minneapolis upside down

Ellison Fucks Up

2009-07-22T06:31:00.005-05:00

Let's see.

If a Christian affiliated charter school receives government funds to pay in rent to its own sponsoring--explicitly religious--organization, would I consider that OK? And if that sponsoring organization paid for a trip to the Holy Land by a explicitly Christian member of the Congress, an arrangement reportedly kept low profile by the Congress person since the trip was religious in nature, how would I feel about that?

No doubt in my mind that the school paying publicly funded rent to its own sponsoring organization creates a fine medium in which to grow some corruption. No doubt, too, that I'd think that Congress person was either naive or cynical or both to have this trip funded by any organization, particularly one involved with government contracts.

If I follow correctly, this is what Keith Ellison apparently did--the trip being instead his Hajj, a Muslim's one in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, the money instead coming from the Muslim American Society, which received rent from Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), a charter school, which it sponsors. TiZA receives substantial state funding.

I hate to say it, but this story may have legs, particularly if Ellison's action is not an isolated one. It does not help that TiZA is the school being investigated for other misuse of government funds, allegedly having a religious agenda in part funded by government dollars it receives.

I hear the feverish meshing of gears in Katherine Kersten's head.

As a strict separation of chuch and state secularist (SSCSS?), this kind of shit makes me ill. I think Ellison has been a fine Congress person thus far, but now I wonder about his judgment. What was the thought process that made Ellison believe that it would be OK to take this gratuity from an overtly religious organization that receives state funds, albeit indirectly, under circumstances that have themselves been called into question?

Oh yeah, the man accompanying Ellison to Mecca was Asad Zaman, who "is executive director of the TiZA school, a political contributor of Ellison's and was president of the Muslim American Society until August, when the Mecca trip was planned," according to the Strib.

As my five readers know, I am a fan of Keith Ellison and believe that he is a highly capable legislator. I can only hope that this was a lapse in judgment. I hope that Keith recognizes that this is bigger than him. Mistakes like this diminish his power and effectiveness, but for us who place some trust in him, they diminish our hope.

--Loosestrife

Dragged Back Into the Game

2009-04-21T20:44:00.003-05:00

Oh shit, I should have known that one of my characters would slap me upside the 'ead and make me post again.

Chris Stewart, Rahelio, whatever.

Thanks, Chris for being such a crazy asshole. Were you buzzing?

And letting those racist motherfuckers over at Anti-Strib get their hooks in.

Thanks Chris. You goddamn dipshit.

You are our Sarah Palin. Thanks again, for using your power to fuck over someone with less. It proves your manhood, I suppose.

You win, until the election.

See below.

--Loosetrife

Rules for 2009

2009-01-11T12:15:00.008-06:00

and surviving change.

--Loosestrife

What Frankie Knew

2009-01-07T06:38:00.010-06:00

Awhile back, early in the emerging Petters scandal, I wrote a bit about the mysterious case of Frank Vennes Jr., "facilitator" of the Tom Petters' ponzi scheme.

Yesterday, the Strib let fly with a story about Vennes' knowledge of the Petters' ponzi scheme some 9 months before the feds shut the whole thing down.

This is hardly news. An experienced grifter, religious conversion notwithstanding, Vennes had to know in this godly heart that something was not quite right: it's the too good to be true principle. What did he care? Petters compensated him mightily, providing most of Vennes' income, $28 million, according to the Strib.

If Vennes learned of Petter's fraud scheme just 9 months before the feds raided Vennes' home as stated in the Strib article, then the big question is now whether faith-based Frankie continued to serve as a facilitator steering investors towards Petters. The article already states that Vennes did not alert anyone but his own attorney, christ-like Craig Howse, when alledgely learning that he was waist-deep in a fraud scheme worth possibly $3.5 billion. (That figure keeps growing by the way. Will it reach $5 billion?)

Which means that Vennes was sitting on the board of Minnesota Teen Challenge with knowledge that that the organization had millions invested in a ponzi scheme; Vennes possibly was responsibile for Teen Challenge making that investment.

