Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008

TTT#0827-IRV-St.PaulCouncil

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JULY 2: INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING AND THE CITIES: Horns of a Constitutional Dilemma The St. Paul City Council has found itself in a pickle with proponents of Instant Runoff Voting – better known as the Single Transferable Vote advocated by the St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign – having filed the necessary 5,000-plus signatures to present the prospect of installing a system of Ranked Choice Voting for general elections (and eliminating the city primary) before St. Paul voters in November - only to be faced with their own City Attorney’s opinion that the entire idea may be unconstitutional based on a 1915 Supreme Court ruling striking down a similar voting scheme. Minneapolis has already passed it but is in court over IRV’s 2009 implementation. What should the Council have done? Heed the City Attorney’s opinion that it not go on the ballot on Constitutional grounds? Or ignore him and heed the will of the voters who signed the petition to place the city charter amendment before the people this November? The Council voted to withhold at its July 2 meeting; it is sure to go to a courtroom to resolve issues of citizens' priorities.

TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with six of the principals in this political and legal debate. GUESTS: • JAY BENANAV - Better Ballot Campaign attorney and former St. Paul City Councilmember • JOHN HOTTINGER - attorney and former State Senate Majority Leader • ELLEN BROWN - St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign Coordinator, and President, The Brown Partners, Inc. • KATHY LANTRY- St. Paul City Council President • DAVE THUNE - St. Paul City Council Ward 2 • JOHN CHOI - St. Paul City Attorney

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008

TTT#0826-SexualAssault

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JUNE 25: SEXUAL VIOLENCE & OFFENDERS - Part I: REPRESSION DRIVEN? Just what’s the big deal about sex? What DON’T we know about sex and sexual violence? This will be Part One of a series getting at the biological, emotional and political conflicts around attitudes and policies towards sex and sexual behavior. Sexuality in American society is always the hot topic, but is it deserving of the attention? And is the kind of attention it’s getting keeping it the forbidden fruit everyone wants to pluck from the tree? Is its forbidden nature driving repression, sexual violence and the politics of lifetime incarceration? What is so tempting about throwing away the key?
TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN ask some of those close to the issue just what is going on in our culturally confused notions of sex and sexual asault.
Also: A special TTT Commentary: Andy asks some questions of Archbishop Nienstadt and his erasure of St. Joan of Arc’s annual Gay Pride celebration. The text of this message follows below:

GUESTS: • DONNA DUNN – Executive Director, MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault • PHILIP VILLAUME - Criminal Defense Attorney

COMMENTARY: A Question for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Let us digress for a moment to ask this question of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: what in God’s name is going on with you people that you feel compelled to impose some Neanderthal view of sexuality and sexual orientation as if Jesus Christ himself would condemn all who don’t reproduce, never mind their deep devotion to their Lord and their church? What earthly, let alone, heavenly, harm - other than Archbishop John Nienstadt’s personal and professional disgust with gays and Lesbians, could possibly be driving this idiotic intervention over St. Joan of Arc’s annual celebration and worship of Gay Pride week in the Twin Cities? Is the Church so insulated from public view that it doesn’t sense the rank hypocrisy of this unwarranted authoritarian exercise in light of its own clergy’s sexual history? Now, I haven’t practiced pure Catholicism in 50 years, but I’ve watched my former faith take ten steps backward recently for every inch gained in behalf of the seriously wanting human condition over those years and cannot help but wonder if Christ himself isn’t turning over in his heavenly home over this prehistoric return to religious fascism. St. Joan of Arc has been a model of Vatican II principles, providing an overarching cover for all Catholics, including the disaffected, welcoming all of God’s children under its large umbrella. That congregation and others of similar bent are getting hammered into submission by a theoretically celibate male hierarchy which apparently believes that a return to the catacombs is the only way to maintain its iron-fisted authority over purely personal choices to somehow stave off the devil’s entrapment. What nonsense. And a truly sad commentary on a religious government that was showing such promise that it could live up to its name: Catholic. The name literally means universal, all-encompassing. Universal includes everyone exercising their free will under the teachings and example of their Lord himself. So. Since when did a few men with robes assume the authority to define that term for their own narrow application? Shame on you, Your Excellency. This will backfire big time, as it has for so many years in other arenas of dicta, driving many Catholics into exile and cynicism. ©2008 Andy Driscoll

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Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008

