Posted: 03/23/08 00:17
by Paul Bartlett
Take your choice, Norm Coleman is either utterly incompetent or an expedient, self-serving hypocrite. Either way, his accusations made during a January 2008 MPR Midday interview must be examined. But let me say upfront, in Norm's defense, that he may not have grasped the profound ignorance of his words. You see, Norm never shuts up. There is no such thing as a true Norm interview or Norm follow-up question, only his tedious windbag schtick where he talks and talks and talks.
After enduring an hour of Norm's monologue (January 11, 2008), I could only shake my head in disgust and disbelief. Norm Coleman -- former Saint Paul mayor -- lashed out at the City of Saint Paul leadership for the recent increase in his real estate taxes.
He claims a recent tax jump of forty to forty five percent. The not so subtle suggestion, of course, is that the current Saint Paul leadership has tightened the financial screws holding down Norm's checkbook. Coleman exposed the depth of his partisanship and willingness to twist truth for personal and political gain.
Norm Coleman has received an enormous Limited Market Value (LMV) discount over the years. For those of you not familiar with LMV, it's a tax shift, where the owners of low value growth homes subsidize the owners of high value growth homes. It's Robin Hood turned upside down and plopped onto his head It's the kind of big fat subsidy that Republicans like Norm Coleman rail about. News flash: Norm's been on the dole.
Coleman's tax has increased largely due to the phase-out of LMV. Simply put, Coleman will now pay his fair share of Saint Paul taxes -- just like the rest of us. Coleman's suggestion that the City of Saint Paul is behind the increase in his taxable value or real estate tax is just plain wrong. It's disingenuous horse poop.
Coleman either doesn't understand Minnesota real estate tax law -a sorry commentary for the ex-mayor of a major Minnesota city (and attorney) -- or he chooses to ignore it.
To borrow an expression from Dick Cheney, Minnesota is "in the final throes" of the Limited Market Value phase-out. What that means is that subsidy recipients like Coleman are seeing their taxable value catch up to their market value. Before I give you the numbers, I need to explain the insidious nature of LMV. While we've all heard stories about how LMV has held down the real estate tax on some sweet old lady's home, it's some other sweet old lady who has ponied-up the subsidy. LMV simply redistributes the same levy. The effect: overall tax rates rise.
Think of it like pushing down on a waterbed. What's displaced under your fist just moves somewhere else. It's a zero-sum game. Let's look at Norm's numbers and you'll get the point. Norm owns a home at 909 Osceola Avenue, Saint Paul. His tax parcel number is: 02.28.23.34.0036. This is public record -- available on the Ramsey
County website. I want you to check this. I don't want you to believe a word I'm saying based on faith.
For the past several years, LMV has been incrementally reduced,
bringing "Taxable Market Value" closer and closer to "Estimated Market Value." It is this tightening of the spread that has caused Coleman's real estate tax to jump. I'm not saying that the City of Saint Paul hasn't increased their levy -- just like other Minnesota cities -- but I am saying that the decrease in his LMV subsidy is behind Coleman's larger than average tax increase. You could fairly ask, "What's the difference, it still went up?" There's a huge difference. LMV -- its creation and phase-out -- is state law, not local ordinance. Period. State statute defines the phase-out increments -- not the City of Saint Paul. Coleman wagged his self-righteous finger at the City when he either knew or should have known that LMV is a state creature. And he further knows that Ramsey County -- not the City of Saint Paul -- determines assessments. It makes you wonder, did he learn anything as
mayor of our capitol city?
Norm's Numbers (Parcel #: 02.28.23.34.0036):
Assess Yr Est Mkt Value Taxable Mkt Value LMV Discount
2003......$453,600.........$354,100...........$99,500
2004......$453,600.........$354,100...........$99,500
2005......$453,600.........$407,200...........$46,400
2006......$479,800.........$468,300...........$11,500
2007......$620,800.........$620,800...........$0.00
2008......$615,900.........$615,900...........$0.00
As the data indicates, the Limited Market Value discount on Coleman's home declined significantly between 2004 and the present. That decline increased his actual taxable value, and that increase is what precipitated his larger than average tax increase. Contrary to his MPR interview, not only is the City of Saint Paul not responsible for his larger than average tax increase, they could not have prevented it even if city officials were so inclined. Again, state law governs the phase-out formula and Ramsey County sets the values.
