Archive for April, 2014

Based on Mark Sommerhauser’s article, it sounds like Rhonda Sivarajah and Phil Krinkie are moving into the ‘sore loser’ category, with Sivarajah sounding particularly bitter:

And Sivarajah didn’t pull punches last week in her campaign’s response to the Emmer poll.

“The state of Minnesota did not want Tom Emmer as their Governor, the GOP party faithful did not want Tom Emmer to represent them at the Republican National Committee, and as voters in the 6th District become more intimate with Emmer’s extremely questionable positions on important issues they will not want him as their congressman either,” the Sivarajah campaign said.

Talk about a sore loser. Wow. First, the Sixth District loved Tom Emmer for governor. Second, the “GOP party faithful” picked Jeff Johnson over Tom Emmer. That’s hardly a stinging rejection. Third, saying that voters will reject him as they get to know him more is purely projection. Actually, I think it’s more wishful thinking than anything.

I’ve met Ms. Sivarajah several times. She comes across as a bitter person. Perhaps that’s why contributors haven’t contributed to her campaign. Perhaps they haven’t contributed to her because they’ve picked Tom Emmer over her. If Sivarajah continues this type of bitter campaigning, she’ll burn her bridges for a future run in the Sixth.

Phil Krinkie, meanwhile, sounds delusional and ill-informed:

Krinkie said this week he likely won’t decide what route to take until after the Republican state convention on May 29-31. At that point, he said it will be clearer which Republican statewide candidates will take their campaigns to a primary — which could influence how many GOP voters show up for an August primary.

Krinkie suggested Bachmann’s endorsement of Emmer could carry a backlash in a 6th District general election. Bachmann barely won re-election in the 6th District in 2012.

“If you ran a campaign as a third-party candidate connecting Mr. Emmer to the incumbent congresswoman,” Krinkie said, “that might have a very interesting outcome.”

First, Krinkie is grasping at straws when he says there might be a general election backlash against Emmer because Michele Bachmann endorsed him at the CD-6 convention. I don’t think even Phil thinks that. Apparently, Phil hasn’t figured it out that the turnout model in 2014 will be dramatically different than the one in 2012.

Second, Krinkie hasn’t figured it out that he’s yesterday’s news. Last week, he was dropped from the Taxpayers League Board of Directors.

It isn’t like Sivarajah and Krinkie had lots of support at the precinct caucus Straw Poll:

6th District Congress (97% Reporting):

Tom Emmer with 67.7%, Rhonda Sivarajah with 17.7%, Phil Krinkie with 10.1%

Amazingly, that was the high point of their support in the Sixth District:

The poll of 300 likely Republican primary voters shows Emmer getting 73 percent of the vote in a primary, with Sivarajah getting 5 percent and Krinkie getting 4 percent.

Sivarajah and Krinkie have questioned the poll’s validity. That’s their right but it’s foolish. As I showed before, they started off poorly. Then they didn’t catch fire. That’s before talking about Sivarajah’s fundraising:

Yet after raising a mere $4,266.77 from donors in the first three months of 2014, Sivarajah’s candidacy has its own liabilities, including the question of whether she’ll have the resources to get her message out.

What’s interesting is that Sivarajah raised less than $20,000 in Q4, 2013. A congressional candidate that raises less than $25,000 in 6 months isn’t a viable candidate. They’re just a sore loser.

I’ve volunteered for legislative campaigns that’ve raised more money than that in a single night. I’d say something different if she’d raised $50,000-$60,000 in a quarter. That’s quite a bit less than Emmer but it least it would’ve shown she had some support. The reality is that candidates with terrible fundraising numbers and who can’t reach double digits in support don’t win party primaries. Instead, the likely outcome is that they’ll burn the last of their political bridges in the district.

That’s the likely outcome this time with Ms. Sivarajah and Krinkie.

First, I’ll stipulate that the St. Cloud Times is improving their reporting. Before anyone gets worried that I’m going soft on them, I’ll stipulate that the Times’ reporting couldn’t get lower than before because their reporting on St. Cloud issues didn’t exist.

