Preserve the bigots!

On Minnesota Monitor yesterday, Abdi Aynte had a post about the Protection of Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007. As Abdi points out, this bill is a response to the filing of a lawsuit by six Muslim imams who were removed from a flight leaving Minneapolis because some passengers thought they were terrorists. The link to the bill in Abdi's post doesn't work, so Spot thought he would refer readers to his post Insulation of Bigotry Act of 2007, which contains a link to the bill, and Spot describes the bill and its infirmities in some detail. Spot expanded this discussion in We are all imams now.

You might also want to check out Imams sue Mr. and Mrs. Bigot! for a little more background.

Tag: flying imams

The Grim Ridder

It is starting to look like the Grim Ridder not only wants to kill the body of the Star Tribune newspaper, he wants to steal its soul, too. Two experienced newspapermen identified as progressives—by the spittle-flecked boys at Powerline, anyway—will be leaving the paper. Both have long been on the head-hunting list of local conservative bloggers.

One is Minnesota Pollster Rob Daves who was shown the door:

The paper gave [Spot says if you give something to somebody, he has the option to reject it] an involuntary buyout to Rob Daves, director of the Minnesota Poll and the part-time manager of the newspaper's community website, Buzz.mn.

Daves said he was called into a meeting with Barnes and Managing Editor Scott Gillespie after the newsroom meeting and told that his job had been eliminated.

The Minnesota Poll, an institution at the Star Tribune since its first story appeared on March 19, 1944, ran between six and eight polls last year. It has not run a poll so far this year, Daves said.

The poll, although usually concerned with politics, has over the decades polled Minnesotans on "whether oleomargarine should be allowed to be sold in the state and should it be colored and whether people have cabins up at the lake and everything in between," said Daves.

In the last election cycle, there were howls of protest (read the comments to Eric Black's post) about the Poll's margin between Mark Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar. Amy won handily by a margin similar to that predicted by the Poll.

You might also be interested to know, boys and girls, that Rob Daves is currently the president of the American Association for Public Interest Research.

The other big kill, as far as Powerline is concerned, is Jim Boyd, a 27-year veteran and member of the Strib's editorial board:

It is difficult to capture the combination of intellectual thuggishness combined with buffoonery that Jim Boyd has engaged in and orchestrated from his perch as deputy editor of the Star Tribune editorial page. Today we learn that Boyd at long last will be leaving the Star Tribune.

Spot only hopes that people will say such nice thing about Scotty when he finally shuffles off this mortal coil, which will undoubtedly occur as the consequence of a fatal bile-choking incident.

On the other side of the ledger, we have Jim (he hates that) Lileks, the sire of some of the most inconsequential twaddle in the Strib:

I like Pepto-Bismol. There. I said it.

Spotty, did they can the author of that?

No, grasshopper, he was merely reassigned. But that didn't stop Hugh Hewitt from comparing Lileks to E.B. White.

Why are you laughing, Spotty?

Never mind, grasshopper. Maybe when you're a little older.

When the Star Tribune lies gutted and lifeless next to the Pioneer Press at the fishmonger's, thinking residents of Minnesota will rue the day they ever heard of the Grim Ridder or Avista Capital.

Tags: the Grim Ridder kills the Minneapolis Star Tribune

The rule of law

The rule of law has been taking it in the shorts lately. The firings of the US attorneys and the reasons for doing it are the subject of intense scrutiny by the media, the blogs, and by congressional committees. There is an article in the Strib today about efforts by Keith Ellison to get to the bottom of why Tom Heffelfinger left the USA job in Minnesota and why Rachel Paulose was anointed appointed as his replacement:

In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Ellison, D-Minn., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers also asked for any documents relating to the appointment of current U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose and to the management and morale in her office.

The letter is the first public effort by the committee to get documents specific to Minnesota during its investigation into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year. It cited news reports about the possibility that U.S. attorneys were appointed for their loyalty to President Bush and about alleged efforts to restrict voter turnout.

