Friday, June 27, 2014

Accountability Journalism

Leave it to the overseas press to do the work that local Minneapolis media can’t be bothered with.  President Obama flew to Minnesota this week to visit with a typical, struggling mom, “a 36-year-old working wife and mother of two preschool-age boys,” as reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Only the U.K.-based Reuters news service did any actual reporting on the meeting, noticing that Obama’s luncheon partner’s

LinkedIn profile shows she was once a field organizer for Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington.

I noticed the same thing last night, but our local media was too thrilled to have the Great Man in their midst to do any due diligence on the White House’s carefully choreographed Minnesota campaign stop.  Wouldn’t want to spoil the mood.

Too bad, they missed what could have been a great story.  The Star Tribune did report,
President Obama began a two-day visit to Minneapolis on Thursday sharing cheeseburgers with a local working mother and bringing a middle-class message tailor-made to aid Democrats fearful of massive losses in the upcoming election.
Which Democrats?  Did the President choose Minnesota—of all states—for his visit because some of those fearful Democrats may be located in the North Star state?  Star struck local media were unable to form a question on that subject.
Even if our worried, local everymom did turn out to be a ringer, her concerns are real.  She “wrote of a weakened housing market hitting her family hard, causing her husband’s construction business to fold.”  Sorry, with this President, that’s a feature, not a bug.
As the Star Tribune’s editorial page gleefully declared this morning, “There will be no need for any additional single-family, large-lot houses.  Zero.”  This is this direct result of the President’s New Urbanist, no-growth policies.  Sorry husband of local working mother, you are just out of luck.

But don’t worry, the photo op turned out great.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The TakeAction/ABM Merger

The political charity TakeAction Minnesota bills itself as an organization created to "work for social, racial, and economic justice."  As we always expected, it turns out to be just another Democrat party front group.

According to the latest filings at the Campaign Finance Board, on May 21st TakeAction's Political Fund transferred $50,000 from TakeAction's 501(c)(4) tax-exempt non-profit to the 2014 Fund, the fundraising arm for the Democrat political machine's Alliance for a Better Minnesota.

Make no mistake, TakeAction exists to elect Democrats.

The Indonesian Connection, Part 3

A new batch of Minnesota state campaign finance disclosures is out, and our favorite Indonesian businessman pops up, yet again.  The latest disclosures cover the period from April 1st through May 31st of this year.

On April 3rd, Johannes Marliem donated $25,000 to the Minnesota state Democrat party, that donation coming only a week after he had donated $20,000 to the state's Democrats.

At $45,000 in 2014 donations, Marliem is the largest state Democrat party donor not directly related to the Dayton family.  Democrat Governor Mark Dayton's father Bruce donated $100,000 and Gov. Dayton's former wife (Alida Rockefeller Messinger) has donated $150,000 so far this year.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

P.J. O'Rourke on Detroit Free City

Humorist P.J. O'Rourke has taken up the cause of Detroit Free City in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.