Furst Draft

This hurts

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Marxist comeback

Considering Karl Marx's newfound popularity on the campaign trail, can it be a coincidence that the Star Tribune uses a quote from Marx as its "quote of the day" line at the top of the front page?

"Medicine heals doubts as well as diseases."

'Would rather see our country go to hell'

From the mailbag -- not sure of a Rochester connection to Mr. Wolf:

Dear Jay

I see the Rochester Post Bullitin is just like the papers down here.  You go all out and attack the Republicans running for the presendcy and never a question about the Democrats running for the same office.  Is it because all the media is afraid to attack Oboma and be called racist or worse.  I can't believe that the news media, papers, tv, and all those so called experts that we see on TV and in the papers are such cowards.  You would rather see our country go to hell than tell the truth.


                  Kenneth L. Wolf Sr
                  Palm Bay, Fla

'Perplexed by your lack of business acumen'

Here's a note from a frequent correspondent to the P-B, Jim Colville, regarding endorsements -- my comments to follow:

Gentlemen: I am totally perplexed by your lack of business acumen exhibited in the Post Bulletin yesterday. Rather than the lengthy commentary that you published in your endorsement of Norm Coleman you could have abbreviated it to "Franken - too liberal; Barkley - irrelevant; Vote our Norm," and sold the rest of the space for advertising. I look forward to the cold day in hell when the PB editorial board claims that a politician is "too conservative." On that day, the earth will move!
 
I do accept that this editorial was probably "a tough call." However, I presume it had nothing to do with the foregone decision of the PB editorial board to endorse Mr. Coleman - just about how you could possibly "put lipstick on the pig."
 
I have not decided how I am going to vote in this particular race, or whether to vote the race at all. However, I can assure you that my decision will not be influenced by an editorial that says we endorse someone who has been an ideological partner with a disastrous administration for six years, but we support him because we expect an immaculate re-conception in philosophy and action for the next six years. What a HOOT!!!
 
Jim Colville

A couple of quick points:

• "Business acumen" doesn't enter into our endorsements for political candidates.
• Endorsements are recommendations based on the candidates' strengths and weaknesses, not on some overarching political ideology. I believe our editorial page endorsements reflect that fairly well this year.
• Not sure why Jim's "totally perplexed" but then acknowledges that the Senate endorsement was "probably a 'tough call.'" In fact, it was a tough call.
• P-B endorsements (with which I'm not involved, by the way) are recommendations, based on a lot of interviews and a lot of reading and thought. They're well-considered recommendations, not anointings...in the case of today's endorsement for president, we also carried another view, an endorsement of McCain from the Dallas Morning News.
• Jim's a highly ideological guy, as you can tell from his comments on Coleman and the Republican administration -- but he bristles at our editorial trying to "influence" him, I guess.
• I do think it's interesting that Jim's withholding a verdict on Franken, considering how reprehensible he finds the current administration and Coleman.
• Enjoy voting on Tuesday.

 

'I would rather be TP'ed'

The Answer Man bravely addressed the question last week of whether tossing a roll of TP into a person's tree was proper behavior. (He said it was not, but acknowledged that virtually all cities in America can cite some mischief of this kind at homecoming time.)

One letter writer from the Harmony area responded saying the issue is NOT to be taken lightly (and the letter writer asked that I not publish the comment). But another person sent this:

     Considering all the trouble that teens get into now days, I would rather be TP'ed.  Thirty years ago, all the stores in Rochester knew someone was going to be TP'ed that night because a bunch of kids would go in & buy the cheapest TP.  And yes!! we were TP'ed.  No big deal!!!  My mother,  soul, even went out & collected those that hadn't unrolled all the way.  Just thought you should know.  MEC
 

More on bird mortality

From Joel Dunnette of the Zumbro Valley chapter of the National Audubon Society:

I want to correct some misconceptions readers may have from the recent
 article on mortality of birds from hitting windows.

The death of 500 million birds a year by hitting windows is a serious
issue.  It happens everywhere there are large expanses of glass
windows.  And it happens more frequently where birds are drawn close
to windows, by feeders, habitat, or for migrants by night time
lighting.  I am glad that the Post-Bulletin is making the public aware
of the issue.  Everyone who has windows has some degree of
responsibility.

