Mr. Lehmann and District 4A

Tuesday my class had the opportunity to visit Richard Lehmann, the Republican Candidate for District 4A and John Persells opponent. Seated in a conference room we had his attention undivided, and asked him a few questions.

Mr. Lehmann answered us honestly and candidly, giving us all an idea about how he stands politically, personally, and how he feels he’s helped Bemidji since becoming mayor. Since his term began Lehmann feels he’s helped bring many businesses and by extension jobs because of the involvement of Home Depot, Walmart, and now Menards. However he feels that more is needed in tax reductions to truly incentivize and retain businesses in our town.

Small local businesses weren’t the center of his attention though, dismissing concerns about how Menards could affect local lumber yards. I question the wisdom however, knowing how large chains and their prices affect those who can’t compete on the economy of scale. While embracing large businesses do create jobs locally I can’t help but wonder why they’re being championed instead of businesses owned locally. It’s well known that the money Walmart makes doesn’t stay in Bemidji, save for what it pays and generates in taxes.

This seemed to highlight what I noticed as an apparent hypocrisy in Mr. Lehmann’s rationale. While being a staunch supporter of economic growth and our quality of life, he supports businesses that don’t provide a return on what they take from the community. It’s akin to following the recipe for a cake where the measure of each ingredient is ignored, and followed in name only.

Mayor Lehmann also felt that government should provide infrastructure, education, and a security to life. However if the taxes that support these services are slashed, and left to be fulfilled by the promise of more business, more jobs, and more taxpayers then I wonder how one can reconcile those two values. The invisible hand of economics doesn’t pave roads nor write on chalk boards. Curiously seatbelt laws and helmet laws for motorcyclists were the two best examples of evidence to the fact government is too involved in our lives.

Should it also be our freedom then to be a liability upon society? The social services Mr. Lehmann says make our city great, but also cost us too much money, are the ones that would respond to an accident caused or exacerbated by the two “freedoms” he cited. Who would pay for the ambulance, policeman and women, and for the road to be cleaned up?

The idea that by allowing people to become a larger liability to society through freedom is one that I disagree strongly with, that isn’t freedom except to be taken care of because of your “free” choice of danger.

Mr. Lehmann seems to be adept enough to act as mayor, but I question his wisdom for any other office higher than what he currently holds.

My Powerpoint Presentation

I actually presented this a few weeks ago, but here it is. 


(Click on the post title to download)


Proposition 19 in California.

John Persell

Tuesday, October 19^th State Senate District 4A candidate and incumbent John Persell came to speak to my Political Journalism Class. Running with the Democratic Farm Labor party he explained to us his beginnings in politics, his family life, what he feels government should be, and who he is as a politician and an individual.

Graduating from Bemidji State University with degrees in Biology and Chemistry John originally started showing an interest in civic leadership with his county water board, using his expertise running a water analysis facility north of Red Lake to build his decisions on policy. He stated frequently his review of peer reviewed literature when trying to gain insight to a particular issue, building hard empirical evidence to base his decisions; along with a  healthy dose of pragmatism.

Speaking plainly with an even tone and baritone register Mr. Persell wore flannel and broken in cowboy boots under a jacket for a local Eagles Club chapter. While being a scientist at heart one can’t help but pick up the somewhat rural feel and accompanying honesty to his speech and manner. Education, the youngest and oldest in society are the people the government needs to be watching out for, it shouldn’t be an overbearing influence in our free society; but if those two groups can be sheltered by their country with healthcare, a necessity in today’s global economy and education we can maintain our position as the greatest country on earth.

Economically speaking Mr. Persell feels the need for the United States to return to production of goods domestically as an imperative to the U.S. remaining competitive in our increasingly crowded global economy. Exporting so many of the goods we wish to consume to become imports weakens us, and despite it being a believer in free market he stressed the necessity of real production based here at home, expressing the belief that low prices are in fact somewhat artificial considering their expensive impact on our economic stability.

His most sincere point however was his addressing of so called “hate mail” he knows is sent out by the opposition party’s supporters. They accuse Mr. Persell of spending frivolously on projects far and near, being a “tax and spend” politician and essentially a shark attempting to tear at Bemidji. Stating with his usual steadiness he tells how in his district, his home for the better share of his life doesn’t receive this kind of campaigning.

Seeming as honest a politician as I’ve ever met, John Persell seems to be unafraid to tell you his views; however maintaining a friendliness that can’t be replicated easily.

This coming November is the District 4A race between John Persell, Democratic Farm Labor and Richard Lehmann, Republican Party Candidate.

Wikileaks - The New Whistleblowers

“The task of good journalism is to turn this material — who, when, where, how, how many — into something which emotionally engages people," – Jullian Assange in reference to the release of Afghan war docs to the NYT, Der Spiegel, The Guardian

Who is Jullian Assange? Where does Wikileaks get its information, and why does it even matter to a member of the “”public?” Most people who read their news offline with a cup of coffee have no idea what in the world a Wikileak is or why they should bother themselves with knowing, but quite the opposite is true, for Wikileaks is changing journalism, internet legislation, and most importantly – attitudes.

Wikileaks began in 2006 and is an international project that aims to make public documents of an otherwise secret nature. These can be Transportation Security Administration documents or highly encrypted (and deciphered) video of military personnel firing mistakenly upon journalists in Afghanistan. The most important stipulation being they must contain information of “political, diplomatic, or ethical interest” (1). Their most recent large release was that of 90,000 classified documents concerning the war in Afghanistan, concerning IED detection among other sensitive topics.

It’s spokes person – not founder – is Jullian Assange, a Canadian who along with other anonymous people make up the advisory board of Wikileaks. Their aim is to prevent access to information and the jailing of journalists for publishing information they believe to be in the public interest. He is a cunning computer expert (2) and is avowedly anti-war, and believes that by making sure the public is privy to the information he receives, will help to end it.

Many international government’s have shown an interest in what he publishes, lending verity to the source of the site’s content. Wikileaks is also at odds with the traditional mainstream media, collaborating to release the “Collateral Murder” video but also remaining divorced from the idea that it’s a news site. Assange himself has asserted that he’s not a journalist, but an activist. (3)

Is Wikileaks a new form of journalism? Surely they are at least media, as they believe wholy in the idea of an informed public, but they’ve also editorialized the content they’re sent, adding a fetching title “Collateral Murder” and adding in titles along with editing the footage into a youtube consumable format; asking the question of objectivity despite the video’s obvious relevance.

What Wikileaks may or may not be has yet to be seen definitively, they do however represent a radical departure from anything the world has known as “news” and are making the traditionalists of print media both angered and skeptical. One thing is known however, Wikileaks is here to stay.

(1)  http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Submissions

(2)  http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian?printable=true

(3)  http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article7094231.ece