Dave Unze’s article contains some legitimate facts. Unfortunately, it contains lots of old-fashioned BS, too:

The leadership at St. Cloud State has cited, among other things, challenging economic times, fewer Minnesota high school graduates and competition from North Dakota and Minnesota State University, Mankato as some of the reasons for the enrollment declines.

For the most part, these excuses aren’t legitimate. The only thing that’s true is that there are “fewer Minnesota high school graduates.” It’s true that SCSU is losing its competition with Mankato and North Dakota universities. That’s because students are rejecting SCSU. There was a time when central Minnesota principles had a positive opinion of SCSU. That helped direct lots of students to SCSU. An ‘enrollment pipeline’ developed as a result of that relationship.

That relationship has deteriorated under President Potter’s failed leadership. President Potter has spent tons of time travelling the world to get students to come to SCSU. Unfortunately, he hasn’t paid attention to exotic places like Annandale, Alexandria and Brainerd.

This information is BS, too:

The university runs forecasting models to predict the number of new entering first-year students based on a number of factors, including high school class rankings of applicants, the distance from St. Cloud State that those applicants live, the time of year they apply and whether they attend student advising days, among other things.

Students are assigned an enrollment probability number that is influenced by factors such as when they applied, whether they were admitted to the ACE program, whether they filled out a housing application, whether they attended a student advising session and whether they listed St. Cloud State first as their preferred school on any financial aid forms they fill out.

That information is matched with probability tables and the university gets a weekly prediction of what the size of the incoming class will be.

Potter said that the modeling can predict an incoming class to within a few dozen students.

First, it’s true that SCSU uses data analytics. What isn’t true is that they’ve predicted incoming classes “within a few dozen students.” The first enrollment projection for FY2014 forecast a drop of 2.4%. The next forecast projected a drop of 2.8%-3.2%.

Let’s stop and examine that for a moment before moving on. President Potter or one of his spinmeisters might tell us that that’s less than a 1% difference. They’d be right technically but they’d be exceptionally misleading. It’s exceptionally misleading from the standpoint of actual math. A jump from 2.4% to 3.2% is actually a 33.3% jump. (3.2%- 2.4% = .8; .8 divided by 2.4 = 33.3%)

Unfortunately for President Potter’s supposedly super-accurate forecasting system, enrollment is down almost 5% this FY. That means their initial forecast was off by over 100%. President Potter’s forecast wasn’t even in the park. That’s true even if that park was Yellowstone.

To summarize, this is what happens when the ‘reporter’ doesn’t ask tough questions. It’s what happens when the ‘reporter’ is more interested in gathering information than he’s interested in getting the whole truth. At the start of the new year, John Bodette promised more investigative reporting. We’re still waiting for that first investigative report.

Technorati: Earl Potter, St. Cloud State, Declining Enrollment, Mankato State, University of North Dakota, Competition, Data Analytics, Enrollment Forecasts, St. Cloud Times

This morning, I wrote this article about Rep. Rick Nolan’s cancelled fundraiser with convicted pedophile Peter Yarrow. Yarrow was convicted in 1970 of “making ‘immoral and improper’ actions with an underage girl.”

That’s a little too politically correct for me. The unabridged, politically incorrect version of the story is that Yarrow is a convicted pedophile who did unspeakable things to a 14-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister. While Nolan insists that Yarrow has “done a lot of good for a lot of people,” the truth is that those children are scarred for life. They’ll never be whole again.

Unfortunately, this is just the most recent incident involving the DFL and a pedophile. In 2012, State Rep. Kelly Gauthier was caught in an almost equally disgusting act of pedophilia:

State Patrol will confirm that one witness approached a trooper around 11 at night on July 22nd to report an incident.

The State Patrol turned the investigation over to the Duluth Police Department. Well placed sources today told the Northland’s NewsCenter, the incident involved a 17 year old boy with whom Gauthier was reportedly engaged in a sexual act.

Because the age of consent in Minnesota is 16, it is not illegal to have sex with someone who is 17. However it can be a misdemeanor to engage in sex acts in a public place.

