Cause to vote for Bjorn Skogquist - unjustifiable waste and self-agrandizement by his opponent.

See: Residual Forces, here.

Junketing - not needed.

Northstar related.

Going to Boise ID so Dan Erhart could pose, and cut a ribbon.

Taxpayer money.

Junketing - not needed.

Dan Erhart - not needed.


###

Also, the photo web location indicates the County's and Northstar's favored PR flak firm was fed its share of the pork:

http://himlehorner.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/12/20080710_1703_sm.jpg


You don't see Rhonda Sivarajah on these wasteful junkets.

Nor will you see Bjorn Skogquist or Becky Fink wasting tax resources for personally gratifying ego trips. It surprises me Scott LeDoux had other commitments.

Overlap With Tinklenberg Resume Gaps: If you read the links Residual Forces gives, the name "Jon Olson" shows up: Jon Olson, Anoka County Public Works Division Manager, was a co-junketeer with Erhart.

Isn't that basically the job Tinklenberg had with the County, handing out contract pork, which is one of the several gaps in his online campaign resume.

_____UPDATE - MORE OF THE SAME______




_______A MAJOR NEWS UPDATE________
If this were the only instance of waste in Anoka County government at the senior staff and Board of Commissioners level, it would arguably not be cause to sweep out the abusive individuals. However, with thanks to the Anoka County watchdog and his friends for a public data discovery request shedding light, reports here and here indicate that abusive waste of an inexcusible kind is running rempant. Waste is the rule, not the exception. Go to that blog link, and work from the links he provides, and read for yourself. The watchdog and friends have blown the lid on Dan Erhart's kingly abuses of public credit card access, such as:

The volume of [complete] material and the number of actors involved is simply too large to cover point by point. (For example, MNRG’s executive summary runs 95 pages).

COMMISSIONER DAN ERHART

Not surprisingly, Commissioner Erhart led all county commissioners with respect to travel, meals, and reimbursement. Erhart racked up over $32,000 in expenses over the covered period. It is important to also keep in mind that this number is quite likely grossly underestimated. The Watchdog has frequently reported that county insiders tell us that Erhart likes to bring county employees to meals where he eats on the taxpayer dime but has the employee put the meal on his card, thus putting the expense under the employee’s name and not Erhart’s. These receipts are often summarized expenses, making it difficult to fix accountability.


What we do know is that Erhart was present at some 209 meals where a county credit card was used [...] when it comes to putting on the ol’ taxpayer feedbag:

Billy’s Grill (66 times)
Canyon Grille (33 times)
TPC Golf Course Club House (17 times)
The Lexington (10 times)

Manny’s Steakhouse (one night = $519.61 tab) Morton’s Steakhouse (one night = $449.73 tab) Jax Café (one night = $470 tab)

No less shocking are Erhart’s hotel accommodations.

More like a condo room at Lutsen resort, complete with a king bed, fireplace, whirlpool, and wet bar.

http://www.lutsenresort.com/poplar.htm

Or how about the Jefferson Hotel, where Erhart had the taxpayers pay for a “Superior King” room?

http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/index.aspx


Some of Erhart’s other hotel digs include:

http://www.phoenixparkhotel.com/

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/DCAWHHH-Hilton-Washington-District-of-Columbia/index.do

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1004

http://www.missionpalms.com/

http://www.hiltonhawaiianvillage.com/


How many of Erhart’s constituents can afford this lifestyle? Must be rough.

This is offensive in a major way. There is no possible excuse for Dan Erhart's doing this to taxpayers.

VOTE ERHART OUT. VOTE BJORN SKOGQUIST ONTO THE COUNTY COMMISSION IN HIS PLACE. PROTECT YOUR COUNTY'S MONEY AND RESTORE COUNTY COMMISSION RESPECT.

Sing Along with Michele Bachmann.

And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full.
I've traveled each and ev'ry highway;
But more, much more than this,

I did it my way.

I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,

I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
[high heels and all]

And did it my way.




________
UPI online photo, from: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/23/Group_urges_GOP_not_to_cut_and_run/UPI-60661224802494/

Lyrics from: http://www.elyrics.net/read/f/frank-sinatra-lyrics/my-way-lyrics.html



_______UPDATE________
Online and from the city with the world's largest praying hands and hosting that esteemed seat of learning, Oral Roberts University, the Tulsa World reports:

10/25/2008 -- Last Modified: 10/25/2008 2:56 AM
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Tom Cole's already bumpy tenure as head of the committee in charge of electing House Republicans has grown a little bumpier.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is accusing the Oklahoma Republican of abandoning social conservatives right before the election and is calling for a boycott of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

One of the Republican incumbents Perkins claims that Cole is abandoning is Michele Bachmann, who drew national attention recently by saying Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama might have anti-American views.

