Professor of Religion David Booth (St. Olaf College) provides a knowledgeable, academic and positive perspective on the defeat of the proposed MN Constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as a legal relationship only between a woman and a man. Dr. Booth explains why the VOTE NO initiative succeeded as the best fit for Minnesota.This 20 minute video is an extended version of Dr. Booth’s discussion on the current edition of Democratic Visions. Dr. Booth originally commented on the failure of the proposed marriage amendment in the November 26th edition of MinnPost in an article entitled: “What happened here? Three observations about Minnesota’s marriage vote.” I produce and edit Democratic Visions with the help of other volunteers through DFL Senate District 48 which includes Eden Prairie and the south half of Minnetonka.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading
Michael Bolin died on November 17. We became friends during the wonderful, risky and robust explosion of Twin Cities arts during the late 1970s. We were part of the mix, part of the arts scene. Mike, legitimately as a painter and I, less legitimately, as a producer for KTCA-TV’s pioneering arts magazine, Wyld Ryce. Mike was a droll humorist who saw merit in the aesthetic value of the overlooked, of roadside motels, of a strip of fabric, of a portrait gallery of Winter Carnival Queens. He responded with canvass, air brush and knife to an internal radar that locked on to the visually and culturally ironic. I watched him work, so to did scores of other artists, performers and wags who were part of the daily 1978-1980 culture vulture buzz (pre pre emails, pre Tweets and pre texts), who, like Michel Bolin, were the lip smakin’ entres for the fashionably hip and the youngish, emerging strata of gallery and theater directors and editors and writers for the major dailies and the montly coffee table magazines. On Friday, a good many of us will join Michael’s life partner Debra Jensen to celebrate Mike’s works at the Acme Academy of the Arts on West 7th in Saint Paul.With Debra he was a scenic charge painter for Christmas, flower, and fashion shows at Dayton’s Minneapolis flagship store and the Minnesota Opera Company. Mike was also Trompe l’oeil artist, public space muralist, a designer and the finder and publisher of “Boint,” his limited edition journal. Going back to the late 1970’s, Michael was very much admired by those of us having trouble making rent, completing course work the U of M and regularly needing jump starts for the rusted Datsun — pretty much everyone in the arts and public TV and radio — for introducing a form of budget dining. Mike knew where starving artists could eat for free — motels, hotels and saloons from University and Payne Avenues to downtown Saint Paul — places that handed out free horderves with the drinks. One coud buy a single beer (or faked it with an empty mug) and eat enough for two days.You can watch the 1979 Wyld Ryce essay I did with Mike at TPT’s Minnesota Video Vault right now. Just follow the link. No less than the Minneapolis Star’s Barbara Flanagan introduces the segment.You need to go to the link: http://www.mnvideovault.org/and in the search box type in “Michael Bolin” Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet. Continue Reading
Governor Dayton’s Environmental Quality Board is the lead spnsoring agency for a March 2013 conference that has been branded The Minnesota Environmental Congress. The initiative is currently listening to citizens, organizations and businesses about their respective environmental and energy concerns. Visit the congress’ website here to discover what is afoot and to share your throughts on the earth, energy, water, air, ag, re-cycling, and climate challenges we must respond to and what you feel those responses should be.Here’s the web address – http://mn.gov/EnvironmentalCongress/ By mid-December, the MN Environmental Congress will have also convened six citizen forums around the state as part of a kind of public brainstorming endeavor. I took my MiniDV camera to the November 27th forum at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. This video shows representative (but not all) of the concerns and and opinion that were articulated by attendeews with the help of wireless mic and a good sound system. The upcoming citizen forums in Worthington (Dec 10), St. Cloud (Dec 12),and Moorhead (Dec 14) should be as lively and revealing as the ones in Rochester, Bloomington and Duluth. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet.Other articles of interest:• Minnesota Environmental Congress Citizen Forums will give Minnesotans chance to weigh in on state policy• Environmental Citizens Forum provides a ray of hope• FREE SPEECH ZONE | Governor Dayton Environment Public Forums A FraudNext week’s meetings: December 10 – Worthington,Worthington High School, 3:30pm – 6:00pmDecember 12 – St. Continue Reading
Political bloggers Tommy Johnson and Steve Timmer and Democratic Visions host Tim O’Brien take measure of the political swing to left-center of three of America’s premier suburbs: Edina, Eden Prairie and Minnetonka. They apprear in the post-election edition of Democratic Visions. Johnson, an investigative blogger at Minnesota Progressive Project, is a life-long resident of Eden Prairie. Johnson explains how Republicans nearly lost the Minnesota Senate seat held by right wing conservative David Hann and how Democrats recaptured a House seat lost to the Republicans two years ago. Timmer and O’Brien are long-time residents of Edina. (O’Brien remembers when Edina Democrats held their meetings in a phone booth.) O’Brien and Timmer talk about the historic, first-time-ever DFL Sweep in Senate District 49 which includes Edina, western Bloomington and single precincts in Eden Prairie and Minnetonka. O’Brien also notes that despite redistricting, DFL House incumbent John Benson and DFL Senate incumbent Terry Bonoff prevailed in their more conservative southwest suburban districts. O’Brien and Timmer also lay out their thoughts on the unexpected defeat of the two constitutional amendment ballot questions in the southwest suburbs. I get to produce Democratic Visions with other volunteers through DFL Senate District 48, Eden Prairie/southern Minnetonka. Our temporary, new studio in Spring Park is operated by the Lake Minnetonka Cable Commission. This studio serves 17 smaller suburban communities and is alive with activity in fulfilling its mission to provide area cable subscribers with programming rooted in their communities about issues and personalities that are ignored by mainstream and social media.IM PASSING: On behalf of the Democratic Visions team over the years, I thank Southwest Community TV access studio manager Michelle Glynn for sustaining and protecting the community access television vision and spirit for the past decade – and probably longer – at the highest, if always under-budgeted, level. The SW Community TV access studio was closed for good by owner Comcast at the end of August. Under three corporate owners, Ms. Glynn managed the ship of this small, 1990’s era TV production facility professionally and free of editorial, philosophical, religous and political judgement of the diverse producers who used the resource. That was a blessing not only for the preachers, politicos, poets, writers, community services groups, rascals and religious groups in Richfield, Edina, Hopkins, Eden Prairie and Minnetonka whom she guided, but also for our communities whole. Happy Thanksgiving Michelle.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading
