In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai’s brother is getting CIA payments while also being involved in the heroin trade, Ventura writes. And while Obama has said the drug problem needs to be looked at from a public health perspective, his “drug war” budget directs twice as much money to the criminal justice system than to treatment and prevention, he writes. He then criticizes Obama for nominating Michele Leonhart, a Bush-era appointee, as DEA director.

“She has a history of cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries, and most recently denying the research application of a University of Massachusetts botanist, he writes. “This is a ludicrous appointment, since Attorney General Eric Holder has already ordered federal agents not to go after medical marijuana outlets. So is the administration talking out of both sides of its mouth?”

Ventura concludes with an excerpt from his book, which comes out March 8. In part, it reads:

…One hundred million Americans have sampled marijuana, and that includes almost half of all the seniors in high school. More than 35 million Americans have tried cocaine at some point, and almost as many have taken LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs. Meantime, we’ve got “grows” or “gardens” of pot springing up all across our western states on public lands–and that includes almost40 percent of national forests. About 3.1 million marijuana plants were confiscated in national forests over a one-year period, September 2007 to September 2008, carrying a street value calculated at $12.4 billion.

I mean, how stupid are we? Go back to Chicago and Prohibition, when Al Capone became more powerful than the government because we’d outlawed the selling of liquor. Legalize marijuana, and you put the cartels out of business! [...]

“I consider myself a political revolutionary, and therefore, I am one of you! I created the Independence Party in MN, and I have a plan,” Barkley wrote. “If enough tea partiers join the Independence Party, it becomes you! Think of it. YOU run the Independence Party, not the other way around! With all of the legal and political infrastructure elements it has. This will save lots of time and trouble.”

In a shift from the party’s more progressive background, the Independence Party has already garnered the support of a number of former Republicans running for governor, including Tom Horner and, until recently, Col. Joe Repya.

Barkley was a founder of the Reform Party, which later became the Independence Party. He was appointed by Ventura to fill the seat of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002.

Here’s Barkley’s full statement:

Dear Fellow Patriots!

Do you want the conservative movement to create real change? Then it must take the next step. Only by electing decent people who believe as you do, can our nation transform itself.

Hello, my name is Dean Barkley. I have spent the last twenty years trying to change the ways things are done by our corrupt two party system. I began by forming the Reform Party in Minnesota. Later, we changed the name to the Independence Party, ran candidates, and eventually elected Jesse Ventura as the most widely known governor in America. Like you, the traditional political parties hated us. I just ran for the US Senate, and received 15% of the vote – with no money! The point it: change can happen!

People nationwide understand how bankrupt the two party system is (and has bankrupted America, too!). To be effective, this movement must transform into being a real political force and fast. To do so, it must create the legal, financial, and staffing infrastructure that a real political party has. The Republican Party is trying to lure some of you into its folds with pretty promises. But don’t be fooled. They just want your time, money, and votes. And they will continue business as usual – and run things their way!

I consider myself a political revolutionary, and therefore, I am one of you! I created the Independence Party in MN, and I have a plan. If enough tea partiers join the Independence Party, it becomes you! Think of it. YOU run the Independence Party, not the other way around! With all of the legal and political infrastructure elements it has. This will save lots of time and trouble. The scattered tea party people become The Tea Party – in name as well as fact. A real party – that can change things. You can do this in two weeks. Register online at MNIP.org. If three hundred do, and become delegates, they will own the Independence Party. They can change its name to Tea Party – and inherit all the party structure you need! Register to be a delegate. You can do it online. But hurry, the online caucus closes on 2/28/2010.

Let’s get back to the future and back to the United States Constitution, limited government, and the fiscal common sense of living within our means.

Sincerely,

Dean Barkley

Horner, a public-relations executive with long experience in Republican politics, tells the Minnesota Independent he’s parting ways with the GOP on good terms.

