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Author: |
Dan McGrath |
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3/10/2008 |
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Dan is a Minneapolis resident. Living in the heart of the beast, he brings an urban perspective to Minnesota conservatism. |
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Setting the Record Straight on Felon Voters |
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By Dan McGrath on
7/16/2010
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 Minnesota Majority’s June 29 th Report on Felons Voting in Minnesota’s 2008 election has created quite a stir as media organizations speculate on whether fraudulent votes could have impacted the hotly contested US Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. In some instances the speculation has run wild and some published news stories on the subject aren’t providing news consumers a complete and accurate picture.
Report Finds Franken Illigitimate
First and most obvious is the common headlines claiming “Report Finds that Felons Tipped Election to Franken” and variations on that theme. Minnesota Majority’s report does not make this assertion. We acknowledge that it’s a possibility, but besides not being conclusively provable, that isn’t the point of the report. Minnesota Majority isn’t interested in undoing the 2008 election. That’s been decided, and right or wrong, it’s done. Our objective is exposing problems with the past election to prevent their recurrence in the 2010 election coming up in November.
The pundits can analyze our data any way they want but Minnesota Majority’s report does not say Senator Franken was elected by felons. It simply demonstrates that there is strong evidence of a significant number of ineligible felons voting in 2008 and calls on officials to investigate.
The Numbers
Press, commentators and even county prosecutors have been playing fast and loose with the numbers provided in Minnesota Majority’s report. Minnesota Majority generated a computerized list of names of possible ineligible felon voters by comparing to publicly available databases. A list of felons indicated to be ineligible to vote by the dates provided in the file from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the secretary of state’s 2008 voter history file. The matched file contained 2,803 names matched exactly on first, middle and last names and year of birth.
The frequently reported figure of 341 suspected fraudulent voters is often used out of context and incorrectly in reporting. Minnesota Majority examined about 900 Hennepin and Ramsey County records in greater detail, locating court documents to verify the accuracy of the computerized match. Of those, we located 341 court records which indicated the suspected fraudulent voter in question was both convicted of a felony and still under department of corrections supervision at the time of the 2008 General Election.
Some news reports have suggested when it’s all said and done, the actual numbers will be much lower than suggested. From which numbers are they starting? If the baseline is 341 as is typically reported, the numbers will actually be much higher. Starting from 2,803, the numbers of prosecutable cases will be lower, as the report acknowledges likely false-positive matches due to incomplete information in the databases. The number of prosecutable cases is expected to be around 1,000, statewide.
Pat Diamond, a prosecutor in the Hennepin County Attorney’s office told KARE-11 News that Minnesota Majority referred 451 names to them for investigation. The actual number was 899. KARE-11 reported, “Of 451 names submitted by Minnesota Majority, 235 have been ruled out for prosecution while 216 are under review.” What happened to the other 448 names? Hennepin’s findings that 216 of 451 names on Minnesota Majority’s list may be prosecutable based on the available evidence is consistent with our own findings detailed in the report, but half of the cases forwarded for investigation are being ignored in Mr. Diamond’s statistics.
Registration Fraud vs. Voter Fraud
Ramsey County has thus-far charged 30 individuals for election crimes stemming from the 2008 election. Phil Carruthers claims only half of those actually voted. While it’s true that they weren’t charged with ineligible voting, the 2008 voter history file indicates that they did vote. Minnesota Majority also obtained photocopies of the signed roster pages of some of the individuals Ramsey claims did not vote. Are they deliberately deflating the actual numbers to minimize the problem before the public?
Quality of the Data
Phil Carruthers, a former DFL legislator now heading the prosecutions division of the Ramsey County Attorney’s office told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “overwhelmingly, their statistics were not accurate.” The only “statistics” used in the report were in explaining our methodology. That’s how we did it, and what we found – how can that be inaccurate? The conclusions that some have drawn from those statistics could be in error, but the numbers simply are what they are, when read in the original context of the report.
Between Hennepin and Ramsey County, prosecutors say they are currently investigating 396 suspected voter fraud cases. At the same time, they are charging that Minnesota Majority’s data is wrong. How can they know that when the investigations are supposedly still under way?
Carruthers is quick to criticize and minimize Minnesota Majority's data, but Minnesota Majority has found evidence that Ramsey County prosecutors may be doing sloppy work. Carruthers claimed that of the 30 people they've charged with election fraud, only half of them actually voted. The others were just charged with illegally registering to vote. Minnesota Majority has obained the signed polling place roster pages of felons convicted of illegal registration. It looks like they voted and Ramsey County either missed it or chose to ignore it.
Proving Fraudulent Voting
The Star Tribune reported, “Part of the difficulty, prosecutors say, is proving whether suspected felons had their voting rights restored by Election Day, whether they knowingly cast votes while they were ineligible, or whether they even cast the ballots themselves.”
Hennepin County prosecutor Pat Diamond told the Pioneer Press that proving the ineligible felon is actually the person who voted is difficult, even though they can match exact names, dates of birth, drivers license and social security numbers.
County prosecutors implied the suspected votes could be explained by voter impersonation, making it difficult to prove who voted. Either way, it’s fraud and this makes the perfect case for a photo ID requirement.
