Were Earl Pomeroy and Dem-NPL Party attempting to illegally buy college votes with pizza?

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If you’re politically minded, and these days we ALL should be, you need to regularly visit RJ’s Regular Guy Rant blog site. Yesterday he posted information about two events in Grand Forks, one of Earl Pomeroy’s last liberal strongholds. A flyer from one of them is shown in the photo above. Note the new Dem-NPL “Obama-ish” logo at the top, indicating that this event has to do with the Democrat Party.

PlainsDaily.com, a news website which you should also visit regularly, started to do some investigating. In addition to the possibility of vote-buying with pizza, these events appeared to be using college resources to give students a ride to the polling place. This is specifically illegal (read the PDF). Adding to the controversy is the fact that UND Student Government vans were apparently used. Is this appropriate use of state government property, since those are likely state vehicles owned by UND?

UND apparently agrees, because their General Counsel has put a stop to the program. According to the Plains Daily article, “That program has been canceled because UND General Legal Counsel has determined that the program violated the North Dakota Century Code section 16.1-10-06.1.”

The best quote of the whole debacle comes from RJ’s post: “Anyway, one of my friends at the college told me that the rally generated ten voters and at least one of them just rode the bus so he could vote against Earl.”

Personally, I think this sort of thing needs to be investigated to see exactly which laws were broken and who’s responsible. If the Dem-NPL Party organized a voting drive in which they were buying votes with pizza and providing free transportation in violation of state law, then they need to be dealt with punitively. But, since it’s Democrats, the whole thing will probably receive “ho-hum” treatment from the ND media and simply vanish.

The big question is: will all the hijinks make a difference in Earl Pomeroy’s struggle to remain a Washington insider Democrat lapdog? My gut says no. In the mean time, if you hear about a similar event taking place, make it known. It’s illegal, and they’re Democrats. The two go hand in hand.

The most popular doors in Bismarck (and yes, they ARE unlocked)

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I’ve spent a lot of time around the capitol grounds since the late 1980s. It used to be a great evening hangout for high school and college kids; it’s still one of the best places to play frisbee in town; and it’s simply a nice place to walk or simply hang out. If you’re like me, then you know what I’m talking about when I say the doors pictured above are probably the most popular doors in town.

If not, you may be wondering why I think so. Simple: this is probably the single most frequently used setting for portrait photography in all of Bismarck-Mandan! Sit out on the lawn some Saturday and have a picnic, and you’ll likely see numerous wedding parties come and go to have their photos taken on the steps in front of these doors. You may also see family or senior portraits taken directly in front of them. They’re rather noteworthy, and as such make a great photo background.

I have several friends who are portrait photographers, and they get a lot of demand for this location. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s a great setting for your special photos! I just find it noteworthy and mildly amusing to watch the groups come and go as they take their turn in front of a popular local landmark.

Thanks to Adam, who politely reminded me that yes, these doors are still open. I mistakenly assumed that, since the library entrance I use most is on the side of these steps, these doors no longer function. Of course, I had to go check them out myself. There’s some pretty neat stuff on the other side of them, I found out! Check back in a day or two.

I usually enter the library by the circulation desk downstairs, but from now on, I’m going to make it a point to enter through these big, well-known doors!

I’ve found your new septic service

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I left work early today, knocking off at 11 am and heading out with my cameras in the truck to see what I could see. While turning around to go back and get a different shot I spied this truck, and was able to meet its owner. Wait for the punchline…

Yes, I know, this is a rather unconventional name. I’m aware of the connotations. It’s a little crude for my liking, but I’ll make an exception in this case. Make note of the phone number, because if you have a septic system you may wish to choose this guy to service it…

With a sense of humor like this and political orientation in line with most North Dakotans I know, I predict success for this small business. The back of this truck (the punchline I described earlier) is hilarious and say sin a few words everything you need to know about the North Dakota political environment.

