I went over to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Bloomington, MN this morning as Robert Erickson (seen here previously as he punk’d Ruthie Hendrycks and Sue Jeffers at their tea party) and some others attempted to voluntarily submit themselves for deportation.

As self-described “illegal European immigrants,” did the fine folks at Immigration and Customs Enforcement send them back to “where they came from?”

Watch the video to find out!

Update: there’s more: check out the video from Bluestem Prairie and TC Indy Media here.

As mentioned over at Bluestem Prairie, I went over to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Bloomington this morning as Robert Erickson (seen here previously as he punk’d Ruthie Hendrycks and Sue Jeffers at their tea party) and some others attempted to voluntarily submit themselves for deportation.

When visited by self-described “illegal European immigrants,” did the fine folks at Immigration and Customs Enforcement send them back to “where they came from?” Come back to IDHA later today to see the full video!

The folk from Minnesota Democrats Exposed posted a press release from former three-term MN state representative from the 80’s, Allen Quist, announcing his candidacy to challenge Tim Walz in the 1st district.  This 65-year old who should be retiring is now an ambitious McCain clone with views that actually hurt our senior’s healthcare (as a nurse, I’ll never understand that conservative viewpoint).  What is most interesting is Allen Quist’s lack of mentioning GOP efforts to support him, the Mayo Clinic (given the issue of healthcare and of course, the failure of Brian Davis to win in 2008), but instead mentions the Tea Party!  This is awesome (or blatantly stupid on his part) considering recent posts on Bluestem and here on IDHA about the tea baggers ridiculous anti-immigrant views.  Seriously, just watch the video from the two posted links above to see how proud they are of being “European Americans.”  Hell, if I was there they’d be hating me simply because I am of mixed blood of two of our enemies from WWII, Germany and Japan.  I’m guessing their ancestors at least have one of those two in them as well, yet they are clearly much better… sure.  I’m hoping for them to announce their public support for Allen Quist very soon, especially after Quist mentions them in his press release:

 “Southern Minnesota voters have been holding Tea Party rallies and contacting Congressman Walz’s office asking him not to support these wasteful government spending bills that force more government control of our lives,” said Quist.

DJ recently discussed Allen Quist’s horrible political ads when him and I were just youngin’s, but DJ’s incredible memory is relived through this post.  He also mentions Quist’s tendency to be a “super-mega-ultra right winger.”  If Brian Davis got a little over 30% of the vote in 2008, I’m guessing someone even more right-winged would likely get less of a turnout.  Again, let’s hope for a public endorsement from the Tea Party.

Here’s MDE’s posting of Allen Quist’s press release announcing his candidacy (credit must go where credit is due):

(St. Peter, MN) – Former State Representative Allen Quist has announced that he will run against U.S. Representative Tim Walz for the First District Congressional Seat.  Quist served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1982 to 1988, runs a family farm of 1200 acres with his son Andrew in rural St. Peter, and recently retired as a teacher at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato

Quist, a Republican, said his message will be simple and straightforward:  ”If people like what Congress is doing, they should vote for the incumbent,” Quist said.  ”But if they believe, as I do, that Congress is headed in the wrong direction, then I will be the alternative.”

According to Quist there have been three unusually important bills under consideration during this session of Congress: the $787 billion Stimulus bill, Cap and Trade, and the Health Care bill.  ”Representative Walz has been on the wrong side of all three,” said Quist.

Quist emphasizes that government spending is totally out of control.  ”Just the Stimulus bill by itself added over $10,000 of new government debt for every family of four in our nation,” he explained.  Quist also said that present Congressional spending trends will almost double our national debt-from 40% of GDP today to 87% of D+GDP by 2020.  Quist says this means, “continued high unemployment and burdening the next generation with a level of debt that will substantially reduce their quality of life.”

