This is a time to get together and eat and talk , just time for our friends. There is no format, dues, agenda etc., We can meet anytime or place we decide, picnic pot luck, local food, anything we want to, even invite speakers. But for now please show up, eat and talk to like minded friends. No need to RSVP just stop by and eat. email Trana if you like.
North Dakota's right wing media establishment is getting caught up in the Republican Party in-fighting in North Dakota. Roger Bailey, the Executive Director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association recently circulated a note to association members. Here's what he wrote:
NDNA Publishers/Advertising Managers:
NDNA has received an e-mail from Mariah Madsen at Flint Communications, representing Brian Kalk, requesting information on how much advertising Kalk’s primary election opponent Kevin Cramer has placed.
NDNA reminds you that newspapers are not under the federal laws and FCC rules that govern broadcast which require radio and television stations to provide such information to the public. Newspapers are not required to provide this information although you may provide it if you desire.
Legal Counsel Jack McDonald generally advises newspapers that information such as rates and buys are their proprietary information and as such should not be shared.
___________________________________
Roger Bailey
Apparently, Brian Kalk wants to find out what kind of advertising buy Harold Hamm and his good ol' boys from Oklahoma have Kevin Cramer has made at some of the state's newspapers?
Here's a tip, Mr. Kalk: Harold Hamm and his billionaire friends Kevin Cramer's owners have more money than your owners have. Spend as much as you can, and not a penny less. The oil company executives who have bought and paid for Kevin Cramer have more money than the oil executives that have bought and paid for you.
North Dakota is viewed by the national Republican Party as being an "orphan state;" a political party "in disarray." At least that's what everybody outside North Dakota is saying. I like to think of it as being more of a "GOP Circus State." You certainly wouldn't know it from reading the local papers, listening to local radio or watching local news, but everyone else sees it. Believe it or not, folks, but some out-of-state media isn't in the bag for the Republican Party. They're neutral....
National Republicans have begun to intervene in a handful of key Senate and House battlegrounds where state parties are in disarray, seeking to head off the possibility that local mismanagement could cost the party control of Congress.
The GOP presidential nominee will be impacted by the state party woes, but what especially worries Republican operatives are those states where there is no competition on top of the ticket but which feature a number of pivotal Senate and House contests.
These “orphan states,” most notably behemoths with traditionally weak parties like California, Illinois and New York, are increasingly the focus of top GOP officials in the nation’s capital this spring.
The Republican National Committee is going to set aside at least $10 to $15 million to aid states where there are competitive House and Senate races but minimal presidential action, a party official tells POLITICO. That’s enough to blunt the GOP’s financial disadvantage in several states, though not to erase the disparity or put the orphan-state groups on par with their swing-state counterparts.
Half of the money will go to the states with hard-fought House contests, including the blue mega-states, and the other half will be directed to states like Montana and North Dakota, where there are crucial Senate battles.
You can see how screwed up their party is by simply watching video clips from the recent North Dakota GOP convention (pictured, above).
Like... watch this poor young, disaffected North Dakotan describe the corrupt delegate selection process that went on during the GOP convention.
(Watch more frustrated North Dakota Republicans on more video clips by clicking here.)
Heidi Heitkamp's campaign must be watching Republicans not getting along, and they must be enjoying it. In fact, they issued a statement about it:
"While the North Dakota Republican Party continues to be torn apart by an establishment versus tea party fight over delegate selection, Washington establishment leaders are forming SuperPAC's to help Rep. Berg's struggling campaign," said Brandon Lorenz. "Rep. Berg has voted the party line time after time in Washington D.C., and now he's getting his reward."
If it wasn't all their fault, I might almost feel sorry for Republicans.
A new United States Geological Survey study has found that middle America between Alabama and Montana is experiencing an "unprecedented" and "almost certainly manmade" increase in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater. In 2011, there were 134 events of that size. That's six times more than were normally seen during the 20th century.
While the changes in the area's seismicity began in 2001, the trend has really accelerated since 2009, the geologists note. That happens to coincide with increased oil and gas production using new extraction techniques in some parts of the area.
The new work is being presented at the Seismology Society of America's conference later this month. An abstract for the presentation is available online.
"A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region," the scientists write.
The conclusion that at least one environmental group has drawn from this data is that fracking, in one way or another, has caused these earthquakes. The Environmental Working Group notes that more than 400,000 wells were drilled between 2001 and 2010, a 65% increase over the previous ten-year period. They also note that the new extraction techniques require vast amounts of water to be injected into the ground: major producer Chesapeake estimates that it uses about 5 million gallons of water per well. Lots of wells plus lots of water injected underground could change the subterranean conditions and lead to more earthquakes.
