All of politics is local? East Bethel and the recent election, Strib reporting.

This link. This quote:

East Bethel saw an upset of the mayor and two City Council members: Small business owner Richard Lawrence defeated Mayor Greg Hunter, and Heidi Moegerle and Bob Deroche took the council seats held by Steve Channer and Kathy Paavola, who did not seek reelection.

Lawrence said Tuesday evening that though the three won't take office until January, they'll start right away to try to put the brakes on a planned city water/sewer system.

Debunking Met Council mythology, growth is NOT always good, is the message.

But there still is growth-is-good mongering. The Ramsey train stop at the Ramsey Town Center [aka: the CORpse] is wanted, in Ramsey, by the politicians elected and appointed, but without having to pay for it. I want a Lexus. I don't want to pay for it. Where do I go for a grant? Can Landform get me that Lexus, with its exceptional smoke and mirrors show, but what would it cost? At Fifteen Thousand per month, I would be better saving for that Lexus, and letting Landform coast business-as-usual with City of Ramsey.

And how about those unconditional letters of intent, eighty million worth, with escrow funding all in place and all we've heard. Well, I presume a bit. All I have heard, not seeing a piece of paper in evidence, is that there are eighty million of letters of intent. Question: are the entities issuing these worth eighty million, or even a tenth as much? Who is issuing this stuff? It sounds like pure blue sky meanderings to me.

Where on the City website do I go to find copies of these letters? Where on the City website do I go to see the due diligence check-out of the financial wherewithal of letter issuers to perform any of the things the letters might, if we saw them, in some fashion promise or propagandize? I will believe that brand of stuff when ground is broken with fully funded escrows in place, and not before that. My guess, that brand will be "rebranded" by our illustrious official decision makers, well before any eighty million of real money shows up anywhere near the badlands known, still, as the Ramsey Town Center by all alert, thinking people living in Ramsey.

East Bethel voters seem to be paying more cogent attention to Ramsey's history, than are Ramsey officials.

Here's my prediction - a Port Authority for City of Ramsey, before Mayor Ramsey is up for reelection. With new "fiscal conservatives" on the County Board, wanting to contain costs and "streamline" government, more bang for the buck etc., there will be pressure by Westerberg and Look for special pork amounts in their districts to enhance reelection hopes, and there will be head-bumping and cross purposes will abound. Bottom line. Expect that Port Authority for City of Ramsey before Mayor Ramsey is up for reelection.

Mark today's date, November 4, 2010.

You will hear the idea being floted, my crystal ball says so, but you will have heard it here first.

_____________UPDATE___________
Some in Ramsey may recall that former City Manager James Norman told ABC Newspaper reporter Tammy Sakray, reported in a now inaccessible past online item, that going into things it was known that Bruce Nedegaard was "thin" for the Ramsey Town Center project, undercapitalized, but he was the person with the option on the land. It might also be recalled that Ramsey consultant Mike Mulroney had been scheduled for a meeting appearance about his due diligence in checking Nedegaard out - his LLC actually - but that then mayor Gamec indicated that an infirmity had made it impossible for the consultant's attendance. Hiding it under a hat is another way to say it, and that too is a part, a large part, of City of Ramsey history - history everywhere being an ongoing event. I think voters in East Bethel made a wise choice. Also, the city manager from East Bethel in an email to me indicated that that municipality had never had any contracting with Landform. Bless East Bethel, for awakening to a new reality ahead of others.

It is clear these Republicans are intent on stalling a recount process and on the march to empty a bag of snakes on the table and then say, "Undo it."

With Pawlenty at the head of the march, no less, STRIB REPORTING:

But the prospect of a long recount creates intriguing possibilities. If it continues past the scheduled Jan. 3 inauguration, Gov. Tim Pawlenty would continue as chief executive while the legislative session gets underway. Republican legislators could act quickly to send a budget-cutting bill to Pawlenty to sign rather than waiting for a likely veto should DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton prevail in the recount.

"It might well be that Governor Pawlenty will sign the bill," said Sen. David Senjem, R-Rochester, this year's Senate minority leader who's hoping his caucus will make him next year's majority leader. Referring to possible GOP control of the House, Senate and governor's office, he said, "If we get a budget early on ... we've got a trifecta."

Senjem later said the idea hasn't been considered, adding, "I'm not suggesting we're going to do that." However, he said if the recount continued well into the 2011 session, "It's not inconceivable."

"We have to do this with some level of style and dignity and involvement with the minority party," he said of passing a budget. "But it's our turn to lead."

