CREW’s Matt Jacob told the Minnesota Independent that House members aren’t supposed to use their congressional websites to urge public action on behalf of or against pending legislation.

In its letter (pdf) CREW cited this House rule:

The content of a Member’s Web site … [m]ay not include grassroots lobbying or solicit support for a Member’s position.

Bachmann’s website, CREW says, urged “[t]he people” to travel to Washington, D.C. “and tell their Representatives to vote no to a governmental take-over of one-fifth of our economy.”

Bachmann announced the Nov. 5 “House Call” rally on Fox News on Oct. 30. That left enough time for Bachmann to meet the five-day lead time required to apply for a permit for an event on the Capitol grounds, according to a U.S. Capitol Police guidelines that CREW includes in its supporting documents (pdf).

CREW’s complaint doesn’t cover another apparent aspect of Bachmann’s official efforts as impresario of the Capitol-steps anti-health care rally. According to the Savage (Minn.) Pacer newspaper, Bachmann’s staff helped a man not from her congressional district to find a nearby bus from Eden Prairie, Minn. headed to Washington, D.C. for the rally:

So he called the Savage Chamber of Commerce trying to get a carpool together of other interested business owners. No one contacted him, so he began asking friends and other business owners and then contacted Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office where he found out about the buses leaving Eden Prairie.

The OCE is a newly formed body that has been on the receiving end of sniping from the longer-in-the-tooth but slow-off-the-mark House Ethics committee. Jacob told MnIndy the tally of CREW’s complaints to the OCE is so far “not a huge number.”

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.

Bradlee Dean at a high school assembly

A controversial ministry that says it preaches Christian doctrine in public schools held a fundraiser in Bloomington Thursday night, drawing a crowd of about 400. At its “Appeal to Heaven” fundraiser, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International offered attendees a preview of its new documentary, a greeting by Rep. Michele Bachmann and a fiery sermon by founder Bradlee Dean, who called liberals “criminals” and urged attendees to fight a “war” for the faith against liberals.

The almost exclusively white crowd had assembled at the Sheraton ballroom in Bloomington to raise funds for the ministry and its outreach to public high schools across the Midwest, a practice that some civil liberties groups say violates the Constitution’s principle of separation of church and state.

Ron Stone, general manager for AM 1280 The Patriot, introduced Bachmann, a longtime supporter of the ministry.

“There’s a huge difference today between Republicans and conservatives,” he said. “She’s a true conservative. She’s not afraid to say she believes in God. She’s taking the bullets that a lot of our Republican men are standing back in the shadows and allowing her to take.”

He explained that Bachmann’s “House Call” rally against health reform last week prevented her from attending in person. “Michele was excited to be here tonight, but due to the events of last week, you can imagine she had to reschedule a lot of things.”

In a four-minute video message, Bachmann said, “I’d hoped to be there, but unfortunately the future that’s being forged here in Washington, DC … is one that saddles today’s youth with tremendous debt, a diminished world presence, and diminishes their God-given freedoms.”

She praised You Can Run’s mission. “It a tough job that you do, but someone has to do it. I thank God that he has given you the strength and the resolve to fight for our timeless values.”

And she reiterated her support for their work evangelizing in public schools. “We can’t overlook the outright rejection of God in the public school classroom, and the outright scorn of Christianity in our public square,” she said. “Moral relativism is exalted and faith in Christ is derided.”

Attendees also got a glimpse at the group’s documentary film called “My War,” which chastises America’s educational system for not teaching from a “Judeo-Christian” perspective and rails against atheism. In one clip, a teacher asks a student whether God exists if he can’t be seen. Another student chimes in: Since she couldn’t see the teacher’s brain, it must not exist either.

The highlight of the night was a lengthy sermon by Bradlee Dean calling for Christians to pick up arms against secular government that he said was foisting of socialism on the nation’s people.

“We are a Christian nation regardless if you like that or not. The Bible says we are called as ministers of the flame, the fire,” he said. “We are called to war. We are called to fight the good fight of faith. In other words, what I’m trying to say is, I’m a trouble maker, okay?”