Diamond is essentially saying he can’t prove voter fraud unless someone confesses, because we don’t know for sure who’s actually voting, but how can that be? Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has said in all of Minnesota’s history, there has never been a documented case of voter impersonation. Of course, such a crime would never be detected with our current system, but I digress.
Photo ID
Minnesota Majority has been calling for a photo ID requirement for voters and some view our report as supporting evidence that the measure is needed to secure our elections. Critics have pointed out that a photo ID requirement wouldn’t prevent fraudulent voting by ineligible felons, noting that they are likely to have valid ID. This makes sense on the surface, but it leaves out a key part of the voter ID proposals that Minnesota Majority supports.
Minnesota Majority has advocated for an electronic “poll book” system that would replace the archaic paper roster pages and multiple lines broken down by last name with a laptop computer loaded with a database of ineligible voters. This electronic poll book system would be coupled with a phot ID requirement and a card reader. Voters would simply swipe their ID and the system would instantly verify their eligibility to vote, speed up same day registrations and instantly record their participation in that year’s election in the voter history file, eliminating thousands of hours or error-prone manual data entry. The benefits of this system are numerous, including preventing almost every varierty of voter fraud and tremendous cost savings.
There was No Fraud in the 2008 Election Because Coleman Said So
A quote often trotted out by reporters and commentators as evidence that the 2008 election was fraud-free was a statement give to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Norm Coleman’s attorney during the recount: “there was no evidence of fraud in the election.”
Information is available now that wasn’t available to Coleman’s legal team because the election officials failed to update the voter history files from the 2008 election until April of 2009, even though the statutes call for the updates to be done wihtin 6 weeks following an election. The Research Minnesota Majority has done would have been impossible during the legal battle due to failing by state and county election officials. In addition, it does not appear that Coleman’s team was looking for this kind of fraud.
MinnPost’s Derek Wallbank reported, “Franken's lead lawyer during the months-long recount, Marc Elias, told The Hill Wednesday that the 2008 election had been thoroughly litigated and fairly decided.
“Sen. Coleman was represented by some of the best lawyers there are in the country,” Elias said Wednesday. “At the end of that process, the lead lawyer for Sen. Coleman told the state Supreme Court that there was no evidence of persistent fraud in the election.”
“It’s a process that I think both Sen. Coleman and the Franken side thought worked well,” Elias added.”
It’s a bizarre and twisted logis to presume that because something was not known about before, new information cannot be correct. This is the nature of discorery. We learn new things. Fraud we didn’t know about 18 months ago has now come to light.
There's a danger in allowing reporters and commentators to tell us the meaning of data. Sometimes the summaries provided by these sources are incomplete, misleading or false. It's always more reliable to go straight to the source and study for one's self. See the original Minnesota Majority report on felon voters here.
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Department of Justice Enabling Nationwide Voter Fraud? |
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By Dan McGrath on
7/8/2010
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Not Just a Minnesota Problem
Minnesota Majority has been calling for an investigation into violations of federal election law in Minnesota for nearly two years. That call has gone unanswered by the US Department of Justice. Now we are finding out why.
Former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights that the current administration of the United States Department of Justice has a policy of not enforcing anti-fraud provisions of federal election law. Because Minnesota allows Election Day registration, we are exempt from certain provisions of the National Voter Rights Act (NVRA), but the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) contains similar provisions. Specifically, Section 303(a) of HAVA requires that the states perform voter registration list maintenance to remove deceased and ineligible voters (including felons and those who’ve moved out of state). This is an anti-voter-fraud measure that, according to Adams, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes refuses to enforce.
Adams quoted Ferndandes as saying, “We're not interested in those kind of cases. What do they have to do with helping increase minority access and turnout? We want to increase access to the ballot, not limit it.”
She evidently doesn't want to limit access to the ballot by ineligible felons, dead people and people who don't live in the state they are voting in, because the law in question requires such names to be purged from the voter registration rolls to prevent needless errors and abuse.
Minnesota Majority has experienced the DOJ’s refusal to investigate these kind of cases first-hand. On November 17 th of 2008 (immediately following the 2008 General Election and while the Coleman-Franken recount battle was getting underway), Minnesota Majority president Jeff Davis sent a certified letter to then Voting Section chief of the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ, Christopher Coates, requesting an investigation into apparent failures to comply with HAVA by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. No response was forthcoming.
Since the DOJ in Washington DC failed to follow up on Davis’ complaint, Minnesota Majority contacted the local FBI office and lodged the same complaint. Special Agent Brian Kinney responded and visited the Minnesota Majority office to examine Minnesota Majority’s findings. At that time, he said, “based on what I see here there is more than enough evidence to initiate an internal complaint.” He gave his assurances that he would bring the matter to the attention of his supervisors. There was no further follow-up.
By October of 2009, Minnesota Majority had compiled evidence of further violations of HAVA in Minnesota, including a finding that ineligible felons were not being detected and flagged for challenge or removal from the voter rolls. This resulted in hundreds of fraudulent votes by ineligible felons being counted in Minnesota’s 2008 election. Davis sent another certified letter to Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates. Like the first complaint from nearly a year prior, the second letter went unanswered.
