Minnesota Caucus

Here's how Minnesota elects delegates to the National Convention 2008



It all starts at your neighborhood caucus

Tuesday, February 8
7:00 pm

Be there, aloha!

Caucus location for our neighborhood:

Minnehaha Academy North Campus
3100 West River Pkwy
Minneapolis MN 55406

map

You're invited to attend our weekly Minnehaha Meetup to network with other neighbors and prepare for the caucus, every Tuesday until the caucus.


I met a stranger...

I met a stranger at the Caribou Coffee on Minnehaha Parkway and Cedar today.

The stranger had seen the book I was reading, The Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose. He came over and asked me how I liked the book. I told him it was great. It even features an ex-girlfriend of mine in chapter 6, who fought the good fight as an "enterprising" reporter for the New York Times, uncovering the identity of a librarian caught in the crosshairs of a National Security Letter that forbade him from even telling his own family about his situation.

Well, after much discussion I lamented how both parties had participated in the loss of civil liberties, before the Patriot Act. For example, another Princeton classmate of mine, who's a law professor, told me about how President Clinton had prepared the way for the loss of Habeas Corpus with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 he signed into law. The stranger seemed resigned to despair. Nothing to do but accept the inevitable.... What can anyone do? On that note, the stranger left. (Hopefully, what I told him about my support for Ron Paul will sink in.)

There is a way out.

Don't be a stranger.

Attend your caucus.

Attend the meetup.

Ron Paul literature all over my precinct

Yesterday I finished a week-long campaign to deliver Ron Paul literature to every doorstep in my caucus precinct, Minneapolis W-12 P-08, before Christmas, leaving 1800 or so "slim-jim" palmcards, most of them like the one here.

I ran a marathon in 2004 and another in 2005. This is the closest thing to a marathon I've done since. If you'd like to do some Ron Paul marathoning yourself, contact Marianne Stebbins at the Minnesota campaign headquarters. Marianne may prefer that you spread your leafletting run over several precincts, instead of focussing on just one, like I did.

If you do, be sure to pack plenty of water and stay hydrated!

Ron Paul's Empty Pot and Will Rogers

Ed Felien, editor and publisher of the Southside Pride, recounted this story with flair at a Ron Paul Meetup last night at Powderhorn Park. Wish I had a video. It's the story of the emperor and the empty pot,

The wise, old emperor was keenly aware that he was getting along in years, and he worried about finding a suitable replacement to lead the people. One day, he solicited the young people of his kingdom to gather, and he shocked them by telling them that he would be stepping down and that he would choose one of them to be his successor. “I am going to give each one of you a seed today, a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!”

One young man named Ling, a son of a farmer, was there that day, and he was certain that he could cultivate that seed better than anyone else. He got a pot, filled it with rich soil and watered it carefully. Day after day, he checked the pot. Weeks passed by, then months, and still nothing had grown. Other youths from the kingdom began to talk about their plants and flowers and trees, but Ling said nothing. He was sure that he somehow had killed the seed.

After a year had passed, all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling’s first inclination was not to attend, but he showed up that day, sick to his stomach. He was amazed at the plants that the others had brought. They were of all different varieties and all so beautiful. Some of the others made fun of Ling’s empty pot and others felt pity for him. Ling stood toward the back of the crowd.

The emperor looked over the vast array and seemed pleased. Then, he spotted Ling standing at the back of the room with his empty pot, and he ordered his guards to bring the young man to the front. Ling was led grudgingly, fearful that he may be punished for his utter failure. The emperor asked his name. “My name is Ling,” he replied. Now, all the youths were laughing and making fun. The emperor then announced to the crowd, “Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!”
The emperor continued,

One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. The rest of you substituted your own seeds for the one I gave you, but Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be your new emperor!

Read the rest at News Long Island...