The good news is that there are no 50-year-old dams or other old, weakened infrastructure items in the area where there's a lot of fracking going on. Well, that's true unless you count, for example, the Fort Peck Dam in Montana, or the Garrison Dam in North Dakota.
What's the worst that could happen? An old dam gets shaken a little. I really don't think we have anything to worry about.
Maybe you didn't know Fargo slumlord Rick Berg has his own Super-PAC. That's right. There's one of these Republican political monsters out there -- born in Kentucky, no less -- that's been built to attack Heidi Heitkamp for slumlord Rick Berg, so the slumlord can claim a lack of involvement. "Plausible Deniability."
[Jeremy] Hughes and [Justin] Brasell have started Freedom Pioneers Action Network, a super-PAC that plans to make independent expenditures in support of Rep. Rick Berg’s (R-N.D.) Senate bid in North Dakota.
[ ]
Super-PACs can make and receive unlimited expenditures, so long as they do not coordinate or donate directly or in-kind to federal candidates or committees.
I have to laugh at the corrupt organization's name: "Freedom Pioneers." Like moving a(nother?) corporatist, millionaire slumlord into the U.S. Senate is going to somehow lead America down the path to freedom.
Right.
Now watch as millions of corrupt, out-of-state, untraceable corporate dollars pour into North Dakota to try to cure the slumlord's negative polling number problem.
Meanwhile, eleven Democratic Attorneys General from around the country have expressed support for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit Super-PACs like Berg's from doing their dirty business. Here's what they wrote to leaders in Congress on Thursday:
We, the undersigned state Attorneys General, are writing to urge you to amend the Constitution to reverse the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Reversing this troubling decision would give Congress the power to ensure that the voice of the American people is not diluted or trampled on by corporations under the auspices of the First Amendment, and that the people have the ability to participate freely and equally in selfgovernment.
If you go read that letter (linked to above), don't look too long for the signature of North Dakota's Attorney General, Wayne "The Human Money Laundromat" Stenehjem, at the bottom of the letter. His signature isn't on it. He feeds off of corrupt, illegal, out-of-state corporate money. You'd never see his name on this type of letter.
Here's what I'll say about this: Republicans created this situation. This is purely a Republican political scheme. Republican Supreme Court Justice created this. The only way to un-create it is to (a) replace Republican justices (when the resign, etc.) with liberal judges and/or (b) pass a constitutional amendment. These Democratic Attorneys General have the right idea, but it takes a long time to do either of those things, and both require Democratic leadership at all levels of government.
Unfortunately, Democrats HAVE TO play by these Republican rules, until they're changed. If they don't, they'll lose.
(1) Criminal Investigators At WSI... Yesterday -- on Holy Wednesday -- the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations was on site at North Dakota's Workforce Safety & Insurance, digging into an alleged Class C Felony at WSI. The felony allegedly occurred when someone tampered with an injured worker's records. A whistle blower at WSI has reported that part of the claim file of a Case New Holland employee who suffered a head, neck and shoulder injury was deleted on or about August 17 or 18, 2011. North Dakota Century Code section 12.1-11-05(2) says it is a "Class C felony" for a public servant in custody of a government record to "knowingly, without lawful authority" destroy, conceal, remove, or otherwise impair the verity or availability of a government record. Readers of NorthDecoder.com understand these laws do not necessarily apply to state agencies under the control of Governor Jack Dalrymple. They're more like "suggestions."
(2) You Found WSI's Latest Victim... Yesterday I got to visit with the injured worker whose claim file record was destroyed last year by a criminal (or criminals) at WSI.
(In case anyone at WSI thinks I'm bluffing, initials are SPBJr. Do you like apples?)
Based upon what he's told me and what I've learned elsewhere so far, my reporting on this -- including even my speculations -- has been spot on. I hope to be getting more information regarding this situation soon and will be reporting more. I wish I could tell you it'll be this week, but tomorrow is Good Friday, everything is closed, and so it's more likely to be next week or not long after that.
If the situation isn't as bad as I thought it was, that is only because it's worse. And the ongoing cover-up makes it even worse than that.
I plan to write about WSI's most recent (that we know of) victim in the coming days and weeks. Based upon my relatively short conversation with him, I can report that he seems like a decent guy who got beat down, emotionally and financially, by WSI. He had requested his entire file -- including the deleted notepad entry -- last year, after WSI was well aware of the deletion, yet they did not give it to him. He altered his negotiating position because he didn't get that record and settled part of his claim for far less than he reasonably should have. In short, he got screwed by WSI. And they used fraud and a class C felony to do it to him. The cover up -- hiding the record from the injured worker and from the press -- just makes it so much worse.
