The least well-explained story of 2011.

It is what we in the trade sometimes call, "The Mother Hubbard" effect.
The best way I can explain things, if you think of this water bottle as
the MF Global customers' account money, Now you see it ...

So what exactly does the "MF" in MF Global stand for? In the committee hearings that never was asked.

The most provocative coverage, seeming to me to hang together as valid, and interesting in any event, is here, reprinted, here.

_____________UPDATE_______________
A quizzically interesting website is Zero Hedge, with its own popular MF Global story, here, by Tyler Durden (presumably a pseudonym). Durden had an interesting and popular 2010 story to tell, here.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
If you'd rather a rant, here, for one. Two guys on the same riff. A repeated mantra even using the f-word. And, not that one, the other. In the sense of, "new world order." But is it "new," and if you plug that f-word into the MF of MF Global, what do you give to the M? Malignant? Mobilized? What? Is there a word beginning with "M" that means holding regular folks up by the ankles and shaking and shaking until all the loose change falls from their pockets?

Another rant, same website.

A modest list of New Year's Eve predictions.

The Ramsey Town Center will recapture its true name from the dustbin. Once done, it will become the commercial hub of the entire North Metro. Big Box stores in Elk River, Maple Grove, and Riverdale will be forced to close. Darren Lazan will become a multi-millionaire from commissions.

Zygi will fully fund and build a new Vikings stadium.

The Republicans, with a Santorum-Bachmann ticket will capture the White House in a landslide. At the earliest opportunity President Santorum will appoint a corporation to the Supreme Court.

Mining interests in the iron range will declare themselves an environmental threat and will fund in advance a trillion dollar remediation fund and a comparable fund for mine workers developing lung and other diseases.

The national debt will be paid off.

Vice President Bachmann will be raptured, President Santorum will not, and great debate will result over raptruing selection criteria.

Zygi will contract to sell the Taliban naming rights to Zygi's new stadium. The league will step in to prevent that, and in exchange will offer the Taliban an expansion franchise in Las Vegas.

Timberwolves win NBA championship, beating the Utah Jazz in the finals.

The rich will be taxed.

The DEA, CIA, and FBI will be disbanded, with all functions transferred to Hollywood interests led by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. NSA will be merged into Microsoft. Lobbying will cease after being declared illegal.

The Israelis, collectively and as a nation, will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ramsey's long-distance mayor will make the Guinness Book of Records as maximum commuting mayor, prompting numerous Californians to attempt to run for office in Delaware.

The Chinese will lose interest in manufacturing in favor of a return to peasant agriculture.

Intent on a lower profile, major Wall Street firms will relocate to Iowa.

The Vatican Bank will relocate to Iowa.

The entire population of India will relocate to Iowa.

Texans will forget the Alamo.

I will make it to the next New Year's Eve still able to wake every morning, look out the window and see, and be able to comprehend what it is I am seeing.

Global warming denial will be characterized as a UN hoax.

With global warming denial falling out of favor, deniers will move to insisting the Internet is a hoax and does not exist.

Automobiles will run on sunlight.

Al Gore will challenge the Santorum election claiming voter fraud in Montana, and will win the case, 7-0 at the Supreme Court with Justice Scalia abstaining and declaring he wants no part of the decision because it might interfere with his being raptured, and with Justice Thomas following suit.

Duck Duck Go will replace Google as the most popular search engine worldwide. Aflac will sue claiming copyright infringement.

---------------------------

Some may disagree, but the one in there after Texans and the Alamo is the most important.

Apartments Planned -- location, location, location.

Not next door to the busiest freight train tracks in Minnesota.

Strib reports,

click to enlarge and read - this link for full story

Wes Enos, another Bachmann Iowa campaign staffer separated from the Bachmann campaign.

City Pages here. Marcus Bachmann is believed to remain loyal, and not at odds with the candidate. Apparently, Andy Parrish is still around too, after leaving Congressional staff to become campaign staff, and still useful.

________________UPDATE_______________
This from Iowa online coverage, (red highlighting added):

Des Moines Register. Click to read, or, this link.

More online coverage, Bachmann in Iowa, latest events, here, here, here, and Libertarian Lew Rockwell, here.

The Republican Party of Minnesota might be well advised to consider running racino gambling in their party headquarters lobby.

Strib reports, today, online here:

Minnesota Republican Party officials are pulling the curtain back on what they call "ugly stuff" in their finances.

The party says it's $1.3 million in debt, and that doesn't include $719,000 in legal expenses that may eventually go against their ledger.

Top officials ran through their balance sheet at a news conference Friday in St. Paul. Jeff Johnson, who chaired a review committee, says the review is a first step toward mending finances. Johnson says the next steps will come after Republicans elect a new chairman on Saturday in St. Cloud.

A slogan, "At MnGOP you pay to play." And they could sell naming rights, for putting at the bottom, blank part of the sign. If naming rights find no buyer put the slogan there.

_______________UPDATE________________
Strib has a more complete report online now, here.

I checked the comment thread there. It is long and growing. I will post my comment here.

They need reorganization help, and should try Bain Capital. Or Scott Wilson to trim payroll.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Probably the most detailed coverage online, MPR, here and here. The only place I looked at comment threading was Strib, and it was about what could be expected. Not particularly insightful after the reporting. If any readers find helpful commentary, please add a comment.

RAMSEY ---- Sears Holding is closing four (4) K-Mart stores in Minnesota, not the one just off Highway 10 in Anoka.

That K-Mart retail outlet in Anoka does a surprisingly small business, yet it is staying open for retail shopping. It is conveniently off Highway 10, between two traffic lights, and reasonably visible from the Highway, to the extent it might attract highway drivers to stop and shop. There is even service road ingress-egress between the traffic lights. It is driver friendly that way.

It is there, with the big empty parking lot, and the commercial vacant building at the west side of the parking lot that has been vacant for years. A nice building. But - Vacant. This screenshot from the Strib report on closings.

Full story, this link.

"The closings will add to a glut of empty retail real estate."

That is Strib's sub-headline. That is the truth.

Just off Highway 10. Easy access because there are no rail tracks, no chance of train delay.

Moribund.

Darren, please take notice.

More than Darren, Ramsey City Council please take notice. Vacant Retail. Not that hard to comprehend. Statewide. Metro-wide.

And, I really cannot blame Darren for sucking twenty-grand a month of tax money out of Ramsey.

If free money were put on a table for you, you'd take it, yes?

So, who is giving our money away - the Big Bang super-hard question going into the New Year.

The commuting mayor and three others, are prime suspects.