On the evening of Saturday November 3rd, an enthusiastic mix of Somali-American citizens and DFL Senate District 48 regulars gathered at the Eden Prairie Community center. Educational reform activist Ahmed Jama, Anisa Hashi, Mohmed Farah, former school board chair Kim Ross and I had begun planning the get-out-the-vote event in early September.Our superb slate of moderate, legislative candidates Laurie McKendry, Tori Hill and Yvonne Selcer were joined by Congressional candidate Brian Barnes, Congressman Keith Ellison and Senator Amy Klobuchar spokesman Siad Ali. If those Congressional District 3 voters who choose Amy and Barack hang in there for Brian Barnes, he will win a surprise victory against right wing incumbent Eric Paulsen.Each speaker urgently reminded the gathering of the importance to vote NO on the voter photo ID amendment. I was swept up by a quiet, internal storm of nostalgia.I spent the summer of 1965 with some 800 hundred other college students working on an educational program for undernourished school systms. The program was administered through (then) Tuskegee Institute. Greater numbers of activissts were concurrently registering new voters throughout Alabama and the rest of the south at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was quite active, when folks were prevented from voting because they could not read or couldn’t afford to pay a poll tax. Continue Reading
Cyndy Brucato over at MinnPost wrote on 10/30/2012 that conservative Republican Senator David Hann (SD 48 – Eden Prairie, Minntonka) is avoiding questions about his employment.The back story is that Minnesota Progressive Project investigative blogger Tommy Johnson learned that Hann — who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee — has taken employment with an Eden Prairie Company that sells, among a number of things, health insurance. Mr. Hann’s committe regulates companies that sell health insurance. Johnson smelled something foul, trailed the mucky tracks that Mr. Hann could not mop up and then exposed the facts and released them into the blogosphere.Brucatto reports that as a result, Mr. Hann’s DFL challenger, Laurie McKendry’s campaign will be getting a welcome shot of money and support from the State DFL. McKendry was not expected to do well in a district that has been dominated by conservatives like Hann and U.S. Representative Eric Paulsen – It snuggles up to the Tea Party redoubt that is Carver County. But McKendry, a moderate Democrat, has worked hard and smart in Senate District 48. Laurie McKendry is a business owner, was raised tough by a single mom, a waitress, who got her daughter through college with honors. McKendry has made several appearances on Democratic Visions, the cable TV program I produce for DFL Senate District 48. You can watch it here, via our YouTube Channel. You can also help the McKendry team with lit drops over the next few days. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet. Continue Reading
Somali Americans in Eden Prairie are staging an election rally on Saturday November 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Eden Prairie Community Center. The event will be attended by Senate District 48 candidates Laurie McKendry, house candidates Tori Hill and Yvonne Selcer and others. Community leaders Ahmed Jama and Jeff Strate have prepared a Somali language election guide and a video urging people to vote “NO” on the photo ID amendment and have produced this video through DFL Senate District 48’s program Democratic Visions.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet. Continue Reading
Former Minnesota State Senator Ellen Anderson comments on obstructionist legislators like David Hann who is seeking re-election to the Minnesota Senate.
Minnesota Progressive Project co-founder Eric Pusey (one of the nation’s top scolds of right wing and Tea Party misceif) reviews what he claims is the worst political video of the current election season. It was produced here in Minnesota. I have no argument with Mr. Pusey’s choice who shows it off on the current edition of Democratic Visions. Democratic Visions is produced by voluneers through DFL Senate District 48, Minnetonka/Minnesota. The Democratic Visions can be seen on home flat screens on the following cable systems -Comcast Channel 15 Sundays at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina, Richfield and Hopkins.Bloomington Cable Access Television (BCAT) Channel 16 on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m., Fridays at 9:30 p.m. , Saturdays at 7:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m.Minneapolis MTN Channel 17 – Sundays at 7:30 p.m. Dem Vis is also streamed live on Sundays at 7 p.m at this MTN Ch 17 link: http://www.mtn.org/Video/tvguide/live.htmlFree Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet. Continue Reading
DFL State Representative Steve Simon is one of Minnesota’s most articulate and plain speaking politicians. That is why the proponents of the Voter ID amendment question on the November ballot don’t want anyone to see this video – it features Mr. Simon exposing, pont-by-point, the dangers this Trojan Horse of a constitutional amendment poses to voters in Minnesota.The segment anchors the autumn edition of Democratic Visions, arguably Minnesota’s best political issues television series. The program is handcrafted by un-paid, volunteers through DFL Senate District 48 (Minnetonka & Eden Prairie). The pro amendment people are tossing hundreds of thousands of dollars on pro-voter Id, ad agency produced commercials right now, It will get worse.Steve Simon represents Hopkins and half of St. Louis Park. For this video to do any good, it is going to have to be seen by thousands of people. Make sure the people in our various circles see it. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet. Continue Reading