First a correction.

The photo legend says "Thousands of birds nest atop the downtown
Rochester buildings."  I never said this.  Not only is this not
supported by any evidence, but is irrelevant to the issue.  The feral
pigeons shown in flight are not involved to a significant degree in
bird-window mortality.

Next, some omissions.

The report also neglected to report what I said about the excellent
cooperation that Mayo has given to the monitoring effort.  They have
helped in many ways, beyond what you would expect from most building
owners, for example providing access to hard to reach roof areas, and
providing a freezer for storage of the dead birds until we deliver
them to the University of Minnesota.  Also, Mayo began turning off
some lights as soon as we alerted them to the problem.

Other cities have led in the effort to understand and publicize the
problem, and to decrease the risks.  Toronto and the Fatal Light
Awareness Project has been a leader.  Chicago, Detroit and New York
also have programs.  Our effort is an offshoot of the Aububon
Minnesota 'BirdSafe' program run in the Twin Cities.

We and Mayo plan to continue to work on this problem.  As we better
understand the causes, we will look for practical ways to decrease the
bird mortality.  This is a long term study, and a long term issue.
You could have waited a few days for a Mayo response.  Or at least
noted their excellent cooperation on the monitoring effort.

Joel Dunnette
Zumbro Valley Audubon

'What appears to be an overt smear campaign'

More on the Ward 2 shenanigans -- which we'll explore in detail in today's paper. Here's a note from a Rochester reader who received the e-mail flyer yesterday:

    Mr. Furst,
 
    Attached is an email that was in my inbox this morning.  As someone who lives in Ward 2, but has no     connection to either candidate or Ms. Brataas, I was very surprised to see what appears to be an overt smear campaign against Mr. Wojcik.  I don’t know if the Post Bulletin was aware of this email but I think this type of fear campaign is over the top and has no place in local, regional or national politics.
 
    Carl F. Anderson

Doggone technology

Sorry -- our blog software changed recently and I just realized that my inspired posts of the past several days haven't...been...posted. Here come several more...hope they still make sense!

How important the customer is

Columnist Harley Flathers gets more fan mail than most of us here -- certainly more than I get.

Here's a note from a reader:

Mr. Flathers;
I enjoyed your column regarding pet peeves. I totally agreed with many of them!  Perhaps you could add one to your next list, or just author a column regarding this…..poor customer service becoming the "norm".  Let me give you two examples from yesterday.  I work at Mayo Clinic and frequent an employee lunch counter.  There is a young man who works in the afternoon, who will not even look up when you approach the counter, does not acknowledge or greet you, doesn't tell you the amount of your purchase and lastly,  but not least by any means, never thanks the customer.  One day I even very pointedly said "YOU'RE WELCOME!"  (didn't help, he still never spoke at my next visit, which was yesterday, either)   After work, yesterday, I shopped at a large fabric store, where the young girl working there, was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt of all things (very professional!)  I had only a short wait at the counter, to have my items cut, but as she approached, the first thing out of her mouth was "how much do you want?" (more like a command than a question)  Other comments in order, were "Are you done shopping?",  "I'll be up to check you out in a minute", "Do you want a bag?" and "Here's your receipt!" all in the same impatient voice. Again, NO "thank you"! 

As I said, this is seeming to become the norm in Rochester.  (but thankfully not in my friendly hometown of Spring Valley!)  I will say that I have noticed two other retail stores, in particular, Target and Mills Fleet Farm, where the cashiers have good service….. greeting the customer, asking if I found everything and actually saying "Thank you"  and "Have a good day."  and of course, Hy-Vee has always been a model for great, friendly customer service!

What is happening to our society?  Why don’t the businesses impress on their employees how important the customer is? Or aren’t  we?!  Don't they care if we look for a store that we feel welcome and appreciated in?

There….I've ranted.  I feel better.
Thank you and have a great day!
Linda Niemeyer
Spring Valley, MN

'First of its kind smear tactic'?

Another e-mail tip from a reader regarding the anti-Wojcik group -- he forwarded a copy of the Concerned Citizens flyer:

OK. I got this in an email and I am on no one's email address list
locally. You might want to send this to someone at the PB. I don't know
who so I am sending this to you.

This might be the first of its kind smear tactic in Rochester politics.