This brings us to interesting questions. Was he using faith-based organizations and the Christian community as easy marks? Was Vennes, whose previous crime career involved money-laundering, using the Christian non-profit world and unsuspecting preachers as the ultimate money laundering scheme? Did others in the faith-based world have knowledge of fraud that Petters and Vennes were perpetrating but were content to skim big money off it?

After all, as Rick Warren says, "With God’s authorization, the outcome is guaranteed to be successful." The possibilities are endless with that creed.

I doubt that Vennes was in the dark about the Petters operation at any point although being an experienced flim-flam man, he knew when to keep his mouth shut, even to Petters.

The feds will be searching Vennes' email account and that of this son, Denley. According to the Strib, Vennes sent documents to investors through those two accounts. Apparently that search warrant is sealed at this point. It's twenty-four pages? I'd sure like to see it.

Correction: The warrant is not 24 pages. The affidavit is, I think.

--Loosestrife

Adventures in Radio

2009-01-06T03:50:00.006-06:00

Being a commie, I was listening the AM 950 as I motored from my safe South Minneapolis home to the suburban hinterlands yesterday evening. As I arrived at my destination, Mark Heaney had a guest from Minnesota 2020 who was discussing the shift from taxes to "fees" in Minnesota under the Pawlenty thumb.

I walk into the office, and I could hear the unmistakable rhythm of right wing outrage. It was kind of like Muzak: I could just make out the tune but not any of the words. I had a wait, so I moved closer to the speaker.

I couldn't tell what it was--I don't listen enough to radio yahoos to identify them readily. It seemed to be local, however.

The speaker's rant was that this country has sunk to the point where it is "acceptable" to vote for someone who redistributed wealth, takes "your money" and gives it someone else. Voting this way constitutes theft, is un-American, and is immoral according to this yahoo. There were, of course, platitudes about the "free market" and laments about Al Franken's victory over Norm Coleman.

I stepped away when a seat opened up in the waiting room, but I sit too much of my day, and I got back up to pace around.

Now, they were taking calls.

The attack on the loser Norm Coleman was immediate. He was to blame for his loss to Franken because he attacked conservatives, one call claimed. I waited for someone to say Coleman couldn't be trusted since was a Jew. I knew there was at least one caller in the queue who was thinking it.

I drifted out of range. When I got back within earshot, the host was saying that Coleman lost because he was too far left, finally exclaiming that he was afraid that the Republicans wouldn't learn the lesson that you can't beat the Democrats by trying to be like them.

It was a small, good thing.

My drive back was delightful. The suburban neon played nicely through the frosty windows. I don't remember what was on Air America.

--Loosestrife

The Holy Hustle--The Divine Business Plan, God's Authorization of Rick Warren

2009-01-04T21:07:00.002-06:00

"The Holy Hustle" seems an apt name going forward for will be an on-going examination of the myriad variations on that most American of scams, religion. Of course, the focus will be on local manifestations, but this week I take a little side trip since Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration has become such a flash point.

Stylistically and theologically, Rick Warren's antecedent is Billy Graham, a life-long Democrat and anti-segregationist, whose "crusades" in stadiums across America preached a message that was not too overtly political while the Graham himself was a major political figure and a virulent anti-communist demagogue. It was easy to sit through a Graham crusade and not remember much about it, bland and wholesome as it was, but behind the scenes at the White House home of his good friend, Richard Nixon, Graham engaged in mildy anti-Semitic banter with his buddy. Later in his his life, Graham speculated that AIDS was God's punishment on those who it afflicted.

Graham later apologized for those remarks; he always had his finger in the wind and often softened his red-necked fundamentalist views when they threatened his huge popularity or influence. Rick Warren has that tendency sometimes, too, like when he removed the most offensive of the gay bashing language from his website recently.

