Mark Dayton was sworn in Monday as Minnesota’s 40th governor; he’s the first Democrat to hold the post since the 1980s. Dayton said he’s committed to progressive taxation in Minnesota and carrying through on his campaign promise to deal with the state’s budget problems in part by increasing taxes on wealthy Minnesotans, a group he says isn’t paying its fair share.

“I believe we all share the same aspirations for a better Minnesota,” Dayton said in his inauguration speech. “We may disagree on the details, but we never forget that our honest disagreements and our freedom to express them are the essential rights and great strengths of our democracy.”

He said, “My proposed budget solution will be reasonable, balanced and painful, because I see no easy alternative.”

Part of that pain would likely come in the form of a tax increase on Minnesota’s wealthiest, a group that, according to Dayton and state economists, pays a smaller percentage of their income on taxes. He said, “I will make Minnesota’s tax burden more progressive not more regressive.”

“Almost everyone would like to pay less,” he said, adding that it’s “essential that everyone paying taxes knows that everyone is paying their fair share.”

He challenged Republicans to present him a bill that balances the state budget without new taxes and without damage to schools and public safety.

He also urged Minnesota’s to do their part for the good of the state by making a commitment to volunteerism. “I invite you to get involved in the betterment of your communities throughout the state. I ask every adult Minnesotan, who is physically able, to volunteer a part of one day, every month.”

Dayton also asked every Minnesota business “to adopt a school and contribute to its improvement.”

Photo: Jill Brady (via The Vigil)

FBI whistleblower-turned-activist Coleen Rowley is on a roll. She ripped into the City of St. Paul’s report on Republican National Convention law enforcement in a commentary that appeared Friday at MinnPost and today at The Huffington Post. Tomorrow, as court hearings start in the cases of the RNC8 protesters, Rowley and individuals from Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) and other groups will file formal complaints against the city, state and Ramsey County over police tactics. And Rowley’s inquiries into what she suspects was overbroad surveillance during the RNC are starting to bear fruit — or at least what she calls a first “non-responsive” response from Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s office.

In her commentary, Rowley cites President Obama’s inauguration as an example of a National Special Security Event (like the RNC) that police pulled off “somehow, without tear gas, tasers or thousands of people dragged off in handcuffs.” St. Paul’s Heffelfinger-Luger report, Rowley points out, avoids the question of “whether such aggressive ‘police state’ action during the RNC was actually necessary.” She concludes:

Perhaps the worst mistake made in the RNC Commission Report is falling for the notion of trade-offs between security and liberty instead of seeing them as intertwined. President Obama phrased it well in his inaugural speech statement, when he said “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

After a “Mardi Gras-themed procession” at noon on Tuesday on the state Capitol lawn, Rowley and others plan to file ”Notices of Claim” (pdf) that will contain charges like this:

In the year-long investigation and planning that preceded the RNC and the police enforcement during the RNC, Sept 1-4, 2008, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, along with other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies and private corporations and associations of private companies, including the “Department of Homeland Security’s (now defunct) Highway Watch” and presumably the FBI’s “InfraGard” corporate partnerships did produce faulty and defamatory “intelligence” assertions that linked the organization WAMM that I am a member of to “terror networks”. Ramsey County opened an investigation approximately one year before the RNC that provided the basis of the false claims used to defame WAMM and to violate the privacy rights of WAMM members by then disseminating this information to private corporations, associations and other law enforcement agencies.

Rowley’s public-data requests to the FBI (her former employer) and Ramsey County have so far elicited only a brush-off response from Fletcher’s office (pdf).

Her draft response:

1) If I understand correctly, any data gathered on the other organizations and groups (besides the RNC Welcoming Committee) that I inquired about—to include that gained by viewing their websites–is not contained in separate files but in the same investigative file as the one that has led to prosecution of some of the “RNC Welcoming Committee”. Is that understanding correct?