[bolding added]

"Style and dignity," this Senjem fellow says. Get real. From the party that ran Tom Emmer??? Get real. Tom Emmer Jr., who brought up Tom Emmer III [aka "Tripp"] into what "style and dignity" mean??? Get real.

Mark Ritchie should do an expeditious recount to confirm, in his mind, a result, and certify it. If Pawlenty refuses to sign off, throw it in court with the charge being exactly what this Senjem fellow let out of the bag. THE GOP PLAN (aka: Stall a recount, snake things all up, and then say, "Undo it").

Pawlenty, if not signing off on the certifying by the duly elected Secretary of State of a fair AND EXPEDITIOUS recount would make himself the focus of charges. As would be wholly proper.

Dayton IS the next Governor. Voters voted. Dayton won.

There is no practical way that Emmer can find a swing of 4500 votes.

The Franken recount proved that a swing of 600 might exist, statewide, but it also proved that number as in the reasonable expectations plus or minus another hundred or two, in any recount process.

Allow that large a margin of variance, and Emmer with an additional eight hundred, Dayton with eight hundred less, it is still Governor Dayton, clearly so, and that's how it is.

The Republicans are clearly committing to a disingenuous course, and it should be judicially disallowed, if that step is needed, to have the third constitutional branch determining the outcome of dispute between the other two branches. And that is with the court stacked against things via the Pawlenty appointments. And the Republicans would do this even with it standing to make Minnesota the laughingstock of the nation and the world. They appear to not care, and their having Michele Bachmann among their ranks is consistent with actually courting laughingstock status.

Emmer, Pawlenty horse things up - Emmer saying he wants a recount, Pawlenty threatening Ritchie to wrap it up pronto, because the last thing we need is ...

It would be a major big-time surprise if the Wright County loudmouth could find a 4500 vote swing. It is not there. But mischief is.

Here, here, and here, for Emmer wanting an instant replay.

Emphasis on instant, please Secretary of State Ritchie --- because:

Oh, my god, eight years were enough!




That's right, the other hockey duffer from the GOP is threatening to hang around and indulge in the worse of things, if allowed by a lengthy recount. What an awful thought. A widespread thought, but an awful one.

If a new session starts, and there are recount matters lingering, can seating new members in the two Minnesota chambers be filibustered until we are fully free of and rid of Pawlenty?

Gone With the Wind.

Suzlon to close its blade fabrication operation in southwest Minnesota. MPR and ArgusLeader.com report.

This google.

The bright side is many in DC will have new and vibrant experiences - with the potential to exercise power and a voice as never before.

Bleeding heart whiny liberal - according to the wisdom of our present Republican pundits.

Even, what, a crypto-Marxist? Hater of America, its flag, and its organizational respect for the rule of law? A trouble maker, needing control to disarm his intent and malice? You name it. The new GOP already has. These Quisling quotes:

"I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows."

"Now, this means that our government, national and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. [... N]ow the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics. That is one of our tasks to-day. [...]"

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.

"We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs."

Wow this flaming radical surely is upset with the recent Citizens United decision by our learned Supreme Court and its majority jurists; i.e., upset without cause over the judicially declared clear right of a fictional person, a "corporate" person, to have and use liberties that humans hold.

And the screed goes on and on.

It is twenty-five pages and it defines, arguably, an agenda that our present-day Republican power structure would find hateful and opposed to all the Republican party has ever stood for from its founding in the mid nineteenth century onward.

So, GOP pundits, know your enemy, this link.

Know also, that the two opening paragraphs are quotes from a predecessor, i.e., the observations of labor and capital and which should be viewed as preeminent have a history. There is a thread among these sordid radical anti-American hate-filled socialist RINO speakers.

Or correct me if I am wrong.

RAMSEY - Note new sidebar poll - Amy Erickson kicks the can to the intersection. The question of a four-way stop at Armstrong Blvd. and Alpine Blvd. "County jurisdiction" means the District 1 board candidates should each go on record, pro or con the change.

Amy Erickson wants action, and by contacting me by email, I am posting the gist of her message, and her email address in case others want to join her effort for action - the gist:

Amy hears the city will be blacktopping a path in that neighborhood. Amy feels already the intersection is dangerous [I am aware that Armstrong north of Alpine has a dip in the road where oncoming traffic might not be ideally visible from Alpine]. Amy believes a path for biking and walking should not be installed without making the intersection a four-way stop, something she favors in any event. A path runs between Hwy.5 and into Alpine Park. Presently, four way stops have been installed at Alpine-Hwy5; Alpine-Sunfish; and Alpine-Ramsey. My understanding is that at each of those three intersections accident frequency and severity have been reduced.