Like all Republicans, Coleman likes to hop onto his sanctimonious
soapbox and lecture us dopes about responsibility. So let's add up the numbers. LMV has been on the books for many many years and my snapshot only covers a few of them. But just in that brief period from 2003 to 2006, the taxable value of Coleman's home was discounted by $256,900. At an average residential homestead tax rate of 1.00 percent, Norm Coleman received a tax subsidy of $2569.00 from other far less fortunate Saint Paul homeowners. That's money (someone else's money) in Norm's pocket. Like I said, it's all a zero sum game; what Coleman did not pay, some sweet old lady did.
So I ask you, is Norm Coleman utterly incompetent or an expedient, self-serving hypocrite? In his most recent TV ad, we're asked to call Norm and thank him for his stellar job performance. The call is a good idea, but instead, ask him why he does not want to pay his fair share of Saint Paul's real estate taxes.
Norm Coleman ran down the hall screaming
'First blood of the revolution!' “ To me and Tom Buggeln
Norm Coleman sounded completely crazy to me - Jack Shepard”
Tom Buggeln remembers one particularly heated
confrontation with Coleman after some antiwar students roughed
up an ally who was distributing literature on campus. "I went to him
and I bitched about it, and we got into it," recalls Buggeln, now a
sheriff's deputy in Maricopa County, Arizona. The dustup
culminated in Buggeln slapping Coleman across the face, giving
him a bloody lip.
Everyone called him Norman. The Brooklyn-born kid with the rail-
thin physique and scraggly hair that extended halfway down his
back, “David Crosby refers to long hair as a freak flag in his song
Almost Cut My Hair, and I feel like letting my freak flag fly”
Norm Coleman was a striking presence at Hofstra University in the
late '60s and early '70s. Carting a bullhorn around campus, he'd
regularly lecture students about the immorality of the President
Nixon’s administration and the Vietnam War.
Norm Coleman was the Abbie Hoffman of the sleepy Long Island
commuter college.
Tom Buggeln enrolled at Hofstra in 1968 after serving five years in
the Navy, including a stint in Vietnam. He resented what he viewed
as the privileged college kids protesting the war and lambasting U.
S. policies. Buggeln allied himself with Young Americans for
Freedom—a conservative campus group associated with William F.
Buckley—and frequently clashed with Coleman
Tom Buggeln remembers one particularly heated confrontation with
Coleman after some antiwar students roughed up an ally who was
distributing literature on campus. "I went to him and I bitched about
it, and we got into it," recalls Buggeln, now a sheriff's deputy in
Maricopa County, Arizona. The dustup culminated in Buggeln
slapping Coleman across the face, giving him a bloody lip. "He ran
down the hall screaming, 'First blood of the revolution!' or some sh*t
like that."
Although Coleman styled himself as a hippie, he had no shortage of
ambition he, “adeptly cultivated a network of professors and
administrators.” He had access to those people," says Carolyn
Sofia, who was co-editor-in-chief of the Hofstra Chronicle student
newspaper during Coleman's senior year.
"From my point of view, Norman wanted to take over the Hofstra
Chronicle," says Sofia, who now teaches writing at Stony Brook
University. "He wanted to be a politician and control the press at the
same time."
The other hallmark event of Coleman's college political life occurred
at the close of the 1969-70 school years. The Nixon administration
had recently invaded Cambodia, and campuses across the country
erupted in civil disobedience. On May 4, Ohio National Guardsmen
killed four unarmed students at Kent State University. Nationwide,
violent clashes broke out between students and police on 26
campuses.