Here's one morsel for you: the notepad entry WSI felt it needed to destroy (and then cover-up the destruction) was destroyed the same day the injured worker's claim was denied. Or within a day of them denying part of his claim. Coincidence? Or malicious, fraudulent, criminal act?
More later.
(3) It's A Small World After All... I gotta tell you how I connected with this particular victim of crime, corruption and/or fraud at WSI. It's kind of a fun story. I wrote my "It's 'Break the Law' Week In North Dakota This Week" blog post and published it sometime Tuesday morning. Then, in the late afternoon on Tuesday, I filed a "Notice of Claim" form with North Dakota's Office of Management & Budget, Risk Management Division, notifying them I am considering suing WSI, the Attorney General's Office and the Risk Management Division for breaking North Dakota's open records law and the other law I had written about [NDCC § 65-05-32(5)] earlier in the day, Tuesday. I filed that Notice with Risk Management by email sometime around 4:15 or 4:30, roughly. Three hours later, roughly, I got an email from a regular NorthDecoder.com reader, telling me he works with the WSI victim, telling me the victim would like to talk to me and giving me the victim's name and phone number.
In the interim period, one of you posted a comment suggesting I look into buying a full-page newspaper ad to try to find WSI's victim. I obviously didn't have to.
After feeling like I'd been given no choice but to go to court to fight for the public's right to access records from our Republican form of government (specifically, WSI, the AG's office and North Dakota's Risk Management Division), it took less than 12 hours to get it from one of you guys. (Thank you!!! And you know who you are.) That's either an indication of what a small town North Dakota is, or what a freakin' huge and awesome readership NorthDecoder.com has. I'll let you decide.
But you guys are brilliant. Well, most of you are. Not Jason.
(4) I'm Honored To Serve... On a side note... I love doing this stuff. Our Republican-dominated state government is corrupt beyond words, our media is too lazy, too stupid or too bought-and-paid-for corrupt to report about it. I'm honored to be able to help people find justice while exposing these criminals and lackards. I'm embarrassed for our state and country that the traditional media ignores this stuff. We deserve better.
But keep in mind I only do this in my free time, and I don't make a profit from it. I have to make a living at my real job. That's why there are sometimes days when I don't have time to post new content. I try to sell ad space to cover some of my expenses, but I clearly lose money on doing this. You guys have been great in the past by chipping in money here and there to help defray some of my expenses, and I really, truly, sincerely appreciate that. (Send more, if you can, whenever you can.) I truly appreciate the financial support; it helps a lot. But that just helps take some of the financial hit away; it doesn't put food on the table. The real pleasure I get from researching and writing for NorthDecoder.com is the satisfaction I got, for example, while on the phone yesterday, explaining to this decent, innocent guy from Fargo how he'd been victimized by one of Jack Dalrymple's state agencies.
Don't get me wrong; he knew he'd gotten screwed. He just didn't know the details of how he'd gotten screwed. I haven't given him the whole story, yet. Partly because I don't yet know the whole story. What I have done is I've helped him start down the road to understanding the rest of the story behind how WSI defrauded him, and that feels good.
I hope I can help him hold the people accountable who did this to him.
I will write more about this. I promise.
Stay tuned.
[For background, here are links to some past stories about this...
I like the website "TalkingPointsMemo." They usually do a fairly decent job in their reporting. But they published a story recently with an inaccuracy I just cannot ignore. The name of the story was "North Dakota Proves Newt Gingrich Wrong On Energy" and it is written by an author named "Tom Kludt." I've sent a message to Kludt asking him to correct his error, but he hasn't done so yet. Here's the offending paragraph:
The most salient part of the regulations will bring about changes to so-called reserve pits, which oil companies have used to store waste generated from drilling. That system drew criticism last year when spring flooding — an annual phenomenon in North Dakota — inundated nearly 30 reserve pits, leading to $3 million in fines against the companies that used them to dispose of waste. The reserve pits were notable for their size, which made waste removal cumbersome. Waste disposal will now shift to much smaller designated sites, while the new rules will require the old pits to be emptied within one year.
Those of you who read an earlier post I wrote about the fines "imposed" by the Mineral Resources Division of our State Industrial Commission probably recognize where I'm going with this. There were never $3 million in fines imposed. The $3 million amount was just a startling number our state's Republican leaders threw out there to make people think -- wrongly -- that our state is doing something to scare oil companies from polluting our air, ground and water.