As we send Byron Dorgan packing due to his surrender and look forward to converting Earl Pomeroy to civilian status at the ballot box in two and a half weeks a week and a half, we’re going to need a legislative pumper truck to evacuate much of the damage they’ve caused or in which they’ve had a hand. See, this truck is good for so many metaphors when it comes to Washington, DC!

Rusty

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I wonder how long it will be until this rusty homemade sign will be sticking out of a snowbank? It resides along the dusty gravel road that is Highway 1806 north of Mandan. That’s a fun road to wander on when you’ve got the time (and a camera). I made a trip up to Cross Ranch a while back to check out the foliage, but sadly all the leaves were already on the ground. It was a surprise because the leaves here in Bismarck-Mandan were only beginning to turn.

2010 TEA Party photos (and bonus video)

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As promised, here are some of my favorite photos from last weekend’s TEA Party rally, held on the steps of the North Dakota state capitol building. It was a well attended event despite the cold and wind.


Boy, it would have been nice to have brought my own chair. Of course, since I was running around with a camera, it wasn’t very practical to be dragging furniture with me. It would have been comfy to huddle under a blanket though, if I didn’t have so many photos to pursue.


My favorite TEA Party sign of the entire day. Brevity is the soul of wit.


This gentleman came in a close second. Way to have fun with it!


Not only did this guy sport a TEA Party shirt and funny sign, but that’s also a Canon EOS camera around his neck. Good taste!


Viva la Reagan revolucion! President Reagan was MY President. I was in sixth grade when he was shot. I didn’t reach voting age during his terms of office so I never got the chance to vote for him, but I would have in a heartbeat if I’d been able to do so.


If you’re ever looking for a guy to explain currencies, commodities, and world markets…this is your guy: Eugene Graner of Heartland Investor Services. He can make the complex understandable. If you want a good nuts-n-bolts explanation of how disastrous our government’s fiscal policies are, he can present it to you in a way that’s easy for a non-economist to follow…and with a strong dose of common sense.


One of my favorite “political guys” is Gary Emineth, the final speaker of the day. He’s the one who opened up the North Dakota Republican Party to citizen activists like myself and was steadfast in making people realize that Republicans and grass roots conservatives like me who are leary of simple party affiliation are fighting for the same causes. Things like the GOP Chairman’s Luncheon and the Take Back Washington Rally are ideas that came from Gary. He had a fantastic speech too, but more on that in a little bit.


Indeed. This is a shirt from a 2009 rally, actually, but I just like the design better than the ones they had this year. It’s a good question to ask: what WOULD our founding fathers do?


Rick Berg, our next United States Congressman, was present. He had a table where people could meet him, ask him questions, and sign up to volunteer. Guess what? Rick’s political opponent in the upcoming race was conspicuously absent. Which one of them is in touch with North Dakotans? Hint: he’s pictured above.

Mr. Berg didn’t take to the microphone. He didn’t use this as a campaign stop or rally. He didn’t attempt to make this event about him or his campaign. In fact, his name didn’t even appear on the flier. He simply came to the event with some of his campaign helpers and a little table, and he talked to people and was available to listen. I got to meet him and let him know I’m doing my part with those silly little YouTube videos and stuff.


Music by Gordon Court. He has played at other events as well and has some catchy politically themed songs as well as Christian and contemporary music.


Here’s a succinct sample of Gary Emineth’s speech toward the end of the event. I often forget that my new Canon 7D can record video, but this time I remembered. I thought you might like one of the more inspirational bits of his speech, and I wish I’d remembered about the video feature when Gene Graner was speaking! You need to hear these two guys every chance you get.

Keep up the enthusiasm, my fellow North Dakotans! Let’s set things right in November!