“It’s time to say, ‘We are done complaining, and it’s time to start fighting.’ But you say, ‘I don’t know what what I’m going to look like with a sword in my hand,’” he said. “You are going to look great!”

Then Dean offered sharp words for those he disagrees with.

“We are not a land of liberals. We hear this all the time. Why don’t you just call them for what they are? Criminals. Why don’t you just call them for what they are? Socialists. They are contrary to our constitution,” he said.

That prompted a round of “Amen!” from the attendees.

“We are not a land of homosexuals,” he shouted. “God said ‘Adam and Eve’ not ‘Adam and Steve.’”

Then, referencing one of President Obama’s openly gay appointees, he said, “We all know about [Kevin] Jennings, the new czar for safe schools, is a blatant homosexual. Oh, by the way, he wanted me to send you a message: ‘Go F- yourselves!’ That’s what he said. He wrote a book called ‘Queering the Elementary Schools.’”

One woman shouted in the audience, “Oh, no!” Others shook their heads in dismay.

“Yes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks.”

Jennings did write the foreword to a 1999 book called, “Queering Elementary Education.” In those three pages (his entire foreword is available on Google books), he talks about eliminating homophobia in the schools and says, “When eight-year olds already know that “gay” equals “bad,” we shouldn’t be surprised when they get old enough and mean enough, they act out that message by tying one of their peers to a fence and beating them to death,” referring to the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard the previous year.

The Minnesota Independent could not substantiate the claims by Dean that Jennings told him to tell the 400 people assembled Thursday night to “Go f- themselves.”

As he wrapped up the sermon, he thanked the attendees. “You guys, you got just a little bit of the message we give to youth all across the nation.”

Tickets went for $50 and tables of 10 for $500. At 40 tables, the fundraiser likely brought in over $20,000.

Related: ‘They demonize me!’: Bradlee Dean talks about MnIndy reporting of his ministry

“It’s like a roach motel,” says Phil Duran, an attorney with OutFront Minnesota, who has been an advocate for individuals committed to the program. “People check in, but they never check out.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his Republican allies in the Legislature have repeatedly stated that spending on health and human services programs is out of control. He returned to the theme last week in announcing a proposal for an amendment to the state constitution to cap spending. “The health and human services budget is growing at rates that are just absolutely unsustainable,” Pawlenty stated.

But while politicians rail against the purported runaway costs of welfare spending and slash health insurance for some of the state’s poorest residents, the program with the most rapidly rising cost never merits mention.

Since 2003 the budget for the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) has increased by almost 400 percent, mushrooming from $18.5 million annually to $71.6 million in just six years. The program is a budgetary black hole, but legislators don’t seem to care.

“It’s very difficult to get people to engage on it,” says Linda Berglin, who chairs the Health and Human Services Budget Division, and has sought changes to the MSOP for years. “Nobody wants to be associated with sex offenders. Nobody wants to be responsible for something that might cause a problem later on.”

But while the MSOP is largely ignored during budgetary debates, it recently garnered headlines because of the controversial purchase of two dozen flat-screen televisions for the facility in Moose Lake where the bulk of the patients reside. After the purchase details were outlined in the Star Tribune, Pawlenty immediately ordered that the televisions be removed. The plasma screens are now to be utilized by veterans’ homes and the Minnesota National Guard.

The televisions, however, are a fiscal red herring. Even at the extravagant cost of $2,282 to purchase and install each screen, they represent a rounding error in the overall cost of the sex offender program.

MSOP population mushroomed following Sjodin murder

The reason for the skyrocketing cost of the MSOP is simple: The number of sex offenders civilly committed to the program has surged dramatically in recent years. In 2003 there were 199 men (there are no women) being held at facilities in St. Peter and Moose Lake. But in the ensuing six years the population has nearly tripled, with 547 sex offenders currently being held for an indeterminate period of time. Each person enrolled in the program costs the state $134,000 annually.

The timing of this explosion in cost and sex offender commitments is by no means coincidental. In November 2003, Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old college student, was murdered by a sex offender named Alfonso Rodriquez, Jr., who had been released from prison earlier that year after serving 23 years for stabbing and attempting to kidnap a woman. He also had a previous conviction for rape.

