Twins Blog Praises the 4 Horsemen of Larceny

Here. Meanwhile, the single most significant development during the 2006 season took place last week when the board of Hennepin County Commissioners voted to authorize a .015 percent county-wide sales tax with proceeds directed to fund a portion of a new Twins ballpark in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Last Tuesday’s vote represented the final hurdle in a ten-year struggle to finance a ballpark and preserve Twins baseball for future generations. Years from now, long after the new ballpark is opened, I’m quite confident the citizens of Hennepin County, the State of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest will look back at this period of time and recognize the significance of last week’s 4-3 vote. Last May, in the wake of securing legislative approval for the Twins-Hennepin County ballpark bill, we offered well-deserved kudos to Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum and many others for their efforts to support the plan and resolve this important issue in a bi-partisan manner. There is no question that everyone mentioned above played a HUGE role in getting a ballpark approved and thus ensuring the long-term viability of baseball in this community. However, the true heroes of the day are Hennepin County commissioners Mike Opat, Randy Johnson, Peter McLaughlin and Mark Stenglein. These are the gentleman who demonstrated the vision to dream about what a 42,000-seat open-air ballpark could do for Minnesota and downtown Minneapolis. These are the officials who filled the “leadership void” on this issue by coming forward with a comprehensive plan and delivering a fair, responsible solution. Most importantly, these are the leaders who showed incredible courage for standing by their convictions in the face of criticism and attack from various sectors of the public. Yes, Mike Opat, Randy Johnson, Peter McLaughlin and Mark Stenglein deserve the credit for their unwavering leadership and support of the Twins-Hennepin County ballpark plan. They also deserve special THANK YOUs from Twins fans across the region. I'm sure the businesses who are being told that patrons will no longer come to them after this tax is imposed are really thrilled with Mike Opat for foisting this stadium on the Hennepin County Taxpayer only.

Tell the Strib to do More Coverage of Commissioner Races

I posted this on the Editor's blog: Eva Young says: September 23rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm Hi Anders - I like this new feature in the strib. I’d like to bring a debate to your attention. There was a debate for County Commissioner in District 2 - sponsored by the Urban League the saturday prior to the primary. I believe that KMOJ might have audio from that debate. Please try to get the audio, and cover the debate - this was a debate between Mark Stenglein and Greg Gray. We all know the Strib will prefer and endorse Mark Stenglein because of his stadium vote. However readers of your paper deserve more information. Voters deserve to hear more about both candidates in this race - the county races are important. The county has a 2 billion dollar budget. (That is double the bonding bill for the state this year). If the Star Tribune fails to cover these races, and fails to sponsor a debate in county commissioner races, it means that the Strib is failing to live up to its responsibilities. Please consider sponsoring - along with organizations like the Twin West Chamber of Commerce, the Minneapolis Chamber, MPR, City Pages and other media organizations, debates for all the competitive county commissioner races. Please do make an effort to obtain audio from the Urban League debate between Stenglein and Gray - and report on that debate from that audio. Thank you for your attention. It's important for voters to hear a debate between Mike Opat and Mary OConnor. The Strib should be sponsoring such debates.

Won't it be grand....

.... to watch a 3 hour baseball game outside on a night like tonight in downtown Minneapolis? Thanks, Mike Opat and Carl Pohlad and Tim Pawlenty, for bringing outdoor baseball back to Minnesota.

Vote Today

It's primary election day, and everybody in Minnesota has a chance to vote against Governor Tim Pawlenty, who didn't only sign off on a 30 year tax for Hennepin County residents to subsidize private investors, but he made a media event out of it. I was also happy to vote for Peter McLaughlin's opponent. If you live in Mike Opat or Mark Stenglein's districts, take 10 minutes out of your day and go vote against them. The Hennepin County commissioner primary is on the non-partisan section of the ballot, so whether you want to vote in the GOP, DFL, or Independence primary, everybody can vote against the Hennepin County commissioners who denied us the chance to vote in a referendum.

