it should just be named the "Constitutional Lawyer Full Employment Act of 2010."

But hey, Andy Aplikowski thinks this is "something that is long over due."

UPDATE: It looks like both of the GOP candidates for governor have jumped on this de facto secession movement. From the Minnesota Tenth Amendment Center (not affiliated with any Minnesota law schools, by the way):

We have two slightly different versions of Minnesota Sovereignty Legislation. HF 997 authored by Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rep Marty Seifert. HF 998 authored by Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rep Tom Emmer. Both pieces of this legislation were introduced to the Minnesota House on the same day, February 19th, 2009.

“Nostradamus” Bachmann

Michele Bachmann compares herself to another medieval nutcase; that sounds about right doesn’t it?

“I said I had very serious concerns that Barack Obama had anti-American views,” she said Wednesday night, according to Politico's report from the closed-press fundraiser. “And now I look like Nostradamus.”

Back in 2008 when Bachmann was running for re-election, she said on MSNBC that she was "very concerned" that Obama "may have anti-American views."

In fact, this quatrain fragment by Michele Bachmann has just been discovered:

In the sulfurous year of 2010
If men do still exist by then,
The King of Kenya will, I warn ya, leave
A mark from Maine to California.

In his fetid wake I see
A country that looks less like me.
Where hate and prejudice once flourished,
The human spirit is sadly nourished.

So patriots keep thy powder dry,
The reasons I can’t tell you why, exactly,
But know that when at last I call,
You’ll have to come and shoot them all.

There are probably more verses yet to be discovered. If you come across any, please post them in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Michele Bachmann,Nostradamus,quatrains,King of Kenya

Drinking Liberally: the calm before the storm

If quiet conversation and a glass of beer are you idea of a perfect Drinking Liberally session, well, then tonight’s your night. No guest is scheduled, but we meet as always at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis, starting around six PM.

Calm before the storm? In a manner of speaking: we’ve got two blockbuster guests in the weeks following.

Next week, April 1st, R.T. Rybak, the mayor of Minneapolis, is our guest. R.T. may have some comments about the neighborhood and the 331 Club; his visit falls during the week-long celebration of the opening of a transformed 331 Club under new ownership five years ago. The mayor will be there around seven for some remarks and to visit informally with attendees. (Psst. He’s also running for the DFL endorsement for governor.)

Then, on April 8th, Galen Robinson will come to have a discussion of the case brought by him and Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance against the governor for his “unallotment” of a special nutrition program for indigent Minnesotans. You’ll recall that Galen’s clients prevailed in the trial court; the case was appealed and has been argued, and the decision is pending. If you’ve ever had any questions about the terms of the separation of powers clause in Article III of the Minnesota Constitution, here’s your chance to find out. Galen will be there around seven, too.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club,R.T. Rybak,Galen Robinson,unallotment,Article III of the Minnesota Constitution

Connecting the spots

The Star Tribune reports today:

Minnesota's students are near the top of the country when it comes to reading tests, but the state's achievement gap hasn't budged in almost 20 years, according to new national test results released today.

The article continues:

But what will be of significant concern to Minnesota educators is that the gap in performance between white and black students hasn't budged since 1992. The achievement gap between students who receive "free and reduced-price lunch," a common indicator of poverty, and those who don't, has also not changed since 1998, the earliest time it was measured.

This got me to thinking about some other statistics, by Myron Orfield, quoted earlier here, about the resegregation of Minnesota’s schools and its effects during the same time period:

The title of the article [about Professor Orfield in the current issue of the University of Minnesota Alumni magazine], written by Kate Tyler, is Segregated . . . Again. According to the article:

Racial segregation is increasing in all of the 25 largest U.S. metros, Orfield says, but it’s happening at a much faster clip in the 16th largest, the Twin Cities. Neighborhoods and schools have remained more stubbornly segregated here, those once integrated have resegregated at alarming rates, and segregation is pushing steadily outward from cities to suburbs.

The causes of these trends are complex, says Orfield, a national authority on metropolitan growth. Segregation’s prime drivers include racial prejudice, housing-market discrimination, and misguided public planning and tax policies. And in the Twin Cities, Orfield says, segregation is exacerbated by mind-boggling government fragmentation that was once, but is no longer, well-managed by a muscular Metropolitan Council.

Professor Orfield is quoted in the article as saying:

It’s absolutely the wrong solution to hunker down within neighborhood boundaries. The idea that we can close the achievement gap without desegregating is simply wrong.

The statistics on resegregation are startling:

Orfield says the area’s growing diversity does not account for its nation-leading segregation spikes over the last decade. Resegregation has been especially fierce, he says: 56 percent of the neighborhoods that were integrated in 1980 became segregated in 2000 (compared with 43 percent in the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan areas). And of the region’s neighborhoods that were segregated in 1980, 83 percent were still segregated two decades later (compared to 69 percent nationally).

Yet if segregation in the Twin Cities today is worse than that of yesterday, “it also looks significantly different than it used to,” says Orfield. As racial diversity has expanded in the Twin Cities, fewer neighborhoods and schools qualify as “white segregated,” having more than 50 percent of students white, Orfield explains. At the same time, different communities of color are mixing with each other as never before. “But not with whites,” he says. “This is the new face of segregation: the mushrooming of multiethnic, nonwhite segregated schools and communities.”

According to Orfield, in 1992 the Twin Cities had nine nonwhite segregated schools, representing 1.5 percent of elementary students. By 2008, the metro area had 108 nonwhite segregated schools, representing 22 percent of the area’s elementary students.

