I Don’t Hate America!

Steve Sarvi, Iraq war veteran and former mayor of Watertown, announced his candidacy for Congress in Minnesota’s Second District at a press conference today at the state capitol. The seat is currently held by Bush-ally John Kline, a Republican from Lakeville.

“I learned in the Army that when you think you’re off course, you should stop, check your compass, and change direction as needed. After five years without the kind of service and representation that 2nd District voters deserve, it’s time to change course, not only in the White House, but in the people’s House,” Sarvi said in a statement.

“The people standing with me today represent service, sacrifice and change. My fellow veterans answered their country’s call to put themselves in harm’s way. They represent the best tradition of America’s greatness, of putting country above self. We must keep our promise to them to always honor their service and sacrifice,” he continued.

Sarvi noted the political climate in the Second District could be favorable for a victory with several state legislative wins including the recent victory of Northfield teacher Kevin Dahle in a special election.

Much like Kline’s support of Bush’s policies, Sarvi’s criticism of Kline is quite unwavering.

“Americans have always overcome what is hard in order to achieve what is great. Nowhere is that more true than in Minnesota. Our optimism and pragmatism have made us an international model of voter engagement, environmental stewardship, energy innovation, health care, campaign finance, and public education.

“John Kline has failed to take Minnesota’s unique capacity for problem-solving to Washington. He has failed to serve the voters who honored him with the job of Congressman. I will not just win this election; I will do from day one what I have always done: serve my country and my community, bringing neighbors together to build an America and a Minnesota that is stronger, safer, and better able to prosper in the future,” he said.

Sarvi also announced he would begin a 15-stop district-wide listening tour on February 15, his second tour so far.

Of course since there isn’t proof he authored the letters, regardless of a lack of a byline and the fact his name is prominently on the masthead, I have to say “potential” in my title.

I’m referring to CNN’s BREAKING NEWS (®MDE) today about Ron Paul’s 1993 newsletter featuring racist ranting following the Rodney King incident.

Yes, breaking news about a 1992 newsletter which has long been available on Google Groups an other usenet readers.

So now we get all of the excuses from the Paulites.  Rep. Paul himself has said he didn’t write the comments and isn’t a racist.  His fingers on the keyboard or not, when you distribute a newsletter with your name featured prominently in the title and with no other bylines: EXERCISE SOME DAMN JUDGMENT ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER YOU ALLOW TO BE PUBLISHED.  If in some fantasy world Paul is elected to be president of a country (since yes, I know he won’t be in this one), how would that country’s citizens know his cabinet won’t feature secretaries spouting the same drivel?  Yes, this stuff does matter.

Then there’s the excuse of the article’s age.  Yes, it is 15 years old, but right wing pundits like Sean Hannity still mention Robert Byrd’s past affiliation with the KKK with glee at every possible opportunity.  When running for president, keep the closet clear of skeletons.  If that isn’t possible; don’t be surprised when they are found!

Finally, I’ve heard and seen the age old defense to racism, “Well, it isn’t racist to tell the truth about black people!” out of some Paul supporters.  Cult is a strong word, but is arguably appropriate concerning Ron Paul and his crowd.

Look, I know Paul isn’t going to get the GOP nomination and I know if he goes third party he won’t be elected president.  Even so, it is disheartening to see people I know personally  buy into this fraud  of a candidate when they don’t know what he’s about beyond ending the war and “shrinking government,” whatever that is (beyond pure demagoguery, of course).  And by fraud, I’m not talking about the questions of his racism, I’m talking about him being a fraud when it comes to fiscal libertarianism/conservatism.

If you need proof of Ron Paul being a fiscal fraud, just watch his interview on Meet the Press where he says while in Congress he has never voted for a bill with an earmark, yet admits he’s sure to get all of his pork into the bills before inevitable final passage.  And we all thought John Kline’s new “principles” on earmarks were phoney, eh?

OK, rant over for now.

A week ago today Bill Habedank of Red Wing experienced one of the main consequences of having Rep. John Kline in office: zero constituent service.

Habedank and others tried to visit Kline’s office last week and he tells his story in a letter to the Red Wing Republican Eagle:

You are told no one is ready to discuss your issue even though you called ahead. The young lady has you fill out a form.