There are also reports that Rachel's pal Monica Goodling was involved in making hiring decisions of Justice employees based on political considerations:

Congress and the Justice Department's internal watchdog agency are also looking into allegations that Monica Goodling, a former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sought out fellow Republicans for Justice Department jobs. Goodling resigned over the U.S. attorneys flap and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions from Congress. (Full story)

Spot figured out that it was about time to trot out his favorite defense of the rule of law. It comes from the based-on-a-true-story play, A Man For All Seasons. The playwright Robert Bolt puts words in Thomas More's mouth that still make Spot shiver:

Roper: [speaking about Richard Rich, who has just left and is suspected of being a spy against More] Arrest him. [Roper is a suitor for More's daughter Margaret]

Alice: Yes! [More's wife]

More: For what? [More is at this point Chancellor of England]

Alice: He's dangerous!

Roper: For libel; he's a spy.

Alice: He is! Arrest him!

Margaret: Father, that man's bad.

More: There is no law against that.

Roper: There is! God's law!

More: Then God can arrest him.

Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.

More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.

Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!

More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact - I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God....
[he says this last to himself]

Alice: While you talk, he's gone!

More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

"The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate." Would that someone would have said that to the claque of sycophants in the Justice Department, or who would say it to Katie or Michele Bachmann or James Dobson, or to any of the legions poisoned with moral certitude.

Update: identified the characters

Further update: expanded the section excerpted

Tags: Monica Goodling, Rachel Paulose, Sir Thomas More, rule of law, US Attorneys

Not only the blogs

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which also was named in the letter, said he's "shocked by the hysteria the lawsuit has provoked."This [letter] isn't too surprising given the anti-Muslim stuff you see on some blogs," he said. "It's brought the wackos out of the woodwork."

That's a quote from a Strib article that MNO mentions in a comment to Spot's post Way to go, Katie! The New York lawyer representing the so-called "flying imams" (which is funny, because they were actually grounded by bigotry) received a death threat recently, and now we learn that the letter had a St. Paul postmark.

Not only the blogs, Mr. Hooper. Not only the blogs.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, flying imams

Katie’s elixir

Spot's had a very busy and interesting day—for a dog—so he won't spend much time on Katie today. In Guess what troubles young people the most? Katie tells us that young people are yearning, Katie says yearning, for a return to the old ways:

"California Dreamers" [a survey of California teens] summarizes its findings this way: "The poll reveals a deep yearning among 16- to 22-year-olds for traditional structures - marriage, parenthood [and] religion."

Spot looked at the linked survey to find this quote to see what the "and" might stand for, but couldn't find it. Katie continues:

Do Minnesota's young people share these yearnings? Absolutely, says the Rev. Efrem Smith of the Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multiethnic congregation in north Minneapolis. Smith has spent his life working with youth, and speaks nationally on the subject.

"This generation is deeply marred by family breakdown," he told me. Many young people are victims of our society's epidemic of out-of-wedlock childbearing and divorce, he says. Even children from intact families often feel neglected by busy or preoccupied parents.

"Kids understand that a strong, loving family is the core, the base, of what it takes to develop a moral compass, a sense of purpose, an identity," says Smith, even if many self-absorbed older folks have forgotten this inconvenient truth.

Smith's own parents never missed his football games or school talent shows, he says. So he first experienced young people's anger over family breakdown as a varsity basketball coach at Minneapolis' Roosevelt and Patrick Henry high schools, where a substantial number of kids are in poverty.

"Inconvenient truth?" Boy, that Katie can sure turn a phrase! What's the answer? Well, religion, of course:

Smith sees a connection between kids' anxiety over abandonment and neglect, and their spiritual hunger. As a longtime youth worker, he says, he's convinced that "this void, this hole from having no moral compass or guidance at home, can only be filled spiritually."