Minnesota Majority’s experience supports J. Christopher Adams’ claims that the DOJ’s policy is not to pursue violations of HAVA’s anti-fraud provisions. The dismissal of the voter intimidation charges against members of the New Black Panther Party who brandished nightsticks outside a Philadelphia polling place during the 2008 General Election was the last straw for Adams, who resigned in protest. He claimed that his superiors also ordered himself and other attorneys not to comply with subpoenas issued by the US Civil Rights commission, placing them in what Adams called, “legal limbo.”
Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates, who worked with Adams on the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case was demoted and transferred to a post in South Carolina earlier this year.
The Civil Rights Commission has subpoenaed Coates to testify on the matter but his DOJ employers are currently blocking his testimony.
We’ve witnessed reluctance on the part of Minnesota law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute election crimes and now there’s evidence that indicates the federal government is deliberately fostering an environment favorable to voter fraud, nationwide, by refusing to enforce the anti-fraud provisions of the Help America Vote Act. It's become apparent that Minnesota's 2008 election problems are not isolated.
Take Action: Law enforcement and election officials have failed to uphold the integrity of our elections. Only Minnesota Majority is exposing the errors and abuse in Minnesota’s election system and we need your help. To continue our work to prevent the recurrence of 2008’s election problems in the 2010 election, we need to raise $17,000 by July 13th. Click here for donation options.
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New Report on Felon Voter Fraud |
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By Dan McGrath on
6/28/2010
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Today, Minnesota Majority released a report of its findings on ineligible felons voting in the 2008 Minnesota General Election. Our research on felons voting began over a year ago and we believe the new report is the most comprehensive documentation of voter fraud by ineligible felons yet compiled for Minnesota.
On October 14th, 2009, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner announced to the local press that her office had charged 23 felons for illegally voting or registering to vote, saying, “the numbers are very small.” But Minnesota Majority’s independent research revealed a much higher number of felon voters.
Using data obtained from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Minnesota Majority found evidence that hundreds of ineligible felons may have voted the 2008 General Election. Evidence was submitted to the Hennepin and Ramsey County Attorneys on October 16, 2009.
“I think people should be concerned that most of the instances of felon voter fraud would have never been detected had it not been for our independent research,” said Minnesota Majority’s president, Jeff Davis. “It begs the question of what other problems officials may be missing and how long these problems have gone undetected.
”The report points out that since there is a list of felons that can be compared to voter history files, checking for potential felon voters is a fairly straightforward process. Other forms of fraud are much more difficult to detect, however, such as individuals voting under an assumed identity. Minnesota Majority believes if officials are failing to detect, investigate and prosecute felon voters, they are probably missing other forms of voter fraud as well.
The report is critical of failures by election officials and law enforcement to prevent, detect and deter fraudulent voting by convicted felons. “The apparent unresponsiveness and stonewalling on the part of election and law enforcement officials creates the impression that they may be deliberately dragging their feet on the investigation and prosecution of election fraud in order to maintain the myth of Minnesota as a leader in clean, well-run elections. In reality, we have found Minnesota’s election integrity to be lacking in many aspects,” reads a portion of the report’s executive summary.
The report concludes, “Failure to act now sends a signal to potential fraudulent voters that voter fraud is a safe way to influence elections because perpetrators in all likelihood will never be caught or prosecuted. Even those few who have been prosecuted received only a slap on the wrist: a small fine and part of a day in jail.”
Minnesota Majority is calling on election and law enforcement officials to make investigating and prosecuting voter fraud a priority to preserve public confidence in our elections.
We are running out of time to complete our research into other suspected problems arising from the 2008 election. In September (just two months away), the counties will begin destroying election records from 2008, as they are only retained for 22 months. Additionally, the statute of limitations on election crimes is two years and for the 2008 election, will expire in November. Instances of election crimes stemming from 2008 that aren't caught and prosecuted by then will slip into the shadows forever.
We're racing against the clock. To complete our work protecting election integrity in Minnesota, we need to raise $20,000 in just two weeks or our work on elections will come to a halt, unfinished. Just recently, we uncovered evidence that suggests ballot box stuffing in several precincts. More investigation into this apparent discrepancy is critically needed, in addition to our ongoing work to protect election integrity.
Take Action: Please make a secure online contribution toward election integrity today. Absentee voting for the 2010 election cycle already began on Friday and election records from 2008 will be destroyed in two months. No one else is doing this work. Please contribute to Minnesota Majority now to help ensure clean fair elections this year.
Read the Report on Fraudulent Votes Cast by Ineligible Felons in the 2008 General Election.
Channel 5 News coverage: Watchdog Group Says Felons Are Voting Illegally
UPDATE: See Fox News story "Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota"
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Stop the EPA’s Power Grab – Rally Thursday June 3rd |
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By Dan McGrath on
5/28/2010
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 The Environmental Protection Agency is about to assume the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The plan has been called “Cap and Pain” because it will create CO2 emissions limits without the often proposed carbon trading scheme that is part of “Cap and Trade” plans.