There is this, teaching for the hard learners, per Strib reporting:

[...] The closing of yet another big-box retail store will likely prove challenging for Twin Cities real estate professionals trying to fill the empty space. In 2011, a tough economy spurred the closing of several stores throughout the Twin Cities, including Borders, Ultimate Electronics, as well as a Lowe's store in Rogers. A Gander Mountain store is slated to be closed in Maple Grove.

"These stores are typically not easy pieces of real estate to re-tenant," said Dick Grones, principal of Cambridge Commercial Realty in Edina and a longtime retail broker.

[...] In the case of the New Hope Kmart, at 4300 Xylon Av. N., the city was already working with the Florida-based owner of the property to redevelop it and nearby lots into a mini-downtown with shops and restaurants, according to City Manager Kirk McDonald. The Kmart closing could spur those efforts, he said, "although I hate to see people lose their jobs at Kmart."

City officials from White Bear Lake could not be reached Thursday regarding the impending Kmart closing.

Sometimes large retail "boxes" that have been abandoned can be subdivided into "junior boxes," Martin said. These concepts generally span about 15,000 square feet, according to a recent report by the commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley. The smaller spaces may be occupied by retailers such as Best Buy and Office Max looking to downsize, or others seeking to expand their footprint, such as T.J. Maxx HomeGoods and Trader Joe's.

[...]

[emphasis added] It seems everybody is chasing new retail, even in existing buildings with parking paved - many sites already on the ground, vacant, just waiting. Gander Mountain. Maple Grove.

And the Ramsey town fools with Clown Center, they just push on.

And on. And on. Same old, same old ... Darren's monthly pap.

Tax money comes, tax money goes, sometimes wisely. However ...

Here is a Google Maps screenshot of the Anoka K-Mart site, and its fast-food environs.

click the image to enlarge it and read marked streets and places

Do you think for a minute that Ed Rollins, before quitting a lost cause, (one the head loser has yet to quit on), picked the particular Iowa Bachamnistani operative who now, overnight switches and endorses Ron Paul?

Many outlets report the campaign switch of Iowa State Rep. Kent Sorenson from supporting Michele Bachmann to supporting Ron Paul. This Google. CS Monitor, for example. Politico, here.

This is a Tea Party person apparently, whatever your usage of the term "tea" might entail.

This Google.

TokeOfTheTown, for example.

The best reporting on Sorenson's travails, Des Moines Register, here.

The guy: is not a college grad, lives in Iowa where there is not much beyond agriculture happening, and had a young series of mistakes mainly treading water, financially.

Much of the Tea Party's people story is his story, problems leading to disaffection for "government," in some generic sense, while the Occupy movement is more focused on the real dimensions of why people like Sorenson are put and kept behind the eight ball.

The moneyed power brokers want and like having a pliant population, and while Sorenson has somewhat escaped that boxed in engineered claustrophobia, it was not without being stomped on quite a bit by the heavy boot of privileged authoritarianism.

I think he's found a better camp than Crazy Michele's. It appears he thinks so.

We can only guess what Ed Rollins might have to say. Or some New Hampshire people. With Rollins exit, there were two versions circulating, e.g., here and here. Marcus appears set to remain on board, however, for the long haul. Ron Carey says so,

Bachmann's closest aides say that until now, the three-term congresswoman's kitchen cabinet has consisted mostly of her tight-knit family.

"The only person she talks to as an insider is her husband, Marcus, who's a wonderful man, and her son Lucas," said former Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey, who served as Bachmann's chief of staff last year. "That's really her brain trust."

Marcus and Lucas Bachmann both cop to the plea.

"Yes, I'm her strategist," Marcus Bachmann said as he dashed into Calef's with an autographed Michele Bachmann baseball card for deli man Joel Sherburne, who was suddenly a fan.

Lucas Bachmann, 28, also acknowledged a role, calling himself a William F. Buckley libertarian conservative.

With longtime aide Andy Parrish the only paid handler at Calef's, it was left to Marcus Bachmann, a Christian therapist, to help manage the drive-by visit and stay on schedule. As the congresswoman chatted amiably with Mitch Michaud, a local Tea Party activist who came to see her in person, Marcus Bachmann gently put his arms around his wife and tried to lead her out the door.

Ron Carey should know from his extensive and long-term service as a Bachmann chief-of-staff.

More about GOP insider fear of Ron Paul. Not passing per their litmus test(s).

This link. And this.

Hat tip Janet O'Connell, and her email newsletter-alert.

These tie into an earlier Crabgrass post, this week, here.

Mainstream media dissing him as "a crank" means he can't be all that bad. Nobody says he's as dumb as Perry, as crazy as Bachmann, or as oily as Gingrich. Not a stiff fish, like Romney. Not a unique blend of all of these bad traits, Santorum.

Vikings - Gambling: David Senjem after 11 hours was named next GOP State Senate head. At least Senjem rhymes with "referendum" but don't bet on any further connection.

This Google. This image??

this link

So, what exactly was his full role in axing Koch, and how purple is the axing?

Is Zygi smiling over this? Is Zygi frowning?

An interesting post, not anything I'd support, here.

If you read there what Zygi's surrogate has to say, Hahn appears to have been Zygi's Minnesota Senate boogeyman, and he did not get the leadership post.

My Guess is more the one than the other, based on the Senjem vote:

So much for the Zygi meter.

-------------------

NOTE: To make that second Zygi-frown image much, much, much bigger - hold a referendum, Senjem. For what it's worth, Janecek likes the Senjem choice. Probably it is the spelling of the name with two E's where it might easily be misspelled/mistyped.


Fight Wilfare.




_____________UPDATE____________
As previously noted, Janecek has a multi-part series posted on the GOP and money, and in particular gambling money, all worth reading, this being part 3 - dead in the middle:

To understand the money in gambling and who is spending what where, you need to have a basic understanding of the gambling interests. There are three.

One. The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association. Includes 9 of the 11 tribes in MN and the most profitable Indian casinos. Obviously, MIGA is rock solid against any expansion of gambling.

Two. Two tribes don’t belong to MIGA. One of these, the White Earth Tribal Nation, runs the not-so-profitable Jackpot Junction Casino in Mahnomen. White Earth wants to build a casino in downtown Minneapolis and help pay for a new Vikings stadium.

Three. The two private sector lobbying entities are Running Aces Harness Park and Canterbury Park. The two have unsuccessfully lobbied for slot machines for years. Canterbury’s big push is a big new Racino, a racetrack / casino combo. Canterbury is also offering to help pay for a new Vikings stadium with proceeds from the Racino.

