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!

After viewing Bluestem Prairie’s coverage of Allen Quist’s announcement that he will be the GOP candidate for Congress against Tim Walz, I have one thing to say:

Sally Jo, you should know that Quist prefers “fisherman” to “angler.”

From a February 8, 1986 story in the Star Tribune about a bill on the horizon to modify state statues to be gender neutral:

Some critics are frowning because the changes occasionally twist normal usage. “My objection is that apparently the changes have not been based on usage,” said Rep. Allen Quist , IR-St. Peter. “You cannot change the language by authoritative decree.”

One that particularly irks Quist is “fisherman.” Said Quist : “I said, `Look, I’m an avid fisherman. I go to fishing clinics … and I’ve never in my whole life seen or heard the word `fisher.”‘ He said his office dictionary defines “fisher” as “an animal (with) four legs and a tail” that is related to the weasel and is found in North America.

“Angler” might be a good compromise if it weren’t for the fact that it means one who fishes with a hook - thereby not addressing those who fish with nets.

When the bill came to the floor just over two weeks later, instead of accepting that the times were-a-changin’, Quist took the logical route of being a pain in the ass by introducing countless tedious floor amendments. From the February 25, 1986 Strib:

For close to three hours Monday, the Minnesota House pondered whether “airman” should be “aviation worker.” It debated whether “repairman” should be “repairer.” It questioned whether “sportsman’s license” should be “sporting license.”

In the end, after wading through at least 20 proposed amendments, the House passed a bill that would eliminate sexual bias from the laws of Minnesota. The vote was 102 to 19.

“I didn’t expect anything near this,” said Rep. David Bishop, IR-Rochester, the author of the changes. “Nobody expected this to be boiled down to a floor fight with 20 amendments.”

[…]

Many of the amendments were offered by Rep. Allen Quist  , IR-St. Peter, who complained that the bill sacrificed normal word usage in order to make the changes. “The bill hits the common folk usage of language  right in the teeth,” he said.

The changes even brought in the profamily lobby. Quist , who said profamily supporters backed him on the issue, said the changes removed the words “father” and “mother” from the laws along with the words “husband” and “wife.”

Bishop said he knew of no instance where the words “father” and “mother” were changed and only two instances where “husband” and “wife” were changed. “This is not a profamily issue,” said Bishop. “This is not intended to be ideology changes.”

Quist said he found the words “husband” and “wife” deleted on one page alone. “What’s wrong with the word `husband’? What’s wrong with the word `wife’?” he asked.

As the House members favoring the amendment that restored “husband” and “wife” were asked to stand, Rep. K.J. McDonald, IR-Watertown, stood and turned to his colleagues and said: “Come on, you male chauvinists, get up.”

Added Rep. Ralph Kiffmeyer, IR-Big Lake: “These words are real crucial to the foundation of our society.” The House voted to restore “father” and “mother” to the statutes - although whether they were ever taken out remained unclear - and voted to replace “husband” and “wife” in the two instances.

Just another instance of why Allen Quist would be one stinky fish for the First District.

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.

In his reporting of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s deer hunting opener, Bob Von Sternberg unintentionally, perhaps, describes the situation as a perfect analogy of T-Paw’s last seven years in office:

Pawlenty, who has more often than not failed to shoot a deer during the opener, shot a small buck while hunting north of Thief River Falls Saturday morning.

But the deer ran off into the brush, apparently badly wounded.

Hunters who were with Pawlenty started hunting the blood trail the animal had left behind, but Pawlenty had to leave for Iowa, where he was headlining a Republican Party fundraiser.

Yes, this is just like what Gov. Pawlenty did to the state of Minnesota by refusing to negotiate with the legislature in order to craft a balanced solution to the state’s budget woes.  Instead, he eventually took his axe to important programs like General Assistance Medical Care, recklessly.

It’s just like how he  shot this deer, let it slowly bleed, and left it behind as he departed to Iowa for the same reason as he kicked thousands off of health care: to further his own political ambitions.

And just like the deer, Pawlenty won’t be around to have the responsibility of cleaning up the mess he created.

In the “in case you missed it file,” a post that should frankly scare the piss out of anyone who’s eyes gaze upon it:

http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2009/10/nsmsamjohnson.html

I’m not sure I have whole lot of new analysis to add, but I hope this helps all of us reevaluate the manner in which we think about racism in our society.

I’m pleased and proud to be listed amongst such great company. Former Congressman Martin Sabo. Former Secretary of State Joan Growe.  Former House Speakers Bob Vanasek and Dee Long. Many current and former local government officials and state legislators. Countless rank and file Minnesota DFLers.  I’d say this is quite the impressive list.

Sheesh, and to think, just over a month ago I was merely flipping burgers.