How to ease state fiscal debt woes. LISTENING, MARK DAYTON ??

In Open Letter to Jerry Brown, in San Diego's La Prensa, comments were made by the asst. director of AFSME.  After an introduction to the demise of the California golden way of life,Willie L. Pelote, Sr., points out several great schemes to end the "deficit" without raising taxes.  I have added numbers to highlight the strategies:

   One way is for California to (1) close the loopholes in its tax code and (2) to require stricter oversight of all the state’s tax subsidy programs like the failed enterprise zone program to ensure that our tax dollars are spent wisely.
   We should also (3) repeal those tax breaks recently handed out to Comcast, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, and Hollywood film studios for the ostensible purpose of creating jobs.
   This is because these companies have done nothing but ship more jobs out of California and lay off more people.
   According to an article by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent Carolyn Lochhead, closing California’s tax loopholes would result in annual budget surpluses for some time to come.
   If the free market is really as ideal a mechanism for creating wealth as its supporters claim, then why must taxpayers subsidize the operations of private sector companies?
   In fact, since the private sector has so far been unwilling or unable to produce the kinds of jobs we need to pull California out of recession, that is all the more reason to be vigilant with our tax dollars.
   The state should also (4) stop paying private contractors more than $34 billion a year to do jobs that civil servants can perform for roughly half the cost.
   A 2009 analysis by the State Compensation Insurance Fund and California Research Bureau found that it generally costs the state 50 percent more to hire private contractors than to have state employees perform the same work.
   Finally, since most of our tax dollars over the past two years have been spent on unpopular bailouts of the banks and financial institutions that caused the Great Recession we are all living through, this means that the budget deficits we’ve incurred at the federal and state level were brought on by Wall Street.
   California should, therefore, (5) institute a surcharge on financial service transactions like stock trades to make sure that Wall Street, not Main Street, bears the cost of cleaning up this economic mess.
   Going forward, we must be steady in our commitment to maintaining a high quality of life through quality public services provided by highly skilled, educated, and experienced civil servants while repudiating austerity measures that will transform greater swaths of the Golden State into a Third World nation.

Willie L. Pelote, Sr. is an Assistant Director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO.

FOX v. Richie: Round One

Stand up for the democratic process here in Minnesota and the "local" Fox news affiliate will send in the spanker(s) ... ( I mean, why save fireworks for the Fourth of July only ?)

Sec. of State Mark Ritchie Explains Vote Tally Error, Governor's Recount

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie talks with FOX 9's Heidi Collins about the Hennepin County election night error and a recount in the Minnesota governor's race.




Should your day be a bit overcast, I heartily recommend watching Richie's sublime performance and reading the ripe comments over at TPM found here.

Does this remind you of an interrogation ?

Who is sending her a pink slip?

I wouldn't mind seeing a "Dump the _itch at Fox" movement -

soon.

Run jESSE run !!!!!

Photos: AP

The many faces of Jesse (from left): author, speaker and governor

POLITICS

A New Job for Jesse?

The former Minnesota governor is considering a run for Senate. What he plans to do if he gets there.

By Hilary Shenfeld | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jul 11, 2008 | Updated: 4:17 p.m. ET Jul 11, 2008

• From the Editors (2)
• Getting To Know You
• Ventura's Shutdown Smackdown

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• Topics (5)
• Jesse Ventura
• Minnesota
• Al Franken
• Norm Coleman
• Mexico

Will he or won't he? That's the question Minnesota residents, political junkies across the nation and even wrestling fans are asking this week amid hints that Jesse Ventura will return to politics, this time seeking a Senate seat in his home state.

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Ventura, whose eclectic jobs include Minnesota governor from 1999-2003, book author, movie actor and wrestling champ, turns 57 on July 15--coincidentally the same day as the filing deadline for the Senate seat. Living part-time in Mexico, Ventura says he hasn't yet decided what he will do.

If he does take the plunge, he would face incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken of "Saturday Night Live" fame. Ventura talked to NEWSWEEK's Hilary Shenfeld on Friday. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: You're thinking of mounting an independent campaign for the Senate in Minnesota. Why now?
Jesse Ventura: It's wide open, and I've watched these presidential debates, and they're avoiding subjects that I think are ultra-important.

Such as?
The deficit. Both parties are equally responsible for it. It's over $9 trillion now. A baby born today is [already] $30,000 in debt.

When did you get the itch to get back in?

As soon as the two parties chose their two senatorial candidates. I find it just bizarre that with the presidential approval rating less than 30 percent and congressional rating even less that Franken's trailing by double digits, so clearly he's not electable. With Coleman, you have a guy I call the quintessential chicken hawk. When it was time to serve his country, he was a chicken because he protested the war and stayed out of fighting. And then he came back all this time later and he's a hawk for the war. That hypocrisy is why I would want to come back and beat him.

When will you decide?