Again, that link is here, and from there you can read the series. Zygi is convenient for the players wanting to expand gambling, and there are opposing forces, and the GOP will have to be walking the point, three ways, three points, in appeasing those who have gambling money to invest in politicians, where the GOP sits, currently, in debt. The Dayton-Mondale play seems to be, on behalf of Dayton, Mondale holding no office but what's been given, to let the GOP decide which brier patch it wants to throw itself into, await their action, and see how best to ride that tiger.

Rybak is pushing for downtown stadium consideration, which seems hand-in-glove with private downtown gaming growth - establishment and growth since none is there now - and he's a complication in things.

Do we want or need expanded gambling?

If so, the lottery seems to benefit the State, indirectly taxpayers, so why not embrace it's model for any expansion of gambling - which is separate from the question of whether there's too much already.

Don't you hate those obtrusive have-fun-and-adventure at the casino advertisements wedged in between the truck, auto, burger and beer ads, during televised sports? They offend. They are aimed at a lowest common denominator. As is too much of televised sports, have you gotten that message, Zygi. Upgrade the product on all levels, not simply on won-lost numbers.

What is "political correctness" when it reaches gambling money in politics?

Wait and see. You may be astounded. There's a new GOP team, the earlier band that purged Koch-Brodkorb having itself been ousted in the Tuesday voting subsequent to the ouster of Koch-Brodkorb. A tent full of elephants at cross purposes - will it be more a big mess to clean up vs. a stampede?

Iowa, Hopium, Dopium, well written, and sounding true.

Published a few days ago in Chicago Tribune, here, and Strib carrying the feed, here.

Both links are given because Strib has a habit of keeping some things online, while other things perish into the land of dead links, and Error 404, We're sorry messages.

There are attack pieces on Ron Paul, e.g., here.

I find him unique as the single force behind wanting to hold the Fed accountable, where others have coalesced to the thought but where without him Bernanke would be even more smug and priggish and disdainful of you and I who are not big on Wall Street (yes, more of the same is possible).

I find him unique in wanting to put the sabre away instead of rattling it as the lone world superpower or whatever the hype was leading W into the wasteland of oil war and such.

I find him unique as the only one in the current GOP bunch I can take seriously as anything but a tired tool of the status quo and those overly comfortable with it. Or worse, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, clear and present dangers.

Strib reports some sensible Minnesota towns are taking affirmative steps to curb proliferation of rentals.

Curb rentals? Why that is UnAmerican. And UnRepublican.
Subsidized rental is a sacred property right.
Next they will trample the flag. Shorten the Pledge.
Trust me, it is as wrong as charging me for ramp space.
I say so, the FLAHERTY of the UNITED STATES. 

Strib link.

Forward looking job creators, in a Republican manner, in ways many Republicans might have envied. An innovative shepherding of wealth story worthy of bipartisan notice.

Visit the homepage. Explore the website.

Robert Walker. Bixby Energy. An entrepreneurial saga. Not a Horatio Alger story, but one of dedicated and focused effort toward a goal - raising the capital needed to bring an idea to its profitable end, where many can own a part so that the effort is sufficiently funded to achieve its ends - a process which any of the GOP presidential hopefuls will tell you, is the thing that made America what it is, and the GOP what it is, standing for such ways and means. Indeed, a former Minnesota Republican House Rep. a part of the story. What more, what more? Midway through this 2007 leading-edge Twin Cities Business story, the explanation unwinds:

Walker’s vision of alternative energy sources becoming the mainstream is not only “absolutely realistic, but beyond that, it’s going to happen. The only question is, who will get the job done?” says former U.S. Congressman Gil Gutknecht, the Minnesota Republican who chaired the House agricultural subcommittee concerned with alternative energy. Now a consultant to the energy industry and to Bixby, Gutknecht points out that Walker isn’t the only one building a biomass-based energy business, so there are competitive issues of “who gets there firstest with the mostest. From what I see around the world, Bixby is in position to be a leader.”

He gives the company an edge because of more than just its technology for converting biomass into useable fuel: “What Bob Walker understands, and most others working on renewable energy don’t want to know, is that the energy business is incredibly price competitive. People will drive a mile to save a penny on a gallon of gas. The winners will be the low-cost providers.” During his tenure in Washington, Gutknecht says, Walker was one of the few alternative-energy enthusiasts he met “with a business model not predicated on long-term government subsidies.”

To date, Walker has raised $27 million from private investors. One, Don Schreifels, who has a Brooklyn Center insurance agency, says he doesn’t question the viability of Walker’s vision, but that realizing it “will take years and a lot of money—money on the Wall Street level.” The major risk for Bixby, he adds, is that “other players could come along, do a better job of getting the money, and do what we want to do better and quicker. We have an edge getting to the marketplace, but in today’s world, you never know.”

Walker says going public is imminent for Bixby, but probably not through an IPO. An alternate route is more likely, possibly a merger with an already public entity.

He says other big developments are imminent, too: more partnerships and expansions of his company’s technology portfolio. Bixby Energy Systems is being approached by people with other energy technologies—cutting-edge wind and coal-gasification systems—who tell him, “‘We think you’ve got a model for the future in the energy business, and we’ve got compelling technologies that we think you ought to take a look at and see if it doesn’t fit within your framework.’”

Because of increased public attention to global warming and to renewable energy in general, Walker says, “we’re actually evolving more rapidly into an energy business” than he had originally anticipated. Bixby is already “dramatically changing our market structure,” not just beyond stoves or pellets, but beyond biomass, though it remains central to the company’s plans.

“We find that a lot of the energy solutions that are in alternative energy are really an application of several energy disciplines,” he explains—a point illustrated by his further intentions for biomass and for Bixby’s stoves.


Your Home as Power Plant

Bixby has been a financial backer of research on “pyrolysis” done by Dr. Roger Ruan of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and his collaborators in the U.S. and Norway. Like Bixby’s pellet-making technology, pyrolysis works with all sorts of biomass, applying heat to vaporize it and then condensing most of the gases into liquid fuel—“biocrude” that can be refined for use as heating oil, turbine fuel, and other energy products. Many researchers and companies globally are developing pyrolysis technologies; Bixby is working to secure a role as commercialization agent for Ruan’s particular process, which takes just two hours. With further refinements, including pressurization, Ruan says he expects to cut the time to around 30 minutes.

To understand things from the beginning of the report, this headlining:

Bob Walker's Plan to Transform the Global Energy Industry
At Bixby Energy Systems, he's starting with corn-burning stoves but expects ultimately to change the way homes, businesses, and power plants run. If his biomass fuels reduce global warming, it won't be because it's a good cause, Walker says, but because it's good business.