The EPA’s draconian plans to cap carbon dioxide emissions will have a huge impact on businesses, jobs and the economy unless they are stopped. Senator Murkowski of Alaska has introduced a resolution to stop the EPA’s misguided plans. There is no scientific basis to consider carbon dioxide a pollutant or a hazard to human health, yet despite new scientific predictions of a coming period of cooling, the EPA insists it must regulate CO2 to stop (currently non-existent) global warming.
The Murkowski Resolution is slated for a vote in the Senate on June 10th. The Senate is now in recess until June 7th and Senators are on their way back to their home states.
Senator Al Franken has expressed past concern for the job losses and economic damage that could be caused by cap and trade type schemes. He needs to hear from his constituents now that the EPA plan will be even worse.
Find the office nearest you and pay a visit if at all possible and urge Senator Franken to support the Murkowski Resolution. If you are able, make your visit between noon and 1:00 PM on Thursday, June 3rd for a greater concentration of visitors and a possible impromptu rally.
Take Action: Visit one of Senator Frankens local offices on Thursday, June 3rd from noon to 1:00.
St. Paul Office:
60 East Plato Boulevard, Suite 220
St. Paul, Minnesota 55107
Phone: (651) 221-1016
St. Peter Office:
208 South Minnesota Avenue, Suite 6
St. Peter, Minnesota 56082
Phone: (507) 931-5813
St. Cloud Office:
916 West St. Germain Street, Suite 110
St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301
Phone: (320) 251-2721
Duluth Office:
515 West 1st Street, Suite 104
Duluth, Minnesota 55802
Phone: (218) 722-2390
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Lawmakers Finish with Overnight Special Session – Budget Balanced for Now |
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By Dan McGrath on
5/17/2010
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 Minnesota taxpayers again escaped tax hikes this legislative session, but not for a lack of trying by the DFL majorities in the House and Senate. A week ago, the legislature passed a new top tax rate of 9.1% for couples and small businesses earning over $200,000 a year. The governor vetoed that bill.
Our state legislature has developed a habit of waiting until the very last moment to try to tackle the state’s biggest budgetary problems and this year’s session held true to that unfortunate pattern. In fact, one could argue that the way the legislature dealt with the budget was completely backwards.
The session began in February and the first order of business was a rush to pass a $1.1 billion bonding bill to borrow money for various district-specific pork barrel projects. In their mad dash to immediately pass more spending, the legislature seemed oblivious to the fact that they were beginning the session over $1 billion in the hole and there was not enough money in the budget to make the existing debt payments, let alone expand them. That budget crisis later worsened when the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Governor Pawlenty’s unallotments from last session, enlarging the state’s deficit to over $3 billion.
Though the House and Senate passed the billion-dollar bonding bill, Governor Pawlenty used his line item veto authority to cut it down to $686 million, but a fair amount of legislative hose trading ensured that money was still borrowed for some projects of questionable priority. Rochester didn’t get bonding money for an expansion to the Mayo Clinic, or for a planned new civic center, but they did get $4 million to expand an amateur volleyball facility. Como Park Zoo will receive $11 million for a new gorilla exhibit and the Ordway received $16 million for a new 1,100-seat concert hall. Not all of the bonding items were for needless niceties, but regardless of the merits of any particular project, there was no plan to pay for any of it. It was like a family whose home was in foreclosure learning they were losing 10% of their income and deciding it was a good time to ask for a credit limit increase on their Visa to refurnish the house.
Minnesotans enjoyed some legislative victories this session. Most notably were several reforms to election laws that Minnesota Majority has been calling for. New, more robust checks of voter registration records will be conducted to detect fraudulent registrations, prevent dead voters from remaining on the active voter rolls, properly challenge ineligible felon voters and precincts will be required to reconcile ballots cast with the number of voter signatures, issuing reports of any discrepancies to the legislature.
The primary election date was moved from September to August to comply with a new Federal law and allow more time for military absentee ballots to be prepared, mailed and returned for the general election in November. Hundreds of ballots from military personnel serving overseas were not counted in the 2008 election because they arrived too late. The primary date change and other new regulations will help ensure that military votes get counted.
General Assistance Medical Care is one of three state subsidized programs that provides unlimited medical coverage for poor and disabled Minnesotans. It’s been projected to increase in cost by 36% per biennium, costing $1 billion to provide care for 35,000 enrollees next year (over $28,000 per enrollee). Even the best private plans don’t compare to the unlimited total coverage provided by GAMC.
Governor Pawlenty essentially dismantled the GAMC program by defunding it this session and instituting a plan to move it’s enrollees to the more cost-effective Minnesota Care program, which provides coverage more like the private insurance most Minnesotans utilize. Left unchecked, GAMC would bankrupt the state. Despite not being cost-effective or sustainable, Democrats mounted an effort to restore the flagging program with a bill to restore funding to GAMC. Governor Pawlenty vetoed that bill and Democrats failed to muster enough votes to override.
