I have to disagree with Messrs. McGuire and Jessen. Both of them seem to have issues with DFL politics, so this is one more opportunity to take shots. Here's what I see in Ms. Heller's posts. Her allegations SEEM to be the basis of fraud prosecutions. She goes so far as to claim that certain developers have lied to the government to collect funds for which they are not entitled. Now, I KNOW that among our local public attorneys, meaning Klobuchar, Hatch, and Heffelfinger, there has to be one or more who would GLADLY prosecute the slightest hint of fraud. If Ms. Heller actually had a case to make, she could take it to one, two, or all three and see them eagerly pursue it. I'm going to have to assume Ms. Heller has not tried that.
With her elan for "accountability", why would that be. Until shown different, I'm going to say because if she made a public accusation with a weak case, it could be financially harmful to her. So how DOES she pursue "accountability"? She makes accusations here, where the public is relatively small, allowing her attorney to argue that she didn't harm anyone's reputation very much. The other side of it is that her conflicts of interest are so obvious that a good share of people here will take her charges with at least a few grams of salt. Which again means that she can argue that she hasn't really hurt anyone's reputation. This is the trouble with online debates like this. Too much opportunity to do what would be dangerous in the media. And too much credulity when it is done. I have no DOUBT there are people out there who take advantage. I think Target Center was a case. Saying they "lied" to get the money is stretching it. But they did exploit the political weaknesses that were too obvious, this FEAR of business fleeing the city or the state. Lord knows Ms. Heller and her ideological allies do that constantly. It doesn't really sell to us faithful residents of the city, but the spectacle of things like Target Center make it entirely TOO enticing to rub salt into that wound. Businesses HAVE left. And in spite of that, our unemployment rate is enviable for a core city. So my challenge to Jim G, Ms. Heller, Peter, and anyone else is: Make the accusation official. If you THINK you have genuine incriminating evidence, get it in front of a grand jury of your fellow citizens and give them (not us) a chance to rule on it. But if you merely want to accuse business people of doing the same thing you like to do at every opportunity, which is to say play the politics of economic fear, then I think "accountability" requires that you be called on it each time it happens. ------------- Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis: Alive, Kicking, and Beautiful!! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