The article draws some conclusion about the effects on schools:

Economist Samuel Myers, the University’s Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice, confirms that segregation is not the result of people choosing neighborhoods aligned with their incomes and preferences or of “bad credit.” It’s the result of racial disparities in lending, discrimination in housing, and little enforcement of fair housing laws.

Segregation is, Orfield emphasizes, “about a fundamental divide in who has access to opportunity—jobs, decent housing, safe streets, good schools. Where you live determines your basic prospects in life. It’s hard to overestimate how devastating it is for families and children to be trapped in failing communities and struggling schools. Or how much it undermines the quality of life, competitive edge, and vitality of the entire region.”

Segregated schools are particularly harmful, Orfield says. Research has proven that high-poverty schools are overwhelmingly low-performing ones and that an “achievement gap” exists between students from impoverished backgrounds and those from more middle-class ones. Children in poor communities start out with fewer of the assets that boost achievement (from high-literacy homes to good health care). And their schools usually suffer from limited resources and inexperienced teachers. [italics are mine]

The writer of the Strib article says the achievement gap will be of “significant concern to Minnesota educators.” Of course it’s of concern to educators.

But it ought to be of even greater concern to policy makers who ought to be looking at the systemic and societal problems in play here, instead of trying to find new and creative ways to blame the teachers.

It would be really nice if the media prompted policy makers to do that, too. Instead of just dumping the problem in educators’ laps.

Technorati Tags: Myron Orfield,achievement gap,segregated schools,Teach for America,Carlos Mariani,Terri Bonoff

Let them drink Coke!

A Minnesota Senate committee says okay to liquor in the suites and the premium seats, but not for the hoi polloi. Cicero of Edina says, we made an investment in the facility, and blocking off certain revenue streams hurts our taxpayer investment. Great point; the medical school could probably use the money, or maybe the College of Education, or who knows? Watch for yourself:

In truth, the liquor revenue will be used for athletic scholarships. Makes you think of the circle of life, doesn’t it?

And don’t miss Senator Claire Robling (R-Jordan) asking if liquor would be available in the cheap seats if the Vikings played there “for a couple of years.” She’s already got the Viking stadium approved!

Sadly, it doesn’t appear that those thirsty Viking fans can be satisfied.

Thanks to the Uptake for the video.

Update: And the working man and Iron Ranger renews his opposition to the elitism:

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, a vocal supporter of making alcohol available to all adult ticket holders, said his feelings have not changed. "The majority of the football stadium was paid for by the taxpayers of the state -- everybody, all of us," he said. "I don't know who the Lindahls [apparently Gopher boosters who are big supporters of the “booze for me but not for the” plan] are, but the Lindahls never put in as much money as the taxpayers of this state."

"I think it's rather elitist," said Rukavina, who chairs the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division panel. Rukavina, a gubernatorial candidate, appeared to again be joined Tuesday by Pawlenty. Spokesman Brian McClung said that the governor's position has been that "if there's beer for one, there should be beer for all."

And rather remarkably, that’s where the governor seems to be, too.

Technorati Tags: TCF stadium,liquor sales,athletic scholarships,Sandy Pappas,Geoff Michel,Clair Robling

The return of “tenther” Tim

And just when you thought that Tom Emmer and the Minnesota Light Bulb Freedom Act would be a titanic waste of time and money.

Well, listen up Tom. You’re just a piker when it comes to wasting the State’s resources. Now, Governor Tenther/Gutshot/Unilateral Tim wants the Attorney General to file suit against the federal government to nullify the health care reform bill just passed by the House. Now word comes that all the Republicans in the Leege have joined Gutshot’s plaintive entreaty.

Attorney General Lori Swanson provided a measured reply: Well, it might be nice to actually look at the legislation first.

What she should have said, of course, is, Are you out of your freakin’ minds?

Farnsworth is going to get another case.

Tenther Tim has traveled the Tenth Amendment road before in an effort to build some sturdy cracker street cred in his run to be the president. But the last time, he backed away, in apparent recognition of what a laugher the argument is. But now he’s back!

I linked to Jack Balkin before on the complete, utter stupidy of the idea that health care reform is unconstitutional:

Perhaps more interesting is [Texas governor] Perry's theory [which is the same as Pawlenty’s] of why expanded health care programs would be unconstitutional. I can think of two possibilities. Presumably the federal power to create such a program comes from the General Welfare Clause (Article I, section 8, clause 1), which gives the federal government the power to raise taxes and spend money for the general welfare. It's hard to see how the proposed health care program violates the Constitution under existing doctrine. [Jack Balkin is, by the way, a constitutional law professor at Yale].

Perry might claim that no state can willingly consent to participate in federal programs of the type contemplated. But that argument would probably make many other state cooperative ventures unconstitutional, including Social Security and Medicare.

Second, Perry might argue that although the federal government can spend money on some social welfare programs, after a certain point, federal expenditures become so intrusive that they dominate the regulatory playing field, effectively preventing states from creating their own independent programs and therefore this violates the Tenth Amendment. This argument seems a bit of a stretch [Balkin is being charitable here], but if we took it seriously, it would threaten the constitutionality of a lot of federal programs, including federal grants that Texas depends on and that Texas citizens desperately need. Perry has been more than happy to take federal money for any number of federal health care programs in the past. It is not clear whether he has had a change of heart about their constitutionality as well. [italics are mine]

Pawlenty also cheerfully uses federal money — from the stimulus bill, no less — in his proposed budget fix for the state.

Tenther Tim is obviously playing to the Southern, states rights (i.e., racist) voter, but it is sobering to realize that the Republicans in the Legislature — to a member — think that it is useful to play to the same sentiment in Minnesota.

