Pawlenty introduced a question about what the United States should do about Iran with his view that “it’s inevitable that that situation is going to come to a head.” Powell said recent political turmoil has revealed “fissures,” as people press their desire for “liberalized government.”

Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Powell said the United States had two choices: Take out nukes militarily, or warn them, Cold War style, that any nuclear aggression on their part would bring greater retribution against them.

One area of shared interest wasn’t touched on in Pawlenty’s talk with Powell: the future of the Republican Party.

Also left unmentioned: Powell’s views on the recent arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, and President Obama’s nationally-televised response in which he referenced racial profiling.

Only last week, the NAACP centenary brought Powell together with Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, whose “nation of cowards” speech in February marked the Administration’s other rhetorical milestone on race.

(Idle question: Would Minnesota DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller have broached that timely issue of race with Powell, given the equal time from WCCO that he has asked for?)

Here’s the video of Pawlenty on Fox on Thursday, responding to Obama on health care:

[Via Political Animal]

Photo: The UpTake

The Obama Administration held up St. Cloud as a measure of the federal stimulus’ promise when Vice President Biden held a town hall meeting at a bus factory there in March. Two investigative journalism enterprises, The Takeaway and ProPublica, check on how St. Cloud is faring and find that the stimulus hasn’t meant any new jobs at New Flyer of America yet.

In a story cross-published at MinnPost, ProPublica points out that New Flyer is doing well regardless of whether the stimulus sends transportation or energy-related funds its way.

The Takeaway’s audio report plays a clip from Biden’s presentation in March, saying, “We want to invest not just in getting people jobs right now; what we want to do is lay a foundation for the 21st century … to lead the world.” St. Cloud residents interviewed for the report aren’t seeing it “right now” … yet.

ProPublica says the delay even with “shovel-ready” transportation-related projects is partly due to the hurdle of ensuring union labor is used.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning…

BEMIDJI: Fellow DFLer announces bid to unseat state Sen. Mary Olson. Greg Paquin told DFL Chair Brian Melendez that Ojibwe Native Americans should hold all legislative offices in Senate Districts 2 and 4; now he’s running for one (SD 4). [Bemidji Pioneer]

STATEWIDE: State shed 16,700 jobs in June. The state’s unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent, still below the national 9.5 percent. The staggering loss since June 2008 is 112,000 jobs. [Associated Press]

DULUTH: Surf’s up, and so are the ‘No Water Contact Recommended‘ signs. As if today’s fall-like weather isn’t enough, illness-inducing bacteria is spoiling the summer fun at five Duluth beaches. [Duluth News Tribune]

ST. PAUL: Journos withhold bylines to protest layoffs. No talks, no names — that’s the word from St. Paul Pioneer Press news workers who say management wouldn’t consider concessions as an alternative to pink slips. [MinnPost; St. Paul Pioneer Press]

ALEXANDRIA: Council considers putting teeth in golf-cart ordinance. A proposed $25 permit fee would put a price on puttering down city streets. [Alexandria Echo Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: Sign ban would leave sandwich-seekers hungry. So-called sandwich signs guide shoppers to locally-owned businesses, but a council member wants them gone. [MPLS Mirror]

Photo: Hennepin Cty Library

The bells atop the Minneapolis City Hall tower rang out Michael Jackson tunes on Friday in memory of the pop star who died on Thursday. Dan Wascoe performed five Jackson songs: “We Are the World,” “Ben,” “You Are Not Alone,” “I’ll Be There,” and “Gone Too Soon.” Audio and video after the jump.

Friday carillon concerts at midday are a weekly tradition, but such memorials are rare. Frank Sinatra’s death in 1998 inspired a similar program of signature tunes, and the bells played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” after Kirby Puckett died in 2006.

Wascoe, a former Star Tribune writer, explained to the Minnesota Independent (via a Facebook message) how he came to select those five songs from Jackson’s oeuvre:

For the bells concert, I developed a list of potential songs from several folks who know Jackson’s hits, including Tony Hill, the producer of the bells concerts; Baibi Vegners, my musical partner in a duo we call Nuance/a duo, and Nicole Wascoe Bauman, my elder daughter.

