We’re looking for a passionate reporter who can combine the best of traditional journalism with the new paradigms of the Internet and use blogging to develop the narratives of longer-form reporting. A key criterion in measuring success will be the delivery of “impact stories” that inspire public debate and advance the common good.

Successful candidates will be responsible for at least two long-form articles and 15 blog posts per week.

Requirements

At least three years of relevant reporting experience;

Clear understanding of policy, legislation and the workings of state politics;

Familiarity with recent developments in online news;

And a desire to integrate audio and video into reporting, when appropriate.

Salary for this full-time contract position is commensurate with experience.

Please send resume, cover letter and pdfs of at least three recent clips to editor Paul Schmelzer: pschmelzer@minnesotaindependent.com. Subject for email: Minnesota Independent Reporter

Deadline: Nov. 30.

About the Center for Independent Media
The Minnesota Independent is part of a growing online network sponsored by the non-profit and non-partisan Center for Independent Media, which adheres to the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) code of ethics and has received twenty SPJ awards for excellence in the past two years.

The Center for Independent Media investigates and disseminates news that impacts public debate and advances the common good.  To accomplish its mission, the Center operates an independent online news network. An informed citizenry is a fundamental principle of civil society and American democracy; in the words of the Supreme Court in Garrison v. Louisiana: “Speech concerning public affairs is more than self-expression; it is the essence of self government.” Our reporting emphasizes the positive role of democratically elected government in securing the common good and social welfare, and the continuing benefits of our founding culture of egalitarian government by the people, for the people.

Photo: house.gov

On Thursday, Rep. Michele Bachmann condemned the Goldstone report, a United Nations-commissioned report on possible war crimes during the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Gaza strip in 2008 and 2009. But it is clear from her press release that she either didn’t read the report or is willfully misleading the public.

The U.S. House voted voted 344 to 36 last week to condemn the Goldstone report because it criticizes Israel’s actions in retaliation to Palestinian attacks. Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum were the only two members of the Minnesota delegation to vote against condemning the report. The rest of the delegation supported the condemnation, except for Bachmann who was not present for the vote.

Bachmann praised the vote to condemn the report and in a press release on Thursday, wrote, “Indeed, while this report condemns Israel’s actions, it ignores the precipitating causes of Israel’s self-defensive behavior, concluding that Israel’s military operations were ‘deliberate and systematic,’ and directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, failing to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism, namely the thousands of rockets launched daily at its citizens.”

In fact, the report (pdf) doesn’t ignore “the thousands of rockets launched daily at its citizens.” It clearly calls those rockets attacks “a war crime,” and speculated further that they “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

The report’s section on the rocket attacks on Israel spans 20 pages which provide detail on lives lost, property damage, the groups responsible and the violation of Israeli rights.

On page 347, the report states, “Since April 2001, Palestinian armed groups have launched more than 8,000 rockets and mortars from Gaza into southern Israel.” It notes the “psychological trauma and the feeling of insecurity that living under rocket fire has caused” and the resulting “erosion of the economic, social and cultural life of these communities” in southern Israel.

The report describes the groups responsible, including “the ‘al Qassam Brigades’” which are the “the armed wing of the Hamas political movement.”

It notes that the rocket attacks by Palestinians are a violation of the rights of Israeli children. “The strikes had an adverse impact on the right to education of children and young adults in the affected communities in southern Israel.”

The report also identifies instances where Palestinian armed forces launched rockets from civilian areas thereby using civilians as shields against Israeli retaliation.

And the Goldstone report concludes,

From the facts available, the Mission finds that the rocket and mortars attacks, launched by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel and in Israel as a whole. Furthermore, it is the Mission’s view that the mortars and rockets are uncontrolled and uncontrollable, respectively. This indicates the commission of an indiscriminate attack on the civilian population of southern Israel, a war crime, and may amount to crimes against humanity. These attacks have caused loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private houses, religious buildings and property and have eroded the economic and cultural life of the affected communities.

“[The LGBT provisions] were highlighted in a story posted on the left newsblog Minnesota Independent,” wrote Tom Prichard, president of the religious right group, on Tuesday. “They correctly conclude that the focus of pro-life and social conservatives was the battle over abortion coverage mandates in the bill. But then go on to point out a number of provisions slipped in by homosexual activists ‘unnoticed.’ [sic]”

The Family Council says that opposing the “use of our taxpayer dollars to kill, eventually, millions of unborn children, was of supreme importance.”

He continued, “That, however, doesn’t negate the significance of many of provisions [sic] which seek to redefine and thus undermine the basic structure of the natural family. This is, of course, where homosexual activists ultimately want to go.”