Update: Be sure to read MNO’s comments about how the Commerce Clause also supports the health care reform bill.

Technorati Tags: Tim Pawlenty,Governor Gutshot,Tenther Tim,Governor Rick Perry,Jack Balkin,federal stimulus bill,health care reform,Attorney General Lori Swanson,General Welfare Clause,nullification

Pretty good turnout for a Night Riders reunion

On a school night. (Actually it was Friday afternoon.)

That’s how Tbogg described the massive gathering at the Capitol to hear Michele Bachmann and others rail against health care reform. Actually, he said Night Rangers, but I think he may have misspoken.

A hockey game in Minnesota draws way bigger crowds.

Some of the members of Michele’s friendly little claque were moved to call John Lewis a nigger:

WASHINGTON — Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted "nigger" Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said.

"They were shouting, sort of harassing," Lewis said. "But, it's okay, I've faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.

“Downright mean” seems to me to be a rather charitable description of it.

Somebody spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a black Kansas City Democrat.

And Bachmann was there all right to add her own brand of pixie venom to the affair:

Technorati Tags: Michele Bachmann,John Lewis,Emanuel Cleaver,health care reform,Night Riders

Seven out of eight dentists

Chew Dentyne.

And, according to Katherine Kersten, one out of seven detainees released from Guantanamo “returned” to terrorism. Straight from the mouth of the Pentagon to Kersten’s ear. Immaculate reception.

The “statistic” was breathlessly reported by Kersten as part of her most recent column condemning lawyers who have represented Guantanamo detainees who have protested, and are protesting, the legality of their detention, often successfully.

Laying aside her poisoned broadside for just a moment, we must stop to consider that the figures she quotes are very much in dispute. In a special report for CNN, Peter Bergen and Kathine Tiedemann claim the figure is more like one in twenty five.

Moreover, it is a little hard to see how somebody released from Guantanamo is really considered a terrorist in the first place, because if there was any competent evidence of terrorism, he’d still be Guantanamo.

One also wonders whether being thrown in a hole for half a dozen years might have a, well, radicalizing effect on somebody?

But, back to Kersten’s main point! Any lawyer who would represent a Guantanamo detainee is pro-terrorist, contemptible swine. This is a line spun out recently by Karl Rove and Liz Cheney. But here’s Scott Horton, a far keener mind on matters legal than Katherine Kersten, on the subject:

[ . . . ] The first tier [of Guantanamo defense lawyers] are men and women in uniform, members of the Judge Advocate General’s corps, who provide defense for anyone called before a military court or commission. The second tier are lawyers from across the country who volunteered to support the JAG lawyers, helping to shore up their resource deficit vis-à-vis the government. These lawyers are attracted by the usual considerations that lead lawyers to perform pro bono services: the clients are indigent, and their cases raise novel or interesting legal issues which the lawyers involved will be able to test in court. In this case, they’ve been pretty successful–even an overwhelmingly Republican-appointed Supreme Court has now repeatedly found that the regime the Bush Administration created in Guantánamo was illegal.

But there’s another fact that Thiessen [a former Bush speech writer writing in the Washington Post] omits. In his world, the Gitmo prisoners these lawyers are defending are terrorists, full stop. If that’s the case, then why did the Bush Administration release fully two-thirds of them? Why do the largely conservative, Republican judges reviewing the habeas petitions of the balance keep finding that there’s no basis to call them “terrorists”? That’s been the result in about 80% of the cases heard so far. What has Thiessen and his Cheney friends in such a lather? I’d put a sharp point on it: these lawyers are putting the lie to their claims about Gitmo. [italics are mine]

And that is why Karl Rove, Liz Cheney and our very own Katherine Kersten are so upset.

Horton also linked to a funny tongue-in-cheek confession of a JAG lawyer to being an al-Qaeda operative:

The chance to actually be a U.S. government-paid spokesperson for al-Qaida under the guise of ‘promoting fairness, justice and the rule of law,’” he says, “was just too delicious an opportunity to pass up. I figured the military commissions at Guantánamo would be the perfect soapbox for me to espouse my terrorist ideology.”

At long last, Katie, have you no sense of decency?

Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten,Guantanamo detainees,terrorism,pro bono publico,Scott Horton

How times flies when you’re having fun

To think, it’s only been seven years since we invaded Iraq. Take a trip down memory lane with Robert Greenwald.

Technorati Tags: Iraq war,Robert Greenwald,George W. Bush,John McCain,shock and awe

Drinking Liberally while standing on a soapbox

Tonight’s Drinking Liberally is a soapbox edition. Bring your favorite (political) beef, and we’ll air it tonight.

Six to nine at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club

More heat than light

A few years into the future:

[click] Farnsworth? Get down here. I have a case for you.

Is that you, G?

Of course it’s me; who else would it be?

I don’t know; I just got here a few days ago.

Farnsworth, the newest and greenest assistant in the AG's office, can hardly believe it. He thought it would be weeks before he even saw the AG in the hallway. But to be called to the AG’s office this soon!

Hi, G, you said you’ve got a case for me?

Yes, come in and sit down.

Well, who am I up against?

The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

I beg your pardon?

That’s right, you weren’t here when the Minnesota Light Bulb Freedom Act was passed. A few years ago, the Legislature passed a law to say that Minnesota could produce and sell incandescent light bulbs even after they were supposed to be phased out by federal law. Well, some fools have been making them, and the Justice Department wants to shut them down. Since it involves the invalidation of a state law, we have to intervene.