It reminds me of Will Rogers routine on radio, three-quarters of a century ago, where he builds up to the announcement of his great plan, The Will Rogers Plan, that will solve all the ails of the country,

It kinda looks like a bad day for plans... I'm not going to get discouraged though. In fact, these other failures -- well, they've really given me confidence, you know -- more hope that my plan will be a success... My plan is a plan to end all plans. It's to do away with all plans. That's what it is. This country has been planned to death... There ain't but one place that a plan is any good and that it'll really work, and that's on paper. But the minute you get it off a sheet of paper and get it out in the air... it blows away. ... Plans just don't work. If they're milk and honey to you, they're poison ivy to somebody else... My plan is when a senator or congressman -- or even a man of great ability (we must quit joking about those boys, because they're good guys) ... comes to Washington with a plan, you send 'em to Russia. Yes, sir, send 'em to Russia with the plan. That's the home of all plans, you know. That's the home. Russia, they eat and sleep and drink plans in Russia. That's why there's starvation there, because you just can't digest a plan. It don't eat right. Everything in Russia is run by plans; everything here is run by accident... [The Rogers Plan] is: 'Don't Plan' ... Live haphazard... There's nothing in the world as common as an idea, and there's nothing in the world as hard to carry out as an idea. If the Republicans would forget their main plan which is to get into the White House and the Democrats would forget their main plan which is to stay in there, and the others, all these various third parties, would just look at their history which shows that none of them ever did get in there, why, we'd all recover overnight, you see.

     Will Rogers - Rogers' Plan to End All Plans

Ed Felien has written a front-page article supporting Ron Paul, which should appear soon in our neighborhood edition of the Southside Pride, Ron Paul revolution: Are you ready?.

Meeting on proposed Midtown Incinerator - Dec 13

My friends and fellow Standish residents Dan Cooke and Ann Novitske have set up a new blog on the proposed Midtown Minneapolis Incinerator. Dan writes,

Action Alert - MPCA Public Information Meeting

The MPCA [Minnesota Pollution Control Agency] has scheduled a public meeting on the Midtown Eco Energy incinerator's pollution permit application. The meeting will provide information about the proposed new incinerator at 2850 20th Avenue South in Minneapolis -- near the Minneapolis Greenway and the new Greenway Bridge that straddles Hiawatha Avenue. IF YOU LIVE, EXERCISE, WORK OR SHOP WITHIN THREE MILES OF THIS FACILITY AND YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT AIR POLLUTION IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU ATTEND THIS MEETING. Please come to the meeting to learn more about this project.

MPCA Public Information Meeting on proposed Midtown Incinerator:

Thursday, December 13, 2007
6 - 8:30 p.m.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
2730 East 31st Street, Minneapolis

No one who attends will be required to speak (although you can ask questions or make comments if you wish). Project developers and people who are concerned about the pollution that would be caused by the project will be in attendance to offer pros and cons. By simply attending you will be letting the MPCA know that you care about the air you breathe and about the planet we live on.

all Gaul is divided into three parts

All of Standish-Ericsson is divided into 3 caucus precincts.

To the north lie the pastoral highlands of precinct W-9 P-08. Their residents are bravest because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of the new Caribou and Grand Ole Creamery on Cedar and Minnehaha Parkway :-) To the south, by the great inland sea of Lake Hiawatha, home to beavers in the early 90s, we find the glades and peoples of precinct W-12 P-11, bounded to the south by Minnehaha Creek. Between these two vast regions, there is the third precinct, W-12 P-08, north of rolling green battlefields, once graced by the mighty Tiger Woods.

Below are detailed maps of each precinct, which you can enlarge by clicking on them.

(Comments are welcome if you'd like to add anything to the descriptions.)

It is here that the battle is to be waged on February 5, 2008, for Ron Paul. Will you be there at the caucuses? The world will pass down the legend of what happened here that day. What will you tell your children?





Minneapolis W-9 P-08


Minneapolis W-12 P-08


Minneapolis W-12 P-11

Source for Standish-Ericsson map: Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association


Update (Dec 5, 2007): All Gaul is divided into 3 parts? No, four.