2) If you are saying that the information your Department has collected on other groups and members of other groups, is all contained in one big file, there still would be no reason it cannot be segregated out for release, would there? Since there are no ongoing prosecutions related to these other groups and members of these other groups? For example: the “Women Against Military Madness (WAMM)”; “Troops Out Now”; the “Anti-War Committee”; “Protest RNC 2008” and other peace and social justice groups are charted out in a “Social Network Analysis” and “Power Centrality Ranking” that links them to the “RNC Welcoming Committee” in a Homeland Security-Highway Watch document that has recently come to light. It’s not clear whether this “intelligence” product was only produced as a result of “viewing their websites” but even if that’s so, wouldn’t there at least be notes and copies made from that law enforcement effort of analyzing the public websites?

3) I have a hard time believing that Ramsey County Sheriff Department informant(s) reported information only on the “RNC-8”. It is precisely the other individuals who are not being prosecuted and about whom information may be contained in the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office that is of interest for the research that Mr. Cox and I are conducting. Are informant report files maintained separately?

4) Again assuming I’m correct in believing that the Ramsey Sheriff Department’s information is contained in one big file that also involves the information collected on the “RNC Welcoming Committee,” what is the name of that file? How is it indexed for retrieval and further use? Was the file opened to contain all investigative data collected in the lead-up to the RNC or was it focused solely on the RNC Welcoming Committee? If the latter, why would the information on other groups and members of groups not connected to the prosecution of the “RNC Welcoming Committee” not be releasable at this time? Can you give me an idea of the size of the file and how many other individuals and groups (not being prosecuted) are documented or referenced in the file?

5) Why did you ask for a delay when first responding to my request back in December, telling me you expected my request to take a lot of time to gather up responsive materials?

But where is Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak? He’s supposed to be seated, facing Obama just to his right, about 40 rows back. Haven’t seen him yet, and Minneapolis City Councilman Ralph Remington, who just announced he won’t run for re-election, is AWOL as well. But in the course of trying to find them, I discovered someone wearing what looks like a Howard Dean stocking cap a few rows in front a man who may or may not be sucking his thumb:

The photo is the work of freelance photographer David Bergman, who told the Minnesota Independent via e-mail that he was at the inauguration on assignment for the Corbis photo agency using a Gigapan robotic camera. It took six hours for his software to stitch the Gigapan’s 220 separate images into one. Hat tip to a Twitterer Chuck Olsen of The UpTake.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesús, Jesus, who taught us to pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

(Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians consider Yeshua to be the what ancient Hebrews called Jesus. Isa is the Arabic name by which Muslims call Jesus. Jesús is how Spanish-speakers say Jesus’ name.)

It was fairly brazen and promiscuous name-dropping in the face of inflamed speculation about whether Warren would dare to utter what famed preacher Rev. Billy Graham had not at three inaugural invocations, in 1989, 1993 and 1997. Graham’s son Franklin — the elder Graham’s successor as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which was headquartered in Minneapolis until 2003 — said “Jesus” once at President George W. Bush’s 2001 inauguration. (So did the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell at Bush’s 2005 inaugural.)

Warren largely skirted the original source of controversy over his selection to lead the inaugural prayer: his attitude toward gay rights and gay marriage. But close listeners didn’t miss at least one swipe. Writing for the Dyke Abroad blog, Gully Online editor Kelly Jean Cogswell detected “a tasteful jab at the queers uncivilized enough to demonstrate [against] his participation” in this part of Warren’s prayer:

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.

Here is a video clip of Rev. Warren’s inaugural invocation:

Al Franken (Photo: Aaron Landry) and Norm Coleman (Photo: WDCpix.com)

In separate e-mails sent almost simultaneously this evening, Al Franken and former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman offered takes on President Obama’s inauguration as diametrically opposed in style as the Senate contenders are opposed in their rival campaigns. Franken’s is an unadorned, even bland two-paragraph statement about the honor he felt at attending the inauguration and the need to work together to face our challenges — with no mention of the vicious election contest. Coleman’s, by contrast, is titled “The Difference Between Obama and Franken” and caps off slams against Franken and the State Canvassing Board with a plea for cash, replete with links to the contribution page at his campaign Web site.