On the other hand, Billy Graham's son, Franklin, couldn't be better cast as the fallen son who repents so as to take over the family enterprise and fails to be up to the task. It's clear that Franklin just doesn't have the stuff continue his father's "Pastor to the President" shtick going, despite being the chosen one at W's 2001 inauguration. Tellingly, his sister says of Franklin in a 2006 USA Today article, "He didn't get Daddy's gift of diplomacy."

The job of Pastor to the President is open, in other words, and Rick Warren is available, very available.

Like Billy Graham, he is a Southern Baptist. Like Billy Graham, he has successfully and consciously inserted himself into political world without an overt political play.

Further, Warren provides potent and convenient symbolism for Barack Obama--Warren is a balding beefy unattractive white man, with a bad goatee and tent-like bold print shirts, who harbors all sorts of phobias and bigotry but who is basically good, trying be open minded and understanding in this crazy world in which we all live. Men who look like Warren are among the voters that Obama didn't quite reach in 2008, and having Pastor Rick on the podium on the inauguration may well be the opening shot of the 2012 election. If Warren has a few problems with the gays, then so be it. Politics is politics.

And Rick Warren's thinly veiled revulsion at all things non-heterosexual has gotten the attention, but Warren has a lot of other, shall we say, interesting views, many of them, no doubt, divinely inspired.

Click on his website and one is greeted by a manifesto claiming an imperial agenda for the "The Church," wherein it's organizational superiority to both business and government makes it "the greatest force on earth."

It's an inherently political document, wherein he claims the inevitable victory of a mass "Church" movement over the godless, and therefore bankrupt (in every sense of the word), secular institutions that are failing us.

"With God’s authorization, the outcome is guaranteed to be successful," claims Warren, placing himself firmly in the tradition of godly hucksters and the hard Dominionist camp of Pastors who seek a neo-tribal society with clergy exerting ultimate authority over the lives of their followers, a model not unlike that of the most conservative elements of the Catholic church or Islam. Whether in a stiff white collar, a bow tie, a thobe, or a Hawaiian shirt, these boys all seek a world where their--that is God's-- authority is unquestioned and women (and children) know their place

*********************

Warren's homophobia is odious but typical of his flock. I am far more disturbed that Obama would choose Warren as the most prominent religious figure at the inauguration when the Pastor Rick is praying to replace the federal government with "The Church."

In that, politically speaking, he represents a continuation of the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell version of politico-evangelical clap trap, casually dressed and marginally more charitable in his stances on HIV/AIDS and global warming, rather than Billy Graham's less ideological tradition. Where Robertson and Falwell openly desired to influence and infiltrate government and did, now with disastrous results, Warren apparently seeks to establish Religion as a rival to government--as Apple to government's PC.

Warren is not alone, of course. Locally, the Petters' scandal (and bloggers like myself) have led to a discussion of Minnesota Teen Challenge that illuminates the arrogance, delusion, and deceit possible within faith based initiatives. The contradictions inherent within the the anti-secular rhetoric of hard shell religious organizations when taking government money are easily resolved by the missionary zeal. As long as the church is the top, it's all good for religiously inspired poverty johns.

One of Obama's worst tendencies is to support the faith-based bullshit institutionalized under the Bush regime, and it will take a mighty effort to cut religious hucksters off the government teat.

Another bad Obama tendency is to subscribe to Rahm Emanuel nasty insider political tactics, making moves that throw off your demanding allies as well as your enemies, keeping everyone off balance for political advantage.

A third is the insufferable "team of rivals" Lincoln worship that is absolutely useless in modern politics, except as a strategy to get elected or as a way to fill time and space for unimaginative pundits.

Put these three bad tendencies together and you get Rick Warren at the inauguration and an early lesson in how the Obama team works. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good things happening in the transition, but it will be important to maintain a perspective only possible through distance when dealing with the new administration.

Even Rick Warren may need to keep that in mind.

--Loosestrife

Is This Live Blogging?--The Update

2008-12-26T19:04:00.002-06:00

Life will allow me to blog a bit more now, so I'll be picking up some of the poorly developed themes scattered in my intermittent postings of the past few months.

