Franken, Bachmann, Walz and Ellison "Bobble Reps"

Asked at Saturday’s Netroots Minnesota conference what blogs he follows, Rep. Tim Walz pulled out his iPhone and rattled off a few sites: Talking Points Memo, Bluestem Prairie, MN Publius and others. Then he showed off his favorite iPhone app — a new one that features his likeness and that of every other member of the House and Senate as shakeable cartoon bobbleheads.

The 99-cent “Bobble Rep” app helps users find out who represents them in Congress, either through a direct search or by using the iPhone’s GPS locator. The caricatures — heads for each of 540 legislators put on one of 12 bodies — were drawn by MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond to be fun and nonpartisan. But Apple didn’t see it that way: it rejected the application claiming “it ridicules public figures.”

Richmond wrote:

This is truly ridiculous. These caricatures aren’t mean or very exaggerated. They are simple, fun cartoon likenesses of the politicians and the purpose of the app is an informational database. There is no editorial commentary involved at all.

Indeed, related projects, while likewise tame, could probably be construed as far more “offensive,” to use Apple’s word. Sen. Franken, for instance, was rendered as a 3D vampire bobblehead, “The Count,” (along with Norm Coleman) by the St. Paul Saints baseball team in March. And earlier this month, Franken and Coleman were given the MAD Magazine treatment in a spoof ad for “Democra-cialis, ” a cure for the kind of “electile dysfunction” that plagued their 2008 Senate battle, in MAD’s list of “dumbest people, events and things” of 2009.

But last Monday, Apple reversed its decision, green-lighting the app that made its way to Walz’s cellphone.

Walz’s wielded smartphone could’ve been a good prop for another question he answered — about net neutrality. He said he’s “absolutely convinced that we must keep net neutrality,” and thanks to his resolve, “AT&T doesn’t even come to my office anymore” to lobby against it, he added. He said he’s surprised that conservatives aren’t more concerned about the freedom issues surrounding the possibility of corporations controlling what internet users can and can’t access.

“If you want to wave the patriot banner,” he said, “wave it on net neutrality.”

Here’s how each of Minnesota’s Bobble Reps look:

The pair starkly demonstrated the range of political feeling among Minnesota’s congressional delegation.

“This bill is not health care reform,” proclaimed Kline, a Republican, who said the legislation now under consideration would only bring more government red tape and put “more power in the hands of a superbeaurocrat.” He wondered aloud, “Why would we want to strip Medicare from our grandparents?”

Oberstar, a Democrat, rose immediately after Kline with his own rhetorical question, about why Republicans want American families “held hostage to insurance companies … due to pre-existing conditions?”

That statistic is part of an op-ed by Ellison and the chief sponsor of a companion bill, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, at the Huffington Post.

Another statistic they offer: The top five states for 2008 voter turnout — including Minnesota and Wisconsin — all have same-day registration.

Ellison and Feingold urge the District of Columbia’s city council to adopt reforms today that would allow voters to register at the polls.

The new federal legislation, introduced last week, has not yet attracted co-sponsors beyond its original Democratic backers. They include Minnesota Reps. Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Also quoted in the piece is Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie: “EDR [Election Day Registration] is much more secure because you have the person right in front of you — not a postcard in the mail. … We have 35 years of experience with this.”

Click here for information from Ritchie’s office on how to register to vote on Election Day in Minnesota.

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has introduced a bill that would extend Minnesota-style, same-day voting rights to all eligible Americans in federal elections.

The Same Day Registration Act would let people register at the polling place on Election Day rather than requiring registration weeks or months ahead of time, as most states do.

Same-day registration is already law in seven nine states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, plus the District of Columbia. (North Dakota is the only state to do without voter registration altogether.)

Common Cause claims those states see voter-turnout rates as much as 7 percent higher than others; a 2009 Cal Tech/MIT study (pdf) confirms that “election day registration can increase turnout significantly” and doesn’t increase costs or fraud.