In the wake of that high-profile crime, the Minnesota Department of Corrections began referring all Level III sex offenders — those deemed most likely to commit additional crimes — due to be released for consideration of commitment. In addition, Pawlenty ordered that no civilly committed sex offenders be released unless required by law or ordered to do so by the courts. Under state law, the authority to provisionally release an offender who has met all the treatment requirements rests with a three-judge panel.

The ramifications of these changes were twofold: the pool of offenders being considered for civil commitment was dramatically expanded, and the odds of patients being released from the program were greatly reduced.

“Before Rodriguez the referrals that we were getting as examiners were really very, very dangerous sex offenders,” says Paul Reitman, a forensic psychologist who has screened candidates for civil commitment for roughly two decades. “Typically they had 10, 15, 20 victims.”

In some instances, individuals who have never committed violent offenses have gotten swept up in the program. The changes implemented to the program have also increased the number of people facing civil commitment who have only committed crimes as juveniles or suffer from developmental disabilities.

“We started getting a whole different group of people,” says Reitman.

So what exactly is Minnesota getting for its $70 million-a-year sex offender program? Duran, of OutFront Minnesota, doesn’t believe the MSOP has any credible means of treating patients. He points out that in response to the flat-screen television flap, the head of the program argued that the large-screen televisions were part of the treatment program.

“Then there are millions of Minnesotans every night who receive sex offender treatment,” Duran notes. “Who knew? If that’s the quality of decision making, then you know something’s wrong.”

Duran further points out that residents of the facilities are subjected to rules that even the most diligent patient would find exasperating to follow. For instance, he says, a ban on physical contact even extends to a prohibition on shaking hands.

“Shaking hands? That is a dangerous activity?” he wonders. “Help me understand in what context that makes sense.”

The systemic problems with the program are not a new development. But Berglin notes that primary oversight rests with the Minnesota Department of Human Services and that the Legislature’s authority is somewhat limited.

Last legislative session, for instance, Berglin sought what she thought was a fairly anodyne change. She introduced a bill that would have allowed felons facing potential civil commitment to voluntarily remain in prison until they had completed a sex-offender treatment program, thus potentially decreasing the chances that they’ll be subject to indefinite detainment.

“The Department of Corrections went bonkers,” she recalls. “They just went ballistic. I could not get that bill out of the judiciary committee because of the extreme position of the Department of Corrections.”

Little political will to reform program

Even when legislation has been pushed through it’s proven ineffective in breaking the patient logjam. Two years ago Berglin sponsored legislation changing the administrative process through which civilly committed sex offenders can be released. The sign-off previously had to come from the top official at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, a political appointee. Under the new legislation, the final call on whether a patient is released after completing treatment is made by a three-judge panel. But it made no difference in whether individuals were ultimately released.

Reitman and others stress that lower-cost alternatives exist that would be just as effective in protecting the public from people who have committed heinous crimes. In states such as Wisconsin, Washington and Texas, for instance, sex offenders have routinely been released from civil commitment programs and not committed additional crimes. The key to success: intensive supervision and continued treatment. If the offenders fail to follow through on any aspects of their therapy plan, they again lose their freedom.

“The research tells us that what really keeps these guys from sexually recidivating is being under intensive supervision,” says Reitman. “In reality the treatment model is there for us to follow.”

Margretta Dwyer, a former head of the sexual therapy program at the University of Minnesota, agrees that much cheaper alternatives exist to effectively treat sex offenders. She notes that it costs the state $134,000 annually to keep an offender civilly committed. “You could hire two guards in 12 hours shifts for $50,000 per year, per person and still save money,” she says.

But Dwyer believes the will to have a meaningful discussion about how to effectively deal with sex offenders is lacking at every level of the government. “Everyone’s afraid,” she says. “Every judge is afraid to step forward. Every representative and senator is afraid to step forward.”