But there will be no press release from the Mineral Resources Division telling the public that the actual fines imposed were only $349,000. That's 12% of $3,000,000. It kind of seems like a big deal that a state agency would issue a press release saying the were fining companies $3 million dollars, but then they only fined them 12% of that amount, don't you think?
Maybe our state's crack investigative journalists will get all over the story.
Not likely.
Remember that the Mineral Services Division is a sub-set of the State Industrial Commission, which is made up of Jack Dalrymple, Wayne Stenehjem and Doug Goehring. When the Mineral Services Division lies to you and me, they're doing it on behalf of Dalrymple, Stenehjem and Goehring.
Total fines imposed were $349,000, on the nose. But don't trust me on it. Check my math. Here's a breakdown (from the Mineral Services Division) of what the actual fines were.
The North Dakota Supreme Court today rejected North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's request for a "Writ of Prohibition." The Writ would have stopped Secretary of State Al Jaeger from putting the Fighting Sioux ballot measure on the June primary ballot. There are three separate opinions issued by the Court's five justices. Here's a snippet from the (simple) majority's decision, keeping in mind it likely would have taken four justices to get a majority on this issue, since it is a constitutional issue).
This proceeding does not involve a petition by a private citizen to exercise our discretionary original jurisdiction. Rather, the Attorney General, on behalf of the Board, has petitioned this Court to exercise our discretionary original jurisdiction and issue a writ prohibiting another governmental official, the Secretary of State, from placing a referendum measure on the 2012 primary election ballot. The Attorney General is the principal law officer of the state with duties and authorities coextensive with the public legal affairs of the whole community. McCue v. Equity Co-op Pub. Co., 39 N.D. 190, 204, 167 N.W. 225, 239 (1918). The Legislative Assembly has also intervened in this proceeding. The Attorney General's petition, brought on behalf of the Board against the Secretary of State, and the posture of the issues raised in this proceeding raise fundamental questions involving the prerogatives of the State and the sovereign rights of its people, which are of statewide interest and go to core issues involving the limits of governmental authority in the context of the Board's authority to decide the name and logo for UND's intercollegiate athletic teams. The Attorney General, on behalf of the Board, in effect seeks a declaration on the constitutionality of N.D.C.C. § 15-10-46. The Secretary of State has now approved the referendum petition for placement on the June 2012 primary election ballot. Here, unlike the proposed initiated measures at issue in Municipal Servs., 490 N.W.2d at 705-06; Preckel, 62 N.D. at 642-43, 244 N.W. at 784-85; and Anderson, 62 N.D. at 228-32, 242 N.W. at 691-03, the immediate effect of the submission of the referendum petition has suspended the operation of Senate Bill 2370, which reinstates N.D.C.C. § 15-10-46 as law and presents a justiciable issue sufficient to warrant the exercise of our discretionary original jurisdiction. See State ex rel. Wefald, 347 N.W.2d at 564-65.
A majority of this Court concludes the posture of the issues raised in this proceeding satisfy the requirements for the exercise of its discretionary original jurisdiction under State ex rel. Wefald, at 564-65and State ex rel. Walker, 232 N.W.2d at 825. Under N.D. Const. art. VI, § 4, however, this Court "shall not declare a legislative enactment unconstitutional unless at least four of the members of the court so decide." Although a majority of this Court would exercise its discretionary original jurisdiction and consider the underlying constitutional issue about the Board's authority over UND, two members of this Court have concluded this is not an appropriate case to exercise its discretionary original jurisdiction. As a result, there are not enough members of this Court willing to decide the constitutional issue at this time.
We therefore do not address the constitutional issue, and we decline to enjoin the Secretary of State from placing the referendum measure on the June 2012 primary election ballot.
North Dakota's right wing media establishment is getting caught up in the Republican Party in-fighting in North Dakota. Roger Bailey, the Executive Director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association recently circulated a note to association members. Here's what he wrote:
Earthquakes in our back yard...
Maybe you didn't know Fargo slumlord Rick Berg has his own Super-PAC. That's right. There's one of these Republican political monsters out there -- born in Kentucky, no less -- that's been built to attack Heidi Heitkamp for slumlord Rick Berg, so the slumlord can claim a lack of involvement. "Plausible Deniability." 
It wasn't me. 
The North Dakota Supreme Court today rejected North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's request for a "Writ of Prohibition." The Writ would have stopped Secretary of State Al Jaeger from putting the Fighting Sioux ballot measure on the June primary ballot. There are three separate opinions issued by the Court's five justices. Here's a snippet from the (simple) majority's decision, keeping in mind it likely would have taken four justices to get a majority on this issue, since it is a constitutional issue).