Magnificent Rage

I watched the replay of the August 29th Hennepin County Board meeting. Linda Koblick was magnificent in her rants about the stadium swindle. She went after Opat, his assistant's new job with the stadium commission, the Twins, the Legislature, the Star Tribune, and all of the paid lobbyists. It reminded me of Brenda Wehle as 'Medea' at the Guthrie Theatre in the early 90's, or Isabel Monk as Clytemnestra a few years later. I expected claps of thunder as she held forth. The pathetic author of Ordinance 26, Mike Opat, didn't directly answer any of her charges, including the one about purposely omitting public statements about the lack of a referendum when the board passed the resolution that went to the Legislature.

Sounds Like a Mike Opat Supporter Is Blowing Off Steam

This email was received at CCARL: hi there, i am contacting you with questions, comments, concerns, as well as suggestions. first of all i would like to start off by saying nothing is better for the state of Minnesota than the twins baseball team. no other group of people in the world deserves this new stadium more than them. along with being great for the team and organization, the state and city will greatly benefit from it as well. the city will be cleaned up from crime as well as drugs because of all of the people being around. the economy will benefit from it most of all because the stadium and sport will bring in much tourism. there is a thing in baseball called the mid-summer classic, or to the idiot such as yourselves, the All-Star game. baseball always has these games at the newest stadiums and with our stadium we are sure to have one here and that alone will will take care of most of YOUR worries. now that i have gone over all of the positive things this new stadium will do, i would like to comment on the way your group does things. first of all, you fuckers put up the HOME phone Numbers of three of our states law makers. now i can understand giving an office number but when you cross the line like that and give away some body's home number, you fuckers have no soul. people have a home so they can get away from ass holes such as yourself. you are the reason people are unlisted in the phone book you prying pieces of shit. along with our lawmakers you should be ashamed of giving out Carl Pohlad number as well. the man over 90 years old and you bitches have nothing better to do than bug an old man over THREE FUCKING PENNY'S!!!!!!!! the next point i would like to make is that THE TAX IS THREE CENTS ON A TWENTY DOLLAR BILL!!!!!!! if you cock suckers are worried about three cents than trying to get something like this should be the least of your problems. you fuckers need to worry about what is more important in life like family and friends rather than losing three cents on a fucking twenty dollar bill. from where I'm sitting, all i understand your group to be is a bunch of money hungry fuckers who want to be heard for something, ANYTHING. why didn't you try and get gas cheaper? have you ever thought about that? that is something that affects everyone every day and your fucking worried about three cents on a twenty dollar bill. this whole thing blows my fucking mind!! you punk bitches cant leave well enough alone you always have to through in your two fucking cents. Your entire group makes me so fucking sick!! in my opinion, your organization is worse for this country than the aids virus. i believe your organization and the aids virus should be breathed in the same breath. fuck you and your entire organization and never do i want to see anyone of you fucks in or new state of the art stadium. FUCK YOU!!! I don't quite get the "cocksucker" reference. Does Mike Opat claim the stadium will clean up the crime problem? Funny - I thought better policing would do that.

Let's Advertise this blog with Signs at this Parade

From Tom Reynolds, posted on the CCARL yahoogroup: Dear Ray, I will be busy tomorrow door knocking and handing out literature. On Saturday September 9th I will be doing the Osseo Roaring Lions Parade and festival. During the weekdays leading up to the primary I will be touring the six cities with our mobile billboards on our cars. If there are other events that I can attend between now and the primary I will be attending. If I had more money I would be doing a selected mailing. However, at this time what I will be doing is emailing as many folks as possible asking them to spread the word. Following the primary if I am able to move on I will be holding several fundraisers at local businesses located in the district. What I need are yard sign locations, persons willing to March in the Parade in Osseo wearing Tom Reynolds T-Shirts and carrying signs, mailing lists of persons in the district, emails if possible, and of course money is always needed. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support. Tom For more information on defeating Mike Opat, check out the CCARL website.