Oh, now I get it. The Commerce Clause, which authorizes the federal government to regulate interstate commerce, is the section of the Constitution relied on by the Congress for the Energy Independence and Security Act, sort of like the Clean Water Act, the creation of the EPA, and so on. This, um, doesn’t sound like a winner, does it?

Well, the bright lights — so to speak — at the Leege said to the feds when they passed the statue, “If you got a lawsuit, bring it on.” And now they have.

I’m flattered, G, but don’t you think this case needs someone with more experience?

Why? The result will be exactly the same. As it is, this will be an expensive enough fiasco for the taxpayer. You’re the cheapest one I’ve got.

But G!

It’s called taking one for the team, Farnsworth.

[shoulders sagging, Farnsworth gets up to leave] All right, G.

And Farnsworth —

Yes, G?

Godspeed.

Technorati Tags: Energy Independence and Security Act,incandescent light bulbs,Commerce Clause,Dean Urdahl,Tom Emmer

Barking up the wrong tree

This is the fourth post in this series. It has a different title, well, because Tom Dooher is probably tired of calls to have him shot. You can read part one, part two, and part three.

It all started with an ugly little blast in the StarTribune last week from Minneapolis council member Don Samuels, taking aim specifically at Mr. Dooher and Education Minnesota for opposing what I call the “ninety-day” wonder bill to permit alternate teacher certification in Minnesota. According to Samuels, alternate teacher certification and programs like “Teach for America” were a key to closing the achievement gap.

I commented that Samuels was just trying to find a convenient scapegoat for the achievement gap, and that public employees are always about as convenient as you can get.

The real problem lies in the persistent, and in fact increasing, racial segregation in the Twin Cities. I linked to an article about the work of a University of Minnesota Law School professor, Myron Orfield explaining the effects of this continuing segregation. The article was titled Segregated . . . Again, and it appears in the Spring 2010 issue of the University of Minnesota Alumni Magazine. Professor Orfield comments specifically on the effects of segregation on schools and student performance.

Tom Dooher also responded directly to Don Samuels today. Dooher says that the alternate teacher certification bill is like a second marriage: the triumph of hope over experience.

Well he didn’t say that. I did. But Dooher did counter Samuels’ “belief” that less prepared teachers, like those from Teach for America, were a key to closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities in Minnesota.

That was all the windup; here’s the pitch. Dooher has a Stanford study on his side. (Follow the link and look for the study in the section called “Related resources.”) Here are just a few sentences from the abstract to the article:

Controlling for teacher experience, degrees, and student characteristics, uncertified TFA recruits are less effective than certified teachers, and perform about as well as other uncertified teachers.  TFA recruits who become certified after 2 or 3 years do about as well as other certified teachers in supporting student achievement gains; however, nearly all of them leave within three years. Teachers’ effectiveness appears strongly related to the preparation they have received for teaching. [italics are mine]

In other words, Teach for America recruits are mostly marking time until something else — and better in their view — comes along.

Don’t we want teachers to become better educated and more experienced? How is turning them over every three years going to help? It won’t.

And why would we want to invest scarce teacher development money and mentorship in a cadre of short timers? We don’t.

Wouldn’t we prefer to have teachers who had a more long term commitment to the profession? We do.

To paraphrase Cassius, “The fault, dear Don Samuels, is not in our teachers, but in ourselves.” As Myron Orfield says, we won’t solve the achievement gap problem until we solve the segregation problem. Blaming the teaching profession is both unfair and a distraction.

Technorati Tags: Don Samuels,Tom Dooher,Education Minnesota,Teach for America,teacher certification,ninety day wonders,Myron Orfield

Were you lying then? Are you lying now?

At trial, there is nothing more satisfying to a lawyer — other than hearing a favorable jury verdict being read out — than to listen to an opposing witness, especially if he’s pompous and self-assured, spin out his testimony when you know you have a prior inconsistent statement by that witness tucked away for cross examination. And especially when the witness is oblivious to the fact that you’ve got the inconsistent statement.

Mr. X, you testified that the light was green, isn’t that right?

Yes.

Were there other bystanders at the intersection when the accident occurred?

Why, yes, there were.

And didn’t you exclaim, “Wow, that guy went right through a red light!”

Well, um.

One of the other bystanders is prepared to testify that’s exactly what you said.

Okay, I did say that.

But it directly contradicts what you’re saying in the courtroom today. You said then that the light was red. Now you say it was green.

Well, it was green.

Were you lying at the scene of the accident?

No, I —

So you must be lying now.

That a simple example from a hypothetical auto accident case. But the effect on the jury’s view of the witness is devastating.

Today’s example of the prior inconsistent statement comes not from the courtroom but from the world of politics, and it involves the Pawlenty administration talking out of both sides of its mouth. But the effect on credibility is the same as it is on the witness in the courtroom scenario above.

First, the direct testimony.

How many times have we be subjected to Governor Pawlenty’s harangue about the poor business climate we have in Minnesota? It is as numberless as the stars, and he uses it often to argue for lower business taxes. He did it in the State of the State message this year, too. He wants to cut the corporate income tax twenty percent.

Here’s the prior inconsistent statement:

Business Taxes

Lower than those in all but a handful of states, Minnesota’s business taxes are very competitive and give companies a distinct advantage when it comes to the costs of doing business.

When it comes to business taxes, we rank among the thirteen lowest-taxing states in the nation, according to a report by Ernst & Young and the Council on State Taxation, which assessed business taxes as a share of private sector gross state product for fiscal year 2008.

In fact, our favorable business tax provisions help put us in the top six states to do business, according to a CNBC report that found Minnesota’s overall costs of doing business lower than such states as Florida, New Jersey, and California.