Just days before the end of session, negotiations were reportedly underway between Governor Pawlenty and DFL leaders in the legislature to restore GAMC under the auspices of early Medicaid enrollment, a provision of President Obama’s newly passed national health care law. In its death throes, GAMC reared its burdensome head once more, clawing at a chance for continued existence. The deal ultimately struck provides the governor or his successor the authority to enact the early medicare enrollment option. There’s no indication that Governor Pawlenty will exercise that authority, but his successor will have the option, which expires January 15th, 2011. The plan that’s been called a headlong rush into Obamacare for Minnesota now lies dormant but not dead.
The $3 billion budget deficit was the final major piece of business for the legislature to deal with before the May 16th midnight deadline to adjourn. At the end, the governor cut short the traditional Governor’s Fishing Opener to return to St. Paul for last-minute negotiations on the budget. A compromise between DFL lawmakers and the governor was agreed to. The governor accepted the early Medicaid enrollment authority in exchange for making his unilateral budget cuts permanent by legislation. Though a deal was struck, the clock was running out to pass the bill in both the House and Senate, so the legislature officially adjourned at Midnight on Sunday and a special session was convened at 12:01 Monday morning to finish the budget business. Shortly before noon, the budget bill was passed and the special session of the legislature was adjourned. Minnesota’s taxpayers have escaped any tax hikes and can rest easy knowing that their representatives are going home for the summer campaign season and won’t reconvene until January 4th 2011.
The budget was technically balanced for the biennium, but lawmakers will have to close a projected $5 to 8 billion budget shortfall in the next biennium.
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Jason Lewis Tax Cut Rally Another Big and Successful Event |
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By Dan McGrath on
5/10/2010
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Snow fell the night before and the forecast called for cool weather on Saturday, but about 3,000 people braved icy winds, rain, sleet, snow and even hail to attend the Tax Cut Rally at the State Capitol on Saturday, May 8 th. Global warming jokes were obligatory and abundant.
The event kicked off at 11:00 AM with attendees visiting over 30 exhibitors and vendors. Maui Wowi, a frozen beverage concessioner had a continuous line, which seems puzzling until one realizes that they were the one vendor who had the foresight to bring hot coffee to sell. Unfortunately, Big Bell Ice Cream didn’t seem to fare as well.
Rally-goers had the opportunity to spend a couple hours visiting with and learning about the various non-profit organizations exhibiting at the rally, and finding out new ways to get engaged in the political process. Exhibitors included The Heritage Foundation, Intellectual Takeout, Citizens Council on Health Care, Campaign for Liberty, the Republican Liberty Caucus, Club for Growth and many others.
A Freedom Shrine exhibited reproductions of some of the most significant documents from United States History and next-door to that was the Tax Cut Petition tent, where fans of fiscal restraint could electronically sign the Tax Cut Petition and instantly send a message to their own elected representatives.
Borders Bookstore offered new releases by prominent conservative authors for sale and a number of groups were selling conservative-themed T-Shirts. You Can Run But You Cannot Hide reported that the rally was their best event of the year. They were on site with a custom painted truck, selling shirts and DVDs. Event Sponsors, KTLK FM, Minnesota Majority and the Taxpayers League of Minnesota also maintained prominent booths at the rally.
This year’s rally featured a fantastic lineup of speakers. After an invocation by Danny Williams that included an appeal for accurate media reporting on the size of the gathering, Eric N, the winner of KTLK’s national anthem singing contest gave a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to officially start the program being emceed by KTLK’s Chris Baker.
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann was the first featured speaker. She called on the crowd to stay active and work hard for the cause of fiscal prudence. “It’s all about November,” she said in reference to the upcoming mid-term elections.
Next up was Lucky Rosenbloom, a board member for the Governor’s Council on Black Minnesotans. He asked the crowd to take a moment to ask a stranger standing near them what high taxes have done to help their family. The crowd was strangely silent when it came time to answer.
Chris Baker called for Minnesota DFL chairman Brian Melendez to introduce their endorsed gubernatorial candidate, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher to the sound of crickets chirping. Mr. Melendez had been invited to bring the Democrats’ endorsed candidate for governor to the rally to address the crowd, but he didn’t respond.
Minnesota Republican Party chairman Tony Sutton was extended the same invitation and when Chris Baker called Mr. Sutton to the stage, he came up and introduced newly-endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer to thunderous applause. Emmer kept his remarks short and led the crowd in a series of anti-tax-and-spend chants.
Elmer Beauregard was next to the podium. His organization, Minnesotans For Global Warming had come under legal threat recently when Professor Michael Mann of Climategate infamy threatened to sue the rag-tag organization of self-described “starving artists” over a satirical YouTube parody video they’d produced. He pointed out that Cap and Trade advocates talk about being “carbon neutral” and “carbon taxes,” hypothesizing that they use this language because carbon sounds like something black and dirty, whereas the real target of their taxing schemes is carbon dioxide, an odorless colorless part of the atmosphere that’s needed for plants to photosynthesize. “Calling CO2 ‘carbon’ is like calling water ‘hydrogen,’” he said before striking up his banjo and treating the amused crowd to the CO2 song.
Jason Lewis wrapped up the program with a few jokes and a serious talk about the largely unreported facts of taxation in Minnesota and the US. In his last remarks, he challenged rally attendees to “come this fall, elect office holders who will represent our interests and not the government’s.”