Bachmann reportedly later expressed regret for that comment, which some believe has hurt her re-election bid.

"You have made a grave error in judgment by pulling your funds from the Michele Bachmann race in Minnesota and the Marilyn Musgrave race in Colorado," Perkins said to Cole in a letter from the Family Research Council Action political action committee. "The left is attacking both of these outstanding women because they are true conservatives. They vote pro-life and pro-family."

See a parallel AP feed, here; see DumpBachmann, here.

Beyond the suits. Nasser Kazeminy and Norm Coleman. A friend with a plane. A friend in need. A friend indeed.

For a pic of Kazeminy, here.

For ties between the two running into six figures, and that is personal to Coleman, i.e., above and beyond Kazeminy's five-figure giving to Coleman's PAC, see here.

With the "a friend with a plane" story, Coleman junketing via Nasser Kazeminy's jet, and other overlap, there's this in the Nation, and this at MnPublius.

Kazeminy apparently since 1966 has been buying IT small growth firms and opportunities, including cherry-picking from Control Data's gradual demise, see here and search the man's last name. That's going back to the IBM antitrust litigation against IBM, its curiously unique settlement terms, and what from that situation ended up Nasser's semi-private game is also curious. A big push for online banking.

How does that background, litigation support software, online banking, etc., fit any parallel political efforts and history of Coleman? How were the seeds of that friendship sown - my guess being it did not start with use of the plane.

And how do you like those one-liners, "just a friend with a plane," and "between me, my wife, and the firm." As if Nasser were somehow out in the cold, no role at all re the six-figure thing, with "the firm." Perhaps that is actually the case and some appearances are misleading. Opening the books and showing more might silence critics.

Aubrey Immelman write-in candidacy for Minnesota's Sixth Congressional seat gains attention.

See articles, here.

It would be good for Sixth District voters if this suggestion were to lead to Immelman getting an opportunity at a national TV appearance, to show that Republicans in my district are not all vain dumb-as-an-ox theocratic ideologues.

I think the Sixth District situation with three viable ballot choices and a superior write-in choice is unique, and twice as diverse as most other congressional districts heading into election day.

New York Times endorses Obama. Republicans besides Powell endorse Obama.

I have not seen any major media or Dem crossover endorsement of McCain (I do not view Joe Lieberman as one). Readers are invited in comments to add information.

Here is an extended excerpt of what the NYT editorial staff said, online here:

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment.

In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans’ bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government’s role and responsibilities.

THE ECONOMY: The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer.

Mr. Obama sees that far-reaching reforms will be needed to protect Americans and American business.

Mr. Obama is clear that the nation’s tax structure must be changed to make it fairer. That means the well-off Americans who have benefited disproportionately from Mr. Bush’s tax cuts will have to pay some more. Working Americans, who have seen their standard of living fall and their children’s options narrow, will benefit.

Mr. McCain, who once opposed President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy as fiscally irresponsible, now wants to make them permanent. And while he talks about keeping taxes low for everyone, his proposed cuts would overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent of Americans while digging the country into a deeper fiscal hole.

NATIONAL SECURITY: The American military — its people and equipment — is dangerously overstretched.

While Iraq’s leaders insist on a swift drawdown of American troops and a deadline for the end of the occupation, Mr. McCain is still talking about some ill-defined “victory.” As a result, he has offered no real plan for extracting American troops and limiting any further damage to Iraq and its neighbors.

Mr. Obama was an early and thoughtful opponent of the war in Iraq, and he has presented a military and diplomatic plan for withdrawing American forces. Mr. Obama also has correctly warned that until the Pentagon starts pulling troops out of Iraq, there will not be enough troops to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, has only belatedly focused on Afghanistan’s dangerous unraveling and the threat that neighboring Pakistan may quickly follow.

Both candidates talk tough on terrorism, and neither has ruled out military action to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But Mr. Obama has called for a serious effort to try to wean Tehran from its nuclear ambitions with more credible diplomatic overtures and tougher sanctions.

CONSTITUTION AND THE RULE OF LAW: Under Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the justice system and the separation of powers have come under relentless attack. Mr. Bush chose to exploit the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, the moment in which he looked like the president of a unified nation, to try to place himself above the law.

Mr. Bush has arrogated the power to imprison men without charges and browbeat Congress into granting an unfettered authority to spy on Americans. He has created untold numbers of “black” programs, including secret prisons and outsourced torture.