I will soul search and decide, probably on Monday morning. It's all about my family. Do I want to subject them to political office again? Do I want to change my lifestyle? As an independent you're held to a higher scrutiny. You want an example? I wrote a book when I was in office and the Minnesota press accused me of profiteering off the office. Three months later, John McCain came through on a book tour and they heralded him. He's a senator, right? Barack Obama wrote a book, didn't he?

Barkley likes odds of Ventura Senate run

The former governor has until July 15 to decide whether to enter the race and will probably wait until then.

By KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, Star Tribune

Last update: June 19, 2008 - 10:30 AM

Dean Barkley, one of former Gov. Jesse Ventura's closest political associates, said Wednesday that he thinks Ventura will enter the U.S. Senate race as a third-party candidate next month.

But Barkley emphasized that no one knows what the former governor will wind up doing.

And he said Ventura probably won't make a decision until right before the deadline for filing for office -- 5 p.m. on July 15.

But Barkley said that recent polls -- which showed Ventura with the support of a quarter of Minnesota voters in a hypothetical run against Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken -- have reinforced their hunch that this could be a good year for a famous third-party candidate with office-holding experience.

In fact, both he and Ventura think the former governor would win, Barkley said.

"I think the public would like an alternative," he said. "The polls just show that [Coleman and Franken] have weaknesses that could be exploited by the right person."

No matter what Ventura does, that person won't be Barkley, who was appointed by Ventura to complete Paul Wellstone's term after the senator's death in 2002. Although he had said he would run if Ventura doesn't, Barkley was recently hired to run Metro Mobility transit and has ruled out joining the race.

As for Ventura, he's struggling between wanting to hang onto his comfortable lifestyle in Minnesota and Mexico, where he's become a surf hound, and his desire to shake up Congress and support U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Barkley said.

He added that Terry Ventura says she won't stand in her husband's way if he wants to run.

"Half of him wants to [run] and the other half says, 'Don't do it, you idiot,'" Barkley said. "He knows his way of life is going to have to change."

One of the recent polls that showed support for Ventura also found that 60 percent of respondents said he shouldn't run for the Senate. Barkley acknowledged that he has some negatives.

SENATOR NORM COLEMAN a Whistleblower with a mandate who never came Forward!

SENATOR NORM COLEMAN a Whistleblower with a mandate who never came Forward! I, Jack Shepard AWARD TO SENATOR NORM COLEMAN THE NON-WHISTLEBLOWER OF THE YEAR 2006-2007 FOR ALL US GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT AGENCIES. For detailed cases by case in depth unbelievable in dept look there are several very interesting links.NORM COLEMAN -& VISIT WWW.JACKSHEPARDFORSENATE.COM to see how SEN. NORM COLEMAN chair of the Iraqi oversight Committee did not use his powers to be a whistleblower on any contractors who were giving him $100,000+ in donations to his Senate Re-election Committee; which know has over $7,000,000 on hand?

posted by jack4shepard

Activism!!: SDS in Minnesota

Minnesota: National Guard Recruitment Station shut down to protest war in Iraq, 16 arrested

By staff

Minneapolis, MN - 16 demonstrators were arrested here, March 27, after shutting down the offices of the Army National Guard Recruiting Office and protesting five years of war and occupation in Iraq,.

The civil disobedience was organized by the Anti-War Committee, and included participants from many local peace groups, including the Anti-War Committee, University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Women Against Military Madness, and Youth Against War and Racism.

The protests come on the heels of a month of activities that have marked the five year anniversary of the war, and the grim milestone of 4000 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq. More than a thousand anti-war actions were organized around the country. Some of these protests included acts of civil disobedience, leading to the arrests of more than 200 anti-war protesters nation-wide.

Minneapolis protesters were challenging Army National Guard recruiters on the lies that are told to convince young people to enlist. Katrina Plotz, of the Anti-War Committee, explains, "Military recruiters entice young people to enlist with false promises of money for college, job training and assurances that they won't see combat. We're here to educate people about the lies recruiters tell and to protest a system that uses and abuses its soldiers. We want the war to end now and for the troops to come home."

The action at the recruitment office followed a 400-person rally and march organized by the University of Minnesota SDS and was coordinated with an action by Macalester SDS as they shut down another nearby military recruitment center.

"A powerful student movement against the war on Iraq is coming into being," says Tracy Molm of University of Minnesota SDS.

"We will continue to confront the war makers at every opportunity."

A tragedy in the making for years

The Cedar Riverside bridge

Just so's you know. I am from Minneapolis, as some of you may have gathered.

In 1969, just prior to the mining of Haiphong harbor - the construction of THIS very bridge and the accompanying federal housing to which it was INITIALLY to be terminated (HHHumphrey stadium came later) caused street rioting. The rioting erupted when the HUD (Housing and Urban Development) officials came to open the New Town in Cedar Riverside..

The University of Minnesota was the scene of full scale protests during the Vietnam war era.