The last piece of business was voting on who brought the best sign to the rally. A pair of young sisters jointly shared the prize of $100 cash after the crowd voted their theme-matched hand-drawn signs. It was later confirmed that they had made the signs at the “Make a Sign” booth at the rally. The “Make a Sign” booth was a new fixture this year that provided free poster board and markers for people to make protest signs on-site.
It was a very successful rally. Despite the sometimes miserable weather, common-sense fiscally responsible Minnesotans turned out by the thousands.
Weeks prior, the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) had organized a highly publicized indoor “tax the rich” pro-tax-increase rally at the Capitol Rotunda. Only a couple dozen people attended. Most (if not all) appeared to be AFSCME employees. The local press covered that as a significant event. The same day, outside the Capitol, thousands gathered for the Tax Day Tea Party. KARE-11 reported “over 500.” Technically not inaccurate, but not telling the truth of it, either.
How much coverage have you seen on the 2010 Jason Lewis Tax Cut Rally, where thousands of Minnesotans stayed in rain and hail for hours on Saturday to protest government spending? Below are links to the scant mentions, mostly focused on portraying the rally attendees as racists. If you were at the rally, how well do these stories reflect your experience there?
Take Action: Write a letter to the editor of your local paper describing your experience at the Tax Cut Rally.
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Arizona Illegal Immigration Enforcement Law Poorly Understood |
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By Dan McGrath on
4/27/2010
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 There has been a tremendous amount of controversy about the law recently passed in Arizona that requires police to check a person’s immigration status if they are already in “lawful contact” with the officer, and the officer has “reasonable suspicion” that the individual is not a US citizen. That enforcing our laws has moved from the realm of common sense into the realm of controversy is remarkable.
Riots and vandalism followed the signing of the new law in Arizona, though recent polling shows that 70% of Arizona residents are supportive of the measure. Nationwide, 60% support it and 68% of Minnesotans are in favor.
In Minneapolis, SEIU and a number of pro-illegal-immigration groups gathered outside the Minneapolis Hilton to protest the Minnesota Family Council’s annual fundraising dinner. The event featured Governor Pawlenty and keynote speaker, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Immigration wasn’t on the agenda inside the event, and Minnesota has no law like Arizona’s, but that didn’t seem to matter to the gathering of protestors seeking a high-profile target for their ire over Arizona’s new law.
Speakers at the small protest rally made claims about the impact of the bill that, putting it nicely were erroneous. One speaker claimed (in English and then repeated in Spanish) that now, wherever anyone went, even if they were wearing trunks, swimming in a pool or lake, if a police officer asked for their “papers,” and they didn’t have them on their person, they would go straight to jail. This claim was met by muttering and displeasure from the crowd, but it’s simply not true. Arizona’s law requires that a person already be detained by the police for some reason, and it requires that the officer have reason to believe the individual is not legally present in the US. In addition, the law expressly forbids using a person’s appearance as the sole criteria for “reasonable suspicion” as defined in the law.
Although Minnesota has no law like Arizona’s there have been attempts to bring similar legislation in recent years. The Minnesota legislature mustered a bill similar to the Arizona law in 2009, but it was not passed. The year before that, a bill was introduced that would prohibit so-called “sanctuary city” policies, like Minneapolis and St. Paul have enacted. These sanctuary ordinances are essentially the polar opposite of Arizona’s new illegal immigration law. They expressly forbid law enforcement officers, under any circumstances, to inquire about a person’s immigration status.
Illegal immigration in Minnesota hasn’t reached the devastating proportions Arizona is experiencing, but it is a costly problem. A 2005 report to Governor Pawlenty estimated that illegal aliens are costing Minnesota Taxpayers between $180 and $345 million per year. In some small towns, hospital emergency rooms and public schools have been overwhelmed by a large influx of illegal aliens those communities are not equipped to cope with, forcing some emergency rooms to close, and taxpayers are funding some health care services to illegal aliens.
According to WCCO Channel 4 News, half of the illegal aliens present in the state are from African countries; 27% from Asia and 10% from Latin/Central America (leaving about 13% from all other parts of the world).
Immigration is a good thing. Our nation was built on immigration, but what’s happening in Arizona and other parts of the country isn’t immigration. It’s more like an invasion. Drug dealers, gangsters, racist radicals and human traffickers are crossing the border with impunity and flaunting the laws of the United States.
Some illegal aliens are just coming here to look for work and try to make a better life for themselves, which is what America is all about. We live in the land of opportunity, but the process has to be orderly and measured. Our unprotected, wide-open borders and lack of immigration enforcement allows a dangerous criminal element into our neighborhoods along with those looking for peaceful prosperity. Only by securing the border, and rigorously enforcing our immigration laws can we ensure that we are admitting honest people who will participate in American civic life and in bettering themselves, make the United States a better place, while keeping out those who would threaten our prosperity and security.
There is a process to legally enter the United States, and become a citizen. We should welcome those immigrants who respect our laws and embrace them as our brethren. They are fellow Americans and it’ll be rare to find a natural-born citizen who is more appreciative and protective of the liberty and opportunity America offers. Those of us who were born here often too easily take these things for granted, but the legal immigrant will live the American Dream to the fullest. The illegal alien who does not respect our nation, our borders or our laws, however contributes little, if anything and is often a drain on our resources.