“I’m not leaving the Republican Party in protest or under a cloud,” Horner says, citing his membership in the party’s “more moderate” wing since he began work for U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger in the 1970s.

But gridlock has soured Horner on two-party politics in St. Paul. “Whichever party has the governor’s office, the other party isn’t going to let that governor succeed,” he says.

Ventura got around that by seeking good ideas and good people from across the political spectrum, Horner says, for a “pretty successful” first half of his term. Only when Ventura become disengaged partway through his term did the legislature ditch him.

That’s where Horner reckons he has something on Ventura: his 30 years of experience in public policy and party politics, along with an inclination to stay engaged with citizens.

As for his campaign, he says it will start low-key and won’t feature a pox-from-both-their-houses critique of the two other major parties, as is sometimes heard from IP candidates. Minnesotans who know him from his political commentary on Minnesota Public Radio wouldn’t buy it, he says.

“For me to come out and say all parties are bad would be ludicrous,” says Horner.

Growing field, coming battle

With the entrance of Horner and former Republican party activist Joe Repya this week, the Independence Party’s field of gubernatorial candidates grew to five, and Tim Penny figures it may keep growing. Penny, the party’s 2002 endorsee for governor, says at least two others are still in the wings.

“It may be that for the first time we have a real endorsement battle,” said Penny, who as a Democrat served six years in the state Senate and six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. ”There are more people of my stature that are beginning to conclude that the two parties have failed us.”

Those already vying to run as Independent Party candidate for governor include party chair Jack John Uldrich and lesser-known candidates Rob Hahn and Rahn Workcuff.

Horner had publicly floated the possibility of a run and party switch for weeks, while Repya had been talking behind the scenes about a possible IP run for months, said Penny.

But Penny said at least two other people (who he wouldn’t name) have talked to him about running for governor under the Independence Party banner.

Penny said he would probably endorse someone in the race before the party’s endorsing convention, which isn’t officially set yet but is likely to be May 8, according to an IP spokesperson. (The IP will hold an interactive online caucus throughout the month of February.)

Talking about Horner and Repya, Penny said, “I’m intrigued by a candidate with some roots in the Republican Party” — in part because he and Peter Hutchinson, the IP’s 2006 endorsed candidate for governor, both came from Democratic Party backgrounds. Hutchinson drew only 6 percent of the vote, less than Penny’s

Ventura may round out the list by at number 10, but his is one of only two quotes that Yale librarian and editor Fred R. Shapiro picked from the first half of the year. And Ventura demonstrated his ticket on the vanguard of the zeitgeist is still good. His somewhat dated reference to the Sharon Tate murders, which likely meant little to many who heard it, was made more current by the recent arrest of film director Roman Polanksi (in Europe, on a separate conviction), who was Tate’s husband at the time of her death.

Then again, fans of Palin’s husband Todd resurrected the name of Tate’s true murderer at a “Sportsmen for Coleman: rally in Northern Minnesota during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Call it a conspiracy theory, but both governors said their time spent on the job allowed them time to pursue other interests in their spare time.

Here’s a sample exchange from T-Paw’s testy Wednesday presser:

Reporter: Do you plan on slowing down or changing your travel schedule nationally during this crisis?

Pawlenty: “The measure isn’t that. It’s — does the work get done? And, again, given the number of hours that I put in, there is no work in my administration that’s left undone.”

In a 2002 article about Ventura, St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Jim Ragsdale wrote:

He would divide his time like a man on a time clock — daytime hours on weekdays belonged to Minnesota; nights and weekends were “personal time” he could use to sell a book or shoot a cameo. … “I’m untraditional,” he said. “My guidelines will probably be, first of all, I’m not like any other governor. Maybe that allows me a little more leeway.” … Even Ventura’s divided schedule sends a message that his anti-government supporters love, [University of Virginia Prof. Larry] Sabato says. “What he’s really saying is, being governor isn’t all that tough.”