Where the heck did that come from? It’s from the Department of Employment and Economic Development. It’s part of the Pawlenty administration.

So, Governor, were you lying then? Are you lying now?

A thump of the tail to a reader for the link.

Technorati Tags: business taxes in Minnesota,DEED,Department of Employment and Economic Development,Tim Pawlenty

Discussing corporate income taxes in a bar

Last Thursday, Todd Rapp came to Drinking Liberally to discuss with me his advocacy for the elimination of the Minnesota corporate income tax. Here is a video of most of that discussion, taken by the Uptake.

Todd went first, and he described the op-ed he wrote in the StarTribune on Sunday, February 7th of this year offering the idea. The camera was not rolling at this point; if you are not familiar with Todd’s arguments, you should repair to the link in the Strib. Essentially, his points are that the corporate income tax is shifted mostly to customers and employees of the corporations, it’s regressive, it’s volatile, and its elimination would encourage investment in the state.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club,Minnesota corporate income tax,Todd Rapp

Tom Dooher must be shot! III

As luck would have it — and it is often better to be lucky than to be good — there is an article about Professor Myron Orfield’s work in the Spring 2010 issue of the University of Minnesota Alumni Magazine. It reinforces a point I made in the original post in this series, Tom Dooher must be shot! That is, when complaining about the achievement gap between white and minority students, Don Samuels is barking up the wrong tree by trying to pin it on the teachers. [I just love mixed metaphors; don’t you?]

The title of the article, written by Kate Tyler, is Segregated . . . Again. According to the article:

Racial segregation is increasing in all of the 25 largest U.S. metros, Orfield says, but it’s happening at a much faster clip in the 16th largest, the Twin Cities. Neighborhoods and schools have remained more stubbornly segregated here, those once integrated have resegregated at alarming rates, and segregation is pushing steadily outward from cities to suburbs.

The causes of these trends are complex, says Orfield, a national authority on metropolitan growth. Segregation’s prime drivers include racial prejudice, housing-market discrimination, and misguided public planning and tax policies. And in the Twin Cities, Orfield says, segregation is exacerbated by mind-boggling government fragmentation that was once, but is no longer, well-managed by a muscular Metropolitan Council.

Professor Orfield is quoted in the article as saying:

It’s absolutely the wrong solution to hunker down within neighborhood boundaries. The idea that we can close the achievement gap without desegregating is simply wrong.

The statistics on resegregation are startling:

Orfield says the area’s growing diversity does not account for its nation-leading segregation spikes over the last decade. Resegregation has been especially fierce, he says: 56 percent of the neighborhoods that were integrated in 1980 became segregated in 2000 (compared with 43 percent in the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan areas). And of the region’s neighborhoods that were segregated in 1980, 83 percent were still segregated two decades later (compared to 69 percent nationally).

Yet if segregation in the Twin Cities today is worse than that of yesterday, “it also looks significantly different than it used to,” says Orfield. As racial diversity has expanded in the Twin Cities, fewer neighborhoods and schools qualify as “white segregated,” having more than 50 percent of students white, Orfield explains. At the same time, different communities of color are mixing with each other as never before. “But not with whites,” he says. “This is the new face of segregation: the mushrooming of multiethnic, nonwhite segregated schools and communities.”

According to Orfield, in 1992 the Twin Cities had nine nonwhite segregated schools, representing 1.5 percent of elementary students. By 2008, the metro area had 108 nonwhite segregated schools, representing 22 percent of the area’s elementary students.

The article draws some conclusion about the effects on schools:

Economist Samuel Myers, the University’s Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice, confirms that segregation is not the result of people choosing neighborhoods aligned with their incomes and preferences or of “bad credit.” It’s the result of racial disparities in lending, discrimination in housing, and little enforcement of fair housing laws.

Segregation is, Orfield emphasizes, “about a fundamental divide in who has access to opportunity—jobs, decent housing, safe streets, good schools. Where you live determines your basic prospects in life. It’s hard to overestimate how devastating it is for families and children to be trapped in failing communities and struggling schools. Or how much it undermines the quality of life, competitive edge, and vitality of the entire region.”

Segregated schools are particularly harmful, Orfield says. Research has proven that high-poverty schools are overwhelmingly low-performing ones and that an “achievement gap” exists between students from impoverished backgrounds and those from more middle-class ones. Children in poor communities start out with fewer of the assets that boost achievement (from high-literacy homes to good health care). And their schools usually suffer from limited resources and inexperienced teachers. [italics are mine]

Lowering the bar for entering the teaching profession is not going to improve that. It will exacerbate it.

It is ironic and sad that Samuels’ support for the charter school movement (and he does) actually makes the statistics on the racial segregation of schools worse; it is counterproductive for the very people he claims to champion.

Update: Rob Levine points out a better place to look for the “endless cycle of poverty and failure” that Don Samuels complains about:

Writing in the Spokeman-Reporter, a Black newspaper in the Twin Cities, Charles Hallman asserts that "Pawlenty budgets exhibit racial bias" :

The budget cuts “continue to operate in ways that continue [racial disparities]… They protect the status quo,” says Starstep Foundation President Alfred Babbington-Johnson.

Combined with the unallotment powers he used last year to slash health care and state aid to cities among other things, Pawlenty’s proposals have harmed Blacks, other persons of color, and low-income families the most, says the Minneapolis-based Organizing Apprenticeship Project (OAP) in a recent analysis of the governor’s budget cuts, including his initial decision to eliminate on April 1 the General Assistance Medical Care (GMAC) program. Almost 40 percent of over 70,000 Minnesotans served by GAMC are Blacks and Native Americans.