I culled that list using two main criteria: First, would they be recognizable when played on the bells? (The overtones of the 15 bells can turn some tunes, particularly uptempos, into musical mush.) Second, could I learn them well enough overnight to render decent versions during Friday’s concert?

I knew a couple of the tunes already and listened to the rest on YouTube. Because of the limits of the bells and the tiny keyboard from which they’re played, I had to determine which keys I could transpose the song into. I summoned the lyrics to the songs on the internet, then wrote above the words the letter name for each note  as heard on YouTube. Then I went to the piano to figure out how to transpose them for the bells.

It was something of a scramble because I am more of a Sinatra/Nat Cole fan than an MJ fan. But I guess folks who listened on Friday did recognize the tunes, so I consider that a small victory given the time pressure.

In a way it was fun to work against a tight deadline again. I was a Star Tribune reporter and columnist for 40 years before retiring two years ago this week.

Wascoe mentioned that there’s a great YouTube video of Jackson performing “Gone Too Soon” at President Clinton’s 1992 inaugural gala.

Here’s audio of Wascoe playing “I’ll Be There” on the City Hall bells, as recorded on the street (you’ll hear the passing traffic) by Jake Mohan and posted at his blog, The Dependent Clause:

And here’s a KARE-11 news report that shows Wascoe playing the tiny keyboard that controls the tower bells:

Minneapolis’ City Hall bells playing Jackson and Sinatra is reminiscent of the old nursery rhyme ”Oranges and Lemons“ about the bells of London, which ring out pop tunes as re-imagined in the Clash song “Clash City Rockers“:

You owe me a move, say the bells of St. Groove
Come on and show me, say the bells of Old Bowie
When I am fitter, say the bells of Gary Glitter
No one but you and I, say the bells of Prince-Far-I

(Prince-Far-I being a reggae DJ, not the Minneapolis-born pop star currently known as Prince, or the son of Michael Jackson who is also named Prince.)

Photo: Jill Brady/The Vigil

Minnesotan Coleen Rowley has emerged in the last few days as a potential “off-the-grid” nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Rowley’s addition to unofficial SCOTUS “long lists” (as opposed to shortlists) comes as U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar downplays chatter that she might be tapped to replace retiring Justice David Souter.  

Interest in Rowley seems to have originated with Nadine Strossen, a professor at New York Law School and former longtime president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Strossen was among a dozen experts on constitutional law and the Supreme Court consulted by the National Law Journal for an article on possible nominees that appeared online Tuesday.

She’s first quoted as saying that President Obama should not name a white man: “It would create a negative implication — there are no extraordinary, well-qualified women or underrepresented minorities available.”

Two candidates she proposes also teach law: her New York Law School colleague Annette Gordon-Reed and Stephen Carter of Yale Law School.

Then, as paraphrased by reporter Marcia Coyle, Strossen adds:

And, she asked, why not someone whose understanding of and commitment to the law have been tested in the most difficult circumstances, such as FBI whistleblower and lawyer Coleen Rowley and former U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who represented Guantánamo detainee Salim Hamdan?

Rowley clearly appeals to Strossen on her merits — but it may not hurt her cause that Strossen hails from Minnesota. (After earning undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University, Strossen returned to her home state to clerk at the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1975 and 1976 and was in private practice in Minneapolis from 1976 to ‘78.)

On Wednesday, the conservative National Journal added Rowley, along with others from Coyle’s article, to its long list, which now numbers 41 names, from the obscure to such agreed-upon frontrunners as Judge Diane Wood, Elana Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor.

Rowley laughed off the SCOTUS speculation in an email to the Minnesota Independent:

A bit of comic relief?  Long shot would be an understatement!

I did consider, for a couple weeks, trying for head of the Office of Special Counsel just because it has an awful history of being totally ineffective and there are a lot of government whistleblowers who were hoping for someone to reform OSC which would require someone with independence from the agencies and therefore from outside the beltway.  But for a lot of reasons, I declined to pursue it. I would have been an extremely long shot for that position too although OSC is apparently the smallest government agency that exists — it’s only like 100 attorneys or something like that.