But earlier in the day Coleman’s blog carried his own bland statement, and on Monday Franken issued his own fundraising plea. Full texts of both e-mails and both earlier messages after the jump.

Norm Coleman message, datestamped 5:11 p.m., Jan. 20, 2009:

Dear Friend,

Today marks an historic occasion for each and every American, from all backgrounds, all political philosophies and all walks of life.  We all wish our new President well, and we will support him when we agree with him and be the voice of the loyal opposition when we do not.

Unfortunately, the kind of change that President Barack Obama brings to Washington is worlds apart from the kind of change that Al Franken is seeking here in Minnesota.

Barack Obama won a majority of our nation’s votes fair and square.
Al Franken had to change the rules of the game to overturn our victory.

Barack Obama was elected based on the principle of one person – one vote.
Al Franken’s lead exists because some votes were counted twice, while others weren’t counted at all.

Franken’s coordinated attempt to silence voices must not stand.  But it might, unless I hear from you soon.

Click here now to contribute $15, $25, $35, $50, $100 or more — up to $2,300 per person — to the Coleman for Senate Recount Fund.

The amount you contribute is important, but even more critical is your immediate reply.
In less than one week, a three-judge panel will begin to consider our legal challenge to Franken’s outrageous power grab.

We can’t be a day late or a dollar short in providing them with all the information they need to see that the latest results of the Canvassing Board are patently unconstitutional and inherently undemocratic.  With George Soros raising millions for Franken’s Recount Fund, I need your generous continued support.

Please let me hear from you soon.  Can I count on you to go my website now to get the latest news on our legal challenge, and to support our recount fund with your best contribution?

Yours truly,

Norm Coleman

Al Franken message, datestamped 4:59 p.m., Jan. 20, 2009:

It was a great honor to join so many hopeful, excited Americans in Washington today to witness the inauguration of our new President. Franni and I congratulate President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and their families on this momentous occasion, and like all our fellow citizens, we celebrate with both incredible joy and the solemn recognition of today’s place in our nation’s history.

Today, President Obama made clear what we all know: the challenges we face are significant, and change won’t happen overnight. But today, we are one nation united and ready to get to work, with a President ready to lead us. Like so many others, I have been inspired by our new President to look towards the future with optimism, and with the knowledge that there is nothing we can’t accomplish together. The next few years will call for bold action and courage on the part of our leaders and our citizens. And I know that, with all of us working together, we will meet that call.

Al Franken

Today marks an extraordinary moment in the history of our country. Watching Barack Obama be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States will forever be etched into the minds of so many of us as one of those moments for which you remember where you were and what you were doing when it happened. This is a great day for all Americans to come together for the good of our country. Laurie and I join the millions of Americans in congratulating President Obama and our thoughts and prayers are with he [sic] and his family as he assumes the office of the President of the United States.

The “Hooray/Way To Go” banner in the yard of artist Doug Padilla is the work of Chank, the well-known Minneapolis artist and font designer. Padilla, who founded Art Jones Gallery, considers his front yard a temporary exhibition space. In an e-mail to the Minnesota Independent, Chank says the yard, in Padilla’s St. Anthony West neighborhood, will feature other artists once his piece comes down:

He had an “IRAQ-NAM” sign out there for many moons and it always bummed me out, so I was happy to jump at the chance to do a new piece for his yard when he asked. He had a smaller “OBAMA” sign out there before the election, but people kept knocking it over and vandalizing it. So he kept building it back stronger and bigger. I used the footings he laid down to hold up the new commemorative inaugural art.

Meanwhile, within an hour of Obama’s swearing-in (if not sooner) the electronic billboards perched atop the Block E building in downtown Minneapolis were flashing this homage to Obama. On the First Avenue North side, “Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States” smiled down from above the Hooters restaurant in the city-subsidized development.

Billboards were put into political service (both paid and unpaid) during the (never-ending) campaign season, especially for the Republican National Convention. It’s not the first time Block E’s signs have served an arguably political purpose, nor is it a first for the new-fangled electronic billboards sprouting up around town to feature the face of an African-American man.