Contact Amy Erickson by email if you wish to join her effort for a change, or to express support; and you can express an opinion via the sidebar poll whether you contact Erickson or not:

aimless55303@yahoo.com

City of Ramsey does a "handoff." Ramsey is not at fault. Amy contacting the city is told it is a county road jurisdiction situation. The city lacks power to change the intersection signage, traffic management on its own.

Two candidates want to be on the County Board and should go on record on the question. We are on the eve of election day. I have emailed before posting to Natalie Steffen and Matt Look, about the situation, requesting responsive email from each, which I will publish, on these questions (between the dotted lines):

.....................................................

Do you believe making the Alpine-Armstrong intersection a four way stop is merited?

If you favor a four way stop, will you commit now that, if elected, it will be a priority to convince other board members to have the county highway - transportation people make the change?

Would the question of a pathway at the intersection going westward on Alpine, (with one already existing along the wetland on the south side of Alpine between Armstrong and Variolite), make you more or less favorable to making the Alpine-Armstrong intersection a four way stop?

Please answer the three questions, and if you want to add about fifty or so words of explanation, that would also be published.

...........................


_________UPDATE -- STEFFEN RESPONSE____________
I put calls in to Look [the number he has with City of Ramsey on its website] and Steffen [a number from a flyer] noting the short notice on the question, and that I had posted and sent email.

Steffen phoned, about to go door knocking she had no time to email a reply, but the gist is that the question of the county road, Armstrong, and Alpine, which she noted is not a county road but a major Ramsey east-west arterial for the city, needs attention. She would in office press for updated traffic counts and accident data and it would be an administrative question if it "meets warrants" which she explained is a weighting system the county highway people use, administratively, regarding accidents and accident severity, and traffic counts. She would favor it not being a county board policy level matter, but that the board and top county administration make it known to the county highway department that the question merits very serious attention. Because legal liability questions are a part of any such consideration she noted that the county attorney's office also becomes involved in the question. Steffen noted that because of crowding on Hwy 65 and Hwy 10, the county highway grid system is bearing a heavier load over time.

_____UPDATE--CRABGRASS OPINION_____
My hope - apart from Look or Steffen, it is not their opinion but mine - is that the sidebar poll and Amy as a person interested may become a focus for people in Ramsey to mobilize opinion.

Steffen did not say, and the conversation was not lengthy and drawn out because it is the eve of the election and she has many things taking attention, primarily door knocking, but I infer that her response includes knowing that other County places, Andover for example, are seeing the county grid traffic rates increasing also, and that the county board must balance its approach without favoritism or front-running contests between locales - and that the administrative process is best relied upon to use objective and balanced criteria independent of locale.

I think it strange that other County Highway crossings of Alpine are all managed with intersection protections [Hwy 47 even has a traffic light] absent at Armstrong where north-south traffic has no "incentivized" need to slow or show more caution at the Alpine intersection.

I'd like it to be a four way stop, but that's only one sidebar poll vote. I urge each reader to enter a poll response. It will be open until mid-November, to gain a reasonable sample of opinion.

________UPDATE -- LOOK RESPONSE_________
We have had similar issues/concerns further up Armstrong Blvd, at the intersection entering Central Park. The City has tried working with the County on many occasions to remedy problem intersections on county roads. For the record, I supported the four way stop at Alpine and Ramsey Blvd. It was told to us then that the county did not want to change patterns (add a four way stop) on the roadway, for fear of rear-end collisions and the fact that the county would be liable up to $400K, for tort liability limits. After research, the county has never had to cut such a check. Furthermore, for more than a year after the installation of 4 ways, there has not been one accident to date.....prior to the 4 way stop, we averaged 12 accidents a year, I believe one was a fatality and the others were severe property damage accidents.

I would suspect that the same fear of "rear-end collisions" has driven policy on Armstrong. Seeing as those fears are unsubstantiated, I would be in favor of slowing the traffic down. There may need to be a couple of 4 ways installed, both at Alpine and at the intersection feeding Central Park , due to the amount of traffic that goes in and comes out of there. Thankfully there has not been any severe accidents there to the best of my knowledge.

We have experienced better than anticipated success at Ramsey Blvd...I would have to believe that we would have the same success on Armstrong.

One additional issue to consider is that of the new School being proposed, west of Armstrong and south of Alpine. The school will have access to Alpine, which may increase bike traffic to and from the school.

_________CRABGRASS WRAP-UP_________
It will not be the decisive issue in the election, obviously, but it is a community concern that needs the attention of the county - Ramsey cannot alter the intersection on its own.

I think it was helpful to have both people respond, when they obviously are busy.

Whatever your feelings, if you have not voted absentee, do not fail to vote tomorrow.