“It’s usurping the power of the legislature… Right now he’s actually writing laws,” he said. “I don’t know where’s he getting this authority, and nobody’s really taking him on.”

“Right now any governor — whether the governor is Tom Rukavina or Tim Pawlenty — can basically sign every spending bill and then decide to unallot,” he said.

Rukavina agrees that Pawlenty’s motives in unallotment have been more about his national political ambitions than in looking after Minnesota’s future.

“I think he’s being very insincere in his claim that he loves this state and loves the people of this state,” he said. “Because what he’s doing to them isn’t, from where I come from, any sign of love.”

On Monday, the House Rules Committee voted to file a brief in support of a suit against the governor’s unallotment of some $2.7 million from the state budget.

Watch it:

See answers by DFL gubernatorial candidates R.T. Rybak and Paul Thissen to Stellmacher’s ongoing candidate series on the biggest threats to Minnesota.

A 60-year-old Port Huron, Mich. woman called up the Kentucky-based customer service center for the Gannett-owned Times Herald of Port Huron to express her anger over the editorial, which criticized Republican U.S. Rep. Candice Miller for attending the rally. The Nov. 12 editorial called out protest signs that depicted Obama as “Sambo” and others that showed the Holocaust imagery, as well as protesters who chanted “Nazi, Nazi.”

The editorial concluded by calling on Miller to apologize for attending the Bachmann-organized event, which it characterized as a “GOP festival of hate.”

No charges have been filed against the woman, but an investigation is ongoing.

“[I]t seems these days that the American dream is fading,” the Minnetonka resident wrote. “And without responsible, accountable, and informed leadership in Washington, this dream is in serious jeopardy for future generations. I am running for congress to restore these qualities to leadership, to raise up the middle class, and to make sure our children and grandchildren have even better opportunities than we had. I am running for Congress to revive the American dream and I ask for your support to do this.”

Last week, the Cook Political Report listed the seat as “likely Republican.” Early this month, fellow DFLer Jim Meffert also filed to run for the CD3 seat.

“Let’s send these European immigrants back where they came from! I don’t care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian! European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinous crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery!”

If the Yes Men–style gag was lost on some of the rally’s attendees, it shouldn’t have been by the end, when Erickson’s concluded by leading the crowd in chants of “Columbus, go home!”

Here’s video of Saturday’s “Tea Party Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigration,” which has gotten national attention at The Atlantic, Crooks & Liars and ThinkProgress and locally at Bluestem Prairie and Twin Cities Indymedia.

Here’s Bluestem Prairie’s video of Erickson’s speech:

According to ThatsMyFace.com, crypto-groupies can “[b]uy Bruce’s lifelike head mounted on a 12-inch’ action figure body with pre-fitted clothes.” Options include “Casual Bruce” or “Smart Bruce” with “scalp” options that include his trademark ponytail, “bald” or “Cyborg” (for an additional fifteen bucks).

On his blog, Schneier — who weighed in for us in March on the breach of former Sen. Norm Coleman’s donor database — says he doesn’t get any royalties from sales. He says he’d like to see profits go to online civil liberties groups EFF or EPIC, but to do so would’ve raised the price even more.

“I’ve told them that at $100 no one will buy it, but at $40 it’s a funny gift for your corporate IT person,” he writes. “So e-mail the company if you’re interested, and if they get enough interest they’ll do a bulk order.”

Reached by email, he told MnIndy the notion of a Bruce Schneier action figure is “surreal.”

“It’s not as interesting as it might appear,” he added. “I don’t think they’re making them to sell.  I think they’re making them as a custom order when someone buys one.  That’s why the price is so high.”

So far the company doesn’t yet show a photo of the action figure (we’ll post one when it does). To promote the hundred-buck figures it displays a computer rendering of Schneier’s head — a resin version of which, it’s worth adding, can be purchased sans body for a mere $29.

In July, the Madison, Wis.–based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit over plans to inscribe the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” motto prominently in the Washington, D.C. center, charging that to do so would be unconstitutional and not representative of all Americans, including 15 percent of the population it says are nonbelievers.

Today’s brief (pdf), filed by the American Center for Law and Justice with the U.S. District Court in Madison, calls the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s cause a “crusade,” stating that it “serves no purpose other than to waste judicial resources at a time in our Nation’s history when those resources are needed in cases involving real threats to American liberties.”

The slogans in question “in no way violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. These expressions simply echo the sentiments found in the Declaration of Independence and recognize the undeniable truth that our freedoms come from a source higher than the state…. While the First Amendment affords atheists complete freedom to disbelieve, it does not compel the federal judiciary to redact religious references in every area of public life in order to suit atheistic sensibilities.”

In addition to Bachmann, fellow Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline and Iowa’s Steve King were also represented in the brief.