Those who advocate for dismantling immigration enforcement try to blur or eradicate the line between legal and illegal immigrants, but the distinction couldn’t be clearer.
After Arizona enacted it’s new immigration enforcement policy, the government of Mexico strongly objected, threatening to cut off trade with the state. Representatives of Mexico called the law “racist,” and they want the US to drop our guard around the borders, but is there reciprocity?
The penalties for illegal immigration to Mexico are severe. First-time offenders are fined and deported (Mexico annually deports more illegal aliens from within it’s borders than the United States does) and may be imprisoned for 2 years. A person caught unlawfully present in Mexico a second time is subject to imprisonment for 10 years. Visa violations are punishable by 6 years in a Mexican prison.
Even legal immigrants to Mexico are second-class residents. Non-citizen residents are not allowed to own land in large swaths of Mexico and becoming a citizen is difficult. The citizen selection process in Mexico is discriminatory as well. Central Americans from south of Mexico’s border who live in Mexico for two years are eligible to apply for citizenship. A person from north of the border (ie: the United States) must live in Mexico for 5 years via a complex and costly visa process that’s always at the pleasure of Mexican immigration officials. Further, anyone desiring Mexican citizenship must pass a Mexican civics and history exam and a Spanish competency test. That’s right. They require immigrants to learn the laws, language and culture of the country they are seeking citizenship in. How novel.
Despite having some of the toughest immigration laws on the planet, the president of Mexico had the hypocritical audacity to howl when a state in the US dared to enforce our nation’s much less stringent immigration laws to deal with an out of control rise in violent crime stemming from illegal aliens.
The most fundamental function of any national government is preserving and protecting it’s borders. Our federal government has failed in that task so spectacularly that the states are forced to deal with illegal immigration on their own and Minnesota’s own policies on illegal immigration are sorely lacking, but not for a lack of effort by some lawmakers.
In 2008, a bill was introduced to prohibit cities from enacting the so-called “sanctuary city” policies that tie the hands of local law enforcement officers, forbidding them to investigate immigration violations. The bill was defeated by the DFL-majority in the legislature. Also in 2008, a bill was proposed that would require prison officials to report to ICE when an inmate’s citizenship status could not be confirmed. Again, the DFL majority shot the bill down.
Our situation isn’t as dire, but Minnesota could learn a lesson from Arizona. It’s time to untie the hands of our law enforcement officers and let them do their jobs. For a city in the great state of Minnesota to literally offer sanctuary for law-breakers and fugitives should not be tolerated.
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Margaret Anderson-Kelliher Endorsed by DFL |
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By Dan McGrath on
4/26/2010
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 The Minnesota Democrat Farmer Labor Party endorsed state House speaker Margaret Anderson-Kelliher at their convention over the weekend. She edged out Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak after 6 ballots.
The DFL had a choice between radicals this year. No viable moderate or conservative candidate presented. How will ultra-liberal Kelliher be received outside the Twin Cities? Probably not any better than her policy decisions are received by her own urban constituents, which is to say, not well.
Minnesota Majority polled Kelliher’s Minneapolis district in 2008 on ten of the House Speakers’ votes from the 2007-2008 legislative session and found that the majority of her own constituents disagreed with Kelliher on 9 of 10 of her votes. It seems that Kelliher may actually be too liberal even for her own urban Minneapolis district!
Unfortunately, the majority of voters don’t pay very close attention to the actions of their state legislators, so Kelliher’s constituents are probably not even aware that they are in disagreement with their representative 90% of the time. That will change now that her profile has been raised. Her radical voting record will receive much more scrutiny as she campaigns to be Minnesota’s next governor.
Minnesota Majority’s legislative scorecard gives Kelliher a perfect zero, not just in the past session, but for her entire career. She has consistently voted against anything remotely traditional. To score a lifetime zero requires an unwavering commitment to undoing the traditional foundations of our society. She’s voted against protecting the genetic privacy of our citizens, against making health insurance more competitive and inexpensive, against installing pornography filters in our public libraries on computers children have access to, against stopping government grants of tax dollars to political organizations, against prohibiting gender-selection abortions, against requiring identification to vote, against requiring schools to give notice to parents before dispensing oral contraceptives to their minor children, against requiring prisons to report inmates with unknown immigration status to federal immigration officials, against freezing property taxes for seniors on a fixed retirement income, and she voted for billions of dollars in tax increases (on sales, income, property, gasoline and more), for paying for abortions with our tax dollars, and she voted to undermine health savings accounts.
Margaret Anderson-Kelliher may be the most radical liberal Minnesota’s DFL has ever endorsed, but she’s not guaranteed a spot on the November ballot. Matt Entenza, Mark Dayton and Ramsey County Attorney Sue Gaertner have indicated that they will ignore the endorsement process and take their case for nomination straight to the voters in a September primary. The rank and file Democrat voters will have to decide which of these candidates best represents their priorities for Minnesota.
The Republican endorsement convention begins on Thursday, April 29th.