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

The American Legion Post 550 in Bloomington says it will withhold up to $30,000 in scholarships because the public school district won’t allow the group to lead the student body in prayer, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

“We are not trying to push anything on kids or convert them, but we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles,” said Terry Selle, commander of American Legion Post 550. “My opinion is that this is another example of America going downhill.”

Selle said the group would stop granting scholarships to the students of the district if they aren’t allowed to pray with the student body.

School officials said the group led the students in prayer during the 2008 Veteran’s Day ceremony and asked the Legion not to pray this year for fear the school could get into trouble for violations of church-state separation requirements.

“Frankly, it caught me off guard because they had never done that before. We do not do that in public school,” Poplar Bridge Elementary School Principal Gail Swor told the Star Tribune.

In move of solidarity, the VFW Post 1296 also pulled out of Veteran’s Day ceremonies in the Bloomington school district.

Image: Ben McLeod

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation involving controversial church finances first reported by the Minnesota Independent in 2007.

“Given the pervasiveness of church politicking violations, as well as efforts by some organizations in recent years to encourage houses of worship to blatantly violate federal law,” the AU wrote to the IRS, “having a clear and valid enforcement regime is absolutely essential for the ongoing protection of religious liberty.”

Besides LWCC — whose pastor, Mac Hammond, endorsed Rep. Michele Bachmann from the pulpit in 2006 — another Minnesota church has been under investigation, but that probe was dropped this year due to enforcement problems.

Warroad Community Church pastor Gus Booth twice endorsed Sen. John McCain in 2008. Because the IRS did not have proper standing, the agency was forced to cease its investigation.

Americans United’s letter told the IRS that the ability to investigate churches for unlawful politicking is vital to the health of religion in the United States:

Americans United has long recognized that religion flourishes best when the wall between church and state is vigilantly maintained. Church politicking embroils houses of worship in divisive battles, pitting congregants against each other and their clergy.

The IRS limitation on partisan politicking is an important legal requirement that ensures that houses of worship, like all other non-profit organizations, do not embroil themselves in partisan disputes.

Challengers huddled across the street from the Dinkytown polling place. Photo: Chris Steller, MnIndy

They went there to ensure that nobody was wrongfully turned away from a Minneapolis polling place infamous for electoral mishaps. They ended up across the street, with police threatening arrest them if they set foot inside again.

On Tuesday night, election officials accused two men at a Minneapolis polling place of disturbing the voting process. Each had been officially designated by Ward Three council candidates to keep an eye on the proceedings at the University Lutheran Church of Hope, a short walk from the heart of the University of Minnesota campus-area commercial district known as Dinkytown.

The election judges ejected the challengers at about 6 p.m. Citing witnesses’ claims about raised-voiced disruptions, police refused to allow the challengers back inside.

But it’s not the first instance of election-day mishaps there: It’s the same polling place where 133 ballots went missing last year during the Franken-Coleman U.S. Senate recount. And it’s the same site where student residents were turned away from the polls despite having proof-of-residency documents that had allowed them to register to vote there in past years.

With those troubles in mind, candidates hoping to replace incumbent Council Member Diane Hofstede posted official challengers there Tuesday. (While other states have poll watchers, Minnesota’s election law terms candidates’ representatives who monitor polling-place activity “challengers.”)

Tensions between election officials and candidate challengers came to a head after a man who owns a house across the street was twice turned away with proof of residency documents deemed inadequate for same-day registration.

William Wells, a challenger for Republican Jeffrey Cobia, says he reminded officials about the missing ballots from last fall. Ryan Ahlberg, an attorney who DFLer Allen Kathir had designated as his official challenger, asserted his right to talk to voters about their eligibility to vote.

Election judges refused comment, but Ahlberg said they argued that challengers could only object to voters’ qualifications, not discuss options for proving residency.

First two and then three police officers arrived, kicking out the challengers as well as, in due course, a pair of reporters who had been alerted to the situation by Kathir.

The conflict spilled out of the church as darkness, rain and the temperature were falling.

Two squad cars idled empty for about an hour while officers spoke by phone with city officials, occasionally emerging to ask the challengers what they intended to do next.