To help prove they’re out of touch with North Dakotans, Dem-NPL adopts new Hopey-Changey™ logo

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I know you guys probably don’t go to the website for the Democrat party here in North Dakota, but I got a tip on this from a friend. Visiting the site gave me a hilarious sight:

A new logo! Of course, given the line of work I’m in I pay keen attention to logotypes and branding. That’s why I have a “Signs, Logos, and Typos” category of posts here on the ol’ Blog. As I often do, I whipped together a little comparison:

As you can see, it’s a recycled version of the Obama “O” logo, which is certain to get plenty of positive response in a state that didn’t vote for him for President and is fed up with Democrat policies in Washington…oh yeah, and who rejected Obamacare quite handily! Keep it up, Democrats! Good luck with all that recycled Hope™ and Change™.

Of course, if the Democrats were really so proud of their young President, maybe they could incorporate it in their campaigns. Not likely. They could have some starry-eyed kid intern run around and put stickers on all the O’s of the Pomeroy signs out there (as I’ve done in Photoshop above). After all, I’ve looked around and noticed that there are NOT VERY MANY out there. Lots of Berg and other Republican signs dot the landscape, though! But let’s go back to the Democrat Party website for a second:

Here’s a list of press releases on the home page. Apparently they’re sending Conrad and Dorgan all over the state to endorse, re-endorse, and re-re-endorse Pomeroy in the hope that something will stick. Riiiiiight. Hey, just a second…I have evidence of how well THAT is working:

I took this photo ten minutes into an event listed on the Pomeroy website (I’ve made a shortcut for you at www.tinyurl.com/no-events, named for the year and a half in which it was left blank as he hid from his constituents). The “event” turned out to be a Democrat Party rally, with Conrad and Dorgan scheduled to attend, and you can see the enthusiasm filling the room. Nope, actually that’s just empty air filling the room. Here’s a link to the larger version, click and count the people. Considering half of them were probably staffers, it’s a pretty good show of the pathetic level of support and turnout enjoyed by Earl Pomeroy and his Democrat Party.

I had to leave for 7pm church, but I hung around long enough to see if a crowd was going to develop. It didn’t. I did get an earful of Heidi Heitkamp trying to rally the few by decrying “the failed policies of the Bush Administration.” She used that tired keyphrase so often that I was about to yell “DRINK!” on the next one. Then again, the logo proves that NEW IDEAS are not something that rattles around in the vacuous head of a North Dakota Democrat.

You can put all the logos on the Democrat (not Democratic) Party that you want, it’s still going to remain the home for displaced leftists, communists, marxists, and anti-American wackbags. Pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro-government, anti-defense, rabid-environmentalist, anti-religion…all those things define sects of the Democrat Party…an organization and ideology so out of step with North Dakota and America in general, all they have left to do is try to rebrand themselves. Now that Americans, including North Dakotans like me are paying attention, we’re not going to fall for it. Ever.

Good luck on the facelift, Democrats…see you in two weeks.

Take some time to participate in the 2010 TEA Party – Saturday at the capitol!

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Tomorrow’s the day! Another TEA Party will be held at the North Dakota State Capitol grounds from 1pm to 2:30pm. If you remember the last TEA Party event, you know that it’s a great time to get together with fellow citizens and rally toward the cause of taking back our government! Who says liberals can have all the fun? Remember, Hillary Clinton says it’s patriotic!

Here’s the information, which speaks for itself. I’m excited to hear all of these speakers, and Gordon Court provides funny politically-themed music as well. There will be opportunities for you to participate with your passionate input as well, unlike at an Earl Pomeroy rally!

See ya there, Saturday at 1pm! Come early, and bring your friends.

Instead of meeting constituents, Pomeroy meets with a few dozen hapless Democrats, admits who he represents

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You may remember this YouTube video in which I berated Congressman Earl Pomeroy for not holding any open public meetings with his constituents. Well, some events actually showed up on his website this week, as shown above! I decided to pop in and see if I could ask a question.