The email (pdf), headlined “Write Your Senators!,” provides links to the company’s online letter-writing template and offers form letters employees can customize for writing to legislators and to local papers. The communique states that “all activity is voluntary and you may express any position you may have,” but as Judy Dugan of Consumer Watchdog suggests, employees “wouldn’t dare to speak against the company position unless they’ve already got a new job lined up.”

In August, UnitedHealth — one of the country’s largest health insurance providers – sent a letter to employees urging them to write to their representatives about about health care reform and to attend town hall meetings on the topic. One caller to a UnitedHealth health reform hotline was reportedly encouraged to attend a tea party and directed to a listing of events hosted by the rightwing America’s Independent Party.

“You look at Sarah Palin and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,” she told King. “They are relentlessly torn down by the liberal media. I mean, they’re wonderful women, they’re intelligent, they’re great mothers. They’re brilliant. And yet there’s a double standard that conservative women are fair game to be attacked and it’s not right and it needs to stop.”

King replied, “Doesn’t the conservative media tear down liberal policiticans?”

“Not to the extent that liberals do to conservative women,” she answered. “I think they get away with it.”

But what really ruffled Prejean’s feathers was King’s question about why she agreed to settle lawsuits with the Miss California USA pageant. The pageant sued her for breach of contract and Prejean, whose answer to a Miss USA pageant question that revealed her to be ardently anti-gay marriage endeared her to rightwing conservatives, countersued. On Nov. 3, all suits were dropped; CNN had reported that a source claimed the reason for the settlement was that “extremely graphic” videos involving Prejean has surfaced. When King prodded Prejean about the reason behind the settlement, she repeatedly called his line of questioning “inappropriate” and attempted to walk off the set.

Margaret Anderson Kelliher

Gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher picked up an endorsement from Minnesota’s largest union of state professional employees today. MAPE — the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees — announced its support for Anderson Kelliher, who is speaker of the state House of Representatives.

MAPE, which has nearly 13,000 members, interviewed each gubernatorial candidate in Roseville on Monday and Tuesday, before selecting the Minneapolis Democrat as its choice.

“We believe Speaker Kelliher’s proven leadership skills and her ability to manage the state in difficult times make her the strongest candidate,” said MAPE Statewide President Chet Jorgenson. “Speaker Kelliher is willing to bring people together to solve problems in a crisis. She has a history of respect for state workers and the jobs they do. It is for these reasons that MAPE’s elected officials endorsed Speaker Kelliher for governor of Minnesota.”

“We believe she is the most electable candidate in the race,” said MAPE Executive Director Jim Monroe. “Speaker Kelliher can raise the necessary money, has the necessary experience to guide this state in hard times and has a superior campaign structure.”

Karen Armstrong. Photo: TED.com

During their joint General Assembly in Minneapolis this week, the National Council of Churches and Church World Service have a busy agenda: install a new president (a Minnesotan), vote on whether to make the body’s stance on nuclear disarmament an official resolution, and discuss issues like immigration reform and gun violence. The three-day gathering will close on Thursday with a special prayer, “The Charter for Compassion,” a document, to be read worldwide tomorrow for the first time, created by scholars from the three Abrahamic religions at the urging of religious historian and former Catholic nun Karen Armstrong.

Currently, the Council is weighing the likely adoption of a statement, adopted in September by the Council’s Governing Board, called “Nuclear Disarmament: The Time is Now.” The resolution “reiterates the NCC’s historic declaration that nuclear weapons are a violation of God’s law, and the idea that they deter enemy attacks is nonsense,” according to a release by the ecumenical group. If adopted Wednesday evening, the resolution will get elevated status as a General Assembly Resolution.

Thursday night at Minneapolis’ St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Rev. Peg Chemberlin, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, will be installed as the 25th president of the Council, which has members from 35 different Christian communions. She’s the first Minnesotan to hold the office — and the second Moravian and fourth woman — since the Council was founded in 1950.

As the assembly’s closing prayer on Thursday, attendees will read the Compassion Charter. Here’s how the charter came to be. Last year, Armstrong — author of popular books like “A History of God” and “The Battle for God” — was awarded the prestigious 2008 TED Prize. Winners — like Bill Clinton, Bono and biologist E.O. Wilson, among others — are given $100,000 with which to fulfill a wish. Armstrong’s wish: to create, launch and propagate a document that would promote compassion, a central tenet of major world religions — a.k.a The Golden Rule. She enlisted 18 “inspirational thinkers” from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions to help draft the document, which has been signed by leaders including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

“Compassion was the major test of any true spirituality and the chief means by which human beings come into contact with God or Nirvana or Brahman. And yet you rarely hear people talking about compassion,” she said. “The idea is to change the conversation so people feel empowered to demand compassionate speaking from their priests, monks and rabbis,” she says.

Here’s Armstrong’s TED Prize speech: