Next Meeting: April 20th

Come get the skinny on the College Dems of Minnesota Convention to be held here at Macalester in a week and a half, find out about an upcoming opportunity with our precinct chair and co-chair Addy and Emily, and get yourself a job or internship with the DFL.

Our April 6 meeting with Ford Bell (and welcome to all the PF's who attended!)

Ford Bell, the candidate with "the shortest name and longest body," is a veteran and former chairman of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. He believes that the DFL stands for fairness, generosity of spirit, and commitment to helping people.

On healthcare, we have the most expensive system in the world, but leave out 46 million people. This makes the U. S. job market less competitive because companies have to provide healthcare. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

Bell's biggest issue is the war. It started wrong, and it will always be wrong. The war is causing mental injuries to U. S. soldiers, and thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead. The "you broke it, you bought it" analogy doesn't obligate another soldier to die in a foreign war.

Giving tax cuts through cuts to Head Start and financial aid to college students is like "eating your seed corn." Bell is a board member of Connecticut College.

Q: Will you abide by the DFL endorsement?

A: I will honor a "convincing endorsement." I think I will do very, very well at the State Convention. A Zogby poll says I would beat Mark Kennedy. This result is within the margin of error of Amy Klobuchar's numbers against Kennedy. Democrats are tired of candidates who won't take a stand on global warming, etc. If we don't, who will? "I'm going to stay in this race...The issues will triumph."

Q: How would you approach a possible censure or impeachment of President Bush like the one Russ Feingold has proposed?

A: We need to get supeona power back. I think George Bush is guilty of criminal negligence when it comes to the war in Iraq. Domestic spying definitely needs to be looked into as well. Why aren't we protecting out power plants, and ports? Why are we cutting our first responders? It is impossible to prevent all attacks in a free society so we should be putting lots of resources into our first responders and staying prepared.

Q: How can we just pull our troops out of Iraq? Should NGOs replace us?

A: At some point we're going to pull out anyway, even if it's three years from now. If we do it sooner, fewer Americans will die. Two things need to happen before we pull out. Iraq needs to engineer a cease fire and they need to re-write a constitution that doesn't marginalize the Sunnis. After those two things happen we should get out. I spoke with Tom Friedman the other day who is still a supporter of the war and he said "If Iraq's going to have a Civil War, I'd just assume they do it without us." Our troop presence there creates violence. Staying there is supported by circular logic.

Q: How does Congressman Kennedy fit into the "Culture of Corruption" that Tom DeLay represents? (And how does Amy Klobuchar fit into it?)

A: I'm glad DeLay is gone but the mentality he represents is still present. Kennedy is a Bush lap dog. Congressman Kennedy has poor stances on issues as well - he's pro-life and he wants to cut taxes for the rich. I don't know that Amy Klobuchar fits into the culture of corruption.

Q: Do you have a specific plan for increasing health coverage?

A: We need a huge culture change. We need to elect people who are willing to push for it. Medicare is a good model. First we need to cover all children under Medicare which hopefully won't be too contraversial. It's really a social justice issue.

Q: Are you going to focus on preventive health care?

A: Absolutely! I've done over 500 programs in schools across the state trying to educate youth about preventative health care. Right now 70% of our health care dollars go to treating preventable diseases and 5% go to prevention. We need to create a "culture of wellness." I've visited Cuba (legally) three times and they do a much better job of keeping people healthy and guarenteeing everyone primary care.

Q: How do you feel about stem cell research?

A: We're the greatest bio-medical researcher in the world. This kind of research creates jobs and improves the economy. We shouldn't hand it off to Japan or China or India or England. Protecting against abuses is not that hard to do - England does a nice job. Private funds had been raised to do stem cell research at the U of M and they couldn't use them because they were threatened with losing their state funding.

Learn more about Ford Bell and don't forget about the convention this weekend!

Our March 30 meeting featured Ryan Greenwood from Progressive Minnesota. As many of you may or may not know, Progressive Minnesota will soon be merging with MAPA. The mission of MAPA over the years has been to work on building progressive alliances between different groups. Progressive Minnesota has focused on getting liberal candidates elected and holding them accountable. The new group will incorporate elements of both these missions.