Yessir, there is nothing like a bowl of Moral Fiber every morning to cure what ails you. Never mind that your mom works two low-paying part-time jobs with no benefits for a minimum wage that Tim Pawlenty and Spot's own state senator Geoff Michel think is just hunky dory. Never mind that Katie would destroy the public school system in a heartbeat if she could. If we just had more pious poor people, it would all work out. No muss, no fuss.

Oh Katie, before you embrace the survey in its entirety, you may wish to consider the fact that over 80% of the kids surveyed also thought that undocumented immigrants should be given a path to citizenship. Bummer.

Tag: Katherine Kersten

Way to go, Katie!

Now we're getting somewhere! Your constant harping about Muslim cabbies, Muslim foot-washing facilities, and especially the flying imams is finally bearing fruit! We now learn that the lawyer who represents the six imams bumped off a flight from Minneapolis last fall has received a death threat, a pretty specific one:

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that a "terror" threat has been received by the New York lawyer for six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, suing US Airways over allegations of religious profiling during an incident last fall in Minnesota.

SEE: The Six Imams: Issue of Civil Liberties Lies at Core (InFocus)

http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/14654/135/

The letter sent to attorney Omar T. Mohammedi first outlines the sender's opposition to the lawsuit, and then states in part: "We have located the residences and identified the families of all parties (the plaintiffs and you). . .We plan, at random, to start systematically killing the people on our list if this suit proceeds. You, personally, have been identified as the prize kill. It is our belief that terrorists like you should understand the true meaning of terror."

Systematically at random, eh? Spot says we can eliminate mathematicians and statisticians from the suspect pool for this threat!

It is people like Katie and her boyfriend Scott Johnson and their hysterical, foaming intolerance that make threats like this possible. Chances are, of course, that the threat is simply more bilious gasbaggery, but if it's not, people like Katie who use positions like hers to fan the flames of malignant bigotry will have blood on their hands, too.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, flying imams, death threats

Erring Bobby

On Friday, Evil Bobby threw down the gauntlet about Spot's opinion, expressed at DL, that Tim Walz would be a virtually unbeatable candidate next time around. Evil Bobby, or EB to his friends, says, oh, no; here's a couple of candidates:

Do MN Observer and Spotty at the Cucking Stool really believe that Tim Walz will have a cake walk for re-election? I know they don't live in the 1st, but I say he can't get lazy (Not that he is, or would). I don't think he should run for Governor just yet. Randy Demmer and Dick Day are pretty popular fellows around here, Demmer especially. Confession: I voted for Randy Demmer in 2006.

Abbott and Costello were popular too, Bobby, but nobody elected 'em to congress. But let's consider what EB is saying.

First of all, Tim Walz is gonna have a heckuva tail wind come fall of '08. Captain Codpiece is going to make sure of that. Bush's most recent approval rating was 28%, twenty-eight percent! It is unlikely that Bush will do anything to improve that before the election. That and the fact you can be sure there won't be any Christo-fascist nutjobbery constitutional ballot amendments in 2008, and you have to conclude that the Republican turnout will be well, depressed. Whose coattails would a Republican First District candidate ride? Norm Coleman's? Surely you jest.

And now let's look at the candidates.

Do we have to Spotty?

Of course grasshopper. Anything worth doing is worth at least trying to do it well.

Dick Day. Dick "turn off the ramp meters" Day. The man who wrested control of the Republican Senate Caucus—from who was it, Dean Johnson back in the day when Dean was a Republican?—and steered a brave course to maintain caucus minority status during the entire time of his leadership? Clearly a gifted politician. Be serious EB.

And Randy Demmer? Spot will admit he knows less about Demmer. So ol' Spotty went to look at the bills for which Demmer was listed as a chief author this session. (The link will take you to the main house search page: enter Demmer as chief author.) GOLL. LEE. House Research generally only prepares a summary of a bill if it gets a committee hearing. Spot only found a couple of Demmer bills that even got a committee hearing, and then only when there were other chief authors. A real legislative giant.

