Poor Rodney. Still owing money from 2000. Take a look at this: http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/cancomsrs/?_06+S4MN00213. Mr. fiscallyresponsible overspends on a campaign and takes six years to pay it off. Some will, of course, write this off as no big deal. It does, however, beg the question: What exactly is he about? Looking at his personal history, he is all about whats good for Rodney, public or private. Looking back at his campaigns and voting record, there is a pattern. It isn't about public service and good governing, it is about a self serving need for power and personal gain. In 94, the only thing his campaign didn't accuse Wynia of was being a bad mother. In 2000, he pulled out his mom in the bitter end, after his usual negative garbage failed. Now we have him running around the eighth district, claiming how we wishes to help us, passing off the same republican garbage he has been spouting for years now. Rodney: Your parties policies have been a failure. You have brought us a war with no end in sight, enormous debt, no health care and more problems being thrown onto the back of ordinary people to save you and your rich buddies some taxes on write offs. You are and have been 100% in line with the Bush administration and the republican insanity for years now. Leave us alone.

This letter caught my eye a couple weeks ago. A better hack campaign letter I haven't seen in a while: http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=2482.

Going over this is pretty fun, but it is like analyzing the tome of a ten year old.

The writer obviously knows nothing about the BWCA. I'll let them in on a little secret...there aren't any roads. Having had some personal experience, creating roads to handle heavy equipment is not a quick process.I envision skycranes hauling in feller- bunchers. That might affect the profit margin a little. Then there was that little matter of the quality of the timber. Fallen logs, twisted snags, thousands of acres of blowdown at up to 60 tons per acre. Most of it damaged in some way. The companies buying timber have certain standards, and it doesn't include bark beetle infested pulpwood. That's a problem. Loggers need to get paid.

Next we see their endearing concern for the ecology of the place. First, the area contains some of the most fire prone vegetation in North America: conifers on rock. I can bore you with references, but suffice it to say this is one of the most naturally fire prone areas of the continent. It is a fire ecology. There is nothing out of the ordinary going on here. It was made worse by not letting fires burn there for a century. The place was meant to burn. The comment on the dying animals is hilarious, for they have been living with fire forever, and the area will now be a giant berry plantation with new, succulent growth for several decades. There will be a gain in populations for most species, and some newbies will show up.

The rest of the letter is typical party hack messaging. This is the theme the Grams campaign is trying to push up here, in vain hope that noone remembers his past, like his wifey-poo pleading guilty to violating election law: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44567,00.html or his sitting in the lap of the great Jesse Helms for six years.

Looking at the letter, I see a template handed out at the district repub meeting: "here's your talking points".

Don't forget who this guy really is. He'll do anything and say anything to get elected, but he is really an extremist right-winger wanting to sell everyone's soul ( and their social security)to the highest bidder.

Soory for the text in the last post...whatever happened there, the html was taking too much of my time so I left it.

We have a new terror plot. Now we have the same chanting we have had for the last five years: Be frightened, trust us, we will save you from the crazed lunatics. For five years we have had this rammed down our gullets. And they have done nothing except rob the treasury blind and lie. People: Get it through your heads that this group are pathologically sick. They are all criminals, only educated and given power. Most likely, this crew is the same as the group in Florida we hear nothing about now, who seem to have mysteriously dropped from the planet. They didn't really drop from the planet , of course, it just turned out that after investigation, things were not as they seemed. (Check out this story from the Australian press:http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,,19575461-663,00.html ). Frankly, these people cannot be trusted.


Remember, your local republicans, as we speak, support these thieves and liars. They are one and the same. Remind them of that everydaym especially at election time.

Poison Pawlenty


Why are 3M's profits more important than my child's health?
Why does the Governor wish to poison us?....For cold hard cash?

These are simple questions the Governor needs to answer. By appointing a pollution control commissioner from a regulated industry, He is saying " your and your children's health doesn't matter".

Like most Republicans, he is always concerned that somehow environmental regulation hurts the economy. I'll remind him it is only cheaper for a company if it can move somewhere else and pollute...in other words, poison for profit. When he appointed Cheryl Corrigan as PCA commissioner, he plucked her from one of the largest chemical producers in the state, 3M. He didn't choose an environmental scientist, or someone who had experience with regulation of pollution....no; he chose someone from the very industry they were supposed to regulate. When she announced her resignation back in June, the Gov showered her with the usual honors, and then pontificated about how she had shown that pollution and job growth could be balanced.

My question is this: When did poisoning us and the natural world become part of the equation? When did it suddenly become legitimate to give people cancer, disease and death?

If I poison my neighbor and/or his family or animals, I will be subject to criminal prosecution and civil suits. If I am a regulated industry, however, somehow my needs have to be balanced against a few cases of cancer. Or rather, the owner's profits are given equal value to lives lost, which is what it really means. There is always the handwringing about lost wages of workers, which means the company will simply move somewhere it is legal to poison and kill, namely China or some other place of great desperation. In short, let us poison you, or you and many others won't have jobs.

This what the Governor and repubs in general have handed us with all their talk of the free market and trade agreements. Poison.

Back to the state issues.

The case of Pawlenty's commissioner covering up for her former employer, 3M, is well known. His general viewpoint is already stated: Government should just get out of the way of business. In short, let foxes do what they want, the chickens will be alright.

But there are other issues as well.


At the ground level, within the Department of Natural Resources, Pawlenty has done nothing except cut the budget and further the aim of one of his contributors, the Atv lobby, mainly Arctic Cat and Polaris. In February of 2005, two long time managers in the northwest were canned by commissioner Gene " the icebox" Merriam. (Merriam's sole qualifications for Dnr commissioner were being a Republican and an accounting background.) No reason was given, but within the Dnr it was common knowledge they were booted for one reason: Their refusal to let the ATV whackjobs in the northwest run hither and yon wrecking the countryside. This is a place where Arctic Cat and Polaris rule. In short, let's sacrifice the landscape for the sake of some idiots who want to churn up dirt all day. We'll can people with years of good public service protecting the land and water so that our contributors can make money and some of our lunatic supporters are happy.

There are numerous other wasy he has bs'd his way around the environment. Trying to create the wastewater fee, where every citizen paid the same no matter what income or water use was a true classic...whether an apartment renter, or an Oakdale mansion owner, we would all pay the same. Nice idea. The free market for everyone except the rich. The dance around the mercury issue, where the political pressure finally made him do something. There are more, but I don't have the patience to write them.Look it up yourself.


He has sacrificed our and our children's health for money. He has sacraficed the natural world for contributors and supporters.
He has, and will, continue to wreck the environment in exchange for money and power. So Governor, thank you for your concern ....and the poison.