At Hofstra, students staged a campus-wide strike. Protesters took
over the student center and the main administration building.
Classes were cancelled and many professors held teach-ins.
Everybody went nuts," recalls Buggeln. "A lot of the faculty joined,
and the university was effectively shut down."
Norm Coleman was at the forefront was the leader of the unrest, but
his triumph was in shutting down the school. At Hofstra, Norm
Coleman led a staged campus-wide strike. Norm Coleman with his
megaphone in hand lead and directed the taking over the Student
Center and the Main Administration Building not caring that then
and today this was a federal crime!
With the present environment of the gun violence on many
Universities today Norm you most likely not only would have been
arrested but even could have been shot by the campus police for
taking over the Student Center and the Main Administration Building.
But the Hofstra students were beginning to see through what
motivates Norm Coleman’s and his leadership role in the unrest a
Hofstra was short-lived; he was not content to be the school’s self
styled radical hippie pot smoking anti-establishment activist any
more but literally "He wanted to be a politician and from Sofia and
many of the students point of view, Norman wanted to take over the
Hofstra Chronicle the Hofstra press which would give him control of
many aspects of how Hofstra University was run.
So when students returned to campus in the fall, they voted to
replace Coleman with Paul Hearne, a wheelchair-bound student
who went on to help draft the Americans with Disabilities Act before
dying in 1998.
With graduation from Hofstra looming in 1971, Coleman faced the
unhappy prospect of being drafted. But the antiwar activist flunked
his physical, due to a crash diet he lost enough weight to be
deemed too skinny to fight.
In 1971 Norm Coleman ran form the draft using every trick in the
book to get out of serving his country during the Vietnam War.
While by then Dr. Jack Shepard who had volunteered and enlisted
to join the Untied States Air Force at the University of Minnesota
was promoted to the rank Captain Jack Shepard, as his commander
often said Jack always had the right stuff.
Captain Jack E. Shepard would proudly wear his United States Air
Force Captain's Uniform when he had the chance to return to the
University of Minnesota on leave; often getting some cat calls from
other long hair pot smoking anti-establishment radical activists like
Norm Coleman who worked hard to lose so much weight that he
would not get drafted but Captain Jack Shepard did his duty to
proudly serve his country.
Looking at Senator Norm Coleman I see no sign lack of weight or
strength of a person who could not serve his country when the draft
called.
NEVER CALL NORM COLEMAN A VETERAN IT WOULD BE AN
INSULT TO THE 58,193 BRAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS WHO DIED
IN VIETNAM FOLLOWING AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY! RIGHT OR
WRONG.
More than a decade after those tumultuous times, Herbert
Rosenbaum was visiting family in the Twin Cities. Flipping through
channels one morning, he came upon a public affairs show
featuring the familiar face of Norman Coleman. The former student
was now a prosecutor with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.
"I was surprised because he took a very hard, law-and-order line,"
Rosenbaum says. He sure fooled everyone now and then especially
the Draft Board. He is a professional flip-flopper. Even Warren
Spannaus said, “"Norman's one of the classic flip-floppers.”
His performance certainly didn't lack for chutzpah, considering
Coleman's own transformation from '60s-era radical too weak and under weight to be drafted to the strong conservative Republican he has literal surgically made himself into. If you see Norm Coleman today; there is no way you would think he ever could have created the illusion that he was to weak and skinny to fight in Vietnam. If you ask me what he did in fooling the draft board stinks.
Norm Coleman with his new teeth, new hair color, and new nose
"Norman's one of the classic flip-floppers," says Warren Spannaus,
the former Democratic attorney general who initially hired Coleman
as a prosecutor. "I suppose by the time we get to the election he will
have switched over to being against this war, too."
For our next U.S. Senate from Minnesota we sure do not need
another attorney. The Untied States Congress is dominated by
attorneys. Our American Congress when it was created was a fine
mix of people from all walks of life with all types of backgrounds.