As 13 of us wrote down our issue and contact information, each knew that was as far as this would go. Why? Because that is what happened all the other times you have done this.

Treatment is the same whether you visit, send an e-mail or call. You are always treated courteously, but you could (or should) get that treatment in any office. You came to be heard even if your message was contrary to the representative’s views. That is his job.

This wasn’t the first time he had to deal with this runaround.

We asked when we could speak with someone of authority. We are told the congressman’s and his assistant’s schedules are not to be revealed, so it becomes a guessing game. We are then told issues of this magnitude are best brought to the Washington, D.C., office.

I did that last March. I asked at least two weeks in advance to meet with Kline. I did get an appointment and get beyond the front desk. I had a 20-minute meeting with a young man in Kline’s plush office. As I relayed my issue, I found the man to be slightly argumentative. Is that his job?

You would think if Kline is unable to hold a decent town-hall meeting his taxpayer funded staff would at least show an effort to listen to constituents. I have an experience lobbying Kline in Washington D.C. as well and while the legislative assistant with whom we met wasn’t argumentative, it was clear from the start of the meeting that the congressman’s position on higher education (the issue about which we were lobbying) had already been established.

Steve Sarvi was able to teach democracy over in Iraq; it looks like we will have to elect him in order for Second District citizens to be able to see it in action here in America.

This info was passed along from Mike McIntee, familiar to viewers of the Uptake and listeners to Inside Minnesota Politics, who will be guest hosting the Mark Heaney Show on AM950, Air America’s Minnesota affiliate.

When I first interviewed Steve Sarvi he was in Iraq helping people in rural Iraq rebuild their roads, buildings and other infrastructure that has been destroyed in the fighting there.  It was his last assignment in a 19-year military career that had included successfully mentoring people in war-damaged Kosovo on how to set up their own local governments.

At that time Sarvi indicated he was ready for his next assignment: coming home, taking on Rep. John Kline in a run for Congress, and then helping us fix our own war-damaged government.

Today Steve will be a guest (and I’ll be the fill-in host) on Air America Minnesota’s Mark Heaney show.  We’re going to talk about what Steve has heard in his 13-stop listening tour through Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.  By the way, that’s 12 more open face-to-face meetings than Rep. Kline has held with his constituents this year.  I’ll be opening the phone lines so you can ask questions of Steve too.

So as you’re driving home, or cleaning house today for Thanksgiving, turn your radio to AM 950 and participate.

Three ways to listen.  On the air live on AM950, on line live, or if you miss the show there’s a podcast available usually by the next day.

I had the opportunity to attend two of Sarvi’s listening sessions last week, and he has said that part of the reason he decided to run for Congress is because of Kline’s lack of open meetings.  Listen in at 5:00 p.m.

Over two months after Minnesota Reps. Tim Walz and John Kline .ast squared off on the big blue couch on Twin Cities Public Television’s Friday night staple Almanac (that time about the Iraq war) the two will return to the program to discuss this week’s House vote to approve transportation and housing funding. Included in the bill was funding for the reconstruction of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, the Northstar commuter rail corridor and funding for US Highway 14 in southern Minnesota, which is, well, in craptastic shape.

Walz voted for the bill; Kline voted against it.

From the Almanac Producer’s blog:

Congressional Tussle Over Funding the New 35W Bridge
U.S. House members John Kline and Tim Walz took different sides on a big House Bill that would fund –among other things– the final construction costs of the new 35W Bridge in Minneapolis. They join us live to explain their positions.

7:00 p.m. on KTCA 2.

The US House of Representatives today approved a transportation and housing bill today by a vote of 270-147.  The only members of the Minnesota delegation voting against the bill were Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann, both Republicans.  The bill includes $195 million for funding the reconstruction of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

Steve Sarvi, the only announced DFL challenger to Kline so far, released the following statement:

“I’m in shock. John Kline has been grandstanding on this issue for the past month – and now, when he actually has the opportunity to deliver the funds authorized to Minnesota in the wake of the bridge tragedy, he votes against the bill. He chose a smoke-and-mirrors attempt at convincing his constituents he’s willing to invest in the infrastructure they count on every day over actually doing anything about it. This was a horrible vote for the people of Minnesota. An unthinkable vote.”