Right now Progressive Minnesota is working on several things including the gay marriage amendment, "Fair share health care," INS police seperation ordinances, and a living wage.
Progressive Minnesota believes marriage is a civil right and that this issue in particular is symbolic of gay political power in the state. Senators are getting tons of heat from their constituents for not supporting the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. One prime example is Dean Johnson. We need to show support for those lawmakers who are doing the right thing. There will be two phone banks on the next two Tuesdays, April 4th and 11th to call people and speak against the amendment. There may also be positions open this summer for people to go door to door, building support for legislators who do not support the amendment (we need to help make it worth their while.)

Another issue Progessive MN is working on is "Fair Share health care" which says that when a company has more than 10,000 workers in the state and is only paying 8% of their payroll to health care for their employees they have to make up that difference or reimburse the state. Right now Wal Mart is essentially freeloading on Minnesota Care and on tax payers. There will be a phone banking opportunity this next Thursday, April 6.

The INS police seperation ordinances were put into law and are currently supported by both police chiefs in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Right now a broad coalition (including many Democrats) is trying to repeal them. These ordinances say that it is not the responsibility of the police to inquire into immigration status unless it specifically relates to the crime. Republicans say police are not enforcing the law but in reality if these ordinances are repealed, countless domestic abuse and other crimes will not be reported because of fear. Fear of the police is never a good thing. We need to hold Democrats accountable who are supporting the repeal despite the testimony of countless police officers.

The Living Wage was passed in Minneapolis and now we're working on St. Paul. It basically says that if a business gets 100,000 dollars or more from the city government they need to pay their workers above the poverty line. Right now some people are working to exempt temporary and part time workers as well as non-profit workers. Some are also trying to pass a waiver or make a provision that says that renters from a building contract that recieved city money are exempt. We need to work for a strong resolution. We'll be asking people to come down to city hall to lobby some time soon.

Keep yourself informed on these important issues and look for more opportunities to help out at Progessive Minnesota (and maybe work for them over the summer!)

At our March 23 meeting we heard from our state representative (and Macalester graduate) Matt Entenza. After 8 years in the House Entenza became leader of the Democrats, a position he has held since that time. Before he served in the House he was a young lawyer working in the attorney general's office where he hopes to return this fall.
The attorney general is an important office. It is essentially the #2 politician in the state after the governor and has a lot of power to influence public policy. The major goals of the the attorney general are to protect consumers from scams and fraud. When he was working in the office as a young man he helped bring down a charity called Bibles for the homeless that was targeting the elderly and pocketing the money. Entenza also wants to promote environmental justice as attorney general. The current attorney general, Mike Hatch, has targeted health care providers and hospitals that charge exorbitant rates to the uninsured and hound them with bill collectors.
Right now Matt Entenza's campaign could use help staffing state conventions that are taking place almost every weekend across the state. He could also use summer interns or help from anyone who will be around for the state convention on June 9 in Rochester. He is currently unopposed as a Democrat but he'd like to stay that way. He also has to build a strong campaign against his Republican opponent Jeff Johnson. Johnson is a lawyer from Detroit Lakes whose law firm tries to break unions and helps corporations fire people. We can't allow a right wing politician to win this important office.

Entenza then took a few questions...
Question 1: Many attorney generals across the state have taken major stances on big issues like tobacco and global warming. How do you feel about taking an activist position on certain issues?

As attorney general you can do multi-state litigation which is very powerful. I'm very inclined to go after national issues, especially oil companies. Exxon made record profits during the hurricanes. That's not right.

Question #2: Sean Patrick Maloney is running for Eliot Spitzer's vacated attorney general seat in NY. He's talking about making a formal complaint against Bush for wiretapping New Yorkers. What do you think about that?

Bush is terrible. Right now we're holding people without counsel and denying them their rights. We are bringing people out of the country to torture them. I want to do something about Bush. This sounds really promising - you should email me the article