March 2007 | by Jack Gordon

Too good to be true, a doubter might say. If it's that promising, the big corporations would be doing it - perhaps Exxon-Mobil has a patent pool, having bought the technology in order to keep it off market so that their oil business may prosper and the strategic positioning of the Middle East and its resources can be maintained.

But that's skepticism, not reality. Not sensible Republican conservatism, not the Chamber of Commerce, NRA, nor Tim Pawlenty, the Governor from Sam's Club.

For an update, this Google. A link.

The Minnesota Republican Senators are meeting today to elect leadership, there having been resignations of which readers may be unaware. May Bixby Energy be with them as they regroup to sell you, the voter, their version of reality in which the wealthy do not pay onerous taxes and the workers gain under a health care provisioning system engineered to create dependence, obedience and compliance with a status quo; you get healthcare via your corporate employer, or at great personal expense, or none at all. You may not like it that way, but others, holding power, trusted with the decision making, think things fine as they are. They, unseen and working the strings of the system are meeting behind closed doors to do wonderful things - like the Bixby folks they are, directly or by representation, the job creators. Don't ask them if it is so, they will tell you, at length and without asking. Steadfast in their belief system, they know what is right for them, what is right for you.

Food for thought. Brazil, Cargill and more. Cargill remains Cargill and do not forget that.

That is the chart, where you can return once you have read the excerpt or the original item, here.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said its latest World Economic League Table showed Asian countries moving up and European countries falling back.

The CEBR also predicted that the UK economy would overtake France by 2016.

It also said the eurozone economy would shrink 0.6% in 2012 "if the euro problem is solved", or 2% if it is not.

CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of a growing trend.

"I think it's part of the big economic change, where not only are we seeing a shift from the west to the east, but we're also seeing that countries that produce vital commodities - food and energy and things like that - are doing very well and they're gradually climbing up the economic league table," he said.

It is a short article, with that opening excerpt being slightly less than half of the item.

Now, you may notice that the item does not mention Cargill.

However, it does mention "food and commodities," which some regard as a synonym for Cargill.

Specific to Cargill and Brazil, no links, other than via a Google.

Cargill invests where the opportunity for maximal return on investment exists. For now, it can be argued that those in the US vocal about saving the rain forests, may be looking at agricultural land, supply and demand, and having more in mind than simply, oh my, the rain forests, fauna and flora, species extinction risks, what should be done. Don't ask me, ask Cargill.

And do you believe, in any Minnesota federal-level redistricting be it GOP, DFL or judicial, that Cargill will have no opinions, and will not be heard? Collin Peterson in all likelihood will keep a safe Congressional district, and Agricultural Committee seniority, whatever else redistricting brings.

EXPANSION OF GAMBLING - If the state decides to permit it the state should own it. Not tribes, not horse race capitalism. Not Zygi. The money from it should go into the general fund. Not pre-earmarked, certainly not as free government money given Zygi.

That's about it. Agree or disagree.

I find it strange that there are DFL and GOP proponents of expanding gambling, and on the other side, the side of keeping it a Tribal monopoly; with no real sense to any position and the appearance of money buying advocacy in the legislature - which is troublesome even as it becomes a commonplace perception.

Please open this link.

The strangest of things - these gambling advocates will say go that route to give Zygi a free ride at property development in Arden Hills; but will not look at spending the money from gambling, if expanded and configured to yield maximum return to the government, for something far more vital than fattening Zygi's wallet, that being saving lives and otherwise making healthcare as available to all as it is successfully available to military veterans.

It is news, like the Pope telling us he's a Catholic.

David Flaherty, developer, is reported to think City of Ramsey made a right move gambling multi-million dollar bonding on his Rental-by-the-Rails.

News. This link.

It's anybody's guess who will be the next GOP Senate boss. Who are you betting on? What are the odds?

Betting on that outcome? If so, it must mean you are a gambling addict at heart. Or not? Just like to bet a little, now and then, a lottery ticket or two, now and then? Other times, a nice trip and besides, the Indians need the money?

Paul Demko, at Politics in Minnesota has a well-written lengthy analysis, this opening screenshot:

click to enlarge and read the excerpt
ENTIRE STORY,  this link.

The PIM Headline is, "Senate majority leader to play crucial role on gaming proposals."

The screenshot gives only the brief opening of an item that is well written, and thorough. It mentions Jungbauer, but strangely doing a word search of the post, for "geoff" and "michel" yielded nothing. Geoff Michel is a nothing in this inner party thing? Hopefully so.

________________UPDATE______________
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: I wonder in terms of the inner party, how Harry Niska positions himself on the gambling question, Niska being a former Jungbauer campaign treasurer, Ramsey council candidate, and present head of the "SD48 Republicans" local inner party mavens.

Presuming he still has public office ambitions, it would be a nice thing to know NOW, where Niska stands. Jungbauer in the PIM item is noted as pro-gambling expansion.

So, leaving the local aside and getting back to statewide things Republican, the Tuesday after-Amy match; after reading that Dec. 23 PIM item, I strongly recommend reading a parallel Dec. 23 Deets post, which overlaps PIM somewhat, but goes elsewhere while painting with a broader brush, and linking to Sarah Janecek inner party facebooking. And that anon comment about Sheehan, possibly/possibly not the first stone thrower --- gossip and insight - all educational --- THIS LINK.

Kohler of The Deets does interesting things, and while I don't mess away time with Twitter/Facebook, Ed likes Twitter, and did this for which we must give praise. For the effort to sweep away uncertainties.

Download from PiPress -- Minnesota Chicken Suits Exposed

click image to enlarge and read - this source

_________________UPDATE_______________
With all the free press coverage, and being free of the party job, the blog, the Senate job, and now also free of being a boosting factor in the Parry candidacy against Walz, it should be Brodkorb against Klobuchar. They have to run somebody. Let him try to collect another Amy. A very much tougher nut to crack. A challenge. Campaigning in the chicken suit might give him a better chance and in such a contest he'd need all the breaks he could get.

Talk about getting free press attention. City Pages goes through his tweets as the FBI might sift someone's garbage, reporting:

Last Wednesday, Brodkorb was confronted by Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman, and told he no longer worked for the GOP. The story of his ouster officially broke Friday.

Hours later, Brodkorb decided to watch a movie -- the 1981 Brian De Palma flick "Blow Out." The movie is a political thriller about a governor running for president who is found dead after his car plunges into the water with a prostitute in the driver's seat.

It was an interesting choice, given the circumstances, but Brodkorb gave it a rave review at 1:44 a.m. Saturday:

Watching a great thriller...Blow Out... John Travolta...1981, a must watch;

Okay then, film time, before Tuesday's Republican Senate caucus, each attendee should watch Herzog's "Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle."

