Walz extends his veterans gravatis toward another special interest bloc. In apparent good faith and showing judgment.

Meanwhile Pawlenty is on a wholly different planet, one where the green is money.

Strib uses its Editorial Board and shows concern for opiate abuse:

Walz bill sends message to VA: Get going on medical marijuana research --- Veterans deserve the best chronic pain, PTSD treatment options.
By Editorial Board Star Tribune -- April 19, 2018 — 5:56pm

Despite legality that varies by state, an October 2017 survey by the American Legion found that nearly one in five veterans were “currently using cannabis to treat a medical condition” in lieu of opioids and were reporting better outcomes. It’s surprising the number isn’t higher given how many aging veterans or those returning from combat suffer from chronic pain — 50 percent and 60 percent, respectively, compared with 30 percent of Americans.

These data from one of the nation’s best-known veterans service organizations offer a compelling look at how an old and sometimes demonized drug could ease the suffering of those who have served. [...]

That’s why Congress needs to act without delay in passing a new bipartisan bill championed by Reps. Phil Roe, a Tennessee Republican, and Tim Walz, a Minnesota Democrat who is running for governor. The duo’s “VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act,” announced this week, would clarify the authority that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has to research marijuana’s role in treating veterans. “When a veteran tells me they’re finding relief, I believe them,” Walz said in an interview this week.

Would you expect veteran suffering and opioid worry to be a topic at those secret big-ticket-holder fundraisers that have marked the Pawlenty reincarnated Sam's Club visit to Minnesota from comfortable duties and compensation on the Potomac rather than the Mississippi?

Would you expect attention and approval from the FOX-Koch protege who astroturfed on the backs of veterans to get where he gets press coverage for being phoned from the White House on ways to dismantle best aspects of the VA?

What you can grasp is that the marijuana legalization snowball has not escaped Walz attention, and that he addresses it in a most cautious but legitimate and sincere way. Legalization worked in other states by removing criminal street dealing from control and generating needed tax revenue, so that having a proven track record is beyond dispute.

Those wanting to be Minnesota's Governor cannot sensibly duck the issue. Watch the Johnson-Pawlenty opinion shaping efforts soon to come. It will be charming to see those two gentlemen hone policies each advances as best for the people, yet in tune with their people. Or will each of them simply sling mud at Democrats?

_____________UPDATES____________
Studies are being done where legalization has created a significant pool of user data.

Rudy Giuliani joins the Trump legal "brain trust." Fit that into the Saudi sword dance.

Trump-Rudy. Date line April 19, 2018.

Rudy.

Sword dance.

Regionalism. Reported gas pains.

Trump and Rudy, birds of a feather?

Are there any Michael Cohen ties to Rudy now? What of earlier ties to Roy Cohn?

Trump-Cohn.

Rense writing about Rudy. A/k/a how to add real credibility to Trump's team.

___________UPDATE___________
From NY Times archives, 1986, closing paragraphs, perhaps there being a reason to quote:

''You never know about the totality of the system,'' he has said, ''until your own ox is gored.'' He still believes the system will exonerate him.

Today he said during a recess: ''This is the system. It may be deplorable, you may not like it - change the system.''

Our Revolution Minnesota needs to get its stuff together.

Endorsement page.

Removal of Leah Phifer, okay, she's declined to move to a primary and there will be one.

However, Jeff Erdmann is still posted, and he conceded and endorsed Craig. He said all along he'd abide, and he did.

Something smells of over-sensitivity to "Stronger Together" and that's the tune of the corporatist bloc.

That operation needs to endorse for the CD8 primary and to get behind Craig in CD2.

Craig is a progressive, on the issues, and while Erdmann remains a fine person, for crying out loud Craig's seeking a seat Jason Lewis holds.

Jason.

Lewis.

Who are these people and why are they tardy?

And whether there is a CD8 vote from there for the Emmer-Nolan career inner-party campaign worker with no private sector part to the resume, or for Lee who has worked in the private sector for most of her career and is a clear progressive, make a decision, folks.

Same old, same old, what?

Certainly Nolan did back Bernie, which was good, but aside from that Emmer is not exactly My Revolution. Indeed, Ian Todd is endorsed by Our Revolution in CD6, so Emmer is not exactly Their Revolution either. What's the politics at play there?


UPDATE: Some effort needs to be exerted to make a Blue Wave happen, and if it is to have any real progressive dimension, reasonable progressive responsive effort would be a part of the formula.

Leah Phifer is a good person who got hung out to dry.

Latest CD8 primary info - unless new reports say otherwise . . .