First, let me gloat just for a moment on the awesomeness of my polling methodology, which appears to have accurately called the outcome of the Minnesota senate race on election night before the polls actually closed.

Adios Normy.

--Loosestrife

Breaking News--Missing Minneapolis Ballots Found!

2008-12-04T20:04:00.005-06:00

An unconfirmed report is circulating that the 133 mysterious missing ballots in Minneapolis crucial to the outcome of the Franken/Coleman Senate race have been found.

An source close to the investigation of besieged auto magnate Denny Hecker's mysterious auto accident on County Road 6 in Plymouth last night revealed that the missing ballots were discovered in an empty potato chip bag in the trunk of Hecker's car .

Also discovered in trunk was a paper shredder and receipt for its purchase from Petters Warehouse Mall of America store last October.

The source disclosed the Hecker's injuries resulted in part from a box of faux leather Bibles that that struck Hecker in the back of the head as his vehicle tumbled down an embankment.

There was no indication whether the Bibles were also purchased at Petters Warehouse.

--Loosestrife

Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T08:29:00.001-06:00

Timmy's New Doo

2008-11-18T23:31:00.005-06:00

Consider this my tentative wade back into the political fray.

Is this for real? View the video here.

Not the first time that Pawlenty's follicles have been the grist of hack journalists and snarky bloggers.

That Palin thing must have sent Timmy into a midlife tailspin. I am inviting photoshop artists to come up with alternatives for our thinning governor. Send me your images or at least links to your work.

--Loosestrife

Early Returns--Is This Live Blogging?

2008-11-04T18:18:00.006-06:00

After 2 days of GOTV, I decided to drop by Chicago Lake Liquors this evening.

It was eerie. All these fellow drinkers with I Voted stickers. It was unprecedented. Today while door knocking I saw people who were setting up for watch parties

Based on this unscientific poll, Franken will just eek by Coleman.

You heard it here first.

Update: Checking the definition of eek, there are two possibilities here. Eek could be considered a synonym for squeak, in which case I was being clever. Or, I could have meant "eke" instead of "eek," which means that I was relying on very tired sports writing cliches after a long day knocking doors.

I suspect the latter.

Regardless, Coleman's call for Franken to concede the day after the election indicates that he is worried. Normy wouldn't make such a call if he didn't think he was in trouble.

--Loosestrife

VOTE

2008-11-03T06:10:00.002-06:00

Volunteer, badger, cajole. Leave it all on the road.

--Loosestrife

Favorite Web Ads: In a Sinking Economy

2008-10-30T22:11:00.002-05:00

--Loosestrife

All You Need to Know

2008-10-26T22:43:00.001-05:00

Good Ship Bachmann Taking on Water

2008-10-22T14:26:00.002-05:00

There's some sort of theme here. I leave town, things succumb to gravity.

Watching the sinking SS Michele from the distance makes her possibly fatal "misstatement" blend into the general Republican disaster. She's going down, the question being whether it is fast enough.

El Tinklenberg has his chance--for the first time in this election, he may control his own fate.

It's an open question whether El is up to it. This race is suddenly fun to watch.

Meanwhile, one can imagine repug operatives burning files in metal barrels as the Democrats speed toward them unimpeded.

Here come the waves.

--Loosestrife

A Comment Worth Repeating

2008-10-12T22:05:00.007-05:00

(((Man, I can't keep up with the Vennes/Petters thing, but this very interesting comment on my last post deserves some attention. I have taken the comment and made it a little more user friendly. All credit and blame goes to anonymous. I have not verified any of this. Everything here comes from anonymous, except stuff in triple parentheses--and the photo of Vennes, which comes from the link but did not appear in the original comment.)))