“The Cap and Trade bill will add $6,800 per year of higher energy costs for every family of four and the Health Care bill, which is supposed to reduce medical costs, will actually increase total costs by over $100 billion each year,” said Quist.

Quist added that the Health Care bill contains a huge hidden tax on the middle class and will substatnitally reduce the access senior citizens have to needed health care.  ”In terms of costs,” Quist said, “big business is the big winner and the middle class is the big loser.  American citizens of the middle class will be forced to pay the bills.”

“Southern Minnesota voters have been holding Tea Party rallies and contacting Congressman Walz’s office asking him not to support these wasteful government spending bills that force more government control of our lives,” said Quist.  ”Congressman Walz continually shows by his votes that he is out of step with the voters of the First District.

Not a real bad press release, despite the ugly spelling error of “substantially” (spell check anyone on a major release?) to try and emphasize his agenda.  In other news, I just finished my Master’s degree so I should have more time to post!  Woohoo!

[Update 11/19/09, 8:00 P.M.]

In a press release sent out by the Tim Walz camp, they responded to Allen Quist’s announcement of his candidacy by mentioning the Tea Party connection as well.  Check out this excerpt:

Today, the right-wing tea party Republicans announced their plans to run long-time politician and former State Representative Allen Quist from St. Peter. 

I really hope the tea baggers and Quist work closely together in this race as a simple google search (”tea party rally”) of the group portrays their not so patriotic movement.  A substantial amount of the news and blog links focus on the groups attacks on protesters at Tea Party rallies across the country while they appear impervious to expressing racism.

Here are some excerpts from the Christian Science Monitor about Tea Party violence around the country.  Visit the aforementioned link for the entire article.

“At one anti-Obama protest in Arizona this summer, a protester carried a rifle slung over his shoulder. “[Tea-partiers] bringing weapons does suggest a stronger degree of alienation and threat,” he says.

Conservatives place the blame at Mr. Obama’s feet, saying his liberal leadership has made “union thugs” comfortable enough to confront conservatives in the streets.”

“The first spark of violence connected to the Tea Party movement came in St. Louis Aug. 6 when a Tea Party protester named Ken Gladney was injured after a confrontation with Service Employees International Union protesters.”

“A second scuffle also broke out last Saturday when Tea Party protesters in Phoenix attempted to evict a group of neo-Nazis trying to join their protest.”

Since these guys continue to be buzzworthy, IDHA will continue exposing connections between this radical conservative group and their support of candidates seeking positions in a government representing the great freedoms in our country.  More to come later!

Fresh off having her anti-immigration tea party get punk’d, MinnSIR’s Ruthie Hendrycks shares some deep thoughts about the history of her crusades, what she would like to do to combat illegal immigration right in St. Paul, and about the status of “the battle.”

Of course, she does this all the while struggling mightily to retain her composure.

Oh, and you will also see a tea-bagger get physical with counterprotesters, seemingly with the intent to provoke violence.

All this, plus a special appearance from KTLK’s Sue Jeffers!

Click here to check out Deep Thinking: with Ruthie Hendrycks!

Yes, we have even more video from yesterday’s ultra-fun anti-immigration tea party at the State Capitol.

In this clip we see Bill Ronan, a clinical social worker, state licensed psychotherapist, hypnotist, and practitioner of medical hypnoanalysis, claim that while well intentioned, the Violence Against Women Act is just a tool which enables illegal immigrants to obtain green cards.

According to Ronan, women routinely use VAWA to falsely claim domestic abuse in order to obtain a pathway to citizenship.

A member of the National Coalition for Men, Ronan’s clearly objective story about his background is given on its site:

Mr. Ronan married a foreign woman who then falsely accused him of domestic violence so she could invoke provisions of the Violence Against Women Act to gain citizenship. The courts refused to hear testimony or accept evidence from over 20 character witnesses on his behalf, including medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, clergy, and even his previous wife. Some of his character witnesses were harassed and terrorized. Mr. Ronan says that, “I am a member of NCFM because the organization is committed to the eradication of such gender biased injustice”. Mr. Ronan has an excellent reputation, is a leader in his areas of interest, and very concerned that our system of (in) justice favors political correctness over truth.