TTT#0825-MediaReformReplay#1

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June 18: CONVERSATIONS WITH MEDIA REFORMERS Encore presentation of Truth to Tell’s live Media Reform Conference special featuring Amy Goodman, John Nichols and Timothy Wu. For three hectic days over the first weekend in June at the Minneapolis Convention Center, major media and literary figures came together to cogitate and expound over strategies and methods for transforming the nation’s media into a responsible Fourth Estate as once envisioned by the founders. Over two days, TTT’s Andy Driscoll interviewed more than 25 famous, infamous and often unknown media activists among the 3,500 who gathered for this 4th National Conference on Media Reform under the aegis of Free Press.net. We will air an occasional series of programs with parts of most of those interviews over the next several weeks. GUESTS: • JOHN NICHOLS - Author, Free Press co-founder and writer forThe Nation • AMY GOODMAN - Author and Democracy NOW! Host • TIM WU - Author, Net Neutrality scholar and Free Press Board Chair KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed@KFAI.org A CivicMedia/Minnesota production

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Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008

TTT#0824-Wi-Fi Broadband-Commons

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The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis have taken different approaches to closing the digital divide – and cities elsewhere in the Minnesota are exploring what is meant by the Municipal Commons. Minneapolis chose Wi-Fi Internet access in league with a private firm; St. Paul is looking at using fiber optical cable to connect citizens, and the entire range of technologies may already be obsolete with the rapid development of faster and faster connections.

TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with local techies and troubadours of the movement to close the gap between Internet haves and have-nots from both cities. GUESTS: CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL, Director, Telecommunications as Commons Initiative, Institute for Local Self Reliance; ERIC LAMPLAND, Principal Network Architect, Lookout Point Communications PETER FLECK, Member, Minneapolis Wi-Fi Digital Inclusion Advisory Committee and Web Manager for the Uiniversity of Minnesota's Center for Family Development

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Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008

TTT#0823-MplsAssemblies

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June 4: THE MINNEAPOLIS ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION Minneapolis City Council passed a set of regulatory and police constraints on public protests Friday, June 6, in a resolution giving police major power over sidewalk demonstrations and assemblies. Unlike the original proposal, however, the “voluntary” registration requirements passed Friday sunsets following the Republican Convention in September. The arguments against any permit processes for sidewalk gatherings are discussed as TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL interviews key players at Minneapolis City Hall.

GUESTS: COUNCILMEMBERS GARY SCHIFF and CAM GORDON APRIL KNUTSON, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) SHERMAN WILBURN, Minneapolis (Minnesota) ACORN CHUCK SAMUELSON, Executive Director, ACLU/Minnesota PHIL DURAN, Staff Attorney, Outfront Minnesota (GLBT Advocacy)

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

TTT#0822-MediaReform#2

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Hundreds of trench workers in alternative and grassroots media will come together for the National Conference on Media Reform with powerhouses in the field – Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, Arianna Huffington, Phil Donohue, Robert McChesney, Juan Gonzalez, Laura Flanders, Tim Wu, Rosa Clemente, and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. We will be talking with all of them and more – live and later on tape – when TTT goes LIVE from the Minneapolis Convention Center Friday, June 6th, and recorded on the 7th and 8th...AND...Democracy Day June 5th - the day before – will look at electoral reform and similar issues. But, media reform begins at home and continues long after the conferences. This week’s preview will talk about what steps local grassroots media types plan to take to make our local media relevant to the Twin Cities and its real people. CALL US: 612-341-0980 TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen will talk with planners and reformers here and nationally to talk about the Media Reform and Democracy Day events coming up – and the work we expect to do when everyone else leaves town. GUESTS: • NANCY DOYLE BROWN – Twin Cities Media Alliance and organizer of a post-conference Reform Action Group. • BRANDON LACY CAMPOS– Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution & Democracy Day organizer • CRAIG AARON, Free Press Communications Director OTHERS POSSIBLE: • AMY GOODMAN, KFAI's DemocracyNOW! • ROBERT MCCHESNEY, Free Press Co-Founder KFAI Radio, 90.3 Minneapolis /106.7 St. Paul / Streamed at KFAI.org A CivicMedia/Minnesota production

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

TTT#0821-JudicialSelection

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A recent US Supreme Court ruling opened the door to a practice previously prohibited by Minnesota’s Canon of Judicial Ethics. Judicial candidates may no longer be prevented from expressing opinions on issues that may come before the bench, perhaps in the process revealing a bias in favor of one side or another well before the facts are in and a ruling issued. Many legal types see this as turning the entire judicial branch of government into an expensive, nasty politically driven court system. Others insist that traditional elections open debate to reveal bias and make the judiciary more accountable. Former GOVERNOR AL QUIE is spearheading a drive to create a state Constitutional amendment advocates believe addresses both impartiality and electoral accountability – retention elections. TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk with Governor Quie and others about the pluses and minuses of a system that would place only previously incumbent judges before voters, but not directly elect newcomers.

GUESTS: • FORMER GOVERNOR AL QUIE, Board Chair, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts • STATE SEN. ANN REST, Chief Author, Retention Elections bill • PETER NICKITAS, Attorney and member, National Lawyers Guild • MARK CHRONISTER, Director, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts

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