I don’t know anyone in the Obama Administration except one of his press people, Dan Burton, who is a former DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] press guy and, interestingly enough, a former congressional staffer for Bill Luther when Luther was [Minnesota] CD 2 Congressman. Burton happened to be in Minnesota for a wedding when I announced my campaign for congress in July 2005 and he came for the event. I’ve only exchanged one short e-mail with him in the last two years. Interestingly enough, a year or so before the election in 2008, Burton saw one of my HuffPosts against torture and said to keep up the good work or something like that.

Photo: Conservapedia

Klobuchar, a former Hennepin County attorney, doesn’t appear on the National Journal list, but she has been received high-profile mentions elsewhere.

Her status as a potential nominee was the first topic of conversation when she appeared for an hour Wednesday on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Midday” program.

Host Gary Eichten asked whether she might soon don judicial robes instead of the two hats she currently wears as Minnesota’s junior and senior U.S. Senator while the Norm Coleman/Al Franken election contest drags on. Klobuchar’s reply:

I would say this: Minnesota has only one senator and it needs at least one senator. So it’s nice to have my name being sort of bantered [sic] about, but I don’t think that that’s in the cards right now. I did talk to the president this week. He called me and talked to me a little bit about, just in general, the Supreme Court nominee and what I think was important in that nominee. We had a very good discussion and I know he’s very interested in getting this through as soon as possible. … Let’s just say we’re focused on moving forward and I’m Minnesota’s Senator. And that’s it.

If there was more to that conversation than Obama is letting on, Klobuchar succeeded at hiding it better than the brazen Christine Arguello, a federal judge in Denver, or the cagey Judge Wood.

Klobuchar went on to say that being a woman shouldn’t be a litmus test for Obama’s choice in a nominee — at least not for this, his first appointment to the Supreme Court.

Here is the audio of Klobuchar on MPR (Supreme Court discussion begins at the 3:08 mark):

Here is audio of Bachmann’s April 9 comments on KSFO-AM, from DumpBachmann:

Audio highlight reel:

Full interview:

Here are more transcribed excerpts.

On Obama’s “apologizing for America” in Europe and denying America is a Christian nation:

I thought it was shameful. I thought it was a very sad reflection and perhaps a true reflection about what our president feels about these issues. He was apologetic about our country. … To see the specter (sic) of our president apologizing for American activity, bowing before the king of Saudi Arabia — which to me was highly symbolic that he did that — and then now denying it, and then lying about it. And then also our president is saying to the world that we are not a Christian nation during Holy Week. Saying we are not a Christian nation, that we are merely citizens with shared values. That is not true. … Our founders said clearly that our Constitution was meant for a religious people .. They were not ashamed of their faith.

On Obama appointees who oppose American sovereignty:

Harold Koh, who’s being appointed now to the Department of State, who is a transnationalist, who does not believe in American sovereignty. He’s very scary. … If we love America and if we love American sovereignty, we don’t want these types in these positions. Because their goal is to give away our sovereignty — as we saw just last week at the G20. I think we’re still finding out what happened during that G20 summit. I think that there may have been agreements made behind closed doors that we aren’t even aware of, that could be ceding American sovereignty over currency valuations of the United States dollar. That would be very frightening.

On the first “openly avowed Muslim” in Congress, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, acting as a “talent scout” to place Muslims in federal government jobs:

Our news media hasn’t put that message out.

(Bachmann must have missed this Minnesota Independent post.)

It was only two weeks ago that Obama reached out to Pawlenty in a weekly address that focused on the flooding along the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

Here’s the video of Pawlenty delivering the Republican response to Obama’s weekly address:

Here’s are two short audio clips of the Pawlentys on WCCO-AM radio. The second clip includes their guest, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Reports suggest the governor didn’t show as much interest in war crimes and other allegations against Kissinger as he did in former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s legal options on Wednesday’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”)

If Minnesota’s First Lady sounds particularly aghast at the violation of protocol a presidential bow would represent, it may be due to extenuating circumstances. “Governors’ spouses are the closest thing to royalty in state government,” said a Dec. 4, 2002 Stateline.org report that took note that then-First Lady-elect Mary Pawlenty was about to join the ranks of two other governors’ wives who also wore judges’ robes. During her 13 years on the bench, the First Lady presumably grew accustomed to all in her presence rising whenever she entered a courtroom.