According to the OAP, 69 percent of clinic visits covered by GAMC at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in 2009 were by people of color, compared to just 30 percent for White patients. “I know a lot of people who receive GMAC,” says Libby Osborne of Minneapolis.

...the governor also proposed a 27-percent cut in the state renters’ credit program. Under that proposal, approximately 274,000 renters will face a reduction, and 18,200 renters actually will lose their credit, the OAP estimates. This would disproportionately affect elderly renters, low income renters and the renters of color who make up 20 percent of all state renters.

The OAP’s analysis also included $300 million in state aid to local governments that Pawlenty either unalloted or cut. “We found that the counties with the highest [number of] people of color, with the highest unemployment, with the highest poverty, are the ones being hit the most by unallotment,” says OAP Lead Policy Analyst Jermaine Toney.

Technorati Tags: Don Samuels,Professor Myron Orfield,segregated schools,charter schools,achievement gap,Tom Dooher

Tom Dooher must be shot II

Dick Bernard of Woodbury earns a Spotty (tm) for his opinion piece in the Star Tribune today:

It seems, from a flurry of commentaries and letters in recent months, that it is again open season on public school teachers, and particularly their unions.

The mantra is always the same: the union is protecting bad teachers and it's against doing good things, like getting rid of supposedly lifetime no-cut contracts.

Hardly ever is there real evidence of these failings. To make the charge is sufficient evidence.

I plead guilty to having worked full time for 27 years as a teachers union representative (MEA/Education Minnesota). I am further guilty of having taught public school for nine years before that. Long retired, I now have seven grandkids in public schools and a daughter who's a principal of a large middle school.

I guess I know a bit about the subject at hand.

There is another credential I possess as well. I grew up (born in 1940) in the good old days when teachers had virtually no rights. Both of my parents were career public school teachers from 1929 through 1971. (Mom stayed at home raising her preschool kids for 13 of those years.)

We lived in small towns in a neighboring state. During my growing-up years (I'm the eldest sibling), we moved to eight communities. In each, Dad was called superintendent, but actually was a teaching principal, the administrator who was accountable to the local school board. Later, younger siblings followed my parents to two more towns, until the youngest graduated from high school in 1966.

My parents were outstanding teachers and outstanding citizens of their communities. I know. One or the other was my teacher for my last five years of public school. All five of their kids achieved at least a bachelor's degree and all have had long productive careers.

But we moved often, and very often that move was necessitated by Dad being fired, in one or another odd and sometimes innovative way.

These were the good old days of "at will" contracts. All it took was some disgruntled citizen who knew the right people to dispatch these outsiders at the annual contract renewal time. (In my files I have nearly every one of those single sheet "contracts" signed by my parents in their careers.)

Dad always took a philosophical view of the firings, but down deep, I think they hurt him deeply. Recently I came across an essay he wrote about the various ways he was fired during his long career. It was funny, in a very sad way.

Protections that are revolting to some -- things like due process, seniority, continuing contract -- came about because of abundant abuses in those good old days when the teacher was, literally, a "public servant."

It's much nicer to just label some generic teacher as "bad," and then to blame the evil union for protecting his or her right to due process.

I'd suggest that those who wish to eliminate teacher rights and defang teacher unions had best be very careful lest they get what they pray for. They would not like the results.

Are there "bad teachers"? Of course. Just as there are bad parents, bad executives, bad politicians, bad journalists. We know them when we see them.

Or do we?

Those seeking to get rid of seniority and the like can find more constructive ways to help public education.

Sadly, I'm not holding my breath.

Dick Bernard, Woodbury, is a retired teacher and union representative.

This op-ed is a good follow-on to Spot’s post Tom Dooher must be shot!

Remember, a Spotty (tm) is awarded for a letter to the editor, an op-ed piece, a blog post or comment that Spot wishes he had written himself.

Technorati Tags: Tom Dooher,teachers unions,due process,seniority,public servants

Drinking Liberally, the video cast edition

It’s been a long, busy day already, but I did want to mention that tonight’s Drinking Liberally will be live streamed by the Uptake. Just put “Uptake” in a search engine and it’ll pop up, just in case you haven’t bookmarked it.

UPDATE: Due to some, um, technical problems, the session wasn’t live streamed after all. But apparently some video of part of the session will be posted on the Uptake in coming days.

Tom Dooher must be shot!

According to Don Samuels.

Why? Well, Samuels says it is because Education Minnesota opposes the “ninety-day wonder” bills that have been introduced in the Legislature again this year by Minnesota House members Carlos Mariani and Linda Slocum, and Senate member Terri Bonoff.

In his poisonous op-ed in the StarTribune yesterday, Samuels says:

[  ] Dooher opposes another proven innovation touted by the president -- the alternative teacher certification bill under consideration in the Minnesota Legislature, which would widen the pool of qualified candidates entering the field from different paths and attract more minorities into the teacher ranks.

Minnesota has one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation, and we believe alternative teacher certification is one of the missing links as to why Minnesota's urban core schools have not yet realized the success of many of their counterparts in other cities. Students trapped in consistently low-performing schools have been robbed of their right to a high-quality education and effective teachers. If the Legislature passes alternative teacher certification, it would open the pipeline to programs like Teach For America, which recruits top-notch teachers into high-needs classrooms.

The key words in the entire passage are “we believe.”