A download from The Uptake. A tribal casino at Zygiplace, an alternative to Wilfare? What will caucusing Republicans have in view, Tuesday, while caucusing?

Click the image to enlarge and read. This link to see video.

Do that and there is still room for my suggestion, let Zygi run the book at the stadium, taking bets during the game on whether next Viking possession scores, punts, or turns the ball over; bets on leading team at half-time, etc. That would be of course to make up any shortfall between the relatively meager amount the Wilf family puts up from - gasp - its own wealth relative to league money, public money, anybody's money but Zygi's ...

However, Arden Hills and tribal casino-bookmaking is non-unique. It could be done at the Dome, it could be state-owned with all profit offsetting taxation needs; there are a host of ways to gamble on Zygi, and whether after getting a new stadium the gentleman moves his for profit plaything anyway because another town is packed with bigger chumps, or chumps with bigger open wallets.


Wilfare sucks. 

Like Nancy Reagan lectured,

Sen. Geoff Michel alleges he chose to fudge the Koch-Brodkorb knowledge timeline to protect Sheehan and ANOTHER tattletale? Let's have names, dates, disclosure. And next Tuesday, the Senate Republicans vote on who shall lead them (where) next legislative session. Will a miasma linger?

Will the strugle for GOP Senate leadership be a CAGE match?

Start with knowing some of the players, and such. A second hat tip to Ed Kohler's Deets, (as noted, the CAGE source), with earlier info from this summer, a post from June 6, 2011 (coincidentally the day after Sarah Brodkorb's police call per the Sunday date on the CP published police report of a domestic-verbal police response).

Ed wrote (with links and platform quote in the original, bold emphasis added):

In case you’re wondering who the Minnesota Racino lobby has been spending money on in order to increase its chances of exploiting gambling addicts, here are the names with campaign contributions [update, original Deets link failed for me, this link was found, although details between it and the following Kohler numbers were not cross-checked]:

HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CMTE OF MINNESOTA – REPUBLICAN – $5900
DEKRUIF, AL – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
HOFFMAN, GRETCHEN – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
MICHEL, GEOFF – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
NIENOW, SEAN – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
PARRY, MIKE – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
ROBLING, CLAIRE – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
SENJEM, DAVID H – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
WOLF, PAM – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $500
BEARD, MIKE – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $500
BUESGENS, MARK – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $500
ERICKSON, SONDRA – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $500
NEWMAN, SCOTT – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $300
STUMPF, LEROY – SENATE – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR – $300
DAHMS, GARY – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
DALEY, TED – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
GIMSE, JOE – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
INGEBRIGTSEN, BILL – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
JUNGBAUER, MIKE – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
MILLER, JEREMY – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
ORTMAN, JULIANNE – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $250
PETERSEN, BRANDEN – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $250
WARDLOW, DOUG – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $250
DFL HOUSE CAUCUS OF MINNESOTA – – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR – $250
KOCH, AMY T – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $200
PEDERSON, JOHN – SENATE – REPUBLICAN – $200
BILLS, KURT – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
HOLBERG, MARY LIZ – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
KATH, KORY – HOUSE – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR – $200
KIEFFER, ANDREA – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
LANNING, MORRIE – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
MARQUART, PAUL – HOUSE – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR – $200
NORNES, BUD – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
PEPPIN, JOYCE – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
SMITH, STEVE – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200
WOODARD, KELBY – HOUSE – REPUBLICAN – $200

Notice any trends in that data? Quite a few Republicans, eh? That seems strange considering that the MN GOP’s platform reads (PDF):

Limit the Influence of Gambling in our State
We seek to eliminate all state-sponsored gambling and oppose any expansion of gambling in Minnesota. In regards to casinos already in place, current gambling laws should be changed so that Minnesota is allowed to tax profits and revenue of tribal casino gambling in the state.We seek to eliminate all state-sponsored gambling and oppose any expansion of gambling in Minnesota. In regards to casinos already in place, current gambling laws should be changed so that Minnesota is allowed to tax profits and revenue of tribal casino gambling in the state.

I think that makes it clear that the MN GOP can be bought. They’re abandoning their own party’s platform for a few hundred campaign dollars each.

So what if the MN GOP flips on their position on gambling? Maybe exploiting gambling addicts and destroying families is justified in tough financial times?

What is the justification for supporting the racino at this time? Building a new stadium for corporate welfare queen, Zygi Wilf and his private business, the Minnesota Vikings.

Grow horns? Turn purple? Or, do otherwise? Perhaps just let Zygi run a betting book at the stadium, if he pays for it all. Raise his return on investment that way? Build a stadium-casino complex in Arden Hills? Downtown? Possibilities are endless.

Back to GOP and specifics. Strib online today reports:

Senate GOP wants questions answered

Article by: MIKE KASZUBA and BAIRD HELGESON, Star Tribune
Updated: December 24, 2011 - 5:58 AM

As they prepare to select a new leader, Minnesota Senate Republicans are angry, frustrated, and want answers from their leadership about how Amy Koch was ousted from the top position.

"It wasn't handled very well," said Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, who predicted that Tuesday's meeting to select Koch's successor will be long and "emotional." The news that Koch had been accused of having an affair with a Senate staff member "should have been confronted earlier -- I don't understand that," Nelson said.

The dramatic disclosure about Koch this month, coupled with the news that Senate Republican leaders knew of the allegation three months ago, threatens to split apart a caucus that only a year ago reached a pinnacle. Republicans not only gained control of the Senate last year for the first time in more than a generation, but Koch became the first woman to serve as Senate majority leader.

As Senate Republicans prepare to sort through what happened, several have said privately they are not happy that their leaders held a news conference last week claiming the allegations were only brought to their attention a few weeks ago when they knew that was not true. [...]

Complicating Tuesday's meeting is the fact that some Senate leaders who are being criticized for their handling of the controversy may be in line to replace Koch. [...]

The excerpt is part of Strib reporting. For more, read Strib, again here. Strib named names, adding:

[...] Some senators have also said they plan to probe the actions of the senators who confronted Koch.

That has put the focus on Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, Koch's deputy.

Senators became furious when Cullen Sheehan, Koch's former chief of staff, said this week that he reported the incident to Michel back in September. Michel now says he immediately notified human resources professionals and other Senate leaders to figure out what to do.

Michel said he had to fudge the timeline to protect Sheehan and another whistleblower. [...]

One Senate Republican source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said [...] "There's [now] a consternation about credibility within the leadership-assistant leadership level," he said.

Another Republican senator, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said bluntly: "They had three months to prepare for this."

[ending emphasis added, and below] Who knew what, when, and who's lying now and why are obvious questions, to us, to Strib:

Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman said early this week he only learned about the issue a few weeks ago.