There was some confusion, Brady Slater who is with DNT wrote the item PiPress carried online Apr 15, stating Metsa and Kennedy were out. It appears that was only a conditional withdrawal; to apply had there been a convention endorsement. Apparently Sunday, Apr. 15, after PiPress published online, Metsa and Kennedy both declared themselves as in for the primary.

The latest word: Slater, Apr.18 writing at DNT:

On Wednesday, Phifer left the race altogether, saying she was only ever targeting party endorsement and that she wanted no part of a “divisive primary” she said would hurt the party.

“My goal, since first declaring my candidacy in October 2017, has always been to win the DFL endorsement, bring new voices to the table and strengthen the party,” Phifer said in a news release. “A divisive primary season would only serve to weaken the party and distract from the issues affecting the people of the 8th District.”

Phifer’s decision leaves four candidates vying for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary in August — Kirsten Kennedy, Michelle Lee, Jason Metsa and Joe Radinovich.

[...] Phifer said she will not endorse a candidate at this time.

That seems the present state of affairs.

So, this recent earlier Dev Crabgrass post is incorrect, there are four DFL primary entrants, unless and until news arises saying otherwise.

NOTE: This recent Dev Crabgrass remains true and correct today -- as true as it was years ago. The update in that 2009 post remains as true as the fact that the image in that update is a bald eagle.

____________UPDATE____________
The business in the latest DNT item cited above about the Latino Caucus does not ring true. This "researcher discovery" story is lame. Back when the Around the 8th in 80 days was first seen reported by Aaron Brown back then the sidebar item about Phifer was posted; including the link to an item Phifer wrote that was published online by MinnPost; for everyone to have seen before Phifer's formal entry into the race in opposition to Nolan - indeed before the summer district tour by motorcycle:

In defense of the executive branch
By Leah Phifer | 02/24/17

On Feb. 20, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security released a series of documents providing guidance on how the Trump administration plans to address its promises of increased immigration enforcement. Specifically, the documents detail expanded enforcement priorities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reinstating such policies as the 287(g) program, rolled back in 2014. Having worked for ICE for six years, I know what comes next. In the upcoming weeks and months, photos of ICE arrests will be front-page news, and individuals’ deportation stories will provoke strong emotions. Many people will see those photos and think, “Look at those jackbooted thugs, kicking in doors and rounding up families – who do they think they are?” Before this all begins, I’d like to take a moment to tell you a little about the people in the headlines.

[...] There are a lot of misconceptions about why people seek out careers in law enforcement. Many people think it’s because we all want to carry guns and kick in doors. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I started a career at ICE after having spent several years abroad. I wanted to use my foreign-language skills to help undocumented immigrants through the deportation process – a very confusing and stressful situation often compounded by a language barrier. During my time there, I met some “bad hombres” – pedophiles, rapists and violent felons. Sometimes I met single mothers trying to build a better life for their children. In the latter case, I would study their background, their family history, the story of how they arrived here. I would look for anything that would qualify a hardworking parent for legal status in the U.S. and then make a referral to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Sometimes I was able to help, and other times I wasn’t, but I never once forgot the delicate humanity of everyone I encountered.

Though I left ICE three years ago, I still work in national security and I’ve never once felt torn between a desire to help people and the pursuit of justice. We need to shed this idea that half the population chooses law enforcement over compassion, while the other half wants to let their bleeding hearts put our national security at risk. For the past 10 years, I’ve been both a proud bleeding heart and an ardent enforcer of the law. My friends represent a mix of brilliant immigration attorneys, as well as dedicated ICE officers. I support the ACLU. I’ve drafted Warrants of Deportation and shed tears of joy at a naturalization ceremony, often in the same day. No one side has the moral high ground here; we’re all devoted to upholding the law, even if we’re working on different sides of the issue.

ICE may be the first federal agency to provoke public ire as the new administration churns out executive orders, but it won’t be the last. During the next few years, I urge people on both sides of the aisle to remember that civil servants are trying to do the best we can with the orders we’re given. Like you, we want what is best for our country. Immigrants undoubtedly make our country better, but so do the individuals enforcing our immigration laws.

Leah Phifer, of Isanti, is a graduate of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She has been working for the federal government since 2008 and continues her national security career at the Department of Justice.
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Comments (15)
Tell me again . . . .
Submitted by Pat Berg on February 24, 2017 - 9:41am.

Tell me again how "sensitive" these ICE agents are:

"ICE Agents Take Undocumented Mom With Brain Tumor From Hospital To Detention Center"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/undocumented-woman-with-brain-tumor-...