We need people who brought a wealth of experience both National
and International to our first U.S. Congress. If any time in our history
our next American Senate has a need for even a more worldwide
group of senators, some fresh new blood with international
experience and other talents beside being a past prosecuting
attorneys. .
It is urgent for the very future existence of America’s survival in
these dangerous times that the next U.S. Senate elect literal as
many military officers who have recently serviced overseas or are
presently serving abroad especially with massive experience and
understanding of the very complete Middle East Region to educate
their new fellow Senators about the situation from years of personal
contact and dealing with people from all over the world.
Just because a senator has briefly for a few days travelled to Iraq,
Israel or Africa etc. they can not even begin to understand the most
complex situation that America has found it self it in our young
history.
Ask Norm Coleman to show his true colors and why after his failed
attacks on Kofi Annan, George Galloway Part 1 and George
Galloway Part 2 and many others how are you helping your fellow
Minnesotans by becoming the failed Prosecutor of the Untied States
Senate, the senate has attorney’s for that!
We in Minnesota wish a Senator who will fight for Minnesotans even
with international experience working to have foreign governments
adopts human rights and democratic norms like the rest of the
world. Instead of seeing your face on TV in your failed attempts to
prosecuting world leaders.
When will you after 40 years standing up and start telling us who the
real Norm Coleman is by first coming clean with your fellow
Minnesotans by saying: "I, Norm Coleman, smoked pot in 1969."
Why Can't Norm Coleman come out of the closet in 2008 and say
"These present arrests for small quantities of pot are wrong; look at
me Norm Coleman I did it daily for years and look where I have
gotten! There has to be a better way, and we need to find it."
How about you Norm Coleman looking back at your past and
saying: "What I did was not so wrong and not so bad and not so
hurtful that generations of Americans should still, decades later, be
going to jail for smoking pot - nearly one million arrests for
possession last year." If you were arrested you would have never
been accepted to legal school or became a US Senator don’t you
ever think about what you are doing to the futures of 100,000’s of
kids and teenagers. One arrest on their record they chances of
finding job, getting accepted to a major college, getting a
government loan like you did all made impossible and raising a
family are almost 100% destroyed because their got arrested ,
remember you also broke the law thousands of time but just got
lucky in not getting arrested. You forget if you were arrested what
you would be doing now; who are you with your history of drugs,
anti-government behaviour and occupying University building to be
the Senate’s Prosecutor
I ask you Norm Coleman why does Minnesota or the nation for that
matter still not really have a real re-entry program to help ex-
offenders when they are release from a hostile environment in
prison to even a more hostile environment in our communities.
These ex-offender as still literally abandoned; my first concern
would be to write legislation to give tax breaks to individual,
companies or corporation that hire ex- offenders.
For the inner city; I would work with the US Department of Justice
though President Bush’s Task Force for Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives program that the president created to help
lower the crime rate and help ex-offenders.
But the fact that presently 2 in 5 ex-offenders are returned to prison
after only two years because of lack of any real re-entry program in
Minnesota. Presently we in Minnesota are not prepared to help the
ex-offender to make a difference to really give the ex-offenders a
real second chance.
We have to show them there is forgiveness, there is real redemption
and they are welcome in our communities. But we have to give them
the chance to once again become productive members of our
community by helping them get temporary housing after their
release, new job skills training and especially employed so for some
of them it will be the first time in their lives they can proudly say that
they have a job and respect in the community.
Norm Coleman you could have very very easily been an ex-offender
just getting out of a New York Prison.; How about admitting that if
the Rockefeller drug laws, “The Rockefeller drug laws are the term
used to denote the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of
drugs; possessing four ounces of marijuana was a minimum of 15
years to life in prison and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison”
If the Rockefeller drug laws were applied to you, Norman Bruce
Coleman on Long Island in 1968 you and others we knew and loved
might just be getting out of Jail now.” “You smoked pot as you
stood on the roof of the University Senate ( a DOUBLE felony)
protesting faculty exclusivity.” As Norm Kent said your pot smoking buddy.