Photo from the web (taken from a Crown Financial Ministries letter) (((Frank Vennes)))

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/2260/vennesphotoou4.jpg

Here is a picture of the dynamic duo (page 1, lower left): (((Note too some of the other celebrities here.)))

http://www.mnteenchallenge.com/uploads/pdfs/Newsletters/newsletter_200707.pdf

Link to Vennes so-called conversion to God/faith (page 3):

http://www.faithstudies.org/news/letter/archive/2001/06-07JuneJuly_1.4MB.pdf

Court cases. Give close attention to the verdicts as they show the actions of someone who has not been changed by faith in God:

http://www.websupp.org/data/DMN/0:05-cv-01780-13-DMN.pdf

http://www.websupp.org/data/DMN/0:06-cv-01041-39-DMN.pdf

http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/26/26.F3d.1448.93-1737.html

Frank E. Vennes, Jr. and his attorney, G. Craig Howse, are real slime. I pray that the government prosecutes them to the maximum extend of the law. They steal and cheat honest people out of their money, under the guise of giving MILLIONS to Christian charities.

(((--Loosestrife)))

Expect a Miracle 2--In Search of the Holy Hustle

2008-10-09T06:33:00.012-05:00

Frank Vennes Jr. leads an interesting life. Turning himself over to Jesus Christ, he leapt from the federal prison in Sandstone, MN into a lucrative life of ordained wealth, this after a modest pre-prison existence as a pawnbroker and felonious sleaze bag.

Now Frank's little winning streak has probably ended.

But not before Vennes braided a multicolored cable of born-again politics, chem-dep conniving, faith-based "nonprofits," questionable business practices, holy higher education, poverty pimping, and the mysterious ways of Allah.

Vennes still has not been charged with any crime but Jon Tevlin of the Strib details Vennes' role in the corrupt Petters operation: "Vennes was a facilitator who persuaded five major investors to invest $1.2 billion in companies controlled by Petters. The document says Vennes collected more than $28 million in commissions for his work."

*******************

A little digging brings it all back home to south Minneapolis, where the notorious Minnesota Teen Challenge is left holding the (empty) bag.

Minnesota Teen Challenge is an oddly named chem-dep treatment nonprofit corporation that serves primarily adults--linked to a national organization, Teen Challenge USA, it is a religiously based operation, an arm of the Assemblies of God, as is Sarah Palin's church .

It's reputation is infamous. Homophobic, bigoted, rigid, and religiously biased it nonetheless operates with the apparent blessing of the "community," while privately some in the treatment industry will confess that its doctrinaire Christian approach to addiction is beyond the bounds of propriety and doesn't treat anything. Victims of its programs are a bit harsher. They'll tell of the rather wacky theories of addiction espoused by the "counselors" in the program (ie. demonic possession) and of those counselors' irrational of fear of sexuality and hatred for anyone who does not accept their word as scripture.

It's not that some people don't get sober through the program. It's that MnTC makes unsubstantiated claims about its success rate, and if you know anything about the Minnesota treatment industry--and are honest--you know that treatment programs can easily cook the books by running off bad risks early and relying on addicts' own words about their sobriety.

Further, if you are Jewish, Muslim, the wrong kind of Christian, a skeptic, or of any of the myriad wayward faiths and are not willing to swallow the lunch meat that is being served, you will not get any help with your addiction at MnTC. That's because an individual's sobriety is the tertiary goal at Minnesota Teen Challenge after his or her religious conversion.

But I digress.
*******************
More importantly at the moment, Minnesota Teen Challenge has rapidly expanded operations like an overly aggressive start-up company in the past few years, mirroring Petters rise from a dealer of second hand goods to a multifaceted corporate machine. Under the firm thumb of Assembly of God alpha-male pastor Rich Scherber, who took the languishing business--I mean program--and scammed lots of donations to jump start it, MnTC has turned into a local treatment industry juggernaut. The program has moved into education, residential treatment, after care, publishing, and into our schools--with outposts now in Duluth and Brainerd. You can read the legend here.

Thanks to Mr. Vennes and the Star Tribune, we have been given a glimpse into a another side of the success of MnTC, financial.

MnTC now is faced with the harsh reality, that that other success was predicated on Petters Ponzi scheme and that they are likely out a cool $5.8 million according to the Strib.