Spot's favorite Demmer bill, undoubtedly very important in the hollows of Hayfield, would make it legal to shine a spot light from a moving vehicle onto residential property or building sites in order to "recover wild animals legally taken." Cletus, I think that 'coon you shot hobbled up onto the porch yonder. Shine yer light over there. Yup. Hol' it still while I finish 'im off.

Even Karl Rove doesn't think Walz is going to be vulnerable.

But the principal reason, Bobby, why Tim Walz will win re-election is that he is a terrific, talented and energetic congressman, and one of the most authentic people in that job that Spot has seen in a long time.

Tags: Tim Walz, Dick Day, Randy Demmer

Coming Mr. Tice!

Here's how a Thursday post to (Brian) Lambert to the Slaughter begins:

Thursday afternoon at the Star Tribune saw the paper's four metro columnists, Doug Grow, Nick Coleman, Katherine Kersten and Cheryl "CJ" Johnson called in to separate meetings with editors Nancy Barnes and Scott Gillespie and told, in so many words, that the paper was looking to scale back the number of columnists and would any of them care to raise their hands and volunteer for reassignment to the paper's suddenly thin -- and getting thinner -- ranks of street-level reporters?

Many, including Spot, have commented on Katie lack of experience, skill, or talent as a journalist. The last story she actually covered was a bake sale at St. Buford's in Fort Dodge when Katie was a high schooler. One of Lambert's commenters said it pretty well:

They put that ludicrous proposal to Kitty Kersten? Tuh, talk about empty, pro forma procedure. She's not qualified to hit the streets as a reporter. She's never done it. Certainly she invests no shoe leather in her columns.

She's a hot house lily from the world of partisan think tanks hired as a sop to the paper's shrill critics on the right.

So, judging from the misology [sic] that afflicts mgmt there, Kersten'll get to keep her column because she's not qualified to be a reporter (and it would set off Achinghinder et al at Powerlineblog like the Hound of the Baskervilles). So, paradoxically, either Grow or Coleman will suffer for his three decades plus experience as an actual journalists by losing his column, while Kersten will be inoculated from having the epaulets torn from her sensible frock for her utter lack of credentials as a journalist. Cue Alanis Morrisette [sic] ...

Bet Kersten's glad to be a member of one of those pesky liberal unions.

Oh, and it's Katie, not Kitty.

Katie is the most junior columnist of the four. Spot hopes that Katie becomes a reporter. Spot can hear it already: Katie, come in here. We have to go over this story you wrote about Muslims using the drinking fountains. Yes, Mr. Tice, coming.

Just desserts, Spot says.

Update: Credit where it is due. A thump of the tail to Paul Schmelzer at MinnMon who called the Lambert post to Spot's attention.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cinco de Mayo!

Boys and girls, it's Cinco de Mayo. Go out and patronize the only Mexican restaurant owner to win a Spotty™. It's the least you can do.

More cerveza, please.

Restaurateur garners Spotty

In order to maintain the sense of gratitude and wonder in Spotty™ recipients, Spot has resolved to keep the number of awards down, at least for a while. But Spot's resolve evaporated when he read this commentary in Thursday's Star Tribune:

Every time I watch the news on television, open a newspaper or click on a story about immigration, I try to hide, even as I listen and watch.

What is this pain I feel -- this plunging sadness?

Perhaps it's knowing what all Latinos know, or should know, in their hearts. It is the hurt of being on the fringes of the used, dismissed and forgotten. Knowing that people like us, even related to us, are an expendable, low-cost human fuel.

It is the hurt of a man who must choose whether to voice dissent in defense of his heredity or to remain a silent, unquestioning, good American.

And it is shame. Shame for remaining silent in this spectacle of disrespect for generations of sacrifice and blood given to help build this empire. An elitist, racist disrespect, of which we become part through our silence.

So here I hide, having been afraid to voice my silent rage. Protective of my accumulated wealth. Protective of my public face and perceived status.

Protective. From whom? From what?