But, the group was quick to note its opposition to the LGBT items passed on Saturday. “The provisions show homosexual activists are once again turning to government as a vehicle for indoctrinating young students,” Prichard wrote.

A quick survey of websites of national religious right groups suggests that the Family Council is the first to speak out against those new LGBT health policies, which included better access to Medicaid for HIV-positive Americans, comprehensive sex education, governmental research into health disparities among LGBT people and an end to the taxing of same-sex partner benefits.

Will Rossbach and Diana Longrie

This biggest electoral shakeup of 2009’s quiet campaign season occurred in Maplewood. Voters ousted Mayor Diana Longrie after four combustible years in office, replacing her with city council member Will Rossbach.

The decision of city council member Eric Hjelle not to seek a second term also ensured that there would be at least one new face on the body. James Llanas, who ran as an ally of Rossbach, claimed that seat. Incumbent Kathleen Juenemann also won another term on the council.

The upshot: Maplewood’s municipal government will have a fundamentally different course over the next four years.

Longrie’s tenure was marked by epic city council meetings that often dragged on into the early morning hours, personnel upheavals and numerous lawsuits. The city churned through four city managers during her four-year term. In just the first year of her term the burgeoning suburb northeast of St. Paul also lost its human resources director, city attorney, finance director, assistant city manager, deputy police chief, deputy fire chief, and parks and recreation director. Litigation costs grew so severe that the League of Minnesota Cities threatened to kick Maplewood off its insurance rolls.

Rossbach says he frequently heard from residents during the campaign that they were embarrassed to live in Maplewood because of all the drama. “That was part of what I campaigned on, returning that kind of respect to the city,” he says. “That goes well outside the borders of Maplewood.”

Longrie blames her defeat on spending by outside groups, particularly AFSCME Council 5, which backed the three victorious candidates. She believes the union retaliated against her for voting against a new labor pact for AFSCME members earlier this year.

“Unfortunately my demonstrated commitment to transparency and the preservation of our neighborhood preserves and being an advocate of the citizens was no match for the deep pockets of the special interest groups that supported my opponent,” Longrie says.

However, Rossbach notes that Longrie also sought the endorsement of AFSCME. “We have a situation where you put yourself out in front of different groups and they decide which candidates best represent their views, and she didn’t prevail in those,” he says. “I’m sure if roles were reversed you wouldn’t hear her talking about that.”

Longrie also believes that the write-in campaign of Ken Smart hurt her prospects for re-election. Almost 10 percent of the votes cast in the mayoral contest were write-ins.

“It was well known that any promotion of the write-in campaign of Ken Smart would definitely hurt me,” she says, noting that he ran on a fiscally conservative platform not unlike her own. “There was certainly a concerted effort to promote that.”

Maplewood has also been notorious in recent years for its bare-knuckle politics, and this campaign season had its share of electoral sparring. Most notoriously, anonymous fliers were distributed highlighting the fact that Llanas is Hispanic and gay.

While the scurrilous mailings didn’t derail Llanas’ campaign, he believes it did have some negative impact on his vote totals. Llanas edged out his closest rival by just 153 votes — a slimmer margin than in the primary election. He says that some residents who had expressed support for his candidacy subsequently withdrew their backing.

“They wouldn’t exactly share why, but I couldn’t think of another reason,” he says. “I thought the margins that we displayed in the primary would be somewhat reflective of the general.”

Maplewood residents won’t have to wait long for the next campaign. Because Rossbach has two years left on his city council term, there will now be a special election to fill that slot. Exactly when it will be held is unknown, but it’s likely to occur before May. Given Maplewood’s history, it’s also likely that there will be a deep field of contenders. Longrie, for one, certainly isn’t ruling out another run.

“I am going to leave that up to speculation,” she says of a potential candidacy. “But I think anybody who knows me knows that I certainly am not a person to be down and out, to be pessimistic, and to be without opportunity.”

Photo: The Washington Independent

At least 10 individuals attending Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “House Call” event to protest health care reform have been arrested outside an office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The protesters were among the several thousand Tea Party activists that Bachmann invited to storm the Capitol on Thursday.

“They were inside an office and didn’t leave,” Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police told the Washington Post. They were being charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful entry.

Talking Points Memo contributor Christina Bellantoni described the “strange scene” where the the protesters were being loaded into transport vehicles.

Like a bad game of telephone, the crowd spread rumors without anyone having witnessed exactly what happened.

Several people said the group had been arrested for praying. Others said the group was arrested for ripping up pages from the nearly 2,000-page health care bill.