The picture is incomplete, but we know that Vennes sat on the board of MnTC and that he allegedly worked as a "facilitator" of the Petters Ponzi scheme (inc.), encouraging investment in various Petters enterprises.

Soon after the Petters story broke, MnTC posted this letter which in part says,"[A] donor suggested that we work with the Harvest Fund, and later the Fidelis Foundation, organizations that work with many other Christian ministries, and consider investing some of his large charitable gifts in the Petters Companies, a once strong, respected corporate entity in Minnesota."

Who was that donor? At this point, MnTC won't disclose the donor's identity except to say that he or she knew Petters. The donation was significant, $3.225 million. Did Vennes use the "nonprofit" MnTC as just another way to facilitate investment in the Ponzi scheme? He apparently "reviewed" the investment as a member of MnTC's finance committee.

Isn't it a little odd that no one at MnTC seems to have wondered about the fabulous rate of return they were getting on their investments, as much as 24% on 90 day notes at one point? I know that it is unusual in the nonprofit world for a donor to earmark its donation as an investment in a specific company. At least, I used to think so.

But of course, God was at work.

The money was invested through the aforementioned Fidelis Foundation, the nature of which is a little vague, the Strib reporting that "Fidelis is a public charity that also serves as an investment agent for other public charities and nonprofits, including Teen Challenge."

But it is a "public charity" that invested $27 million+ in Petters but nothing in a website, apparently. Unless?

Who is the chair of the Fidelis Foundation?

That would be Craig Howse, Vennes personal attorney who often conducts Vennes' business.

So let's get this straight. MnTC invested money from an unnamed donor in Petters enterprises at said donor's recommendation. The donor knew Tom Petters. The money was invested through the Fidelis Foundation, chaired by Craig Howse, Frank Vennes Jr.'s attorney, while Vennes sat on the MnTC board and also operated as a facilitator recruiting fresh investors to the Petters Ponzi scheme.

Hmm, and who does your laundry?

Howse, appears , as does Rich Scherber, in this youtube video extolling the virtues of Hope Commons, located at 2300 Chicago Avenue South, which houses, among other "faith-based" programs, a part of the Minnesota Teen Challenge empire. A picture of Vennes appears nowhere on the web--odd for a man with his connections.

Meanwhile, the story of Vennes' (and Howse's) political contributions to Michele Bachmann and her letter on Vennes' behalf asking for his pardon is breaking wide open, thanks to the diligent work of the Dump Bachmann folks and the local independent press.

I hope some enterprising journalist has picked up this side story to the Petters fiasco--the connections between easy money and faith-based initiatives at work in Minneapolis, the nexus of Christian poverty-pimps and sleazy business types, and the hypocrisy and corruption behind it all.

I'd love to do it myself, but I have to go to work.

UPDATE: (10/9 6:34 PM) Judge Ann Montgomery's order to seize assets lists Frank Vennes Jr. as a defendant and lists Hope Commons as one of his businesses, ie. Frank Vennes Jr. dba (doing business as) Hope Commons. I am no lawyer, but that would seem to mean that Hope Commons is in receivership.

--Loosestrife

Expect a Miracle 1--From Trash to Treasure to Trash

2008-10-06T20:30:00.003-05:00

Before Tom Petters became a player, the name Petters evoked a certain low-end charm. I'd hit a Petters Warehouse store looking for bargains: there'd be pallets of cheap and tacky home furnishings to step around to get to the electronics or office furniture or appliances or sporting goods. Thinking this over, I don't remember ever buying anything substantial, but it was always kind of fun to run through a Petters Warehouse just to see what they had. More often it was ridiculous rather than sublime--but ultimately just entertaining enough for a few wasted minutes.

Not in the market for floral themed coasters, I eventually gave the Petters remainerama thing up for the cheap thrill of Savers, but I of course remembered the Petters name. Not one to spend my days mulling over the business world, I didn't expend effort considering it, but I did often wonder how Tom had leveraged his foothold in the retail detritus world into a powerful business presence and membership in the philanthropic elite.

