SCSU Scholars welcome your comments. Offensive material will be deleted.
j - so you're agreeing with Kline, that it was more important for Kline to pick up a check than speak before veterans, yes?
Wow - I witnessed the same kind of 'cheating' at the Stillwater Lumberjack Days Parade. I wrote a letter to the editor, but of course NONE of the major papers would print it. Here it is:
I found it very interesting that DFL endorsed El Tinklenberg has already cheated the 6th District of Minnesota, the same district he is running to represent.
On Sunday, July 26th, at 12:45pm, Tinklenberg and about 6 of his followers walked the length of the Lumberjack Days Parade route, proudly showing off their campaign shirts "Tinklenberg for Congress", while the candidate shook hands and spoke to hundreds of people lined up on sidewalks. The trouble is, the parade started at 1pm! All other candidates (including the person he is running against, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann), paid their $350 registration fee to Lumberjack Days for their exposure time. Tinklenberg must have thought he was entitled to the same benefits as those who worked hard and followed the rules. I guess we can't blame him - after all, that is a common theme in the DFL platform.
For the rest of you, the PAC that provided John Kline with the check was from the VFW-PAC thanking Congressman Kline for his support of veterans.
As I've blogged before, the mainstream media rarely provides views alternative to theirs, regardless of facts. Seems as if the troller here ignores facts when they don't agree with a pre-conceived view.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, ol' Two-Putt ("Puddles") is a troll notorious for trying to hijack comment threads with numerous and frequent off-topic and non-responsive posts like this. The solution: just don't feed him!
j, just to be clear here: you're defending Kline's hatchetman, Osskopp?
And you're saying it's ok for Kline to blow off the Goodhue County Veterans Forum, that EVERY ONTER CANDIDATE - from damned near dog-catcher to congress attended - because he'd rather pick up a PAC check?
Mr. Two Putt - Two questions
1 - The DAV scorecard only rated members of the US Congress on 1 vote in 2004. Isn't it interesting they picked just one? Maybe b/c the others showed Kline's incredible support for our military.
2 - Why hasn't the DAV scored any votes since 2006? Could it be b/c the Dems are now in charge in DC and the Dems don't want to draw attention to their refusal to address veterans' benefits proposed by the Republicans? Yeah, I think so.
One thing you want to make sure you do is consider what your particular organization, in this case, the DAV is omitting from their analysis. Only showing one side, Mr. 2-putt, is unfair to you, the vets, and everyone else.
Thank you for your support of vets 
The real problem here, Janet - is you're more upset about the double u-, than you are about Kline's double-cross of America's Veterans.
Here's a video, shot at the Zumbrota VFW at the Goodhue County Veterans Forum in 2006, with John Kline's designated hatchet-man, Mike Osskopp, deliberately misrepresenting Kline's voting record as recorded by the Disabled American Veterans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W...h?
v=WmrjyTnXbJw
Incredible, isn't it? John Kline snubbing the Veterans Forum, at a VFW because Kline thought it more important to pick up a PAC check, and Osskopp lying about Kline's DAV voting record.
Of course, along with "incredible", "typical" would also be accurate.
Most people who have walked in a few parades are well aware that the 'unit' in the parade is often registered by a local political unit, most often a senate district or county affiliate either the Republican or Democratic party. This has been the norm for many years, and will likely continue to be the norm for many more.
At the time of the parade all of the local party activists show up at the parade site, and each candidate committe hands out a few t-shirts, a few rolls of stickers, and a couple of bags of candy to hand out to children along the parade route. A 'unit' will often then include supporters of a congressional candidate, a state house candidate, a US senate candidate, perhaps a state senate candidate, and maybe a few local candidates for some local office like city council or county commissioner. There is nothing new or unique about this, and it does not seem particularly subversive, clandestine or nefarious. It is a way for a candidate to have a presence, if even a token one, in many different parades. There are a lot of parades every weekend in Minnesota, and in CD2. It is not physically possible for either congressional candiate to be at all of them.
Try actually participating in a campaign at the street level and you will quickly learn that pinching pennies and spreading scarce volunteers thin to cover the campaign area is the norm. A typical candidate has to be frugal when they can, and make the most out of too few volunteers. If Rep. Kline does not have these problems, then he is indeed an unusually fortunate candidate.
Michael, you're actually comparing a long time paid campaign staffer to a parade volunteer???
Is that the best you can do?
I wonder. Does John Kline pay his volunteer walkers as well has he pays this "volunteer"?
http://the-uptake.groups.theupta...eryView/id/387/
Janet, the first comment reminds me of an old Yogi Berra saying. One time, some friends took him to the hottest diner in town.
When they got there, they were told that there was a long wait, that the place was filled to the gills.
At that point, Yogi said "No wonder nobody comes here. It's always too busy."
Spot's comment makes as little sense as that Yogiism.
Your comment makes no sense - the number of walkers with John Kline outnumber almost all other politicians in every parade. I've been there, counted walkers, published photos - your comment is simply not true.
The real problem here, Janet, is that nobody wants to walk with John Kline.
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