It’s an Upper Midwest thing, it seems. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is the bill’s sponsor in the U.S. Senate, where Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Iowa’s Tom Harkin are co-sponsors. In the House, two of five co-sponsors are Minnesotans: Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar. So far, the bill’s sponsors are all Democrats.

In a statement, Ellison said,

Minnesota routinely leads the nation in voter turnout – usually over 70 percent. … Enacting a National Election Day Registration law would do for the nation what same day registration has done for our State – give a voice to all who want to vote.

That 70 percent figure applies to years with presidential races. In off-year elections, turnout has run about 10 percentage points lower.

Ellison’s statement also quotes Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie calling same-day registration a “no brainer” and claiming it is more secure than other states’ systems that require registration in advance, because “you have the person right in front of you — not a postcard in the mail.”

In the U.S. Senate election recount between Al Franken and Norm Coleman, Minnesota showed the nation flaws in its absentee-voting system — some involving the mail. Other states saw major controversies over voter registration in last year’s election. One was Colorado, where the secretary of state purged 44,000 voters from the registration rolls before Election Day, in defiance of court orders. A few hundred managed to cast provisional ballots that were counted.

Ellison’s bill comes just as millions across the country prepare to go to the polls next Tuesday — that is, as long as they’ve registered beforehand, in states where that’s required.

In Minnesota, officials expect half a million voters to turn out. But who knows? A few million more could decide to exercise their franchise on the spur of the moment, and if they haven’t registered yet, no biggie.

Here’s the key language in Ellison’s bill (H.R. 3957):

[E]ach State shall permit any eligible individual on the day of a Federal election and on any day when voting, including early voting, is permitted for a Federal election (A) to register to vote in such election at the polling place using a form that meets the requirements under section 9(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993; and (B) to cast a vote in such election.

The bill’s first stop in the House in the Committee on House Affairs. None of the members of that committee come from states with same-day voter registration.

Photo: iStockphoto

More than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into Minnesota’s waterways during 2007, according to a new report (pdf) by Environment Minnesota. 3M was by far the most prolific dumper of pollutants, with more than 1 million pounds discharged into the Mississippi River.

Nationwide at least 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the country’s waterways, according to the report. Indiana led the nation in total volume of toxic discharges, with 27 million pounds of pollutant’s released into the state’s waterways. Virginia, Nebraska, Texas and Louisiana rounded out the top five.

“Pollutant releases from factories, power plants and other industrial facilities are a key contributing factor to the pollution that leaves 46 percent of the nation’s assessed rivers and streams and 61 percent of its assessed lakes unsafe for fishing, swimming or other uses,” the report notes.

Nitrate compounds, which can cause serious health problems for children when found in drinking water, were responsible for 90 percent of the pollutants dumped into the nation’s waterways. But more than 1.5 million pounds of chemicals linked to cancer were released into streams, rivers and lakes. In addition, 450,000 pounds of substances linked to developmental disorders and roughly 266,000 pounds of chemicals linked to reproductive disorders were discharged into the country’s waterways. The Mississippi River was among the top four recipients for each of these categories.

The Ohio River received the highest overall volume of toxic discharges, followed by the New and Mississippi rivers. More than 12 million pounds of pollutants were dumped into the Mississippi River in 2007. It was the only Minnesota river to earn the dubious distinction of being among the nation’s 20 most polluted waterways.

The data is culled from the federal government’s 2007 Toxic Release Inventory. Industrial facilities reported the release of 244 different toxic chemicals or classes of toxic pollutants into the country’s waterways during that year.

Environment Minnesota is calling on the federal government to more stringently enforce the Clean Water Act. Most notably the advocacy group wants the federal law applied to all the country’s waterways. Owing to court rulings, some small bodies of water are currently exempt from federal environmental regulations. Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar has championed the Clean Water Restoration Act, which would beef up federal enforcement of pollution prohibitions.

“There are common-sense steps that should be taken to turn the tide against toxic pollution of our waters,” said Samantha Chadwick, of Environment Minnesota, in a press release announcing the report’s findings. “We need to clean up our water now, and we need the federal government to act to protect our health and our environment.”