Who in the hell am I trying to kid? The truth is:

The only thing that separates me from arrest and the word "illegal" is a generation. There is no legal or illegal in blood lines. Is that safe enough? Is that protective enough? The fact that I call this "my" country and served four years during the Vietnam War, that I pay my taxes and go to AA, have never been in jail and own a popular Mexican restaurant -- is that safe enough?

No. Because, as long as brown people are being arrested, I will be only on the edge of acceptance. As long as I wear this brown skin, look the way I do, I will always be on the list of usual suspects.

I'm just another Mexican in the eyes of an America that has become punch-drunk on gossip, wild rumors and lies. So now we're annoyed and itching to get back at someone -- better yet, someone who can't hit back.

These unfortunates who sit in cells waiting to be deported are my grandparents in the early 1900s. They are my cousins and brothers and uncles who were rousted from their Minnesota homes and workplaces in the 1930s and sent back to Mexico, only to be called back when the Union Pacific needed gandy dancers, Crystal Sugar needed people with strong backs who were hungry enough to work for 12 cents a ton and could handle a topping knife, and a U.S. military seeing war coming with Germany figured brown would work just as well as white and black for cannon fodder.

So as I stand here, yelling into the wind of anti-immigrant public opinion led by a governor whose memory will be reviled by my grandchildren as Minnesota's answer to the segregationist Orval Faubus. Shouting, pleading, demanding that America give my people the same as they give you and yours: the opportunity to live in dignity and without fear.

That America give my people the same opportunity to enter this country legally that it gave your grandparents and great-grandparents. That America give this generation of Latino people the right and the time to assimilate into Americans as your past generations had.

I am not an educated man, but it seems to me that one look at the transformation of Lake Street in south Minneapolis says that the future of this country is worth giving hardworking brown people legal access to the American Garden.

We are here to work and build and fulfill our dreams. We want to love our families and revere the memory of our parents and grandparents, and that of our ethnic heritage. We want to wave the Mexican flag on Cinco de Mayo the way the Irish do Ireland's on St. Paddy's day. In October we want to enjoy German bratwurst during Oktoberfest and invite German-Americans to remember their departed loved ones on our Day of the Dead.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is on the fast track, with aspirations that extend outside our borders and using this human tragedy to further his political ambitions. He is reminiscent of Gen. William Westmoreland, demanding more latitude to chase the brown people. We called it "body count" back then. Today it's a body count by profile.

I ask myself what I would do if I were stopped and asked for further identification. Having already been a victim of racial profiling, I find that prospect very plausible. I ask you, Gov. Pawlenty: What should I do? Shall I give in for the good of national security? Shall I give in because people who look like me take jobs from people who look like you? What would you do if you were me, Governor? You, of whom some people whisper about potential greatness, what do you choose? Submit to bigoted paranoia or hold your head up and say no?

Tell us, Governor. A lot of brown Americans are waiting for your answer.

Joe Minjares, Minneapolis, owns Pepito's Restaurant.

Joe says that he is not "an educated man." Spot supposes that it depends on your definition of "educated," Joe. You seem pretty educated to Spot. For his commentary, Joe Minjares is awarded a Spotty™. Remember, boys and girls, a Spotty is awarded to the author of a letter to the editor, an op-ed piece, or a blog post or comment that Spot wishes that he has written.

Spot also suggests that you check out Joe's restaurant, boys and girls. Here's how to get there.

Tags: immigration, Spotty award

Watching Tim

How well do you know Tim Walz, boys and girls?

Spotty, isn't he the new Democratic Congressman from Minnesota's First District?

That's right. What else do you know about him, grasshopper?

Not much.

That's too bad, grasshopper, because he is somebody to watch in Minnesota—and national—politics. He got three good committee assignments as a freshman congressman: Agriculture, Transportation, and Veterans' Affairs. The Democratic leadership in the House has identified Tim Walz as someone who speaks articulately and well about the Iraq war. He seems to Spot to be a person of great energy and talent.

How can we learn more about him, Spotty?