Our sources say Representative Gauthier met the young man on Craig’s List and that police are investigating the potential that money changed hands which could make it a criminal matter.

I suspect that most Minnesotans wouldn’t be satisfied with 16 being able to consent. I suspect that most Minnesotans would be disgusted with a forty-something-year-old having sex with a 17-year-old. I’m betting most Minnesotans would define that as pedophilia even if the courts wouldn’t.

What’s worse is that DFL Chairman Ken Martin and DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen knew about Rep. Gauthier’s actions in July, 2012, which is more than a month before this news broke. Martin and Thissen protected that disgusting person for more than a month before word got out.

The sad truth is that, whether we’re talking about Peter Yarrow hosting a fundraiser for Rick Nolan or Paul Thissen hiding Rep. Gauthier’s public sexual conduct with a 17-year-old, the DFL isn’t outraged by the actions of creeps like Peter Yarrow and Kelly Gauthier.

That’s a history I’d want suppressed if I were a Democrat. That’s a history I’d be disgusted with if I was just an average citizen.

It’s time that the DFL stopped making excuses for disgusting excuses of a human being. It’s time they actually stood against pedophiles.

Technorati: Rick Nolan, Paul Thissen, Ken Martin, Cover-up, Kelly Gauthier, Peter Yarrow, Pedophilia, DFL, Election 2014

If Harry Reid had said that he had sources who told him that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes for 10 years while he was at a fundraiser, he would’ve gotten sued into bankruptcy by Mitt Romney. Sen. Reid essentially admitted that he didn’t have proof to verify his accusation when he said that he shouldn’t have to prove it, that the accusation was against Gov. Romney, not him.

That’s BS. The accusation against Sen. Reid is that he’s a liar who’s epeatedly gotten caught lying. Victor Davis Hanson’s article provides substantial ammunition against Sen. Reid:

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Reid libeled candidate Mitt Romney with the unsubstantiated and later-refuted charge that Romney was a tax cheat. “The word’s out that he [Romney] hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years,” Reid said.

Later, when asked for proof, Reid offered a pathetic rejoinder: “I have had a number of people tell me that.” One wonders how many names were on Reid’s McCarthyite “tell” list — were there, as McCarthy used to bluster, 205 names, or perhaps just 57?

When asked again to document the slur, Reid echoed McCarthy perfectly: “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes.”

That’s just part of the proof of Sen. Reid’s McCarthyite accusations.

Reid has also brought back McCarthy’s custom of vicious and sometimes profane insults. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Reid announced: “I can’t stand John McCain.” Of then-President George W. Bush, Reid said: “President Bush is a liar.” Reid claimed that fellow Mormon Mitt Romney had “sullied” his religion.

When Gen. David Petraeus brought proof to Congress that the surge in Iraq was beginning to work by late 2007, Reid declared, “No, I don’t believe him, because it’s not happening.” He elaborated on that charge by labeling Petraeus, at the time the senior ground commander of U.S. forces fighting in Iraq, a veritable liar. Reid alleged that Petraeus “has made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual.”

What’s stunning is that his Democratic colleagues in the Senate haven’t criticized him for his despicable, McCarthyite, unethical behavior. Neither has anyone in the supposedly MSM.

Jeanne Shaheen hasn’t criticized Sen. Reid for his McCarthyite rantings. Mary Landrieu, Mark Udall, Mark Begich, Kay Hagans, Al Franken and Mark Pryor haven’t criticized him for his McCarthyite antics, either.

In fact, Al Franken has virtually repeated Sen. Reid’s rants against the Koch brothers, the Democrats’ latest villains. I wrote this post to highlight the Koch brothers’ crimes against America:

Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs—even when we benefit from them. I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

Reid’s and Franken’s repeated rants against the Koch brothers are rants against people who want to get rid of corporate welfare. That isn’t something to vilify the Koch brothers for. That’s something that should be celebrated. Here’s something else that should be celebrated:

Koch employees have earned well over 700 awards for environmental, health and safety excellence since 2009, many of them from the [EPA and OSHA]. EPA officials have commended us for our “commitment to a cleaner environment” and called us “a model for other companies.”