I found out, as did other people who attended similar “meetings” across North Dakota this week, that it was not any sort of public meeting, “town hall”, or other such event. This was a Democrat political rally, period. It’s not depicted as such on his website, but that’s exactly what it is. Apparently Conrad and Dorgan are going to show up and endorse him over and over again at these things. Yeah…that should really drum up support.

Speaking of support, it doesn’t look like Earl’s enjoying any. I showed up to find plenty of parking at 6:20, ten minutes before the start of the event. Around 6:28, people started trying to get the few participants to bunch up in front of the stage to at least look like there were some attendees. Heidi Heitkamp made repeated pleas for people to come up toward the front. It was embarassing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the nearly empty room. Also empty was Ms. Heitkamp’s rallying cry, which consisted of so many uses of the phrase “failed policies of the Bush Administration” that I was ready to yell “DRINK!” at the sound of the next one! By this time we were ten or fifteen minutes into the event, and it was obviously a flop. None of our notorious Congressional delegation had showed up yet, I had church at 7, and it was obvious there wasn’t going to be any Q&A for me to ask Mr. Pomeroy my question. I decided to give up on my chance to get a free t-shirt for spotting Earl Pomeroy and left to go to church.

As I left the Elks building, I saw this black beast parked out front. I couldn’t help but think that it looked like an industrial strength hearse, an appropriate metaphor for the way Earl Pomeroy’s campaign for reelection has been going this year. I might add that there’s the possibility that then entire group from inside the building could fit into this one truck!

By the way, if you read the text of Congressman Pomeroy’s “events” website, you’ll see that he loves meeting with “the folks that I represent.” You can now see who those “folks” are: Democrat Party first, period…just like in Washington. This same Party was apparently unable to even wrangle more than a few dozen people into getting all Hopey-Changey for Pomeroy on the night of his big endorsement by Conrad and Dorgan.

If it wasn’t so good for North Dakota, it’d almost be sad. Who knows? Maybe Earl was able to bring in a few hundred loyal union fans fifteen minutes late, after my camera and I had split the scene. Not likely.

Don’t worry, I’m sure the Congressman will get some cushy insurance job once he’s bounced out of office…after all, those evil insurance companies are his biggest donors.

Local fire departments put on an amazing event, if only I could tell you what it was

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After finishing up some business at the Bismarck Police Department (more on that another time), I called a friend of mine who told me about an amazing event going on at the Mandan Fire Department. Of course I bolted straight over, and of course my camera was with me.

I checked the local newspaper and TV websites, which are really good at telling you about things that have already happened, and didn’t find any information about the goings-on. I also looked on the City of Mandan’s website with the same luck. It was apparently a great kids’ fun night, with all sorts of demonstrations

Among all the items on display were fire engines, ambulances, and even this beast – a SWAT vehicle for police department use. I would love to have one of these! I wonder if they come in any other colors…

About the coolest possible thing ever for a little kid would have to be a fire truck ride! There were multiple trucks driving around with groups of happy kids inside. Too bad my little toddlers were already in bed…if I’d known about this event in advance, this would have been worth staying up for!

Lines of little kids awaited their chance to use the fire hose and spray out a “fire” with the help of one of the firefighters!

I’m going to have to figure out just what exactly this event was, and how I can find out about the next one in advance, because I know two handsome little towheaded boys who will be begging their Daddy to take them! You can bet I will.

Lone fisherman

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What a day. I knocked off early today, grabbed my toddlers for a trip to the flower shop so they could come back to Mommy with some daisies, and then had Boys’ Day Out at the Pumpkin Patch. We followed up by bolting back home again, grabbing Mommy and her freshly-stocked picnic basket, and headed out to Harmon Lake for a picnic.

After a great dinner we went wandering around a little bit and took a dam walk. As the temperatures were dropping and the wind increasing, I noticed this guy out fishing near the boat landing. With many of the trees already leafless, it’s things like this that grab my eye. It looks like we’re not the only ones trying to avail ourselves of every warm weather opportunity before the cold sets in for the season.