While the show will look at “global cover-ups, mind control, secret societies,” as Ventura snarls, here’s one insider’s view that might come as a surprise: He claims he was “silenced” at his last TV gig, the short-lived 2003 MSNBC show “Jesse Ventura’s America,” because he opposed the war in Iraq.

Ventura told the Los Angeles Times yesterday that the MSNBC gig was “awful.” After a bidding war between networks, he wound up with NBC’s cable arm, where he was being “groomed for a five day-a-week TV show.”

Then, all of a sudden, weird phone calls started happening: “Is it true Jesse doesn’t support the war in Iraq?”

After that show ended, his contract prevented him from doing other shows for a period: “So in essence I had my silence purchased.”

Ventura’s not yet entirely sure “Conspiracy Theory” — which will likely cover a recurring Ventura theme, that the government isn’t being forthright about the 9/11 terrorist attacks — will ever be broadcast, he says. Suggesting that the content of the show will be too hot to handle, he tells the Times he’s learned to believe that a Hollywood project will happen only after the check clears at the bank: “I’ve had a gentleman’s bet with my crew that these shows would never air.”

Via Comedy Central’s Indecision.

“Lou Dobbs, I think, would be a perfect candidate for us,” said Barkley, the onetime senator who founded the Reform Party (now known as the Independence Party). “We were hoping he would have run last time.”

Anything could happen, as Barkley’s experience managing Jesse Ventura’s 1998 campaign attests. Also interviewed for the Politico piece: Ad guy Bill Hillsman, who lead communications efforts behind successful outsider campaigns by Ventura and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. But Politico says neither Hillsman nor other “leading third-party operatives” have been contacted by Dobbs’ people — yet.

(Hat tip: David Brauer on Twitter.)

But her speech — now posted in two videos by the Independence Institute (which Bachmann once accidentally called the Liberty Institute) — also covered other issues. She said “insurance companies are evil” (before immediately retracting it), likened the government to Al Capone and the mob, and dubbed Minnesota “Franken country.”

At 15:00 in the first video, she presents her solution for health care:

Government creates cartels… They are very much like the mob in Washington, D.C. That’s Washington. It’s Capone. You pay your protection money and you get it and then government creates a cartel for you. It’s a great business, if you can get it. That’s how the joint works. That’s what they’ve done with insurance companies. They’ve created partial monopolies in each state, so that really — Insurance companies are evil. And don’t take it that I’m saying that; I am not saying that. But what I’m saying in terms of free market is if we have true competition across all state lines then you can have insurance companies creating products that people truly want to have. From there you increase the tax-free accounts that people can set up to pay for whatever their health care expenses is…

At 18:00 on the second video, she gives a rousing finale to her comments:

You can win these seats back. Don’t feel defeated. Hey, I got elected in Franken country! Just think, in Minnesota we elected Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone, Al Franken, Jesse Ventura and me. How did that happen? It’s possible!

The Independence Institute presents… Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann – Q & A Session

Photo: KSTP-TV

Updated: As first reported by the Minnesota Independent, only one candidate for any office has his own booth at the Minnesota State Fair: Republican state Rep. Marty Seifert. And now his staff is evoking the memory of another State Fair, another booth and another candidate for governor: Jesse Ventura.

Seifert is only one among the legion of hopefuls seeking to replace retiring Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2010. The general election is more than 14 months away, but a State Fair booth is still a heckuva deal at $750, a Seifert campaign spokesman told KSTP-TV yesterday as he tacked campaign signs to the volunteer-built superstructure.

The booth helps Seifert stand out from the crowd, as it did for Ventura, whose “Retaliate in ‘98″ campaign turned a corner during the 1998 fair, just weeks before his surprise third-party victory in the general election for governor. As Seifert campaign spokesman Ben Zierke told KSTP’s Tom Hauser:

This is a political place, the Minnesota State Fair, as you mentioned. Jesse Ventura, just down the block here, you know, when he ran for governor.