Mark Pryor is so disgusting that he thinks Tom Cotton, who served 2 tours of duty in Iraq, is a spoiled brat who thinks he’s entitled to a seat in the US Senate.

To summarize, Sen. Reid’s malicious lies against the Democrats’ latest villain say that he’s willing to say anything despicable to help his candidates. Sen. Franken’s mindless rants against people who want to eliminate corporate welfare and whose employees have literally won hundreds of “environmental, health and safety excellence since 2009” say that he’s content with vilifying good corporate citizes for political gain. Sen. Pryor’s hate-filled, anti-military rantings tell us that he’s a contemptible excuse for a human being.

It’s one thing to hit political opponents hard with verifiable facts. That’s called playing political hardball. When Sen. Franken lies about American industrialists who’ve contributed greatly to their employees’ lives, that’s called despicable behavior. When a U.S. senator criticizes a military veteran of being pampered and having an entitlement mentality, that’s proof that he’s a despicable human being who doesn’t have the requisite character to be a senator.

There’s only one conclusion to be drawn from this proof. The Democratic Party is an immoral political party. They haven’t hesitated in lying about the Koch brothers, Mitt Romney or Tom Cotton. Their senators have stayed silent while Sen. Reid maligned Gov. Romney, thereby giving their silent consent to Sen. Reid’s despicable actions.

The Democrats’ culture of corruption stinks to high heavens. It’s time to eliminate that stench from Washington, DC. It’s time to start fresh with people who’ll listen to the American people.

That’s the only way to restore trust in the institutions of government.

Technorati: Harry Reid, McCarthyism, Slander, Al Franken, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich, Culture of Corruption, Crony Capitalism, Corporate Welfare, Agenda Media, Praetorian Guard, Democrats, Koch Brothers, Industrialists, Tom Cotton, Iraq War Veteran, Conservatism, Election 2014

Many Wild fans were upset when the Wild gave away a 2-goal lead in the third period of Game 1 of their series with the Avalanche. When the Wild collapsed defensively in Game 2 of the series, many Wild fans, myself included, started thinking about the upcoming NFL draft or switching our attention towards the upsetart Minnesota Twins.

What a difference 2 home games, a goalie switch and an energized Mikael Granlund makes.

Thursday night, the Wild dominated the Avalanche for the second straight night. The recipe had a little different twist but dominate the Avalanche they did. The Wild started the game with the same intense forecheck that they used in Game 3, finally scoring on a wicked one-timer from Jared Spurgeon:

The Wild went up 2-0 on a lucky-bounce power play goal by Charlie Coyle, his third goal of the series:

In Game 3, Granlund and goalie Darcy Kuemper dominated. Granlund, a giant of a center iceman at 5’10” and 183 lbs., rose to the occasion even though the Avalanche tried hitting him whenever he had the puck. Instead of knocking him off his game, the Avalanche’s plan simply caused Granlund to elevate his play to a higher level. Granlund scored the only goal in Game 3 in overtime with an incredible move:

In Game 3, the Wild peppered Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov with 46 shots, beating him just once. In Game 4, the Wild had the better of the territorial play, launching 32 shots at Varlomov.

The difference between Monday night’s victory and Thursday night’s victory is that the Wild totally shut down the Avalanche attack, limiting the Avs to 12 shots on goal for the game.

This series has been a tale of two series. In Colorado’s 2 wins at home, the Av’s speedy first line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Paul Stastny dominated, scoring 7 of the Av’s 9 goals while tallying 10 assists. That talented trio was shut out in Minnesota.

The difference between the first two games and the last two games is that the Wild’s defensemen haven’t given Landeskog, MacKinnon and Stastny the open ice, instead opting to pinch them while the line of Erik Haula, Justin Fontaine and Nino Niederreiter backchecked furiously.

Simply put, the Wild’s third line didn’t give the Av’s scoring line room to operate.

