CON ARTIST DOES TO REPUBLICAN DELEGATE WHAT REPUBLICANS HAVE DONE TO COUNTRY

It's a timeless story: Boy attends political convention, boy meets "beautiful woman" at RNC party, boy takes woman back to hotel, boy gets date rape-drugged, boy wakes up with $50k worth of jewelry and electronics missing. And if you think the story is somehow funny because the boy in question happens to be the kind of person who thinks bragging about war is a laughing matter, shame on you. There are plenty of other reasons it's funny.

Billboard Near MSP Airport Welcomes Republicans to Town

In honor of the upcoming Republican National Convention, Comedy Central has a billboard welcoming the attendees to town near the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport (Near I-494 and Hwy 77 to be more specific)

For those of you scratching your head about what an Oligarch is....

Oligarchy is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society (whether distinguished by wealth, family, military powers or spiritual hegemony). The word oligarchy is translated into "rule by few." Compare with autocracy (rule by one person) and democracy (rule by the people).

'Tween' Gangs: America's Next Epidemic

Groups of young people are vandalizing, intimidating, terrorizing and assaulting neighbors. Even worse, they're only 10 to 14 years old. It's a growing summer problem in some Minneapolis neighborhoods.

The 8th Street Block Club spent years creating and expanding their "Peaceful Patch Garden."

"The most important thing I think is it's really brought us together, these four blocks," said club leader Marge Magnuson.

A gang of mostly young teen girls tore the neighborhood apart.

"They would just operate in marauding groups I guess I would say, of between 10 and 15," said Bill Bryant, another club leader.

"They'd be walking down the sidewalk, and if you were coming their way, you could not, they would, you had to step aside," said Magnuson.

They used the same intimidation tactics on drivers in the street. The garden became anything but peaceful.

"(They) would vandalize and we'd try to put things back and then it would, (a) couple days later maybe the same thing would happen again," he added.

Then they started assaulting people, including Magnuson.

The block club enlisted help from police, parole officers, social service leaders and others to help combat the problem. Its behavior police have battled before.

"I think you'd find a lot of kids that aren't getting any supervision at home that have got a lot of problems of their own, and they join up with other kids," explained Don Greeley, a Community Crime Prevention Specialist.

The neighborhood refused to let the gangs take over, and it steered them in a more positive direction.

"We actually were able to have the kids interacting with the residents and the community in a respectful way," said V.J. Smith, a founder of Mad Dads.

Last year the 11th Street Block Club was so discouraged about the young teen gang violence and destruction in their neighborhood, they skipped it. This year it will proceed as planned to celebrate their accomplishments.

WCCO

University of St. Thomas: More Controversy

University of St. Thomas - St. Paul, MN Campus

Tara Borton, a first year law student at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, thought Planned Parenthood was a fine place to fulfill the public service requirement for graduation. She was set to start there on May 12.

But then she ran smack into abortion politics and Catholic doctrine. She’s also ignited a bit of firestorm at St. Thomas.

St. Thomas is a Catholic university, and the church has an issue with Planned Parenthood because it is a leader on abortion rights. So the student committee that oversees public service choices grudgingly gave her permission work with Planned Parenthood as long as she stayed clear of anything related to either birth control or abortion.

Under the excuse of fulfilling Catholic doctrine, St. Thomas is once again turning its back on the important work Planned Parenthood does for the community, such as counseling rape victims. Another example of doing politics instead of doing good. But hey, what else is new?!

The fact that, nine years ago, the school denied an internship to an undergraduate student who wanted to volunteer at Planned Parenthood to help victims of acquaintance rape, says alot about the supposed moral compass of the leadership there. They claim to have a social justice mission, but somehow if a person is raped they are exempt from compassion. You don’t have to be a catholic to attend that university. People do choose it for its small class sizes and solid curriculum. If the leadership is so into catholic doctrine, how does a business school fit in? They want some of the trappings of modern society - the ones that bring in cash. But catholic doctrine kicks in when it comes to SEX. By the way, Planned Parenthood offers a multitude of services. They do regular gynecological exams for women, including pap smears, which are critical in detecting cervical cancer. How is that bad?

Each year Planned Parnthood provides millions of cancer screenings and tests and treatment for STDs, in addition to birth control to prevent pregnancies that if they occurred, may be terminated through abortion. These services are 97% of what they do. Their primary client base is low income people. Those that howl about PP’s abortion services, which comprise only 3% of the services they provide, clearly cannot see the forest for that one little tree. The law student seems to get it though. Kudos to her. I hope that if she finds out UST won’t accept it as her community service, she donates her time anyway.

St. Thomas just can't seem to keep from stirring up controversy, this is the same kind of stuff that makes me think back to May 2006 when my childhood friend, Ben Kessler, who was a St. Thomas football player and at that time was about to go to seminary, stirred up a shitload of controversy with his commencement speech.