Sunday, September 06, 2015

What? A Clintonesque entitlement? Spousal privilege, from the other end of the book rack? Give me a break. Entrenched is getting to be too much of an enduring pain.

What you see behind her is what you'd get. Impressed? Enthused? Nauseous? This Strib link. Source of the image. Lady P. wants her privilege.

A thousand words.

Banking Roundtable sent to Congress? Readers of the dissatisfied right, is that your cup of Tea?

Good image. Shades of brown.

Grotesque.

Reader thoughts?

Is this the Tara Mack fallback option? The Joe Biden of CD2? Strib seems in the report to have captured things in a single, mid-item, sentence/paragraph:

She declined an interview request.

Just before that, in the item

After an unsuccessful 2012 bid for the White House, Tim Pawlenty now heads a financial industry lobbying association and commutes weekly between Minnesota and Washington.

I sense a bad April Fool's joke. In mid-September. But - Is there a positive? A bright side?

Yes. She is not Tom Emmer.

_______________UPDATE_______________
Here's one for you. For the ages. Was Tara Mack purged? Amy Koch style, and by the same bunch?

Put a tail on that lady, she's about to exchange documents? Is this Lady P. thing anything to do with we'll shut up and pay the citations? There had been speculation of Ms. Mack being ambitious about Congress, or am I wrong? Her CPAC speaking invitation, as grooming?

____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Mindeman prescient:

On the Republican side, more speculation. I would say that Rep. Pat Garofalo might consider it. Very possible for Sen. Dave Thompson, who already attempted a state wide run for governor, to enter the race. There was a time that speculation was centered around Rep. Tara Mack being groomed to run there someday....but recent events may have put a wrench in that one.

The thing is...there isn't an obvious heir apparent for the Republicans. Maybe some semi-retired politician will emerge, but there will probably be a convention or primary fight on each side.

[italics added] When opportunity knocks, opportunists move. Story of the day, every day? Aside from Norm, is there a bigger opportunist than the background man in that opening image? Name one.

____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Don't know what inspired the lookup; perhaps that trenchant Glen Taylor Strib image; but a Wikipedia disambiguation post is here on mediumistic channelling.

That's apart from anything about either of the Pawlentys, or them together.

____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Connectible Dots? Or unhitched serendipity? You decide?

When the Mack Kelly situation moved to garnering national attention, TPM noted:

The Dakota County Sheriff was standing by his deputy, though.

"He doesn’t know these people. He’s just doing his job," Sheriff Tim Leslie told local TV station KARE. "That’s what park rangers do, is they patrol and look for problems in the parks and that’s what he was doing."

"We have a lot of trust in his abilities, and I've no reason to doubt what he's putting in his report," the sheriff added.

[link in original] KARE and not KSTP. Not Hubbard broadcasting. Plus, no senior Republican quoted saying boo about the Mack Kelly situation, unlike the four horsemen of Koch Brodkorb. So far no noted rat in a drain-ditch; this instance. It, however, is a wonder how PiPress got onto the story, an obscure park ranger's citation, late afternoon, in an uncrowded parking area, one in the 'burbs; and yet reporters usually shield their anonymous sources. "Oh, I just guess I'll today for no special reason comb through park ranger citations ..." does not absent more, wash. Some tipster has to exist; even for "Political Animals." Rats can be political, and are animals. At what point(s) as things developed did the Sheriff, or a delegate, discuss matters with the PiPress reporters - where that timing thing is ambiguous, strangely left hanging. After all, law enforcement expert opinion is there was NOTHING unusual about the citation/report; and we have cause to trust that? Just serendipity, tipster free happenstance?

The Pioneer Press used legal, public means to obtain the documents about the incident. The newspaper obtained the documents through a public court records search on a court-provided computer system. The Pioneer Press looked at the court documents after receiving a tip. Citations are typically open to the public once they are filed.

Dakota County Sheriff Tim Leslie said there was nothing unusual about the report and his deputy was not out of line.

“We’re going to agree to disagree,” he said of the lawmakers’ accusations. “The facts will come out as to what the deputy saw.”

Leslie said the deputy was simply enforcing the county ordinance in a well-trafficked park.

The strange days apart sequence, as if someone had counseled: We will complain; nope, we will pay, not complain. Days apart. An online bio note, a career boost, in 2003 [italics added]:

In 2003, Tim [Dakota County Sheriff Tim Lesslie] was appointed to Assistant Commissioner at the MN Department of Public Safety (DPS) by then Commissioner Rich Stanek. While at DPS, he led and managed the enforcement and regulatory services divisions of Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement, State Patrol, BCA, State Fire Marshal, Homeland Security and Emergency Management and helped develop the $500 million state-wide radio system as the chair of the Statewide Radio Board. Tim stayed on with Commissioner Michael Campion until 2010 when he left state government to work as Chief Deputy for Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows.

This:


Reader help needed - is there any scuttlebutt around on the political orientatin/affiliation of Dakota County Parks Ranger Jordan Moses? Does he caucus GOP? Does he caucus DFL?

And might that make a difference in peoples' minds? With which party does the Sheriff caucus?

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Sorensen, here linked to a Kelly press interview online here, stating:

Kelly indicated he initially figured they were ticketed because he exchanged words with a park patrol officer as one of Kelly’s tires was on a white parking stall line.

Then a lobbyist alerted Kelly Tuesday morning that a computer screenshot of the officer’s case note was circulating the Capitol. Kelly didn’t see the note until he read a St. Paul Pioneer Press story online hours later.

The citation note, available on Minnesota’s centralized computer system housed only at justice centers, reads “was making out with female in case. When I approached the car the female’s pants were unzipped and pulled down.”