If the Wild hadn’t turned the puck over twice in the third period of Game 1, the Wild might be leading this series 3-1. If the Wild continue to pressure the Avs like they did in Games 3 and 4, the Wild will be tough to beat this series. That said, the Avalanche will be back in front of their home crowd so there’s no reason to think this will be anything but all-out warfare the rest of the series.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t take some time to talk about how well the Wild’s young players have played. Haula, Fontaine and Niederreiter have bottled up the Av’s top line. Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund have been threats every time they’ve touched the puck in the offensive zone. Darcy Kuemper gave up a soft goal to give the Avs a bit of momentum but he’s stopped them cold the rest of the time.

The Wild had the right recipe at home. If they can execute their game plan in Colorado like they did in Minnesota, Game 6 in St. Paul might turn into a Wild night next Monday.

Technorati: Minnesota Wild, Mikael Granlund, Darcy Kuemper, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Justin Fontaine, Colorado Avalanche, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Paul Stastny, Semyon Varlamov, Stanley Cup Playoffs

There are times when words simply aren’t necessary to make a point. This video tells quite a story:

Minnesota Twins slugger Chris Colabello has turned into quite the RBI machine this season. Wednesday night, Chris’s parents were at the Twins game against the Tampa Bay Rays. When Twins sideline reporter Marney Gellner caught up with Chris’s parents, she found out that Wednesday’s game was Sylvana Colabello’s, Chris’s mother, birthday. Then Marney said “Let’s hope Chris gives her a nice present this at-bat.”

After the ball hit off the wall behind the centerfield fence, Twins TV announcer Dick Bremer chimed in “Happy Birthday, Mom.” All the while, Sylvana Colabello was screaming, knowing that her son had hit it out of the ballpark.

What wasn’t captured on the video, though, was what Chris’s mother said right before the clip. When Gellner asked her what Chris was like, she said that “Chris was perfect”, adding that he was always a gentleman. Another thing that wasn’t captured on the video was what Bremer said after Colabello’s home run. He said “Well now, when your mom says you’re perfect, the least you can do is hit a home run.”

I’ve watched tons of great Twins moments, including their Game 6 heroics in the 1987 and 1991 World Series. I watched as Gene Larkin lifted that fly ball over the Braves’ outfielders’ heads in the 10th inning of Game 7 that provided the game-winning RBI that clinched the Twins’ second World Series championship in 4 years. I watched the night before when Kirby Puckett hit the game-winning home run off the Braves’ Charlie Liebrandt in the bottom of the 11th inning.

I recall watching Bert Blyleven talk after the final game of the 1986 season. Specifically, I remember him saying that he hoped, with the right moves, the Twins could bring a World Series championship to the Metrodome. Until tonight, that was the best ‘call’ in Twins history.

Tonight, Marney Gellner’s call topped Bert’s call.

I’ve been watching Twins baseball since August of 1966. I’ve seen the best that the Twins had to offer. I’ve experienced all of the chillbump moments in team history. Tonight’s home run call rates near the top of those chillbump moments. It was splendid TV.

I just got an email from a professor at SCSU with an attached document highlighting MnSCU’s incompetence. The document was put together by the IFO, aka the Inter Faculty Organization. The IFO is “the collective bargaining representative for faculty in the seven state universities of the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system.”

This information doesn’t cast Chancellor Rosenstone in a positive light:

The Chancellor has been Neglecting the Day to Day Operations of MnSCU
Metro State University’s entire HR staff resigned at once. Faculty members were being paid incorrect amounts, deductions were screwed up, and the financial management of the university is a complete mess. Moorhead and Southwest are in financial crisis. Faculty members are being non-renewed and programs for students are being cut.

Saying that the “entire HR staff” at Metro State “resigned at once” is technically accurate but incomplete. Metro State’s HR staff resigned at once because they’d screwed up the payroll so badly that they were about to get fired. Rather than having their resume say that they were terminated, these HR personnel resigned. Rumors abound that some faculty got overpaid by 10s of thousands of dollars over a period of years while others were underpaid by thousands of dollars.

What’s been confirmed is that Chancellor Rosenstone downplayed the Metro State crisis when initially confronted with the problem by the IFO. While it isn’t Chancellor Rosenstone’s responsibility to reconcile Metro State’s payroll each pay period, it’s his responsibility to make sure the problem is fixed ASAP. Thus far, he’s failed at that mission.