But really, segregation is still the principal cause of the achievement gap. This is from an interview with Jonathan Kozol about his book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America:

In earlier books, like "Amazing Grace," I certainly made it evident that the schools of the South Bronx were stunningly segregated. But it wasn't until the last five years that I realized how sweeping this change has been throughout the nation, and how reluctant the media is to speak of it. Newspapers in general, including those that are seen as vaguely liberal, by a convenient defect of vision refuse to see what is in their own front yard -- or if they do see it, they refuse to state it. So, in a description of a 98 percent black and Latino school, the newspaper won't say what would seem to be the most obvious starting point: This is a deeply segregated school. They won't use the word "segregated." They do the most amazing semantic somersaults to avoid calling reality by its real name. "Gritty" is the New York Times' euphemism for segregated; "serving a diverse population with many minorities" -- as though they might be Albanians! Then I go to this "diverse" school and there are 1,000 black and Latino kids, 10 whites and 12 Asians. So "diverse" has actually come to be a synonym for "not diverse."

This school segregation is the direct outgrowth of patterns of de facto residential segregation. Anyone who has lived in the Twin Cities for any time at all knows that it is quite segregated. But as Kozol says, the media don’t seem to want to talk about it. Even Don Samuels doesn’t seem to want to talk about it!

It is much easier to blame the teachers.

But in fact, the inner-city kids who attend the suburban schools that Samuels acknowledges are top notch, under open enrollment or the It’s Your Choice program, mostly still perform more like their inner-city peers than they do the resident students of the suburban districts. It’s the economic and social milieu they come out of, not the school or the teachers.

Samuels has a legitimate beef, but it’s not the one he’s complaining about. Rather than venting his anger by trying to destroy the teaching profession and its professional standards and entrance requirements, he ought to spend his time trying to fight the re-segregation of the schools.

Public employees are always convenient footballs for venal and self-aggrandizing politicians. Fraudenwaste in government is one of the time tested platforms on which to run for office. Joe McCarthy went after federal employees first; Liz Cheney is doing the same thing with some Justice Department lawyers now. Who could forget Tim Pawlenty’s teacher bashing? Don Samuels is cut from the same cloth.

His demagogic screed in the paper yesterday is a perfect illustration of why civil servants, and teachers in particular, need the protection of a union.

School boards are made up of politicians, too. It would be much easier to filet a teacher like a trout once in a while when some control freak parent complained that little Johnnie or Janie wasn’t doing his or her homework, and that it was all the teacher’s fault. It’s the grievance system – borne of the union – that makes it hard for that to happen. Teachers still do get fired, but not so arbitrarily.

Bilious windbags like Don Samuels shouldn’t be at all surprised when teachers give him the cold shoulder.

Update: there are follow-up posts here and here.

Technorati Tags: Don Samuels,Education Minnesota,alternate teacher certification

Paul Thissen discusses GAMC

In view of the flurry of activity at the Legislature this past week on the future of GAMC, I am posting a video of what Paul Thissen had to say about health care and General Assistance Medical Care, in particular. It’s a great description of how GAMC works. Or how it did work, anyway.

Technorati Tags: General Assistance Medical Care,GAMC,Paul Thissen,Inez Greenberg Gallery,Bloomington Center for the Arts

Drinking Liberally: the corporate income tax edition

On Thursday, March 11th, Todd Rapp, the president of Himle Horner, will join us to discuss an idea that he floated in the Strib Opinion Exchange a couple of weeks ago: the corporate income tax in Minnesota should be abolished. As some of you know, I’ve had some harsh things to say about the idea.

I invited Todd to come to Drinking Liberally to talk about this proposal with me, and he agreed. He’s a good sport to come, and I hope you will join us for what promises to be a wonky but lively (is that even possible?) discussion.

As usual, we’ll be at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. People start to arrive around six, but the program will begin about seven.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club,Minnesota corporate income tax

Rep. Paul Thissen’s Drinking Liberally video

Since there was no video taken of Paul Thissen’s appearance at Drinking Liberally, I interviewed him on Friday, March 5th at the Inez Greenberg Gallery at the Bloomington Center for the Arts. Here are just some of the questions put to Paul and his answers.

Special thanks to the Bloomington Center for the Arts, and to Jim and Rachel especially, for making the Gallery available for the interview. The Inez Greenberg Gallery hosts many interesting shows, and I recommend it highly.

While we were there, a former board member of the Center, Les Fordahl, happened to stop by. I learned that Les was a combat artist in Vietnam. You can learn about Les at the Library of Congress, here.

Since one of Paul’s briefs at the Capitol is health care, I am going to do another video of Paul’s remarks about GAMC. Look for that in a day or two.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,Paul Thissen,Minnesota gubernatorial race,Bloomington Center for the Arts,Inez Greenberg Gallery

Dear Star Tribune editorial folks

When you're in a state with four law schools full of professors who spend their lives studying justice, an active and engaged bar, a judiciary acutely aware of what can happen when judicial elections get out of hand, and a Chief Justice determined to keep an underfunded court system working, why do you feel the need to hand over one side of the judicial retention debate to a man who earns his keep as the CEO of a chain of fast food joints owned by his political sugar daddy?

They have Tea Baggers in Iceland, too

New York Times photo

Ah, Iceland: a land where the bankers were careful students of the United States:

The dramatic change in Iceland, from the poor relation of Europe to one of its wealthiest and apparently most successful, and now back again, dates from the mid-1990s with the privatisation of the banks and the founding of the country's Stock Exchange.

The free market reforms unleashed a new generation of thrusting, young businessmen, many of whom picked up their banking trade in the United States. They were determined that their country would no longer have to rely on fishing for its principal source of wealth; they loathed the international perception of Iceland as a parochial nation of farmers and fishermen who could not hold their own on the world business stage.