While I waited for my mooovie to process on YouTube and watched NASCAR, it didn’t take long for Sally Jo to pop around the internet and find some evidence contrary to the anecdotal claims Ronan made in his speech.  In fact, undocumented women still overwhelmingly face hurdles when legitimately attempting to obtain justice from VAWA.  A story from ILW:

For example, Blanca submitted a “self petition” under the Violence Against Women Act, after she separated from her U.S. citizen husband, who beat her for objecting to his bagging cocaine on the kitchen table while her children were in the house. The Vermont Service Center officer who decided her petition toyed with it and then denied it because he wanted her to tell him her “feelings.” The Administrative Appeals Officer agreed that the VSC officer was entitled to demand intimate details of the relationship to prove she married the abusive husband for legitimate reasons.

There was no question that the marriage was legitimate. If the couple had married only for the green card, then they would not have lived together and fallen out over cocaine and brutality. Most significantly, the evidence of legitimacy was not in any way questioned or contradicted. An ample preponderance of the evidence proved the fact. Implicitly, however, the two officers, both of whom are male, imposed a virtually conclusive presumption, with no basis in the law, that women who have been beaten by their husbands always lie when they say they married for legitimate reasons. The two officers illegally imposed an evidentiary burden on Blanca to overcome their invented presumption by far more evidence than would have been required to prove the fact in any court in the Free World.

Moreover, ILW disputes Ronan’s statistics:

Through 2007, three-fourths of the petitions filed by abused spouses were approved. Fewer than half of the 9,272 petitions filed in 2008 were approved. Records of the National Network to End Violence Against Women show that Blanca was not alone in being the victim of arbitrary bureaucratic action. Saying, “The VAWA unit must return to embracing the law, Gail Pendleton, Co-Director, ASISTA Immigration Assistance, explains that ’since the restructuring the C[itizenship and] I[mmigration] S[ervices], VAWA unit at V[ermont] S[ervice] C[enter] has denied VAWA self-petitions and U visas because of obvious ignorance about domestic violence and legal standards that violate the law. Because the CIS personnel who make policy can no longer communicate with the unit’s supervisors who are trained in domestic violence, there is no accountability for these wrongful denials.’

Check out the video of Ronan at IDHA’s YouTube channel here.

After all, not only is Ronan a hypnotist and all those other professional titles, he is a member of the Mensa High IQ Club and an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church!

Check out this clip from my video of today’s anti-immigration tea party at the Minnesota State Capitol.

The event was sponsored by MinnSir, lead by Ruthie Hendrycks, and featured KTLK’s Sue Jeffers as master of ceremonies. Unfortunately for Ruthie and Sue, one speaker on the agenda, Robert Erickson, had plans for his speech which didn’t include attacking Latinos.

Let’s just say, as we say in the rasslin’ business, these marks got swerved.

For more on this epic FAIL! by these tea baggers, check out Bluestem Prairie.

While I was in Winona this weekend visiting to catch fall graduation ceremonies at the ole’ alma mater, Winona State, I missed quite a bit of news concerning transportation issues, especially those surrounding US Highway 14 in southern Minnesota.

With a h/t to Bluestem Prairie, the Star Tribune shows us it has the ability to publish thoughtful stories about the First Congressional District, as opposed to those based nearly solely on press releases from ambitious GOPers, with a thorough piece about the deadly stretch of road around Owatonna.

Several years ago, as newcomers to Winona State, my colleagues and I would light-heartedly write off Highway 14 as a possible route getting to the metro area (instead sticking with I-90) as it is likely to become stuck behind a tractor and limited to traveling at 15 mph. Later we would find out 14’s problems go beyond inconvenience into the realm of real danger. From the Strib:

The highway, a mix of old two-lane and reconstructed four-lane sections, has blind intersections, heavy truck traffic, narrow shoulders and unexpected curves. It may be the deadliest highway in the state.