“This is America, this is not the Soviet Union,” one woman said.

That woman later told the officers, “I know you guys are just doing your job but don’t you hate your job?”

“I’m embarrassed,” another woman told her friends.

“Read your history books,” another woman shouted at the officers.

“Thugs from Chicago,” a man shouted at police.

“Arrest Nancy Pelosi for treason. You’re arresting the wrong people,” another shouted.

“If the Republican party wants to make Michele Bachmann the voice of the party, that’s more than fine with us. We’ll help circulate the petition,” the DNC said in a press release on Thursday that continued:

But it is surprising that after Congressman-elect Owens won a special election by supporting the President’s agenda in a New York district that hasn’t elected a Democrat since Benjamin Harrison was President, that the Republican party would continue to allow itself to be led around by nose by the likes of Bachmann, Beck, Limbaugh, Palin and the rest of the extreme tea party crowd. It’s their extreme right-wing, rigid ideological agenda that has Americans leaving the Republican Party in droves — and so, if displays like today are what they think is a smart political strategy, all we can say is: go for it.

Jason Isaacson, manager of Reed’s campaign to unseat Bachmann, tied Bachmann’s rally to the health insurance lobby:

Bachmann claims her rally is to remind Congress of the town hall meetings over the summer, but those meetings were orchestrated by insurance companies opposed to meaningful reform from the start. One insurance company in particular was caught urging employees to attend tea parties and has already spent $3.5 million this year lobbying Congress.

Michele Bachmann shouldn’t be defending her political contributors who have reaped billion dollar profits last quarter — she should be focused on helping the hard working families and small businesses of Minnesota’s Sixth District that need health care reform now.

Reed’s campaign noted that Bachmann has accepted $206,900 in campaign contributions from the health care industry.

Pawlenty unveiled the proposal at a state Capitol press conference Thursday morning.

Under his plan, the state’s general fund budget would be limited to the amount of revenue collected in the previous two-year cycle. The two-term Republican governor argued that such a stringent cap on spending is necessary because legislators have proven unable to contain spending. Since 1960, he pointed out, general fund budgets have increased by an average of 21 percent every two years.

“That is an amazing, startling, frightening number,” Pawlenty said. “It is unsustainable going forward.”

Such an amendment would need to be passed by the legislature and then approved by voters. Pawlenty wants the proposal to be on the ballot next year.

But it is unlikely to get a favorable reception from Democrats, who control both legislative bodies with substantial majorities. Pawlenty acknowledged that.

“I suspect they won’t like it,” he said of his DFL counterparts. “Anything that limits spending growth they won’t like.”

Democratic leaders insisted that they will give the proposal serious consideration. “I’m intrigued at learning more about it,” said Tom Bakk, chair of the Senate Taxes Committee and a candidate to take over Pawlenty’s job in 2011. “This will require some very thoughtful consideration.”

But Democrats also pointed out that Pawlenty has never proposed a budget that would have fit within the fiscal strictures he hopes to set for future administrations. In the current biennium, for instance, Pawlenty initially proposed a $34.4 billion general fund budget — more than $2 billion over revenue collections for the prior two years. In addition, the state is currently facing a $5–7 billion budget deficit.

“We’ve got a $5–7 billion iceberg in front of us and I think it would have been better if he would have proposed something of this significance earlier in his term,” said Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. “But let’s give it some thought now, on his way out the door.”

Indeed, Pawlenty is not running for re-election next year and is clearly eyeing a 2012 presidential bid. Burnishing his credentials as a fiscal conservative could help with that cause — even if it does nothing to solve Minnesota’s budget problems.

Many conservative commentators, from the Wall Street Journal editorial board to Americans for Tax Reform, hailed Pawlenty in June for unilaterally slashing $2.7 billion from Minnesota’s budget over Democratic protests.

The DFL party was quick to characterize Pawlenty’s proposed amendment as another ploy to bolster his political ambitions.

“If a budget cap is such a good idea, why did Gov. Pawlenty wait until he was nearly out the door before proposing it?” asked Brian Melendez, chairman of the DFL party, in a press release. “The answer is simple: so that he wouldn’t actually have to govern under it, because he has no plans to follow through with what is really just a political stunt aimed at boosting his national notoriety.”

Bradlee Dean. Image: YouTube

The two leaders of evangelical ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCR) have chastised President Obama twice in the past two weeks for appearing at public school assemblies in Chicago while he was a U.S. senator. Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillian complain that Obama used high schools to campaign. But they praise their own ministry’s efforts to bring evangelical Christianity to assemblies at schools — many public — in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest.