They had learnt at school all about the last Cod War with Britain, in 1976, when Iceland unilaterally extended its territorial waters, desperate to increase the financial yield from its trawler fleet. So, in keeping with the traditions of their Viking ancestors, the new army of corporate raiders went overseas to seek their fortune.

According to the New York Times, this is what Iceland currently faces:

After the dust began to settle last year — after the banks failed, the currency collapsed, the stock market crashed and the government fell — the dazed inhabitants of Iceland woke up to another unpleasant problem: They owed, it seemed, some $5.3 billion to more than 300,000 angry people in the Netherlands and Britain.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir called resolving the debt dispute "a matter of life and death" for the economy.

These were the customers of Icesave, a now notorious online retail branch of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki, which went bankrupt in October 2008 along with 85 percent of Iceland's banking system. The British and Dutch governments reimbursed their citizens, but then demanded that Iceland repay the money, the equivalent of $65,000 per household here, plus interest.

But there is a big difference between Tea Bag Iceland and Tea Bag U.S. Here, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank intervened and kept the entire banking system from crashing around our feet, kept the dollar from collapsing, and made it possible all across America for people to continue to buy their imported gasoline from the Middle East and salad shooters from China. Whether in the long run this is a good thing remains to be seen.

In the short run, though, it clearly saved our unworthy butts. Sure, it saved some unworthy bankers’ butts along the way, but the just let ‘em fail approach would have been a catastrophe. In our case, the creditors knocking on our door wouldn’t have been a pesky bunch of Brits looking for a better rate on passbook savings: they would have been OPEC and China.

Tell you what, Uncle Sam, just give us your Pacific Fleet, and we’ll call it square.

The Tea Partiers have, naturally, no conception of any of this. But the case of Iceland is definitely a cautionary tale:

Iceland had ousted Norway from the head of the UN's league table of 177 countries that compared per-capita income, education, health care and life expectancy – which, at 80.55 years for males, was third highest in the world.

This was only one in a string of glowing assessments of a country (population 313,000) which had pulled off a modern-day economic miracle. No wonder they are also said to be the happiest people on the planet. The inhabitants of this newly discovered Utopia, with its much-admired free health and education systems, bought the most books, owned most mobile telephones per head, and included the highest proportion of working women in the world.

Iceland had also presided over the fastest expansion of a banking system anywhere in the world. Little did anyone know that the expansion once so admired would go on to saddle the country with liabilities in excess of $100 billion – liabilities that now dwarf its gross domestic product of $14 billion.

Fastest expansion of a banking system. In other words, Iceland grew not because it made anything or did anything that really created value or wealth; it was all just financial smoke and mirrors.

Does this remind you of anybody?

But really, for now, anyway, Tea Bag U.S. ought to thank it’s lucky stars that it’s not Tea Bag Iceland. The trick now is to put some regulation of the financial industry (back) in place, because we may not be so lucky the next time.

Technorati Tags: Tea Party,Iceland,financial collapse,creditors,regulation of the financial industry

Lori sizes this one up pretty well

In an op-ed piece in today’s StarTribune entitled GAMC deal puts medical providers on the hook, Lori Sturdevant takes a look at the “deal” struck between the Legislature and Unilateral Tim on GAMC:

But legislators said that the agreement asks a great deal of medical providers, especially hospitals. "We're counting on you to continue to be the safety net," said Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, addressing providers, adding, "We did the best we could."

What Sturdevant meant is this:

Under the program, hospitals will form Coordinating Care Organizations that, in cooperation with counties, will manage and provide medical care for about 32,000 single adults. The measure must be approved by the Legislature and signed by Pawlenty.

However, hospitals will be paid a lump sum to cover all GAMC patients, so may have incentives to control costs. All care they provide beyond the single payment must be covered by the hospitals.

This should sound to you like the old “managed care” HMO model, because it is. Patients were profoundly unsatisfied with the care and service they received with this service delivery model.

This is very different of course, because we shouldn’t give a rat’s ass whether these patients are happy, satisfied, or even served. They just need, after all, to get off their duffs and get a job! One with benefits and keys to the executive washroom.

Although it merits some research, I don’t think that the existing GAMC reimbursement rates exactly encourage doctors and hospitals to over-treat GAMC patients; the financial incentives already exist.

Hospitals like HCMC and Regions are going to sign up for the new deal because they won’t have any choice. Well, they do, one supposes; they could just tell people to die in the streets. But no, the softies, they’ll sign up to take care of some of the sickest among us for a flat fee.

Sturdevant worries about this:

The bill provides $91 million over 13 months to hospitals, at least $30 million less than would have been available to hospitals under the bill Pawlenty vetoed on Feb. 18, and perhaps half as much as they would have received under the original GAMC program, which Pawlenty vetoed last May. To the extent the cost of care for the poor is not met by the terms announced Friday, it will result in two things: reduced services (and fewer jobs) at hospitals, and higher health insurance costs for everyone else.

But our taxes won’t have gone up!

In reality, your property taxes will probably go up, too, especially if you live in Hennepin or Ramsey Counties, because the bills for uncompensated care are going to have to be paid somehow.

But it would be a mistake to focus solely on the Metro; what about the small rural hospitals who will have many fewer patients, but if just a couple of really sick ones come along in a short time, it would be financially disastrous for the hospital and the little community where it is located.

This plan is destined to come to grief; maybe everyone realizes that and hope it’s a band aid big enough to cover over the problem until Unilateral Tim moves permanently to Iowa.

Technorati Tags: Unilateral Tim,Tim Pawlenty,GAMC,uncompensated care,Hennepin County Medical Center,Regions Hospital,Lori Sturdevant