She may abhor bows by heads-of-state, but Mary Pawlenty does allow herself a little bow now and then, such as the one she gave the governor as she said “I adore you” in front of the gathered luminaries at his 2007 inaugural ball. (See this TPT video clip.)

Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio’s Newscut blog documented it on the day before the election last November:

Why aren’t these two kids — Alex and Cate Sutton — in class? Because they are, actually.

They’re home-schooled kids who have been given the assignment to drop leaflets in Woodbury today for Rep. Michele Bachmann, who’s in a close fight for re-election in the 6th District. They say this is part of a paper they’re writing on government.

Kristin Troyak, left, is driving them around and is responsible for 3 “teams” of home-schooled kids who have been deployed today in Woodbury. There are 64 teams being deployed around the region. They’ve also made 6,000 phone calls on Bachmann’s behalf over the weekend, she said.

The kids Collins talked to were from outside Bachmann’s district and said they were part of Generation Joshua. That’s the national organization of homeschoolers that also mobilized young people for Bachmann’s 2006 Get Out the Vote effort — not just from outside Bachmann’s district but from other states.

UPDATE: Generation Joshua’s young election workers were getting out the vote for Republican Jim Tedisco in the recent special congressional election in New York’s 20th Congressional District. (via DumpBachmann)

As the Minnesota Daily reported on Election Night in 2006:

One group called Gen J, or Generation Joshua, rallied middle school and high school students to pass out campaign literature and call voters for Bachmann.

Patrick Henry College (Virginia) journalism senior Adrienne Cumbus is a volunteer leader for Gen J. Originally from Houston, she said she came to support Bachmann because the candidate doesn’t try to appeal to everyone — instead, she knows her own values.

“She’s very articulate in what she says,” Cumbus said. “She’s not sitting on the fence.”

Here is a transcribed excerpt and video from Bachmann’s Nov. 4, 2008, Election Night victory speech:

I think we’re good to go on this one. I think we’re good to go. So we are absolutely delighted to have been able to win this race. And we didn’t do it alone. We did it with you.

And I want to think 70 great kids who came out this weekend. We often hear that there aren’t young people in the Republican Party. I’m here to tell you that couldn’t be further from the truth. We had 70 teenagers knock on our door Friday afternoon, and by the time I got to (Dellwood’s?), these 70 kids had made over 7,000 phone calls, by the time I got to (the office?).

The youth of America are energized, and they’re energized around the principle of freedom. They love freedom!

They knocked on over 60,000 and made phone calls. They just went wild this weekend. So we are so grateful for these great kids.

Here’s what Bachmann said about re-eductation camps on April 4, 2009:

It’s under the guise of — quote — volunteerism. But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. … I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

Here’s what Bachmann said on Minnesota radio station KTLK-AM (podcast) this weekend (in reference to The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, a proposed expansion of the AmeriCorps program that Obama may sign into law this week):

It’s under the guise of — quote — volunteerism. But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. …

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

Here’s a five-minute audio highlight reel, beginning with host Sue Jeffers encouraging Bachmann to run against U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar:

Here’s the full 18-minute program:

(h/t DumpBachmann) 

FactCheck.org debunks this line of thinking on the national service bill (h/t Salon’s War Room).

Related: A Minnesota Independent investigation reveals today that Minnesotans in Bachmann’s district face the worst effects of the foreclosure crisis – but she’s doing the least about it. Bachmann calls homeowners “irresponsible” while advancing legislation to restrict abortion, make the U.S. government more Christian, and fend off mythical assaults on the dollar.

Listen:

(h/t Polinaut)

It’s the first time Coleman himself has acknowledged publicly that he won’t gain enough votes to defeat Franken from the election-contest court but will take his case to the state Supreme Court.

Coleman, a Republican, trailed Democrat Al Franken by 225 votes after a statewide hand recount that ended in early January. His lawsuit contesting that result sparked a seven-week trial, with a milestone ruling yesterday that only 400 uncounted absentee ballots will be opened and potentially added to the vote count.