But Michel said that, after Sheehan approached him in September, he immediately notified Ludeman, Senate leaders and human resources professionals to devise the best way to proceed.

Ludeman again said on Friday that he was not aware of the issue until recently, but added that other members of his staff could have been informed.

Whatever the explanation, Tuesday's meeting could turn into a bitter rehash of the way Senate leaders handled Koch's final months.

[...]

In three months time to plan and coordinate, and with what cannot be anything but a coordinated pre-Christmas move against Amy Koch and Michael Brodkorb, one day to the next but with different face-to-face players and with stories of what's true changing, incomplete and inconsistent, the DFL and independents have to be happy it's the Republicans' child on the doorstep, not theirs.

In closing, given the Sheehan role in things related to the Koch confrontation and ouster events, there is this Strib-captioned photo from an interesting Strib article this summer, here,

Many Koch photos have recently been published, but not so, for Sheehan. Tidings of comfort and joy to each of them, and to the caucusing GOP Senators, next Tuesday.

Revolution and Counterrevolution - Putsch and Counter-Putsch.

This image embodies in part my view of pending GOP counter-revolutionary events, the Chamber of Commerce folks' counter-Putsch; the image being status quo going into the new year.

"This is no robbery. It's a re-takeover. WE want again to drive, own,
and route the coach. Now throw down your tea bags and keep quiet.
We'll worry about money in the strongbox later."

.
Given the stakes, so far there's not been much bloodletting. A senator, a staffer, neither beloved aside from each other...

Some things speak for themselves. Some things omit a detail here or there. Likely it is because the devil is in their omitted details.

Andy at Residual Forces, is posting the thoughts of others - about Pat Shortridge, GOP wannabe boss, in Minnesota. Start with this partial-birth excerpt which in my view is damning with faint praise, if actually praise at all:

Ever heard of Marco Rubio? As Rubio’s Senior Strategist, Pat Shortridge managed the campaign through the toughest time for now-Senator Rubio. When Pat took over the campaign, it was considered a lost cause for Marco. He was way down in the polls, even farther down in the money chase, and people were telling him to get out of the race. But Pat developed a plan to take advantage of Rubio’s considerable strengths and turned things around.

Pat chooses to work with conservative candidates of the highest integrity, which is evident in US Senator Marco Rubio, US Senate candidate Dino Rossi, US Representative Mark Kennedy, former US House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Dino Rossi ran a dirty campaign. Patty Murray is still in the Senate, Dino is still wealthy but unelected, except perhaps he had one term as dog catcher or some such. That's not to say he's a political corpse, but he is not in the Senate where Patty Murry remains despite all the mud the Rossi folks slung.

Marco Rubio, well there is no big Cuban voting block in Minnesota to court and offer concessions and favors.

Batista's dictatorial thug-diaspora never wanted to reach this far north, probably. At least not in numbers. Weather in Miami is closer to the Cuban clime.

Omitted - Enron involvement when that hoax was unwinding. Alleged errand trips to Bush-Cheney folks at the time, giving early notice despite Bush-Cheney claiming not having early notice (at least Geoff Michel has not stooped to disputing Cullen Sheehan's going public about early notice in the Koch-Brodkorb situation, making Michel a cut above Bush-Cheney, but, faint praise again).

Omitted - Norm Coleman, perhaps the greatest indictment of Shortridge, if judged by the company he keeps. Throw in Mark Kennedy, a Bush-Cheney rubber-stamp running a sorry-awful campaign saying he was not that. Nobody bought the bogus pitch, their eyes were open - or more correctly few bought it, and Kennedy and advisory braintrust suffered a Klobuchar clobbering. And it was not all about personality, even with Kennedy lacking one.

Back to things not omitted - Dick Armey, Paul Ryan. Give me a break. That's supposed to be the positive part of the man's portfolio?

Aside from Marco Rubio, of whom I know few details, and the Ventura-like come-from-behind thing that was engineered in Florida, that track record says to me, "Okay, the Chamber of Commerce part of Minnesota's Republican party wants to take back the driver's seat from the Tom Pritchards of bias and hate - who were wanted always by Chamber folks for vote count, but certainly not to mess their noses into the running of things once votes were counted." A "don't go away mad ..." viewpoint.

The Pritchards pushed the hate amendment onto the next ballot, the Chamber folks finally took notice of their Frankensteinian monster, (i.e., they do polling), the purge of Koch/Brodkorb was orchestrated, the money was withheld by the money folks to where Sutton quit in shame over things in hock and disarray, and now the Coleman types are unseating the Pritchards; and can anybody get a comforting Christmas from either of those camps?

However - bottom line - it IS the Minnesota GOP under discussion, and perhaps the best observation is to observe Shortridge in context, and against alternatives. In the land of the blind ...

The movement of the sane Republicans to backing Horner against compromise of principle and Emmer, says that the Shortridge move, the distancing of Sutton, Koch, and Brodkorb, tangible things, all point to the Chamber of Commerce Republicans wanting back into control. They got majority numbers in both houses of the legislature from the Tom Pritchard mentality running amok; but then discovered that what was lacking in the Tom Pritchard mentality was mentality, as well as compliant, obedient following - doing as told.

Insubordination and peasant rebellion have always been put down with maximum show of force. Elites may war cordially against one another, but when the angered mass rumbles, stomp hard, stomp as needed, then stomp more to be certain.

Put that in your tea pot and steep it.

Geoff Michel's Senate Campaign page. Try a fully honest "Answer."

this link - stripped of clutter -- click the image to enlarge and read

Okay, so, “Hey dad: you served in the State Senate. What did you do during that great recession and all those deficits and debt?”

Give the honest answer. Dump the puff-piece self-serving answer. Say:

I got information in September. A tattler. On his way to elsewhere. Politically useful information. Not jack to do with the recession and the economy. Personal. Bedfellow stuff. I met in secret with others. We sat and waited and watched and planned, never directly confronting the situation for about a quarter-year. Never saying, yo, there is this problem it needs attention, it's your conduct. She had the position ahead of me. I had no shot at getting it while she was there. Then, like in the westerns I and henchmen like the bad guys - the ones wearing black hats - from behind the rocks shooting at the surprised others out in the open with no place to duck or dodge -- like that I struck. Rattlers rattle first, I did not. We did not. It was not one-on-one, it was four-on-one. It was personal but I did what I felt I wanted to do. It had nothing to do with the recession, and it was not about fixing one damned thing wrong in the economy where the rich don't pay their fair tax share and likely never will because of the politicians. The four of us held a press conference in which I lied about the timing when I talked first to the press, none of the other three said anything different while next to me, hearing me, and then I gave lame excuses afterwards when confronted about actual timing and the near-quarter-year wait. I am a politician. Moreover, not merely a politician, a Republican. It was all within the same party. Ostensible allies. Coworkers.

I am a politician so what did you expect?

-----------

But that's answering a question with a closing question handed back. How about just telling the dear child to read this. Tell her from that to figure things out on her own.

-----------

Do you think they did things that way, tightly silent in a small allied group, careful, recalling how Entenza had hired the investigator from Chicago to scout out Hatch where Hatch got wind of it and turned the tables? A learning curve, but one not entailing the best lesson, don't do it.

____________UPDATE____________
I jumped on this one because it is odious to me to have politicians use their offspring in any way as political props.

More of Geoff Michel doing exactly that, years ago but consistent with his "Answer" spiel; blogged here and MPR with the same news, here.

That is taking politics where it need not go, and it is nothing to be proud of.

Geoff drop it. It wins you little beyond scorn. Be -- become a sentient adult.

________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Spot lifted a leg briefly with a special Geoff Michel blog, here. With Cucking Stool links.

Things GOP. Looking more like a currently timed purge, for unclear purposes and based on information held in abeyance for months, rather than the Four Horsemen's postured, "I am shocked. Shocked!" Is it more, "The Horror! The Horror!"?

So why was Amy Koch dumped? Perhaps as important if not more so, why was Brodkorb dumped? Which one is Caesar? Why the timing? How does it square with a Norm Coleman affiliate, Shortridge, about to take over the GOP party leadership chair? Is it those who had withheld the money now retaking their plaything, the Minnesota GOP? Taking it away from interlopers? You buy the car you want to drive it? Norm Coleman affiliate and Suitgate appologist Cullen Sheehan having a hand in things? Do you remember, "The Senator has reported every gift he's ever received."?

The Norm Coleman - Nasser Kazeminy - oil patch thing, Shortridge's Enron background, and via that, Bush-Cheney-energy cartel ties with reporting having been that it was Shortridge then acting as Enron's key lobbyist who consulted with Bush White House personnel well before Bush admitted ever hearing of Enron troubles? More than a morality play? More purge than morality? A horse opera ambush?

Try this flavor: Strib draws attention to an interesting timeliness focus:

Article by: By BAIRD HELGESON, JIM RAGSDALE a nd MIKE KASZUBA
Updated: December 21, 2011 - 10:47 PM

An ex-aide to the former Senate majority leader revealed that he had reported the relationship to the Senate's leadership on Sept. 21.

[...] New timeline emerges

On Wednesday, fresh details emerged about Koch's relationship with the staffer.

Koch's former chief of staff, Cullen Sheehan, said that on Sept. 21 he became aware of "an inappropriate relationship" between the staffer and Koch.

He would neither characterize the nature of the relationship nor identify the staffer.

"At that time, I met with the staff person in question," Sheehan said. "He confirmed that there was a relationship. We both met with Senator Koch that same day. She confirmed the relationship."

The next day, Sheehan said, he notified Deputy Majority Leader Geoff Michel, R-Edina.

In November, Sheehan left the Senate office and took a job as a lobbyist. He would not say whether the incident prompted him to leave.

Michel, now interim majority leader, said Wednesday he and other party leaders were intentionally vague about the timeline to protect Sheehan and the other staffer who reported the relationship.

"Being specific would expose specific staff. It could reveal their identities," he said. In another conversation he said, "These whistleblowers were scared."

Michel now says he regrets not just simply refusing to disclose a timeline to reporters.

"What Cullen brought to me was stunning and unbelievable and something I didn't want to believe," said Michel, who was Koch's handpicked deputy. "Coming from Cullen, as complete as it was, I recognized, we had to take some action."

He said that at that time he consulted the Senate's human resources professionals, legal advisers, Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman and a group of Senate Republican leaders.

Michel said they slowly began to reach a consensus on what needed to be done.

"In order to stop a manager-employee relationship that was inappropriate, we had to act," he said. "This group put together a plan, which included what you saw last week -- a direct conversation with Senator Koch, the majority leader."

Even though Sheehan confronted Koch in September, Michel said they were concerned she took no action until senators surprised her last Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club.

"Based on Cullen's conversation [with Koch], I'd expected a different reaction from Senator Koch," Michel said. He said he hoped she would step down as majority leader but "over time, it became apparent that was not going to happen, and we would have to continue going down the road we were going down."

What's next?

Some senators have said Koch still needs to resign from the Senate, but her statement gave no hint of her plans.

Koch served as majority leader for 11 months, garnering a reputation as a thoughtful and talented leader during one of the most challenging budget deficits in recent history. A relative newcomer, Koch stunned some Senate watchers when she won the leadership post. But she had proven herself to be a gifted fundraiser and recruiter, helping ensure historic wins to give the GOP control of the Senate for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Despite Koch's assertions she didn't violate Senate rules or use taxpayer money to facilitate the relationship, the next stepis unclear. [...]

No peons, GOP, DFL or independent, were at the table when Sheehan talked with Senate Republican muck-a-mucks, who curiously waited months to muck their stable.

We are left with only an opportunity to speculate.

Mr. Sheehan left the Senate staff to lobby? Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Screenshot time - click a thumbnail to enlarge and read - or follow the links:

this link

this link

Are these dots to be connected? Or miscellaneous coincidences? Coleman and PAC dollars, calling changes with the recently gone chair having run the party into hock? Indian gambling money?

Follow the money, not the sanctimonious morality-of-it crying towel? How? Leading where?

The GOP is in flux; and I'd bet more on money changers at play than any real worry over who's fluxing who, when, and how all that fluxing around beeps the sanctity of marriage horn.

Is Wilfare a part of the goings-on? A ton of questions. A cupful of facts.

____________________
Headline note - for those needing a road map, here, and here, and do the two merge, into an overlapping Heart of Darkness?



________________FURTHER UPDATE______________
Coincidences never fail to amaze me. Cullen Sheehan's leaving his Senate position to become a lobbyist - something he did after contacting Sen. Michel in September about the Koch-staffer affair - was announced 9 November, 2011, which means the decision probably was reached the day before or earlier.

And that's the 88th Anniversary of the November 9, 1923 defeat of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (which itself started the evening before, Nov. 8).

The Germans in 1923 appeared to have an immediate sense of urgency in reaction to events triggered earlier, that September, and did not wait and plan until Christmas season. Their Putsch was, however, unsuccessful.

History has funny twists.

MPR, here,  has a story parallel to that of Strib; TwoPuttTommy editorializes over the "I lie when I have to, or when I think it best," theme, here.