The presidents at Metro State and Moorhead State are being allowed to ‘retire’ at the end of this fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2014. Moorhead went through retrenchment last year, which is a fancy way of saying faculty were terminated when Moorhead’s budget was cut.

Unfortunately, that isn’t MnSCU’s biggest problem:

The gross mismanagement involved in the Coach Todd Hoffner firing has caused immeasurable publicity damage and may cost students and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars—and none of the administrative decision makers are being held accountable for their bad judgments.

This is disgraceful. (I wrote about that crisis in this post.) MnSCU seems indifferent about its responsibilities.

President Davenport should’ve been terminated before the BMS, aka Bureau of Mediation Services, ruling was made official. When a prosecutor drops the case but a university continues building a case against the coach, which is what happened here, that’s justification for termination alone. That’s before considering the fact that Coach Hoffner’s lawsuit cost Mankato hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a year of back pay. That’s before considering the fact that Coach Hoffner’s lawsuit cost Mankato a fistful of money in legal expenses.

This past year, Chancellor Rosenstone has touted a new project titled “Charting the Future.” The IFO isn’t impressed with that project:

Meanwhile, we are in a fourth iteration of strategic planning that has yet to result in any change at the legislature or any benefit to students. It is time to start focusing on the present realities on our campuses instead of constantly cranking out vague documents that purport to chart the future.

Let’s be blunt about this. MnSCU isn’t a trainwreck waiting to happen. MnSCU is a trainwreck that’s happening. Before publishing “vague documents that purport to chart the future”, it’s important for MnSCU to get the payroll right each week. I’m betting that taxpayers would love seeing MnSCU getting its trains consistently running on time.

Right now, the trains aren’t running on time. Right now, it’s an accomplishment for MnSCU to get a train out of the depot once a day. If you can’t get payroll right consistently, why would people think you can predict the future?

Technorati: MnSCU, Steven Rosenstone, No Confidence Vote, Charting the Future, Metro State, Human Resources, Payroll Department, Mankato State, Richard Davenport, Todd Hoffner, Investigation, IFO

Rep. Gene Pelowski, (DFL-Red Winona), the chair of the House Higher Education Committee, must’ve been sleeping while President Davenport had investigators put together a case against football coach Todd Hoffner. Here’s a key part of the Strib’s editorial about the incident:

The new details about Hoffner’s firing came out in an arbitration ruling dated April 9. The state Bureau of Mediation Services declined to make the ruling public, citing a questionable interpretation of data privacy laws.

The Star Tribune obtained a copy of the ruling this week. Its 72 pages are highly critical of school officials and their inability to back away from an early decision to fire Hoffner, even as concerns mounted that he had been wronged by an overzealous prosecutor.

Hoffner had been arrested in August 2012 after university officials found video on his malfunctioning smartphone of his three naked kids goofing off after bath time.

School officials apparently first decided in mid-October 2012 to fire Hoffner, but held off. After the judge threw out the child-porn charges against Hoffner in November 2012, which “should have ended the matter in the public eye,” according to the arbitrator, the university continued to build a case against him.

Of course, Rep. Pelowski offered his opinion:

“By the time you’re done, you’ve spent six figures on legal fees,” said Pelowski, who chairs the Minnesota House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee. “That diverts resources away from a number of things,” he added, the most important of which is holding down tuition.

Chairman Pelowski is right that Mankato President Davenport spent north of $100,000 on legal fees pursuing a dead-end investigation. That being said, this is the same Chairman Pelowski who’s known about St. Cloud State President Potter spending more than $1,000,000 a year on an upscale apartment complex the University didn’t need, $240,000 a year on police officers for the campus when crime is going down and $150,000 a year on the Confucius Institute at a time when universities across the United States and Canada are shutting down their Confucius Institutes because they’re nothing more than a PR device for the Chinese government.

Chairman Pelowski, why weren’t you bothered with a university foolishly spending $1,500,000 a year but you’re worried about a different university paying $100,000 in legal fees?