President Bush has threatened a veto based on grounds it “doesn’t hold spending to reasonable and responsible levels.”  It’s too bad that Kline and Bachmann are more concerned with helping Bush reinvent himself as a fiscal conservative with a year remaining in his term than investing in infrastructure.

Want to talk about playing politics with the bridge?  Kline, Bachmann and Bush offer the prime example of that with their votes and threatened veto, respectively.

As Steve Sarvi’s campaign for Congress from Minnesota’s Second District slowly but surely picks up steam, so too does the mainstream media’s coverage.

This Ed Felker article from yesterday’s Rochester Post-Bulletin illustrates strong parallels to Tim Walz at this stage of the race, particularly, National Guard service and lack of experience in partisan office:

Sarvi, 42, hopes his own military background and local connections, combined with another strong Democratic election wave, will be his trump card against the seemingly entrenched Kline. Like Walz, Sarvi is married and has young children. Both he and Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard and worked in the public sector.

Likewise, neither Walz nor Sarvi had much political experience before declaring their bids. Sarvi wasn’t active in partisan politics previously, holding the nonpartisan posts of mayor in Watertown; city administrator and clerk in Lanesboro; and his current full-time job as city administrator of Victoria.

He acknowledged in an interview that he attended Republican caucuses around 2000, but said he was “always more of a moderate” to Republicans, and said he is now “probably a little left of center, because of some social issues.”

So far, the race has yet to attract national attention, and political observers haven’t placed the Kline-Sarvi match among races to watch.

Congressional Quarterly still lists MN-2 as “Safe Republican,” but after Walz’s win in 2006 we know that those ratings aren’t the end all be all of candidate’s fate.

Want to find out more about Sarvi? Check him out at these remaining dates and locations as part of his district-wide listening tour:

Today, 5 – 6:30 p.m. : Chanhassen, American Legion Post 580, 290 Lake Dr. E. , Chanhassen; 7 – 8 p.m. : Senate District 34 DFL, Chanhassen Library, 7711 Kerber Blvd. , Chanhassen.

Thurs., Nov. 15, 5 – 6:30 p.m.: Prior Lake , Prior Lake Public Library , 16210 Eagle Creek Ave. S.E., Prior Lake; 7 – 8:30 p.m. : Burnsville , JoJo’s Rise & Wine, 12501 Nicollet Ave., #100 , Burnsville.

Fri., Nov. 16, 5 – 6:30 p.m. : Eagan , Community Center, 1501 Central Pkwy. , Eagan.

Sat., Nov. 17, 10:30 – noon: Northfield, Northfield Library, 210 Washington St., Northfield; 12:30 – 2 p.m. : Faribault, Java Live, 313 Central Ave N. , Faribault ; 2:30 – 4 p.m. : Montgomery, Montgomery Public Library, 104 Oak Ave. E. , Montgomery.

We realize we have been paying an awful lot of attention to the First Congressional District race and more specifically the “four pack” of GOP contenders looking to take on DFL Rep. Tim Walz.  While Jason and I are no longer stationed in the First, we retain interest in the in the activities going on down there.

I now reside in the Second and have attempted to keep up on the activities, or lack thereof, of GOP Rep. John Kline.  We will also pass on information about the campaign of DFL Iraq-war veteran Steve Sarvi who is looking to unseat Kline as it becomes available.

Information such as this:

On November 7 at 8 p.m., the Carleton College Democrats will host congressional candidate Steve Sarvi in Sayles-Hill, room 251. Sarvi will talk about his campaign and answer questions from the audience. All interested students and members of the general public are invited to attend.

Democrat Steve Sarvi is running in the 2nd Congressional District of Minnesota for the U.S. House of Representatives. He is an Iraq veteran. Previous to deciding to run for Congress, Sarvi was city administrator in the towns of Lanesboro, Watertown, and Victoria, Minn. He also served as a three-term Mayor in Watertown.

The Carleton College Democrats’ mission is to encourage involvement and activity not only on the part of other Carleton students, but also in the community at large.