Since the mid-1980s, more than 145 people have been killed on the highway, which winds through 265 miles of farmland from Winona to the South Dakota border. On average, someone dies on the road every two months. And 75 percent of the deaths between 2000 and 2005 occurred on the two-lane stretches, state rec­ords show.

Instead of investing in transportation projects such as Highway 14, we keep getting empty political rhetoric from Republican officials. On TPT’s Almanac last month, John Kline called this year’s House Transportation bill, which had funding for Highway 14, the I-35W bridge and other projects, “fiscally irresponsible.” What’s really fiscally irresponsible: fixing the infrastructure now, or continuing to clean up wrecked vehicles, bringing accident victims to the hospital and taking the pieces of wrecked bridges out of the river?

On that same program, Rep. Tim Walz asked Kline why he should have to give up Highway 14 for his district when the President Bush won’t compromise on anything. Kline’s response: “We should all have to give.”

Meanwhile, GOP state Sen. Dick Day, who represents a district bisected by the highway, shows signs of being out of touch with what’s really going on. From the Owatonna People’s Press (I know I’m late here, but other stuff was on our minds when it came out):

Day and Ruth, both members of legislative committees concerning transportation, told the audience that transportation has been a low priority in Minnesota. The pair said they hoped to bring more funding and attention to transportation issues in Southern Minnesota.

“[Highway] 14 isn’t ever on the radar, yet,” Day said. “Everybody said health care, education are more important. The Bridge had to come down before a certain group of people would say that transportation is important.”

Barring a presidential veto, Highway 14 will soon be in line for federal funding. U.S Representative Tim Walz has sought funds in the 2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill for the expansion of the highway.

According to Meredith Salisbury, Walz’ press secretary, Walz earmarked $850,000 for Highway 14 in the current version of the bill. The revised bill still has yet to pass through the U.S. Senate. President George W. Bush threatened to veto the first version of the bill in October.

Day and Ruth did not mention the bill pending in the U.S. Congress, but explained to Chamber members that they hope to pass a comprehensive transportation plan and find state funding for Highway 14 and other road projects without resorting to a gas tax.

This is a classic article in the sense that Day forfeits any credibility even before reality is presented.

Not even on the radar? Was Day awake in the Senate chamber this legislative session (before the bridge collapse) when Sen. Steve Murphy, Senate transportation chair, spoke clearly about “Highway 14 in Sen. Day’s district” multiple times (among countless other things)?
Funny too is how Day says people think “education and health care are more important” when he’s made it clear his campaign theme is rounding up illegal immigrants.

Well, he convinced the Strib’s Mark Brunswick of that anyway.

As this photo shows, Day should put the toy glasses he got early from Santa away and worry about the issues important to southern Minnesota such as education, health care and oh yeah, transportation.

A cloture motion to proceed with the DREAM Act in the Senate failed today on a vote of 52-44.  60 affirmative votes were required to continue.

The DREAM Act, championed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, would give a path to citizenship those undocumented immigrants who came to the US as minors, have attained a high school diploma or GED and intend to begin college or join the military.

The opposition to this and similar bills remains deeply rooted in ideology and excuses.  They want immigration reform, yet it seems unless it’s a 500 ft. high fence on the boarder it’s not worthy of consideration.

Marisa Trevino at the Huffington Post looks at some consequences of such rigid opposition:

These students are graduating as bilingual teachers, nurses, engineers, business administrators — the list goes on.

Yet, this country would rather slap these young people in the face by not acknowledging the fact that these students, who may not be native-born but are “home-grown,” have a ready command, in most cases, of two languages and an intimate knowledge of the history, the traditions, the culture/pop culture and the issues of this country.