One challenger asked police exactly what would happen should he try to re-enter the polling place. The answer: He’d get a citizen’s arrest warrant for trespassing and a trip downtown to Hennepin County jail that would last six to eight hours.

Ironically, that challenger was Ahlberg and not the representative of candidate Melissa Hill, who ran under the “Civil Disobedience” banner. Hill told the Minnesota Independent she isn’t sure the volunteer who offered to monitor voting for her in Dinkytown ever showed up.

In the end, Kathir appointed his campaign manager, Rick Brundage, to act as challenger for the 45 minutes of voting that remained.

Ahlberg and Wells said at least four to six people attempted to vote during the course of the day but were turned away and did not return.

By Kathir’s estimate that amounted to about 10 percent of the precinct’s total turnout.

The dispute over, Kathir returned to his get-out-the-vote efforts, shuttling students from nearby blocks to the church before the 8 p.m. close of polls.

Hofstede prevailed with 1,485 first-choice votes, to Kathir’s 348 and Cobia’s 242.

Hill had 112.

“The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our founding fathers cherished so dearly,” said Ellison from the House floor on Monday. “If anything, we should be encouraging all Americans to engage in the U.S. political process; to take part in, and to contribute to, the great democratic experiment that is America.”

Reps. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., Sue Myrick. R-N.C., Paul Broun, R-Ga., and Trent Franks, R-Ariz., called for the investigation two weeks ago after reading a book penned by anti-Muslim authors David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry. Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.

Video and full text of Ellison’s statement:

Four of our colleagues, Reps. John Shadegg (AZ), Paul Broun (GA), Trent Franks (AZ) and Sue Myrick (NC) recently requested that the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the civil rights group CAIR, or Council on American-Islamic Relations, to determine whether it was placing staff and interns in key Congressional offices who they fear are acting as “spies.”

This proposed investigation coincides with the launch of a book by Dave Gaubatz, an anti-Islamic activist and author of the book “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.” It features an introduction by Rep. Myrick, and was written after Gaubatz posed as an intern at CAIR in an effort to “infiltrate” the group.

These charges smack of an America of sixty years ago where lists of “un-American” agitators were identified. We should be affirming the importance of diversity and tolerance for all interns and staff who serve in Congress without suspicion of being identified as “spies.”

The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our founding fathers cherished so dearly. If anything, we should be encouraging all Americans to engage in the U.S. political process; to take part in, and to contribute to, the great democratic experiment that is America.

We all have experienced the sting of discrimination and we know that there will be challenges ahead. But our message should be firm that the America we believe in welcomes people of all backgrounds to the U.S. Congress.

We ask these charges be disavowed and we issue a hearty welcome to interns and staff of all creeds, color, ethnicities and sexual orientation.

An appeal would mean another return trip to the city, an expensive proposition that already has cramped her campaigning style in the final weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Hill was set to fly in and out of Pittsburgh today so she could be back in Minneapolis for a Ward Three candidate debate Thursday at the University of Minnesota.

Pittsburgh was the site of a September meeting of leaders from the G-20 group of nations that drew sizable street protests — protests that Hill says she was only trying to cover as a journalist for Indymedia when police arrested her, damaged her camera and confiscated a video cassette.

Hill is on the Minneapolis ballot as a “Civil Disobedience” candidate. She was also arrested outside the Rage Against the Machine concert in downtown Minneapolis during the 2008 Republican National Convention (charges were dropped), and has coordinated several “End the Fed” demonstrations at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

Photo: Ryan Bushby, Wikimedia Commons

A Gallup poll conducted at the beginning of October shows that more Americans support the legalization of marijuana than ever before — even if the majority still think it should be illegal.

Forty-four percent of Americans said they think marijuana should be legal, while 54 percent said it should stay illegal. The number who support legalization has doubled in the last 20 years, whereas in the late 1980s only 23 percent supporting legalization.

A majority of respondents living in the West said they would approve of marijuana being legal in their state (53 percent to 46 percent) while the Midwest residents showed the largest disapproval of having marijuana legal in their state with 64 percent rejecting it.