This post is coming to you live from beautiful Winona, Minnesota! Mega congratulations go today to Joe Bodell over at Minnesota Campaign Report on his marriage.  It’s certainly an awesome day for that type of festivity!

Later today I will head to the campus of Winona State University, my alma mater, for a town-hall meeting with my old Congressman, Tim Walz.  Unlike my current Congressman, John Kline, Walz not only listens to his constituents, he reaches out for their opinions. The Iraq war will be the topic.  Everyone around town should check it out.

4 p.m., Science Labratory Center (new science building) lecture hall. Be there!
Some people may have other things to do, but they can reconsider.  For instance, the Winona State Warrior football team takes on visiting Bemidji State at about the same time.  It’s being broadcast on FSN North; tape it!

You’re suffering from chest pain. You know you don’t have health insurance and can’t afford to get it checked out. It’s difficult to tell if the pain is severe enough to visit the ED or if it will go away on its own. Your wife forces you to go to the ED, worried that you might be having a heart attack. Reluctantly, you get a ride from her and go to the hospital. As soon as you get there, you’re hooked up to monitors, given a couple meds, and talking treatment options with the healthcare team. They decide you must go in for an angiogram, a common procedure done to see if any coronary vessels are occluded. Throughout the entire event, you keep thinking, “do we have to?” They rush you into the cath lab knowing there’s not much time before your heart will lose all circulation. They found you were having a heart attack and a vessel is 100% occluded. The MD, much like an artist creating their masterpiece, inserts a catheter through your femoral artery to access your heart, and swiftly inserts a stent in the occluded vessel. The team sighs in relief that they were able to prevent more damage from happening. Further tests will confirm the extent of the damage, but for now, you survived. Thank God. Oh wait, you don’t have health insurance.

I tell this real-life story because of an experience I had this week with a patient. He was your typical middle-aged family man holding two jobs. His concern interested me since… what DO you do? How do you tell someone that we saved their life while at the same time, handing them an invoice? With the stent he received, he needs to be on a medication called Plavix. This drug is extremely important to take daily for two years. Numerous studies have shown that not taking Plavix after insertion of a drug eluting stent (DES) can result in an increased risk for heart attack, stroke, re-stenosis, and death. The typical cost for Plavix is ~$4 a day. $4 A DAY! That equates to roughly $1,460 a year, or $2,920 for the total two years he NEEDS to be on it. In his case, that is approximately 10% of his yearly income that needs to be spent to literally stay alive.

A generic equivalent of clopidogrel bisulfate (Plavix) has been created, but Bristol-Myers Squibb has been fighting legal battles to make sure their name-brand drug is the only one available to patients. From AARP:

In the case of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Plavix, an antiplatelet, what began as a dispute with the generic manufacturer over patent infringement has become a proposed settlement that will keep the generic version off the market until 2011. Plavix racked up huge sales in 2005—$3.8 billion in the U.S. alone, with worldwide sales of nearly $6 billion.

Thankfully, many of us have health insurance to cover these costs. Just think though, how many patients like mine have been paying 10% of their annual income on the drug Plavix for Bristol-Myers Squibb to rack up $6 billion?

At my hospital, a social worker and financial advisor will work with patients in situations like these. However, I strongly believe in a healthcare system that will allow anyone that needs life-saving drugs such as Plavix to get them at little to no-cost. I am hoping that when Tim Walz is re-elected and Steve Sarvi kicks John Kline out, they will continue believing in the mission of universal healthcare. I am predicting that in 2008, there will be a DFL controlled Senate, House, and President. If so, we will see dramatic changes in our healthcare system.

Maybe if the above story happens to you, there will be no need to ask, “do we have to?”

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I am starting my Master’s program at the end of the month. My plan is to receive my Master’s in Science of Nursing (M.S.N) with an education focus. Eventually, I would like to be a professor at a local community college. If anyone has some connections with a college that needs adjunct nursing professors, please forward any information along.

Also, continuing with my belief that everyone should have access to free healthcare, I just accepted a position at Planned Parenthood as a volunteer clinic nurse. If you are looking at donating to a great organization, look no further than Planned Parenthood. Here’s a link to their donation page.