On his Oct. 24 radio show, Bradlee Dean talked about his new employee — Dean refers to him only as “Pig Squeal” — who says he attended a public school assembly with Obama when he was a junior in high school four years ago.

“The fact of the matter is, he was in public school in Chicago, folks, and guess who shows up. … Remember what Roosevelt says: ‘Nothing happens in politics that wasn’t first planned’?”

“Isn’t that interesting? [Obama] was doing an assembly for 400 kids in this kid’s school. … I asked [Pig Squeal] so what was he teaching people? He goes, ‘I didn’t really feel right about it.’”

Dean continued: “The point is this guy was doing high school assemblies in public schools in Chicago and why did they specifically target the juniors? Because they are going to be the voters and people didn’t do the math.”

McMillian chimed in, “Just imagine if the church was going into high schools and doing assemblies.”

Dean responded, “Well, that’s what they should be doing and that’s what we have been doing.”

In the same broadcast, Dean offered a challenge to Obama: “And by the way we have a phone on our desk waiting for the president to respond because I think he doesn’t like what is coming out of our hearts.”

On a Saturday show with radio host Mitch Berg, YCR touted their upcoming fundraiser featuring Rep. Michele Bachmann and explained their ministry to listeners. McMillian said, “Basically, we have been doing high school assemblies since 1998 and where a lot of folks say ’separation of church and state’ or ‘you can’t go there,’ that’s where we have made our careers, going to those that need the knowledge between good and evil.”

“Obama, when he was a senator in Illinois, he was campaigning in high schools before he ran for the presidency. He was going to the right target audience, that gave him the victory again that he embraced in this last election.”

“We’ve been doing the same, screaming from the rooftops, ‘Hey, we are down here. We are reaching the youth.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be raising funds for the ministry on Nov. 12.

Related:
‘You Can Run’ may be running afoul of the Constitution
Bachmann’s punk-rock benefactor says Obama ‘unpatriotic to the max’

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.

A photo from Rep. Ellison's Feb. 2009 trip to Gaza, via Flickr

Rep. Keith Ellison is urging members of Congress not to scrap the Goldstone report (pdf) on war crimes allegedly committed during the conflict culminating in December 2008 and January 2009 between Hamas and Israel. A resolution in Congress, backed by Republicans, would condemn the report, written by UN investigator Richard Goldstone, as unfriendly to Israel. Ellison penned a column in Politico on Tuesday saying the Goldstone report is as fair as can be expected considering the difficult circumstances in the region.

The report states that both sides — Hamas and Israel — should be investigated for war crimes in the conflict when Hamas launched missiles into Israel and Israel implemented a crippling blockade on the people in the Gaza strip.

In defending the report, Ellison recalled the situation he saw when he visited the region last winter.

I visited Sderot in southern Israel and saw the havoc and trauma created by Hamas rocket fire. Israelis there live with fear. I have condemned these attacks as war crimes and will continue to do so.

I also visited Gaza and witnessed the devastation wreaked by the recent war. I toured an American school and medical clinics devastated by Operation Cast Lead. A blockade keeps out items such as paper for textbooks and nutritious food. Gazans live in poverty, and most cannot drink their own water. These are cruel violations against the people of Gaza, 56 percent of whom are children.

Ellison says that Goldstone is a staunch supporter of human rights, and it’s dishonest to claim that Goldstone has a bias against Israel — he’s a self-proclaimed Zionist.

In a letter to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, on which Ellison sits, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee urged the committee to reject the Goldstone report.

“The notoriously anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council commissioned and subsequently adopted this report which, according to the administration, had a mandate that was ‘unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable,’” the letter stated. “This report falsely charges that Israel committed war crimes and purposely targeted civilians.”

But, Goldstone and human rights groups say that’s not what the facts say. Human Rights Watch says that the resolution contains false information. Specifically, members of Congress claim that the report does not mention possible war crimes committed by Hamas. Goldstone points out that his report clearly does.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch urged Congress to support the Goldstone report. “Instead of denouncing the report, the US Congress should urge Israel and Hamas to break the cycle of abuse and impunity, which for too long has fueled hatred and hindered efforts at peace.”

Ellison echoed a similar sentiment. “The Goldstone report does not assign blame. It lays out the facts, as best as Goldstone could ascertain them, and offers recommendations for the future,” wrote Ellison. “Congress should use this report as a resource to understand a critical part of the world and to grasp fully the devastating human costs of the status quo.”

He continued, “Instead, Congress is poised to oppose the Goldstone report without holding a single hearing on a document that few members of Congress, if any, have read.”