Thanks for the question, grasshopper. It's always easier to work with a straight man, isn't it boys and girls? One way you could do that is to read the blog A Bluestem Prairie. It's done by someone who does a really good job of observing and reporting politics in southern Minnesota's First District. Ollie's blog is now on Spot's blogroll.

Tags: Tim Walz, Minnesota First Congressional District

St. Agnes? hmmmmmm

Spot had an Aunt Agnes, and she was a saint, made bread and pies you wouldn't believe.

Spotty, I don't think that's who Katie had in mind when she wrote her column today.

No, I suppose not grasshopper. She was writing about a Catholic high school in St. Paul, St. Agnes—which is even older than Spot—and now finds itself in financial trouble. Katie calls the school "indispensible":

St. Agnes is a victim of the financial and enrollment squeeze that is hitting inner-city Catholic schools around the country. Eighty-five percent of its 200 high school students and 220 K-8 students receive tuition assistance, and in recent years the parish that operates the schools has incurred a debt of more than $1 million in subsidizing them.

On May 8, a decision will be made to close the high school unless something dramatic happens to improve the financial situation, says the Rev. John Ubel, St. Agnes Church pastor and school superintendent. The grade school will stay open.

[ . . . ]

At St. Agnes, [mother of several students] Collins adds, teachers worked tirelessly in and out of class to give her kids the academic support and confidence they needed. Last year, [daughter] Tomica capped her high school career by being chosen homecoming queen.

Today, St. Agnes families come not only from the inner city but also from 60 ZIP codes, including Ham Lake, North Branch and Somerset, Wis., according to Ubel.

Spot doesn't understand Katie. If it's an inner-city school why the 60 zip-coded students?

Anyway, Spot had this nagging feeling that somebody had written about St. Agnes recently. But who? Think, Spotty, think! Ah now Spot remembers; it was MNObserver writing at Norwegianity:

[We need look no farther than] St. Agnes to see where forced orthodoxy leads. St. Agnes has always been one of the most conservative parishes in the state, with a congregation that loved their latin masses and their conservative leadership.

But more than that, they loved the discipline and good teaching that went on year after year in their high school. A place where the powers that be left well enough alone, the faculty and staff produced great students year after year. Until 2002, that is, when this archconservative parish decided that a further foray into Opus Dei land was needed, especially for the free-thinking high school faculty. Goodbye, Mr. Peper, hello tax attorney (but very strict Catholic) Michael Mazza.

Hello, too, to a year of chaos that resulted in the last week of school being summarily canceled, the loss of ten faculty members (with their 190 years of teaching at St. Agnes), the departure of three administrators, and a drop in attendance that has left the school struggling and fighting for its survival even now:

Overall enrollment at the school is about 426 students, down from about 600 in 2001-02, a year of upheaval for St. Agnes that saw traumatic divisions among the administration, teachers and students.

The lesson from St. Agnes is that even the conservative faithful can be pushed too far. And with an Archdiocese whose financial situation isn't the best, alienating those who send the kids to school every day and pay the bills year after year is going to backfire.

(MNObserver was writing about the new archbishop in waiting, John Nienstedt.)

So Katie, it appears that putting a cilice and a Katherine Kersten signature model Fingers of Redemption™ self-flagellator on the school supplies list might have hurt enrollment! Imagine that.

Katie says that students leaving publics schools are merely voting with their feet, but isn't that also true of St. Agnes? Spotty says, Katie, just let it go, the market has decreed that St. Agnes is not needed.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, St. Agnes school

Who steals my purse

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.

Iago to Othello, Shakespeare

To sell that good name, aye
There's a deed so foul to make men weep.

Tags: City Pages, Faith Mouse

Count the number of times he says progress

A question of relative viscosity

No, boys and girls, we aren't talking about multi-grade motor oil. Here's the lede from an article in this morning's Star Tribune:

After 69 years and two generations, the legacy of a Carlson as the chief of Carlson Companies is nearing an inglorious end.