Maybe now we know.
********************
If one is to believe the Feds, Petters success came the old-fashion way: he worked hard, and he cheated whenever practicable .

At its core, it's a dog bites man story, really. Scams are as quintessentially American. From Enron to the bailout, there is always the sales pitch, always the other set of books, always the failure of memory, and always the suckers.

No Jeff Skilling, Petters allegedly ran the oldest scam in the book, the classic Ponzi scheme. Nothing as innovative as the Enron style vaporware investments like weather derivatives, although the Petters story is still developing. I could be selling Tom short, so to speak; there may be plenty of creative twists in his business practices that have yet to come to light.

Today, the Strib reports that federal judge Ann Montgomery ordered that Petters assets be seized and designated Doug Kelley, a Minneapolis attorney, as the receiver. Meanwhile, Tom Petter's owned Sun Country Airlines declared bankruptcy.

This story is huge and would be dominating the Minnesota news cycle except for a most significant presidential election in the midst of a world-wide economic meltdown.

It's the devilish details that fascinate me, however, casting light as they do on darkened corners of south Minneapolis. Prayer doesn't protect you when there is no honor among thieves.

--Loosestrife

Walking on The Moon

2008-09-30T06:04:00.002-05:00

Last Wednesday, I walked with a buddy towards the 7th Street Entry to see the KatJonBand, north on Hennepin.

The streets were pretty empty for 9:30. Then I started noticing the restaurants and bars that we were passing.

They were largely empty. Staff sat at the bars watching television in some places. Some noticed us walking by and looked at us hopefully. I nudged my friend, who was lost in his thoughts, and pointed out the empty tables and barstools. We walked some more.

He finally turned to me and said, "Oh shit, it's started." I asked what.

"The depression."

The Entry was empty too, and finally about 15 or 16 people saw the show. That probably had less to do with the new depression and more to do with bad promotion, but it made me think all night about what our new life will look like.

Great musical acts like the KatJonBand--an amalgamation of Jon Langford of Mekons and Waco Brothers fame and Kat Ex, power drummer for the dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex--and Dollar Store, the opening act, that night in a drummer and guitar/vocal configuration (the "Brown Stripes" laughed leader Dean Schlabowske, one of the best songwriters you have never heard of) will still be out plying the trade, but it will be harder for them, and for all of us to get by.

To all the musicians and to the tiny crowd that night, music still mattered, and the performers put out for those few of us there to see them. And for awhile, maybe just for fleeting moments, you could get lost in the passion of it.

Friday night, I was at the liquor store, and the place was packed. As I checked out, I remarked that economic crisis didn't seem to be hurting business. The clerk said that economic hard times historically help the sales of booze. He said that at least now he had some semblance of job security.

Perhaps a better tip than what you'll get from Suzie Orman, who gets more and more frantic with each appearance on CNN, virtually screaming last night at the unwashed masses who failed to recognize what a great deal that the $700 billion transfer from the public coffers was.

Myself, I bought a lottery ticket on Friday as my own personal hedge fund. I suppose I should check to see if I won.

--Loosestrife

Moskovskaya Neat

2008-09-25T23:10:00.005-05:00

You know, this blogging thing seems pointless sometimes. It began as a mistake.

As I try to keep up and keep a full time gig, which pays the bills, and this vanity press thing going, I just get bored.

Oh yeah, I was going to try to do the unpaid citizen journalist thing. Problem, it doesn't pay.

********

Sarah fucking Palin.

There is still the beauty of the world, dying though it may be. And sorry Sarah, here's at least one boy who doesn't find you attractive in the least.

Russian vodka and Letterman's vendetta against McCain, good enough for tonight.

The blog is back, perhaps. The question, as always, is whether the act of creation is enough, or does an audience matter. It is the great mystery. Henry Darger anybody?

Certainly better than Mitch Berg, who has an audience of Neanderthals and a trash house. It's truly amazing, that a bastard so far off base continues to be so self righteous.