What makes the SCSU situation worse is that SCSU is in Rep. Dorholt’s district. Rep. Dorholt is the vice-chair of the Higher Education Committee.

Apparently, oversight and accountability aren’t important priorities with the DFL, especially when it comes to MNsure or higher education. They’ve had the opportunity to police MNsure, Mankato State and SCSU. That’s 3 strikes against the DFL on the issue of accountability.

It’s time to boot them from these responsibilities because they’ve proven inept at their responsibilities. Minnesotans can’t afford to have them ignore millions of dollars of wasteful spending.

Davenport, the university president, was not available to answer questions about the arbitrator’s ruling, according to a spokesman. MnSCU Chancellor Rosenstone also was unavailable to answer questions about his involvement but provided a statement.

The lack of answers is unacceptable. Hoffner endured a harsh spotlight. The short-lived rebellion by Maverick players this week against his return shows just how hard he’ll have to work to rebuild his life. Legislators so far have said little about the handling of the coach’s employment. They do, however, have purview over the performance of Davenport, Rosenstone and other officials. It’s time for them to get involved and find out if Minnesota got the academic leadership it’s paying for.

President Davenport and Chancellor Rosenstone dropped the ball bigtime on the Mankato State disaster. Additionally, Rosenstone blew it by giving President Potter a free hand to piss away millions of dollars each year.

That’s why they both deserve to be terminated ASAP. Minnesota’s taxpayers deserve better than this.

Technorati: Mankato State, Richard Davenport, Todd Hoffner, Steven Rosenstone, MnSCU, Earl Potter, St. Cloud State, Accountability, Gene Pelowski, Zachary Dorholt, Oversight, DFL, Election 2014

During an interview with KSNV-TV, Harry Reid made specific accusations that are unfounded. Here’s the video:

One of the accusations Sen. Reid made was that Cliven Bundy has “decimated the land.” Here’s another thing Sen. Reid said:

SEN. REID: Bundy doesn’t believe that the American government is valid. He believes that the American government is a foreign government. He doesn’t pay his taxes. He doesn’t follow the law. He doesn’t pay his fees. And if anyone things by a figment of their imagination that what happened up there last week was just people rallying to someone who was oppressed, 600 people came in, armed. They had practiced. They had maneuvered. They knew what they were doing. They set up snipers in strategic locations with sniper rifles. They had assault weapons. They had automatic weapons.

Sen. Reid made 12 accusations in that short paragraph, most of them totally false. Unfortunately, that isn’t surprising for Sen. Reid. Lying through his teeth has become Sen. Reid’s habit. It’s what’s expected from him.

Another thing that’s expected is Senate Democrats to either say nothing about Sen. Reid’s despicable, dishonest rants or to defend him as being “effective.” This is proof of the moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. It’s proof that they’re more worried about maintaining political power than they’re worried about the integrity of what once was the greatest deliberative body in the world.

Sen. Reid’s diastribes aren’t about winning an argument over which policy offers the best solution for our nation’s ills. They’re about what’s the best way to dishonestly smear people Sen. Reid, President Obama and the Senate Democrats disagree with.

There was a time when being right was the only thing that mattered. Senate Democrats don’t care about being right. Their chief concern is about maintaining their majority. If that means supporting a despicable, immoral man as their majority leader, then that’s what they’ll do.

Here in Minnesota, Sens. Franken and Klobuchar haven’t said a thing about Sen. Reid’s dishonest diatribes. That’s because it’s impossible to find a Democrat with the spine to criticize Sen. Reid. The Democrats’ silence is proof that they won’t do the right thing. They’re only interested in things that’ll give them a political advantage.

That isn’t the type of leadership America needs. Democrats have shown themselves to be utterly corrupt and untrustworthy. That’s why the American people don’t trust anyone in DC. With despots like Harry Reid making dishonest accusations on an almost daily basis, why would the American people trust DC?