A bitter brawl among heirs to Minnesota business legend Curt Carlson burst into public view Tuesday with the filing of a lawsuit by grandson Curtis Nelson against the company and his mother, Marilyn Carlson Nelson.

As Spot was saying just the other day: How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.

Spot is also put in mind of something a professor told him long ago. He said, "Spot, blood is thicker than water, but money is thicker than blood."

Spot isn't sure which is the pithier remark.

Update: Nothing personal pups.

Post 1001

Two additions to the Spot's blogroll

It has come to Spot's attention--that itself is sometimes a remarkable thing--that two Spotty™ winners are not on Spot's blogroll. Well, were not. They are now.

Across the Great Divide by Charlie Quimby

Blog of the Moderate Left by Jeff Fecke

Brondum snares Spotty!

For his letter in the Wednesday Star Tribune, Jack Brondum of Minneapolis wins a Spotty™:

A win-win solution

Neal St. Anthony's column on retired TCF CEO Bill Cooper ("TCF's Cooper flies the coop to Florida," April 28) gives new meaning to the term "cut and run."

Having raked in eight (or was it nine?) figures here year after year, Cooper now feels it's time to turn his back on the place that made him filthy rich and retire to where he won't have to pay what he considers excessive income tax. By the way, didn't Halliburton just do that in Dubai?

Cooper's tale is reason enough to make the proposed 9 percent state income tax on joint filers earning more than $400,000 into law. Minnesota will get more badly needed tax dollars for education, health, transportation and other programs, and/or we'll get rid of super-wealthy, self-serving creeps like Cooper -- a genuine win-win situation.

And Minnesota election officials take note: If this guy tries to vote here again, arrest him.

JACK BRONDUM, MINNEAPOLIS

Remember, boys and girls, a Spotty is awarded to the author of a letter to the editor, an op-ed piece, or a blog post or comment that Spot wishes that he has written.

Charlie at Across the Great Divide also disses Cooper's flight a little more clinically:

We'll hear some point to Cooper's departure as retribution for Minnesota's high income taxes, and a great loss to the state. Just the beginning of millionaire flight. But Cooper is doing what retirees frequently do, heading to climes in the south and west that are kinder to old bones. In Naples, he can hang with his conservative peeps, never have his pet ideas questioned in the newspaper, and still play king maker as he entertains visits from Minnesota's GOP politicians looking for a contribution.

Meanwhile, someone else will be paying the property taxes on his $11.5 million Lake Minnetonka mansion and presumably taking up the tax slack created by Chairman Bill's departure.

See, that's what happens if a state continues to invest in all its people, and not just the fortunes of a few.

Spotty, why did Brondum win a Spotty™ but not Charlie?

That's a good question, grasshopper. Charlie is already the world's only living double Spotty™ winner, and Spot is going to make him work really hard for the hat trick. Charlie's post also does not have the same level of invective found in Brondum's letter, a characteristic found in most Spotty™ winners' work.

Tags: William Cooper, Minnesota tax policy

Somewhere, a pig is soaring

The Minnesota Senate passed a "medical marijuana" bill today on a 33 - 31 vote. The governor has, of course, vowed to veto it. The remarkable thing to Spot is that Spotty's state senator, Geoff Michel, voted for the measure. He voted with people like Linda Berglin, John Marty, and Ann Rest, and against people like Dick Day, Michael Jungbauer, and Ray Vandeveer.

Opponents of the measure say it "sends the wrong message" to young people. Yeah, Spot supposes that the message that we want to alleviate the suffering of really sick people is a bad one for our kids. Spot never understood how the Legislature got out of the business of enacting laws and into the business of sending messages.

Can't place the one in the middle, Spotty

Do you know who these famous feminists are?

If you don't know, you can go here for the answer.

Update: You might want to go here to read MNO's post about the feminist in the middle. Or here, to see Tild's post; she was the photographer, sort of.

Technorati Tags: famous feminists

Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?

Go see who at Dependable Renegade.