"why scream, when you can lose yourself inside the wide-screen
let life be a bowl of melted ice cream
or be the deer that's caught in my high beams
i'm rollin' with the lights on, scared stiff
reality is just too much to bear with"

They call me mellow yellow.

--Loosetrife

Oh What A Week It Was, Part 1: Bulls on Parade

2008-09-08T18:29:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd blog the week of the RNC, but it quickly became apparent that there was no way to keep up with the shit going down. Besides, there were more important web sources running with real news that mattered: I'd just have gotten in the way. If anybody would have read my words when their city was under attack.

Now that that the occupation is underground, it's my time to try to understand it all.

This is an angry fragmented post. I've got to get it out of my system.

We have witnessed what others have already witnessed across the globe, some every fucking day of their short lives. We saw the total militarization of our cities, while smiling fucks like R. T. Rybak and Bob Fletcher puts the shiny political coins in their pockets.

The veil was lifted. What is revealed is hideous.

"Anti-war" politicians brought the war to our streets and into our homes, maybe out of ignorance, and once it was here, they were silent and complicit. Some even celebrated it.

While R.T. Rybak was predictably cheery about the police state, I was a bit surprised by Chris Coleman's willingness to play the patsy for the neo-fascist spectacle of the emergence of the Republican Party as a fundamentalist Christian vehicle to cleanse the planet.

But, as my cousin once said Minnesotans are easy marks.

Except, for this. A toast to Rage. This footage will live on.

A more coherent chapter to come.

--Loosestrife

Under Siege

2008-09-04T18:27:00.003-05:00

Last day of the Republican occupation.

Fuck you very much Chris Coleman and R.T. Rybak, and each and every member of the St. Paul and Minneapolis city councils, with the possible exception of Dave Thune, Elizabeth Glidden, and Cam Gordon. Double that for our local toy soldiers Bob Fletcher and Tim Dolan.

I'll be looking at our convention week in the Twin Cities, after we finally get through it.

In the meantime, putting Palin in perspective. Plus, who is Barack Obama?

--Loosestrife

No Values

2008-07-19T08:10:00.006-05:00

for you.

--Loosestrife

Squandering the Advantage

2008-07-01T05:51:00.004-05:00

It has been hard to watch Barack Obama morph into Bill Clinton 2.0 so early in the game.

Not even Bill Clinton was Bill Clinton on the presidential campaign trail.

After the Obama campaign was nearly flawless in the primary season, its hard tack to the right has given John McCain hope and alienated the committed activists that were, in part, responsible for Obama's victory over Hillary Clinton.

At first, there was a certain desperation in Obama's defenders, including Markos "Kos" Moulitsas. Now there is open dissent. Here's Kos:

It looks like Obama is gun-shy after sticking by Jeremiah Wright. Now, he can't move quickly enough to denounce his own allies. So he's cross at Wes Clark, and he's mighty cross at MoveOn as well! Who else will he be cross with as he kicks off "Operation Piss Off the People Supporting and Bankrolling His Campaign In Order To Prove He Hates the Dirty Fucking Hippies". Now that the primary is over, he can turn his back on the people that brought him.
I was going to max out to him today, given I haven't given Obama a dime yet (focusing on congressional candidates). But I changed my mind. He wants to send the message that he doesn't need us, all the power to him. Message received. I'll spend that $2,300 somewhere else.

There is real danger here for Obama. The wind at his back are people like Kos, and like me, who will get out and do the work: knocking on doors, raising money, shaping opinion, and staying focused on victory.

Throw down too much right-wing bullshit, make it apparent that change we can believe in is nothing but a slogan, and Kos will be openly trashing Barackstar and I will find something else to do as the election approaches.

That's the opening that the McCainiacs need to turn this back into a nail biter, an election close enough to steal.

Already, with war against Iran looming, Obama has waded into the gooey center. If he supports military action, he will lose my and many other progressive votes, Minnesota will be back in play, and we will wait up late on November 4 listening to reports of polling irregularities in Cleveland.

--Loosestrife

Living It

2008-03-26T07:52:00.003-05:00