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ACORN Carries On Despite Reports of its Demise |
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By Dan McGrath on
4/5/2010
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 ACORN Wounded and Downsized but Still Mostly Intact Under Same Management, New Branding
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has come under heavy fire in recent years over allegations of corruption, and involvement in fraudulent voter registrations in several states. ACORN’s troubles peaked when undercover video showing ACORN employees offering (illegal) tax advice to activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles posing as a pimp and prostitute.
In what was mostly a PR move, Congress voted to cut off funding to ACORN. Not long after, a federal judge issued a bizarre and convoluted ruling that decreed cutting off ACORN’s stream of federal tax dollars was unconstitutional. Despite the federal government’s apparent obligation to funnel tax dollars to the non-government organization, other funding sources for ACORN declined in the wake of the video scandal. Several state legislatures cut ties and funding to ACORN and private contributions probably also declined.
The national ACORN organization officially disbanded on April 1st, citing declining revenues. State affiliate organizations have been disbanding or changing their names, but most continue to operate. ACORN president Bertha Lewis sold ACORN’s assets, including their database of dues-paying members to a newly formed California-based outfit called Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). The new organization has hired former ACORN employees.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota ACORN chapter has also rebranded as Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC). They deny any ACORN connection, but the staff is mostly the same and the group’s stated objectives are the same. Steve Fletcher, the former head organizer for Minnesota’s ACORN is the executive director of the newly formed NOC – Minnesota.
Local ACORN chapters in at least four other states have rebranded as new non-profit corporations under the management of former ACORN leaders. Texas ACORN is now the Texas Organizing Project. In Missouri, ACORN is now Missourians Organizing for Reform Empowerment (MORE). New York now has New York Communities for Change. The Massachusetts ACORN chapter has been replaced with New England United for Justice and the original ACORN in Arkansas is now Arkansas Community Organizations (ACO).
It’s worth noting at this point that ACORN wasn’t always a national organization. It was originally called Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Most likely, more news will emerge soon about other state chapters rebranding and reopening. A leaked email written by Nathan Henderson-James, an ACORN strategy director described their plan to launch “a dozen or more organizations launched on the state level by staff who used to work for ACORN and leaders who developed their skills as ACORN members.”
Despite their instance to the contrary, ACORN’s biggest national operations also continue. ACORN Housing, probably ACORN’s biggest cash clearing house is under investigation by HUD, but now carries on under a new name: Affordable Housing Centers of America.
The other key piece of ACORN’s national apparatus is Project Vote, the operation that engages in ACORN's voter registration drives and get out the vote efforts. Project Vote employees have been charged with voter registration fraud in over a dozen states, but that arm of the ACORN empire continues to operate unperturbed. They didn’t even bother to change their name.
ACORN’s survival strategy seems to be to set up newly named, ostensibly non-affiliated organizations in key states and lay low while the new “independent” groups get established in their communites without ACORN’s tarnished image and legal baggage, to then “organically” regroup into a new national organization in a couple years. They’ve been wounded, and forced to downsize, but arguably, their most dangerous operation, Project Vote continues unabated. Redoubled vigilance will be needed in preventing vote fraud in the upcoming 2010 election.
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Election Bill is a Partial Victory for Minnesota Voters |
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By Dan McGrath on
4/1/2010
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 Minnesota Majority's Two-Year Call for Reforms Finally Heeded
Today Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the Election Administration Reform Bill into law, establishing a critical milestone in addressing problems that have undermined the integrity of Minnesota’s election system.
Minnesota Majority, a government watchdog group who has been calling for election reforms for nearly two years, applauded the action. “This is a good first step toward improving the integrity of our election system,” said Jeff Davis, President of Minnesota Majority. “We thank all of our members who have joined us in the fight for reforms, as well as the legislators who championed the bill, including Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, Rep. Ryan Winkler, Sen. Chris Gerlach and Sen. Katie Sieben.” The bill, HF3108, was passed by unanimous consent in both the House and the Senate, an unusual occurrence for major reform legislation.
Minnesota Majority began researching inconsistencies in Minnesota’s election system prior to the 2008 general election. Minnesota Majority warned Secretary of State Mark Ritchie of its findings which Ritchie largely dismissed. After the election, Minnesota Majority discovered numerous problems with election records, including thousands more ballots counted than voters that had been accounted for as having voted, thousands of unverifiable voter registration addresses, deceased voters on the rolls, felon voters and incomplete voter registrations. Minnesota Majority’s research indicated that enough convicted felons cast fraudulent votes to affect the outcome of the 2008 Senate race.
HF3108 addresses many of these issues by requiring the secretary of state to perform a number of database cross-checks similar to what Minnesota Majority did to uncover the problems in the first place. In addition, new reporting and ballot reconciliation requirements in the bill will help prevent recurrence of those kind of issues and reveal where problems persist.
While HF3108 made significant improvements, Minnesota Majority says there’s still work to be done. “The next step is to secure the vote with a photo ID requirement,” Said Davis.
Take Action: Contact your elected officials and thank them for taking steps to protect the integrity of Minnesota's elections. It might also be a good time to remind them of the continued need for photo ID at the polls.
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