Paulsen won the Third Congressional District post last year with 48 percent of the vote. He has no announced challengers for next year’s contest. The Cook Political Report classifies the district as “likely Republican” in 2010.

Third quarter filings are due at the FEC today. Fundraising tallies for three other members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation have so far been posted on the agency’s web site. St. Paul Democrat Betty McCollum brought in $136,000 during the three-month period and reported $128,000 in the bank. Fellow DFLers Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar reported raising $108,000 and $193,000 respectively. Peterson had $547,000 cash on hand at the end of September, while Oberstar had more than $1 million in reserve.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MANKATO: She’s in. State House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher made it official on the family farm: She wants to be governor. [Mankato Free Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: Email effusiveness could cost city big. Council members are supposed to remain quasi-judicial when they hear zoning appeals, but a real judge ruled that emails prove Lisa Goodman did not, in the case of a development she despised. [City Pages; Star Tribune; Downtown Journal]

RAMSEY COUNTY: Nun crossed line. Now she’s on trial for trespassing, but Sister Elizabeth A. McKenzie had a higher calling: to get an antiwar message to delegates at the 2008 Republican National Convention. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

BEMIDJI: “A bake sale to get a math book.” That’s the way it is for schools across Minnesota due to delays in state payments imposed by Gov. Pawlenty. [Bemidji Pioneer]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: U.S. Constitution-signing commemorated. But law-school profs must not have compared notes when they chose topics for today’s topical but also water-related lectures: “Protecting the Great Lakes Against Thirsty Southerners” and “Torturing the Constitution” (about waterboarding). [Associated Press]

SIDE LAKE: Big pot bust in the Big Woods. A million-dollar crop could mean a million-dollar fine and 30 years in prison for farmer Thorsten Otterness, whose green acres were spotted from the air by the multi-agency Boundary Waters Drug Task Force. (And unlike their metro counterparts, the task force members didn’t keep the plane for themselves.) [Duluth News Tribune]

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

FARMFEST: Carol Molnau may be mulling guv run. But the first few days after the anniversary of the I-35W bridge collapse can’t be the best time for the lieutenant governor (and decommissioned transportation commissioner) to announce. [Star Tribune]

FARMFEST: Republicans quash gubernatorial straw poll. Chronic election observer Jimmy Carter wouldn’t approve, but party leaders didn’t want an unsanctioned survey to usurp their official straw poll in October. [Polinaut]

BEMIDJI: Congressman declares, “This is Recovery City.” Okay, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, but then what’s Center City, home of Hazelden? [Bemidji Pioneer]

ST. CLOUD: Ex-mayor could become ex-lawyer. The Minnesota Supreme Court might suspend John Ellenbecker for losing a client’s audio cassettes, including a mix tape with that one Flock of Seagulls song. [St. Cloud Times]

DULUTH: Cops can’t take tix for golf tourney. The city attorney says accepting free passes as payment for off-duty security service at next week’s PGA Championship in Chaska isn’t kosher — though a plane-ticket gift for a city councilor to visit a Japanese sister-city was fine. [Duluth News-Tribune]

TWIN CITIES: Feds’ suit says drycleaner fired woman for getting pregnant. “Employers cannot restrict women — pregnant or otherwise — from their facilities in anything but the most unique of circumstances,” said an official. Most unique? Does that apply when women are only a little bit pregnant? [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

So far this year the chairman of the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has take in $435,000. He had nearly $1 million in the bank at the end of the second quarter. The 18-term congressman is unlikely to face serious opposition in 2010. He won re-election last year with 68 percent of the vote.

Photos: bachmann.house.gov, oberstar.org

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann blogs on how biking isn’t healthy:

You would think that any health care bill brought forth in Congress would actually be focused on reforming health care. Alas, it seems that both House and Senate proposals are packed with pork as well… Essentially, we’re talking about federal funding for bike paths, lighting, jungle gyms, and even farmers markets.

Bachmann’s objection to funding bike paths puts her on a collision course with her more senior colleague in Minnesota’s Congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar. He has long pushed bike paths as a safe way to school and good health.

[Via DumpBachmann]