Even as signs of the new Obama era proliferate, reminders of the era that just ended remain. Here’s one that’s posted high enough on a Minneapolis utility pole that it’s lasted nearly as long as (and may yet outlast) the war in Iraq:

Early morning hours before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. (Zuma Press)

President Barack Obama promised that his inauguration would be different from those of previous presidents, but change doesn’t come easily when it requires shaking influence in Washington.

In November, Obama announced that his presidential inauguration committee would not accept donations from corporations, lobbyists, political action committees, or unions. The move appeared to set Obama apart from President Bush, whose official inaugurations were underwritten almost exclusively by corporations and executives.

Despite Obama’s efforts, inaugural festivities still represent a giant loophole in lobbying rules that have grown progressively stricter in recent years. Whether it’s the high-dollar fundraisers underwriting the official inaugural program, or the corporations and lobbyists throwing lavish parties to woo legislators and government officials, influence appears to come with a price tag.

This week, a plethora of official inaugural events, paid for by a relatively small number of wealthy donors to Obama’s inaugural committee, as well many private parties present opportunities for moneyed interests to curry favor with the incoming president and Congress.

Private Parties

Special interests and lobbying firms lure lawmakers with lavish private parties during inauguration week, which are all off the books. Obama is not expected to attend these events personally, but members of Congress, and even members of his administration, who will be the primary vehicle for his change agenda, are expected to show up in droves.
“These private parties are a chance, particularly for lobbyists, to mingle, with state and federal elected officials,” said Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization. “Members of Congress attend en masse.”

Some gatherings are flashy and well-publicized, but many events are discreet, invitation-only affairs that are never advertised.

“Private parties are entirely unregulated and undisclosed,” said Holman. Constituents have no way of knowing whose hospitality their representatives might be accepting during inauguration week. Typically, the costs of these parties don’t count as money spent on lobbying and therefore hosts don’t have to disclose these expenses as lobbying.

The biggest sponsors of private parties are lobbying firms, corporations, and trade associations. Almost invariably, the sponsors have business pending before the federal government, or represent someone who does.

One of the highest profile private galas is sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers a powerful trade association that spent $6.5 million last year to lobby more than 30 government bodies from the Executive Office of the President to the Department of Education to the CIA. In recent weeks, the association has been a vocal proponent of a bailout for the Big Three automakers.

The association’s corporate member organizations — many of whom have interests pending before Congress — sponsor the event. Some pay as much as $50,000.

A search of Center for Responsive Politics’ online database OpenSecrets.org revealed that nearly all of the event’s sponsors spent significant sums on federal lobbying or campaign contributions last year: Exxon Mobil spent $17.9 million on lobbying in 2008. Agricultural products giant Archer Daniels Midland, another sponsor, spent $1.78 million on federal lobbying last year and its employees and PACs contributed $317,700 to congressional campaigns during the 2008 election cycle (53 percent to Democrats and 47 percent to Republicans). ADM lobbied the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the House, and the Senate on renewable energy issues, freight rail, and taxation. Arch Chemicals spent $120,000 lobbying the House last year. DRS Technologies, a defense electronics firm, spent $2.65 million on lobbying in 2008.

Asked whether lawmakers are expected to attend the event hosted every inauguration, Hank Cox a spokesman for NAM, said often times they do stop by.

“[Hosting the party] enhances our position and our relationship with lawmakers, but nothing concrete,” Cox said.

Smaller organizations with interests in Washington are also getting in on the action. Guests at the Homeland Security and Information Technology Inaugural Gala — a party hosted by smaller defense and technology firms looking to win lucrative government contracts — will enjoy “sweets and treats” at the International Spy Museum in Washington, as well as an open bar, a live performance by R&B singer Jeffrey Osborne, and even actors dressed up like James Bond and Mata Hari. There’s also free valet parking — a real perk this week.