Both candidates have renounced torture and are committed to closing the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

But Mr. Obama has gone beyond that, promising to identify and correct Mr. Bush’s attacks on the democratic system. Mr. McCain has been silent on the subject.

The next president will have the chance to appoint one or more justices to a Supreme Court that is on the brink of being dominated by a radical right wing. Mr. Obama may appoint less liberal judges than some of his followers might like, but Mr. McCain is certain to pick rigid ideologues. He has said he would never appoint a judge who believes in women’s reproductive rights.

THE CANDIDATES: Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing.

Mr. McCain could have seized the high ground on energy and the environment. Earlier in his career, he offered the first plausible bill to control America’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Now his positions are a caricature of that record: think Ms. Palin leading chants of “drill, baby, drill.”

Mr. Obama has endorsed some offshore drilling, but as part of a comprehensive strategy including big investments in new, clean technologies.

Mr. Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted against a candidate. He’s been called un-American and accused of hiding a secret Islamic faith. The Republicans have linked him to domestic terrorists and questioned his wife’s love of her country. Ms. Palin has also questioned millions of Americans’ patriotism, calling Republican-leaning states “pro-America.”

This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities.

Guardian reports on the crossover endorsements, here.

Detail about former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan's endorsement, here.

_______UPDATE______
More Obama endorsements, including two Iowa papers, here. Endorsement reporting, (including two for McCain), here and here. McCain expected to continue to hold Hagee endorsement, as was reported leap-year day, this year. Sure, that's a cheap shot but I imagine the Palin appointment will not have quelled Hagee's enthusiasms, for McCain.

The abuse of anonymity. I do not mean blog-anonymous. I mean indefensible things done in the community.

Strib, PiPress and now an AP feed by reporter Patrick Condon which is going nationwide, (for example here, here, here and here), have reported parallel vandalizing [graffiti] of the Coleman, Klobuchar, Ellison, Kline and Ramstad homes, and the old Bachmann home in Stillwater.

"Psalm2" is one repeated motif, with the PiPress item showing a photograph of the Coleman garage with that marking, then by a sidebar linking over to bible text (Why do the heathen rage, ...), here, here or here.

Annendale Advocate, here, reports of a particularly offensive Obama-Biden sign vandalization. Blueman provides the image:



Vandalized yard signs are not new. Usually the signs and rebar are taken, or the signs ripped loose or in two. This puts a clear and threatening hate crime dimension to things.

The home graffiti has a threatening dimension also.

All of this is not new - bigots of whatever kind not putting their "statement" on their own homesite where the "speech" is backed up by identifying the "speaker."

THESE ACTS ARE BY PEOPLE WELL KNOWING THEY ARE DOING WRONG. THAT IS WHY THEY DO IT ANONYMOUSLY. THEY ARE UNWILLING TO STAND AND FACE REPERCUSSIONS OF THEIR ACTS.

The Obama-Biden sign is, in terms of property damage and remedial burden the least offensive. In terms of the message, it offends most.

This occurs at a time where I independently came across two parallel John Sack items, an article he wrote and a speech he gave to a Holocaust denial conference, on the nature of hate, revenge, and how it harms not only the target but the hater.

Here and here.

I have seen and found online Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You, [here and here], and Letter to a Hindu, which was influential on Gandhi and his passive resistance non-violent view of change and attaining it short of might makes right neocon kinds of thinking. It sits quite contrary to the kinds of things these anonymous people seem to convey about themselves and their motivations. I think it is a perspective that is helpful in viewing these present acts of vandals and the hate crime question.

Remember Phil Gramm's phrase, "A nation of whiners?" In general it's ill-grounded, but some people define for themselves a context.

______UPDATE_______
The link is here. Sifting through all the whining and negativity, it appears her concern is Franken might favor federal judicial appointees respectful of Roe v. Wade, and she does not like that. Or as she indirectly whines, at the very end of her item,

[T]he Constitution entrusts the Senate with unique powers -- its members conduct impeachment trials, make treaties, and give the president advice and consent on important appointments, including Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and federal judicial nominees with lifetime tenure.

A Minnesota senator represents the whole state, not a smaller, relatively homogeneous congressional district, as House members do.

If Franken is elected, can he represent all the people of Minnesota -- including Christians -- for whom he has repeatedly shown disdain?

I think she means that in her view of the world representing "Christians," something she knows so very much about, means having to make the concession of favoring anti-choice judges. Instead of directly taking on the issue, she wrings her hands and whines and never directly gets to any point. And that is why many never give her any attention or if they start a Kersten column they are unlikely to go further than four paragraphs into it.