The further insult is that school districts facing a shortage of bilingual teachers are bypassing our own qualified graduates, albeit undocumented, to import teachers from Mexico, Spain and other South American countries to teach in a school system that they are unfamiliar with and where they should be role models in modeling both English and Spanish to their bilingual students, inevitably need to either learn English themselves or are naturally stronger in Spanish.

Hospitals are bypassing qualified nursing school graduates who are bilingual to recruit nurses from such countries as the Phillipines. Nurses who must learn U.S. routines and patient care that is unique to this country.

But because our graduates who are undocumented cannot legally work, they must stand idly by and watch their rightful jobs go to people who have a steep learning curve when it comes to knowing the culture and people of the United States.

With such unreasonable reactions from folks such as Tom Tancredo to the proposition of even listening to undocumented students and their stories, it’s no wonder this type of legislation isn’t advancing and immigration policy will remain exactly as it is and everyone will remain unhappy.

Dick Day hanging out with minutemen will surely get us somewhere, though.

Both of Minnesota’s Senators, Norm Coleman, R, and Amy Klobuchar, D, voted for the measure.

While much has been made about candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s First District and state Sen. Dick Day’s commitment to make illegal immigration the defining issue in the campaign for the Republican endorsement, fellow candidate and state Rep. Randy Demmer, R-Hayfield, today told supporters in an email message the single issue he hears the most about from constituents is “family values.”

From BPOU picnics and meetings to parades, I have spent the summer crossing and re-crossing Minnesota’s First Congressional District meeting with prospective delegates and general election voters alike. In addition to meeting and exchanging ideas with so many people, I have shared many of these experiences with my wife Kathy, family members, friends and supporters making for enjoyable as well as informative opportunities.

Although the issues of importance to the people of the First Congressional District have varied from immigration to spending . . . from the War in Iraq to health care . . . from taxation to education, the one most repeated subject is that of family values. It is very obvious that the great majority share with me that certain beliefs are the core of family values.

Protecting the rights of the unborn . . . a ban on public funding of embryonic stem cell research . . . and the belief that marriage is a union of one man and one woman are fundamental. I firmly believe residents of the First Congressional District hold dearly to the philosophy that families that live, study, play and worship together are the foundation and very essence of our country.

Family values extend to education. Parents and families are far and away the most important determinant of success. People of the First District are not looking for federal government intrusion into education. They believe, as I do, it is a family and local issue.

As I continue in this campaign, which covers border to border in southern Minnesota, I continue to pledge my non-negotiable commitment to the family values that are so very important to the people of the First District. Please join me in our campaign to replace Tim Walz and return responsible Congressional representation to Minnesota’s First Congressional District.

Sincerely,

Randy Demmer

Yes, those evil gay marriages and that evil stem cell research again! They are OBVIOUSLY of much greater concern to southern Minnesotans than a war that is draining human and financial resources, a broken health care system or even immigration, an issue which virtually everyone thinks needs evaluation.  Or agriculture, which this message didn’t mention.  I guess this email message seems to illustrate that Demmer has decided that forgetting about agriculture needs of the First District will now be a recurring campaign theme.

Please Randy, run as a social conservative.  And please get the GOP endorsement.  Give the voters of the First a hard choice next November: male, southern Minnesota version of Michele Bachmann (you, Randy), or a common sense, pragmatic, hard working incumbent (Tim Walz).

Or you will get votes because of the thing most impressive about your campaign so far: your perfectly maintained hair. Seriously, watch for yourself: it keeps its terrific condition in the parade breeze.

Speaking of Randy Demmer taking on Tim Walz, Hal over at Blue Man in a Red District has a fantastic take on Demmer’s press release asking Walz to denounce Moveon.org.

The press release, it should be noted, was picked up by no one (that I can find via Google, anyway) other than Hal and Michael Brodkorb over at MDE. Must be that evil liberally controlled media…