Congressman John Kline’s office just sent out an email outlining some positions on his opponent Coleen Rowley for the 2006 race. While it is a worthwhile read, it shows that the political season is going to start heating up sooooooon. I don’t think I will need to run my heater this winter and pay the huge natural gas prices, there will be enough heat generated by this political race.
See letter below…
September 23, 2005
In the attached article, Congressman Kline’s opponent for 2006 (Coleen Rowley),
has firmly positioned herself with the most liberal part of the Democratic
Party.
On September 11th, while most of us were honoring the anniversary of the event
that began the war on terror, Coleen Rowley was the featured speaker at a
Washington conference that supported Dennis Kucinich’s bill to create a "Department
of Peace".
This idea, a favorite of the 60’s peaceniks, would create a new cabinet level
agency to promote "conflict resolution".
The details of this bill, which can be found at www.house.gov/kucinich,
include:
a) The creation of a Peace Academy that would be modeled after the existing
military academies like West Point. Can you just imagine the uniforms? Tie dyed
t-shirts? Birkenstock sandals?
b) The bill would rename January 1st from New Years Day to Peace Day.
"Citizens would be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and
endeavor to create peace in the coming year."
c) The bill would create 10 new cabinet secretaries including the "Assistant
Secretary for Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution".
It has become obvious that Coleen Rowley is in the process of sprinting as far
to the left as she can go and has now joined what Margaret Thatcher called the
"Loony Left".
Please pass this on to your friends and colleagues so they will know that
Coleen Rowley’s mad dash to the left has become a full-fledged gallop.
Diana Bratlie
Last update: September 23, 2005 at 7:33 AM
Dayton endorses federal peace department
Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
September 23, 2005 PEACE0923
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In what peace activists call a milestone, Sen. Mark Dayton,
D-Minn., introduced legislation Thursday supporting a long-shot citizen
lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
He is the first and, so far, only member of the U.S. Senate to publicly endorse
the plan.
A remnant of the quixotic 2004 presidential candidacy of Rep. Dennis Kucinich,
D-Ohio, the idea of a "Peace Department" has been derided by critics as utopian
and naïve, while supporters say it is an idea whose time has come.
Almost half of Minnesota’s congressional delegation — all the Democrats but
one — have lined up in support of the campaign, which calls for a cabinet-level
secretary to develop an array of policies from international
conflict-resolution to reducing domestic abuse and violence against animals.
Nobody gives the plan much of a chance in a Republican Congress. But backers in
Minnesota — where Kucinich turned in one of his best electoral performances —
say their support is intended as a political statement.
"It sends the right message," said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn. "It’s about
promoting justice, expanding human rights and preventing conflict."
Besides McCollum, Minnesota Democrats Martin Sabo and Jim Oberstar are
cosponsoring Dayton’s bill.
Minnesota is one of 12 states whose Democratic Party has endorsed the plan.
"It underscores Minnesota’s forward-looking approach to government," Kucinich
said. "That’s what Minnesota is about. It’s the one state where new ideas are
welcomed."
The Minnesota Republican Party, however, is adamantly opposed, having chastised
Democratic congressional candidate Coleen Rowley, who spoke at a Department of
Peace conference in Washington on Sept. 11.
"Money would be taken away from the Department of Defense to fund programs such
as a Peace Academy and prisoner rehabilitation," said a statement issued last
week by Minnesota GOP Executive Director Bill Walsh. "The creation of a
Department of Peace is a naïve and unreasonable approach to dealing with the problems
of the 21st century, including international terrorism."
Detractors say that a new peace bureaucracy, along with its proposed $8
billion-a-year price tag — pegged at 2 percent of the Pentagon budget — is just
another big government idea that will never happen. But Minnesota voters are likely
to hear more about it in the coming election year.
The Minnesota GOP highlighted the Peace Department proposal to attack Rowley
for joining forces with "liberal extremists." Rowley, who became a national
figure for blowing the whistle on FBI shortcomings before the Sept. 11 attacks, is
now challenging Rep. John Kline, R-Minn, a former Marine colonel with strong
ties to the Pentagon.
Rowley dismissed the GOP’s extremist tag, saying "that’s their tactic.
Everything they don’t want to do, they call you a name."
Kevin Diaz is at kdiaz@startribune.com