Pat Shortridge - Former Enron lobbyist, Dick Armey aide, might be the new Tony Sutton - Ron Carey of the Minnesota GOP -- Chairman, whatever the title, lead elephant.

Andy at Residual Forces favors him and has noted Shortridge's Facebook entry

Plowing through my call list for the MNGOP Chairman’s race. The team and I are working hard and not taking anything for granted. If I haven’t reached you yet, I will. Proud to have earned the support of – this is a partial list with more to come – Joe and Cindy Westrup, Kurt Daudt, David FitzSimmons, Ted Lovdahl, Phil Krinkie, Ben Golnik, Harry and Jen Niska, Bill Walsh, Linda Runbeck, Rhonda Sivarajah, John Gilmore, Andy Aplikowski, Derek Brigham, Bill Guidera, Mark Kennedy, David Strom, Mike Osskopp, Mark Giga, Tom Emmer, Randy Gilbert, Barbara Malzacher, and many more who I’ll name soon!! Stay tuned.

Minn Progressive Project noted the Enron connection. Ditto, Mnpublius, here.

You can Google = pat shortridge enron

From the extended Google return list, and from Residual Forces, you get that he was a Mark Kennedy campaign boss, both successfully for the MN6 congressional seat, and otherwise in the Klobuchar Senate landslide victory.

He had a hand in Marco Rubio's Florida adventures. Etc. Etc. A warm and fuzzy little Enroner. But apparently not an insider-fraudster. Nothing stuck to Shortridge.

A well-traveled political operative, but what else did you expect?

layers of the onion image, this source

The Shortridge situation seems less curiously and compellingly influenced hither and yon, involuted and convoluted, than the ongoing state Senate saga, GOP side. Hit squad, or outraged pro-family men? I would not gamble on that hummer of a question, either way. Indeed, do you gamble that gambling was a factor?

Interesting Minn Post stuff, here and here.


-----------------

UPDATE -- RECOUNT MAN: Shortridge has this in the portfolio - he was a Dino Rossi man in Washington, and Rossi lost a closest-recount-in-Washington-State-history recount in the past to Democrat Christine Gregoire. Then he was a Norm gnome (e.g., here, paragraph 4) when Norm lost a closest-recount-in-Minnesota-history recount to Democrat Al Franken. That and Mark Kennedy's burial by Klobuchar for the Senate seat, he's got a track records of bridesmaids, not brides. Not wholly so, but ...

And - some say the Emmer recount was ill-advised; and costly on borrowed cash; so are they turning now to a recount junky? Can't give it up, can't kick the recount habit? Just wondering.

In passing: Doesn't Dino Rossi sound like a brand of vermouth? Just wondering.

Get a bigger wheelbarrow.
For hauling waste, raising cash.

Anyway,

Once a Norm gnome, always a Norm gnome.

This link.

Perhaps, just perhaps, might he, Shortridge, also have ties of some sort to -

Nasser Kazemini ?



________________FURTHER UPDATE_______________
Here and here are two early 2010 campaign items from Washington State on the "aggressive" (dirty) campaign run against Dem. Sen. Patty Murray (with reciprocity in kind apparently), the Enroner being fingered as such early in things. What actual role besides flak and schmoozer Shortridge played in the Enron pileup is unclear. But it seems certain Shortridge will be an aggresive SOB for the GOP, an unkind thing for the DFL. Where he is on the NFL (aka "Wilfare") and gambling intrigues will be an interesting thing to see developed.

From those two items it appears Shortridge was a Marco Rubio braintrust player, but not lead-man as he was for Dino Rossi. Dino Rossi's pattern has been losing campaigns to Democratic women, with/without Shortridge. (I.e.,I might have been wrong in previously assuming Shortridge was affiliated with Rossi in the failed run for Governor, but he led things in the failed Patty Murray challenge and clearly was a Norm gnome in the failed Minnesota reelection attempt - but cut him slack, his dog in the hunt was Norm, who only made the Senate because of the Wellstone death on the eve of the prior election - Norm being Norm - all Shortridge's effort reduced to putting lipstick on the pig - make that lipstick on the dog in the hunt, I guess, to avoid mixing old sayings.)

As always, we wait, we see.

photo source
(Shortridge mentioned)

I expect Andy at Residual Forces neglecting to mention the Shortridge portfolio's Enron touch or the Coleman failure-to-extend-incumbency role was from inattention, and not a deliberate attempt to drop things from the balance sheet. Andy did not "Enron" the story, by leaving out Enron, as an intentional thing.

Neglect, surely.

Yet that seems an unfortunate widespread neglect in the GOP-slanted coverage of the Shortridge story - a largely unopposed candidacy for lead elephant.

I am certain that Shortridge must be quite proud of his Enron service and will be more than happy to discuss it among all the friends at the get-together where he is expected to be formally nominated and appointed to be the new Ron Carey of Minnesota.

SO - The ascendancy of Enron Man. The tale of the Scarlet Letter.

GOP stories have bite. And what, the Dems in turn have Dayton saying, again and again going into the new year and next legislative session, "Tax the Rich."

While "Tax the Rich" is one hell-of-a good idea, it's not lurid at all.

Lurid does get coverage.

How about -- Occupy the Press?

Borrow and spend Republicans bring in a fiscal top man.

Borrow and spend seems as much a Republican anchor as Tom Pritchard and his minions are. Reagan did it. Bush financed war mongering by borrow and spend. But Minnesota Republicans appear to want to be different.

Strib reports here, but without any real background on who this Mike Vekich person is, his background and track record. And in saying track record, no, he's not been on any Cantebury Downs board or commission I know of.

Okay, a simple Google, one Strib folks could have done, yields info, here, here, and here.

Have a look. But there is this question: If he undoes the GOP love for borrow and spend, how will they ever still be able to call themselves Republicans? They will be RINO without their calling-card borrow and spend mentality. A duck out of water. A family without its core borrow-spend values. A rudderless boat adrift in a sea of - what - inappropriate relationships? What could ever be more inappropriate than Republicans NOT at the borrow-and-spend trough? Next thing you know they will consider - but only consider - taxing the rich.

Pigs will be flying if the Minnesota and national GOP ever really turns its back on borrow and spend.

But, why worry, the Vekich guy's been a baseball park maven, and that was built all with borrowed money, and he's been Emmer's recount point man, or so the one item said, and some finger-pointing has been at the costs run up (borrow and spend costs) in that "doomed from the start" effort where Emmer no way would make it out of a 7000 vote hole but with the GOP having had a taste of recount mania with the Norm, and appearing to like it. To like it -- Especially if you don't have to pay to play, where you just borrow and spend.