Technorati: Harry Reid, Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Despot, Corruption, Democrats, Cliven Bundy, Dean Heller, GOP

Jeremy was born with a twisted body & a slow mind. At the age of 12 he was still in second grade, seemingly unable to learn. His teacher, Doris Miller, often became exasperated with him. He would squirm in his seat, drool and make grunting noises.

At other times, he spoke clearly & distinctively, as if a spot of light had penetrated the darkness of his brain. Most of the time, however, Jeremy just irritated his teacher. One day, she called his parents & asked them to come in for a conference.

As the Forresters entered the empty classroom, Doris said to them, “Jeremy really belongs in a special school. It isn’t fair to him to be with younger children who don’t have learning problems. Why, there’s a five year gap between his age & that of the other students.” Mrs. Forrester cried softly into a tissue, while her husband spoke.

“Mrs. Miller,’ he said, “There’s no school of that kind nearby. It would be a terrible shock for Jeremy if we had to take him out of this school. We know he really likes it here.” Doris sat for a long time after they’d left, staring at the snow outside the window. Its coldness seemed to seep into her soul; she wanted to sympathize with the Forresters. After all, their only child had a terminal illness. But it wasn’t fair to keep him in her class.

She had eighteen other youngsters to teach & Jeremy was a distraction. Furthermore, he’d never learn to read & write. Why waste the time trying? As she pondered the situation, guilt washed over her “Here I am complaining when my problems are nothing compared to that poor family, she thought. “Lord, please help me to be more patient with Jeremy.”

From that day on she tried hard to ignore Jeremy’s noises & his blank stares. Then one day, he limped to her desk, dragging his bad leg behind him. “I love you, Miss Miller” he exclaimed, loud enough for the whole class to hear. The other students snickered & Doris’ face turned red. She stammered, “Wh-why that’s very nice, Jeremy. N-now please take your seat.”

Spring came, & the children talked excitedly about the coming of Easter. Doris told them the story of Jesus, then to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of the children a large plastic egg. “Now,’ she said to them “I want you to take this home & bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?” “Yes, Miss Miller,” the children responded enthusiastically all except Jeremy.

He listened intently; his eyes never left her face. He didn’t even make his usual noises. Had he understood what she had said about Jesus’ death & resurrection? Did he understand the assignment? Perhaps she should call his parents & explain the project to them. That evening, Doris’ kitchen sink stopped up. She called the landlord & waited an hour for him to come by & unclog it.

After that, she still had to shop for groceries, iron a blouse, & prepare a vocabulary test for the next day. She completely forgot about phoning Jeremy’s parents. The next morning, nineteen children came to school, laughing & talking as they placed their eggs in the large wicker basket on Miss Miller desk. After they completed their math lesson, it was time to open the eggs.

In the first egg, Doris found a flower. “Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life.” She said. “When plants peek through the ground, we know that spring is here.” A small girl is the first to raise her hand. “That’s my egg, Miss Miller” she called out. The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked very real. Doris held it up. “We all know that a caterpillar changes & grows into a beautiful butterfly. Yes, that’s new life too.”

Little Judy smiled proudly & said “Miss Miller, that one is mine.” Next Doris found a rock with moss on it. She explained that moss too showed life. Billy spoke up from the back of the classroom, “My daddy helped me” he beamed.

Then Doris opened the fourth egg she gasped. The egg was empty, surely it must be Jeremy’s, she thought. Of course, he did not understand her instructions. If only she hadn’t forgotten to phone his parents. Because she didn’t want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside, reached for another.

Suddenly Jeremy spoke up. “Miss Miller, aren’t you going to talk about my egg?” Flustered, Doris replied, “But Jeremy, your egg is empty.” He looked into her eyes & said softly, “Yes, but Jesus’ tomb was empty, too.” Time stopped.

When she could speak again, Doris asked him, “Do you know why the tomb was empty?” “Oh yes,’ Jeremy said, “Jesus was killed & put in there. Then His Father raised Him up.” The recess bell rang.

While the children excitedly ran out to the schoolyard, Doris cried. The cold inside her melted completely away. Three months later, Jeremy died. Those who paid their respects at the mortuary were surprised to see nineteen eggs on top of his casket, each of them empty.