How about standing up and saying:
"I, Norm Coleman, smoked pot in 1969 and I am lucky that I am not
just getting out of a New York Jail for being arrested for using drugs
and criminal damage to Campus property in the take over Hofstra
University I lead.” Norm Coleman
Dr. Jack Shepard swears if elected will work with Congress and not forget to fight to help the struggling Minnesota Economy, not like one of Minnesota’s present Senators; Norm Coleman who is more interested in becoming the Prosecutor of the U.S. Senate seeing his face in the media. That is not why Minnesota after win by a margin of only 2% sent Norm Coleman to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.
I swear if elected I; Jack Shepard will no forget my fellow Minnesotan’s like Senator Norm Coleman has!
I will author legislation for new job programs for America and especially for Minnesota.
I will create legislation for inner city development programs.
To save Minnesotans tens of millions of dollars of wasted incarceration costs if elected I would immediately begin working with the U.S. Justice Department though President Bush’s Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives program that the President Bush created to help lower the crime rate and help ex-offenders and finally create a real re-entry program for Minnesota’s ex-offenders.
Jack Shepard would author legislation so people, companies or corporations get tax rebates or other credits for giving ex-offenders jobs. This would not only low the raising crime rate in Minnesota but low the sky rocketing costs of incarceration in Minnesota; presently Minnesota spends over $50,000+ per year for each inmate.
This would enable our communities to hire more desperately needed law enforcement officers ( job creation) , which would make my fellow Minnesotans even safer immediately which would begin to low our present raising crime rate.
Senator Norm Coleman has been so busy with his very unsuccessful investigations of Oil for Food Programs, and his countless investigations and unsuccessful hearing and attacks on world leaders like Kofi Annan, the past French President, George Galloway just to mention a few he has forgotten Minnesota!
It embarrasses me to say it but Senator Coleman forgets only because of a terrible accident did he get sent to the US Senate in the first place.
Senator Coleman after 17 years as a prosecuting attorney has forgotten why he was sent to the U. S. Senate. Minnesota sent Norm Coleman to the U.S. Senate to represent and help Minnesota and especially help improve Minnesota’s weakening economy.
Senator Coleman has spent more time investigating things then working to help Minnesota’s very weak economy and has nothing to stop Minnesota’s raising unemployment especially among minorities.
No question about it. It is time for a new change to a new U.S. Senator who cares more about Minnesota’s economy and Minnesota’s unemployment.
Minnesotans are sick of seeing Norm Coleman’s face in the media spending wasted months on international investigations and cross examining people from all over the world with no results to show from it costing the American tax payers millions of dollars.
Minnesotan’s wish a new U.S. Senator that will care about and work to help Minnesota first. Norm Coleman was send to the U.S. Senate to be a Senator and help Minnesota not to do his old job of being a Prosecuting Attorney on TV again.
The choice is you’re my fellow Minnesotans.
While Norm Coleman in 1971 was at Hofstra University NY; a pot-smoking student hippie activist protesting the war and lambasting U.S. policies which he denies. As a Vietnam pot smoking hippie activist Protester he tricked military draft board and went on a crash diet so the Military classified him as to skinny to go to serve in Vietnam.
NEVER CALL SEN. MORM COLEMAN A VETERAN! HE KNOWS WHY!
CALL HIM A HYPOCRITE FOR AS A MINNESOTA PROSECUTING ATTORNEY FOR 17 YEARS HE HAS FOR SENT TENS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND STUDENT TO PRISON FOR POT POSSESSION A CRIME THAT HE DID FOR YEARS AND MAYBE STILL DOES! THAT IS WHY HE IS A HYPROCRITE.
Vote for a Patriot Jack Shepard or vote for a Hypocrite Norm Coleman!
Time for a Change! Time for Change!
Dr. Jack Shepard
Dr. Jack Shepard, is a Contender for the Republican Nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Minnesota Republican Primary on September 9, 2008