Login or register to post comments

Spend a little...
Submitted by Edward Blaise on February 24, 2017 - 10:13am.

Time along our Northern border and see ICE in action. Or should I say inaction. Walk into the I Falls custom's house and see 10 plus Kevlar wearing, hand gun toting clerk typists busily pecking away with no time to disengage and greet the citizen waiting at the counter. Read the reports of regular citizens being followed from their workplace to their homes on a steady basis: When asked why the response was "just practicing our surveillance techniques". Personally, I had an ICE agent scream by me with lights flashing well over the speed limit. When I reached the next gas station he was filling up and calmly cleaning out his back seat. And, as soon as he got back on the road? Yes, the lights came back on and he sped off over the speed limit. After the ICE agent who killed a beloved Northshore Dr. while speeding in bad weather, one would think more universal caution would be applied. Our Northern border is grossly over staffed and over budgeted. Here are the entities one may encounter on a border waters lake:

1. ICE
2. US Border Patrol
3. MN County Sheriff
4. MN DNR Enforcement
5. US Park Rangers
6. US Coast Guard
7. Canadian Provincial Police
8. Canadian MNR
9. Canadian Immigration
10. Canadian Customs Enforcement
12. Royal Canadian Mounted Police

And that is just the folks in boats. Add in the helicopters, airplanes and drones for the full list.

The US folks should be lined up and told to count off by ten and then numbers one thru nine given their transfer orders to El Paso. And number ten? Use a little common sense and be safe out there.

[...]

Phifer got ambushed. Her ICE ties were clear public knowledge for over a year before the CD8 convention. Fifteen (15) comments were published by MinnPost from people who can read. And did.

A contention that the Latino Caucus missed this when published is stupendously mind-boggling.

Whether the Latino Caucus was complacent, or sandbagging to time an objection at the convention is less relevant with Phifer out; but are they really that incompetent? To have missed the MinnPost item until the eve of the endorsement convention?

Hopefully not. Competence is a virtue.

Sandbagging, however, is nobody's virtue.
..............................................

Phifer was wise in not advancing into a primary that might have degeneratee into an ICE opinion survey, which is not the key issue.

Michelle Lee, of the remaining four primary entrants, is the one who firmly opposes sulfide mining as more risk than benefit. Others should be judged on their position, however waffled or clearly stated it may be on that issue.

Lee also is anything but a single issue candidate.

Hopefully Our Revolution will weigh an endorsement among the four advancing into the CD8 primary. Readers are urged to be vigilant for any such decision by the organization. Ditto for the DFL Environmental Caucus. Those are important opinion outlets.

The Latino Caucus can have their pick of the four; I don't care. I only hope they endorse in a timely, noncomplacent fashion. Rick Nolan's opinion, in my view, is in the same category.

______________FURTHER UPDATE________________
A reader emailed of a shorter KSTP online item about the Phifer decision. As with the DNT report, it ended stating, "In a release, Phifer said she was not endorsing any of the remaining candidates at this time."

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
As a person with a media background and hence attuned to video content, Michelle Lee has a YouTube channel. It is not known whether any of the others have taken such a step. Anybody willing to do a Rosie the Riveter pose for the "We Can Do It" fun of it deserves a nod of respect from CD8 district elders.

Youngsters, go google it.

It is shameful that this video got only three viewings. Justin Perpich probably was one of them or should have been. Sipress does not mince words. It is refreshing to see his early endorsement.

Her ActBlue donate page. Snail mail:

Michelle Lee for Congress, P.O. Box 566, Moose Lake MN 55767

Yes, Phifer's candidacy was unique and fresh in approach, the guess being neither Michelle Lee nor the others are motorcyclists.

But that was an introduction by Phifer, with the substance and appeal following. With her out and her not nodding toward others, it is time to look at the remaining hopeful foursome. Lee talks the progressive talk, and that is helpful. An interesting anecdote, Lee before the convention phoned the houshold, I was the one home, and after telling her I supported Phifer her response was, "Well at least you've chosen a Democrat."

Last, after Phifer support and now looking at Lee, please do not accuse me of gender bias. I liked Erdmann in CD2. Now I like Craig. Also, it is not gender bias, not a whit, to say Jason Lewis and Stauber are worrisome. It is because they are.

_____________FURTHER AND FINAL UPDATE____________
If you want waffle free environmental good sense, watch this candidate forum YouTube segment. That leaves few questions or room for differning interpretation. No weaseling about we just assure it is done safely, with an escrow, and hunkey dorey why are we waiting, sing with me, Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.

None of that with Lee. Check out the others.