From Jacob Lentz’s 2001 book “Electing Jesse Ventura: A Third-party Success Story“:

Of course, politicians had booths. And Jesse Ventura had a booth.

Ventura had an inexpensive opportunity to reach — and charm — a large percentage of the state’s voters on an individual level. His booth was almost always swamped with people who may have been less excited about his candidacy than the entertainment value of his green and black “Ventura for Governor” bumper stickers and black T-shirts with “Retaliate in ‘98″ written across the chest in neon-green lettering. …

Ted Mondale was at his own booth, campaigning for the DFL nomination, and said of Ventura, “This guy worked insanely hard. I was at the state fair campaigning, and Jesse was always there, from morning till night.” Dane Smith, a longtime Twin Cities political reporter, remembered Ventura’s performance as the first time he took serious notice of the man. …

They passed out nearly 8,000 green and black bumper stickers … and over 6,000 buttons. The state fair also gave a huge boost to the popularity of “Retaliate in ‘98″ T-shirts, which were later sold over the Internet and at all campaign events. … Perhaps most important, Ventura’s popularity at the fair convinced Bill Hillsman, the ad guru who would eventually join Ventura’s campaign, that Ventura had a chance to win and was worth Hillsman’s energy.

The 2010 campaign for governor may be underway, but it’s still 2009. Volunteers will staff his booth 12 hours per day, but Seifert’s own daily shift will only be for one to two hours.

Ventura, famously, didn’t have time to bleed. But he made time for the Minnesota State Fair.

Seifert and his volunteers will be giving not only their time but also their money to the fair. Politicians, even those with booths, don’t get free passes, State Fair spokeswoman Brienna Schuette tells the Minnesota Independent:

The Minnesota State Fair has an “everyone pays” gate policy, so everyone entering the fairgrounds must present an admission ticket, including politicians and elected officials. No politicians or elected officials have asked us for free tickets this year.

UPDATE: Zierke tells MnIndy the Seifert campaign is paying for volunteers’ tickets to the fair.

Here is the KSTP report:

Molnau at 2008 NLGA conference. Photo: MN North Star

Carol Molnau, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and former transportation commissioner, has been re-elected chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association’s (NLGA) Midwest Region.

From the official state press release:

“Lieutenant Governor Molnau was selected by a bi-partisan group of her peers from every region in the nation as a leader among her colleagues,” said NLGA Executive Director Julia Hurst.

“I am honored that my colleagues designated me to serve in NLGA leadership this year,” Lieutenant Governor Molnau said. “I look forward to working with them and share best practices that will benefit the constituents of Minnesota and other states.”

The state Senate stripped her of her commissionership following the I-35W bridge collapse, but Molnau envisions a political future for herself, even after Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to run for re-election.

She may run for governor or Congress in 2010 and in the meantime remains NLGA chair of all she surveys. Besides Minnesota, the Midwest region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Including Molnau, five of the Midwest’s lieutenant governors are women, more than in any other region. Nationally, there are 12 women among the 55 lieutenant governors serving U.S. states and territories, with Molnau and Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman the only Republican women.

In the only two lieutenant-governor elections this year, in New Jersey and Virginia, both Democratic Party candidates are women (and both are Jewish). In fact, the tally of female lieutenant governors is guaranteed to increase because the Republican candidate in New Jersey is also a woman.

That’s unusual in most states but wouldn’t be so in Minnesota, where the last five gubernatorial elections have involved two or more women as major-party running mates, and the last five lieutenant governors have been female.

Marlene Johnson, elected on the Democratic ticket with Rudy Perpich in 1982 and 1986, was the first woman to hold the post. After Johnson came Joanell Dyrstad (Republican, elected with Arne Carlson in 1990); Joanne Benson (Republican, also elected with Carlson, in 1994); Mae Schunk (Reform Party, later Independence Party, elected with Jesse Ventura); and Molnau (elected with Tim Pawlenty in 2002 and 2004).