Like the NAM gala, the Spy Museum party is put on with support from various corporate sponsorships with discrete interests. An enterprising homeland security company can sponsor the buffet’s pasta station for just $7,500, according to the gala website. In return, the firm will receive 6 tickets, a half-page ad in the program and a guaranteed shout-out during the sponsor appreciation segment of the program.

One of the hosts of the Spy Museum gala is Carlos Weaver of CLW Services. Weaver and his business partners are among a handful of companies eager to remind lawmakers that they are certified to supply high-tech identification cards for federal employees.

Weaver is expecting about 300 guests from the IT side of homeland security, some from as far afield as California and Texas.

The fondue will no doubt be delicious, but the networking opportunities are an even bigger draw.

Weaver boasted that he expects guests from Congress, an array of federal agencies and local governments. “[It's] a wide mix of government and industry,” Weaver said.

Weaver is forthright about his goals for the party. He sees the gala as an opportunity for his small firm to shine in an industry dominated by corporate giants.

“You know how politics in the world is,” Weaver said. “Everyone hopes that someone sees them and pays attention to them. Everyone wants exposure.”

Obama’s Bundlers

Despite Obama’s promises to make this an inauguration for the people, a study by Public Citizen reveals that a small coterie of big dollar fundraisers are bringing in most of the money.

As of Thursday, the inaugural committee had raised at least $35.3 million. Holman, of Public Citizen, said that his analysis found that 80 percent of that total budget came from just 211 wealthy donors — mainly from the financial sector. He and his colleagues have scrutinized the data from the official inaugural Website, which identifies bundlers by name and employer and lists the amount each person raised.

Individual donations are capped at $50,000, more than ten times what an individual may give to a presidential campaign. Bundling is a simple way around the “no corporations, no lobbyists, no PAC rule.”

“The big bundlers cajole their colleagues and others to make those $50,000 contributions and put them into one large package,” Holman says.

By definition, bundlers don’t just encourage people to mail in their checks, they gather the checks and put their names on the bundles to get credit for their efforts. Bundling isn’t just about raising money for a cause, it’s about keeping score.

The Public Citizen study found that the top fundraisers tend to work in a small number of industries whose fortunes depend heavily on federal policy.

“The leading sector is Wall Street, [among] the inaugural bundlers,” Holman said. “They work with Lehman Brothers, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and other Wall Street industries. We’re seeing Wall Street pay for the inauguration — and what do you think they want?”

Other watchdogs raised similar concerns about influence-buying through the inauguration.

“At a bare minimum, if you’re giving forty, sixty, a hundred thousand dollars, you’re going to get someone from the administration who knows what your agenda is and you’ll get phone calls returned,” said Mary Boyle, a spokesperson for the watchdog group, Common Cause.
She explained that, if history is any guide, a CEO who delivers a big bundle might be rewarded with a seat at the table the next time the administration wants feedback from her industry. That’s how high the stakes are.

“Our concern is that interests with business before the government are making large contributions and using that contribution to buy access to the president on his top aides,” Boyle said.

Lindsay Beyerstein is a reporter for the Washington Independent.

Headline below huge photo of Obama on Star Tribune’s front page today: 

“Shot at tickets becomes Minnesota get-together”

Here’s the Strib’s full cover:

Instead, Obama told Rybak he wanted a grassroots movement in which even his Inauguration Day would be a celebration of people beyond himself, Rybak recalled. Rybak, who is seated only 40 rows from where Obama takes the oath of office today, is sometimes said to be the first mayor to have endorsed Obama for president.

Last week Rybak announced his intention to run for re-election this year, ending speculation that he might get a new job in Obama’s administration, but pointedly not ending speculation that he might run for governor in 2010.

Meanwhile, Rybak’s chief challenger in the race for mayor, Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program Director Bob Miller, issued a special campaign email for today’s occasion:

Happy Inauguration Day! On this historic day I join President Obama in celebrating the progress we’ve made and looking forward to the work ahead. Over the next seven weeks, I will highlight my plans in key areas for Minneapolis’ future.