The State Auditor position died. The supremes ruled that "Let Rocco do the auditing, he's friendly" will be the rule from now on.

Strib reports. They did not say it was wise. They said it was not illegal. Also from reporting it appears that a policing oversight power remains:

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against State Auditor Rebecca Otto Wednesday, ending her legal effort to block a 2015 law that allows counties to hire outside accountants rather than her office.

Otto, a DFL candidate for governor, had argued that the law undermined her authority. She sued Becker and Wright counties after they hired CPA firms, and challenged Ramsey County's refusal to sign a three-year contract ensuring that her office had the sole right to conduct audits.

In a statement Wednesday, Otto said that the high court had "now made clear that the State Auditor has authority and responsibility over county finances, including the authority to conduct additional examinations of a county following a private CPA firm audit."

She said the Supreme Court opinion "clearly establishes the role of the State Auditor in county finances and sets an important precedent that protects taxpayer dollars."

[...] The opinion concluded that the 2015 law did not violate the separations of powers clause in the Minnesota Constitution [... which] "does not expressly detail the duties of the constitutional executive officers" of state government and are instead "prescribed by law."

The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court that the state auditor retains the authority to "set uniform standards for auditing counties and ensure compliance with those standards."

In Strib's reporting, the paragraphs covered by the first ellipsis had Republican snipers quoted doing their little thing against there having been litigation of the questions. Partisan hackdom remains alive and well.

But will a policing function be real moving forward? And will it be more politicized? The legislature will set an agency budget and within that budget whichever party holds the Auditor office might be inclined to police more closely counties controlled by the other party. If starved of funds, the office of State Auditor could become a haven for a handful of voted-out legislators from the same party as the Auditor, with nothing to do and needing regular pay. In effect, ceremonial window dressing much akin to a few other civil jobs, e.g., the airport commission where professionals run the operation, and other board and commission "parking lot posts for the voted-out, politically connected, or election losers who chased higher office." Where the staff carries the weight, while the appointees get the better window-offices and larger desks.

A bottom line, shrinking the office and allowing local control of both the spending and the oversight over the spending is an invitation for friendships, discord and intrigue. Bless the legislators behind the will to so empower local control to where it can more easily run amok.

The Twins and Indians playing in Puerto Rico.

If you watched it televised, it emphasized how much more fun televised Baseball can be if not in a crapified ball park. Likely so if there in person, not being gouged on ticket price or food. Like a St. Paul Saints game. Also, the players did not look cold.

CD8 DFL: The final shoe dropped. The primary will be Michelle Lee vs. Joe Radinovich, may the better candidate win.

Phifer in an email to supporters reported her decision to withdraw. It being a public statement apart from any press release she may issue, here is a part:

I’m writing to share some difficult news with you today. After assessing resources and potential primary election strategies, I have decided not to move my candidacy forward to represent Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. I’m so proud of the grassroots followingLeah addressing the convention with supporters Dan Fanning, Michael Mayou, Nevada Littlewolf and Lisa Radosevich. we’ve built across the district – farmers, students, teachers and many more have kept this campaign afloat even while barely making ends meet for themselves. Without DFL party resources, I can’t keep asking my supporters to keep sacrificing for this campaign (though I have no doubt that you would). It was not an easy decision to make, but again I’m incredibly proud of what we built and how we moved the needle forward in the 8th district. We may not have made it all the way, but we forever altered the conversation by bringing new voices to the table.

Looking back over the past ten months, because of your dedication and resilience, we went extremely far. You took me - a political newcomer and grassroots candidate - and turned me into the top delegate-earner in an open endorsement race for Congress. Whoever our next representative is, I hope they follow the path we have carved out together.

[...] I was once told there is a very close relationship between how people treat women and how they treat the earth - we've seen that play out very clearly the past several months. Please continue to fight for both; I know I will. It was the greatest honor to be a vehicle for your voices these past few months.

While believing Lee has the sounder candidacy between her and Radinovich, little likely will be posted here about the CD8 contest after Phifer's withdrawal. The belief was always she'd be extraordinarily good as a fresh voice in Congress. That level of promise will be hard for the two remaining candidates to match. I had the same feeling about Jeff Erdmann. Craig will be okay, if she gets past Jason Lewis. She and Erdmann could not both advance. She should give Lewis a better run this cycle than last. She was the better candidate then, but now she's more experienced. And the Blue Wave is anticipated, may it happen with more progressives than corporatists. Craig is enough a progressive. Then next to Lewis, no contest.

CD3 needs an upgrade too, big time. The absentee if defeated likely will remain in DC, his habitat, for lobbying loot.