The lefties started all sorts of community projects, like food coops in the neighborhood and there was a very high profile street scene in Cedar Riverside with lefties and hippies developing. It was highly artistic, much like Haight Asbury.

So the powers that be decided to tear it down. They gave a developer, Heller-Seagal federal funding to develop this "new town". Lots were displaced, made homeless .. and the promises made to provide tons of cheap housing never fulfilled.

The highway was put in and the original plan for the ORIGINAL bridge scraped, due in large part, to the academics at the U of M business school, a place where the most conservative (federal) economist was teaching.

At the time, Hubert Humphrey, was MOST unpopular with us anti-war critics as Vice President, and we knew he was diverting TONS of development money into Minnesota. He caused the erection of many seniors' highrises, which we labelled "death towers", but the getting the residents in them out to vote, ensured that he got what he wanted ... votes. Cedar Riverside was a mere scrap thrown into the mix of pork barreling ..

Eventually the artistic nature of Cedar Riverside was lost on the main street (Cedar Avenue) AND the further cheap housing not materialized. Then came the plans for the dome! More money for edifices, but not for people .. so much for the Feds and promises.

The bridge was slapped up quickly and we surmised and quickly, too, it WAS NOT BUILT PROPERLY.

I remember walking under the RR trestle next to it thinking . .. this is going to end badly .. when I saw the garbage on it .. just prior to its opening. It was cheap and scary.

Anyhow, the population of the neighborhood grew VERY UPSET as time came along .. and neighborhoods of NDN people were displaced to the Cedar Riverside New Town project. The arrival of the middle class and the cool wealthy people, who were "going to spend money" there never occured.

PLUS we got wind that these federal highways, I-94 and 35W were SPECIFICALLY put where they were to accommodate federal tanks should the need arise .. remember that this is the days after the Detriot riots and CONgress passed legislation to build these federal highways for "national defense". DMZs were created around the downtown cores of many cities. All the easier to shoot them .. them RADS and poor people and people of color.

So I am sitting here now wondering -- will the media even bring up the street rioting over the bridge and accompanyiing bridge construction? Will they bring up the developers and their greed? and the legacy of the democRATS ..?

Some of MY relatives could have been hurt in that accident, I am not being hard hearted here, folks . only I know certain things about this I doubt I shall ever see being reported ...

I see that the Feds are all over the place denying it had anything to do with terrorism. There were terrorists alright... investors who threw up any old thing to make a buck and academics who made excuses for them, and politicos who wanted to stay IN POWER, no matter what us, the public, for god's sake, told them.

For years I resolutely did NOT cross it .. and I lived on both sides of that bridges from 1967 to 1976 and had plenty of reason to cross the river in subsequent years. Way too scary as I knew that it was slapped up in one right hurry. Lots of other people will remember this, too, I am sure. I laugh when I read these surmises that salt was the destructive force in tearing down a concrete bridge .. I think some will resonate with the comment that flimsy construction efforts FEEL flimsy cuz they are. More laughable are the ascertions made by the internet doomsday wags --- US government plants - claiming this was done by ultralow frequency weapons! But some will take that seriously, no matter how often you tell them every real tragedy inflicted will bring out the street prophets and doomsday sellers.

The bridge eventually got the HHH stadium traffic, something for which it carried traffic in and out, but had NOT been designed to hold. Further riverfront development ensured more traffic crossed than had ever been the ORIGINAL intent. We warned them about highly concentrated urban development many, many times over the years. But the price of real e$tate was right, the poor had to be moved and the jobs "created".

I am going to mention this, too. My family built bridges in Minnesota and so I knew something about the fact it should be done PROPERLY. You can google "mendota bridge" and see what a marvel that was ... so much mitigated against the building of this bridge. It is a city and area of BRIDGES. There was no excuse for shoddy construction and what's more .. Minnesota stopped using Minnesota engineers to plan and construct them!

This is an extreme example of development taking precedence over people, and we, the citizens - mislabled as "commies", RADICALS!!, NDNs, pot-smoking hippies, POOR people -- warned them about possible consequences ...

Yes, I wrote hard and long about this bridge and urban development misplans for years and was part of the business community shut out of the planning; we just couldn't afford the high-rent, newly constructed artistic centers wanted to charge even though we had been Cedar Riverside business tenants. I batted heads with Heller Seagal on many occasions. We ran a movie theatre ...

The bridge has been a tragedy since Day One.

I truly hope someone in the media investigates enough to find out how much money Heller Seagal got, how much the bridge contractors received, and digs deeply into the situation, rather than accepting some statements from some more white guys/gals in suits .. this is a REAL investigative story, and work really needs to commence on it. It's all a matter of PUBLIC record.

And this is why I am so adamant about stopping the Security and Prosperity Agreement: This is a set up for the most profound of all human tragedy, the loss of our children to PROFIT$ made in the (secret) crossroads of miltarist$, politico$ and bu$inezz types ..