“It just seems very convenient it’s released now,” Kelly said, who summed it up to rotten politics.

Kelly, who brought his original citation to the Republican Eagle, said that ticket has nothing to do with proper attire, exposure or anything similar to the allegation. The citation is 107.3.D.1 — it is unlawful to “commit any act that constitutes a nuisance” in a county park.

[...] They met around 4:30 p.m. that Friday at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, he said, so he could pick up paperwork on an Owatonna health plan before heading home. There were a half dozen other cars in the lot which Kelly estimated could hold a hundred or more vehicles.

“He rapped on my window and when I roll it down he says, ‘You’re double-parked,’” Kelly said.

Kelly said he got out the car to look and snapped a photo with his cellphone because he couldn’t believe the officer was making an issue out of the driver’s side tire touching the line.

Kelly said that was his mistake. “I have law enforcement officers in the family. I know better than to challenge them.”

Dakota County Sheriff Tim Leslie told the St. Paul Pioneer Press was simply enforcing the county ordinance.

Lines from "Trucking" come to mind, "Set up, like a bowling pin. Knocked down, it gets to wearing thin. They just won't let you be." Who might gain what from timing; and who tipped off the Political Animals are two damned fine questions to see answered, before sunset on the situation.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Background on Lady P. - from the Strib item [italics added].

Pawlenty, who lives in Eagan, was raised in Edina, graduated from Bethel University and later from the University of Minnesota Law School. Pawlenty was appointed a Dakota County District Court judge in 1994, serving until February 2007.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
This page, and here.
David Gerson, who challenged Kline last cycle in caucusing, is running again. There is this, online, about Gerson:

Barack Obama wants to raise taxes on so-called “rich” people, defined as households earning more than $250,000 per year. So if dad earns $185,000 and mom earns $65,000 to raise 6 kids, they are rich.

Discussing this issue is Minnesota Republican TEA Party Cong. candidate David Gerson, a global engineering company executive and author of the book, “How Crony Capitalism,” [sic] says Americans shouldn’t be double penalized in the form of inflation that eats away at their wealth and being accessed harsh penalties for working hard to keep their income up at the rate of inflation.

Gerson says Obama could have taken inflation into defining the cut-off for called “rich” and put it at a more appropriate level of one million dollars per household. But an even bigger priority to Gerson is to should eliminate ALL tax deductions and distortions by the government and to simplify the tax code. Such a change would quickly dry up millions of dollars in political campaign contributions being given in the hope of getting special tax breaks or other market distortions. It also would help us return to a true free market.

Gerson contends that in the past 50 years politicians have converted our nation from entrepreneurial capitalism to big government crony capitalism leading to our current economic climate wherein the bottom 80% of Americans only own 7% of the financial wealth and receive only 39% of the income.

Gerson describes crony capitalism or corporatism as, “The confluence of corporate and governmental interests that both parties promote at the expense of the average person in this country.”

David gives theses 7 key points relating to crony capitalism or corporatism:

1) America has an Income Distribution Problem which manifests symptoms of an Aggregate Demand Problem.
2) We must now think of America as having two private sectors; the Crony Wealthy Minority and the Non-Wealthy Majority (who have significantly impaired balance sheets), including the pseudo rich due to inflation.
3) The Non-Wealthy Majority are no longer able to deficit spend enough to make up for the desire of the increasingly Crony Wealthy Minority to save.
4) Crony Wealthy Minority includes Americans, Foreigners, and Corporations.
5) Crony Capitalism, Bigger Government and Wealth Disparity comprise a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
6) The Federal Reserve allowed the Federal Government to be fiscally irresponsible through supportive monetary policies; allowing government to grow, reducing productivity, global competitiveness and standard of living.
7) No silver bullets. We must maximize our productivity to increase our standard of living by removing government distortions and become a net exporter.

STATEMENT BY DAVID GERSON:

“First I am for the smallest government possible and lowest possible taxes for everyone. That said, as I explain in my book, the reality is that because of income disparity (of which the root cause is crony capitalism or corporatism) it is the savings of the wealthy that is killing the economy (the wealthy include Americans, Foreigners - through the trade deficit, and Corporations). And the non-wealthy can no longer deficit spend (take on debt) to make up for the saving of the wealthy, even with the interest rate at the zero bound and the Federal Reserve trying to pull forward future demand.

It is a myth that the wealthy are job creators (their savings are available to be invested/borrowed by anyone). And one can look at the problem of the economy being that the wealthy are not spending enough! Rather they are saving. And the rest of us have barely begun to deleverage our balance sheets for trying to maintain our standard of living.

That sounds like a good juxtaposition to run against the smug, smirking face of The Banking Roundtable.

May Gerson make the 2016 GOP CD2 side of things an interesting contest. If Gerson opposes crony capitalism as a menace to the nation; who else is poster child incarnate for crony capitalism mischief to continue reigning as a troublesome status quo? Perhaps, just perhaps, Gerson might trump the Pawlentys.

 ___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
For some not greatly familiar with the condensed "elevator presentation" of the current "Sams Club Republican" Pawlenty entourage's proclivities, they say of themselves in a footer here [link and italics in original] while decrying here "mountains of disclosure and red tape"

The Financial Services Roundtable represents the largest integrated financial services companies providing banking, insurance, payment and investment products and services to the American consumer. Member companies participate through the Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives nominated by the CEO. FSR member companies provide fuel for America’s economic engine, accounting for $92.7 trillion in managed assets, $1.2 trillion in revenue, and 2.3 million jobs. Learn more at FSRoundtable.org.

And pigs fly out of Sams Club, these times. Draped in sincerity.