Free Republic

ST. PAUL - Minnesota's Republicans have translated their sweeping wins in last year's election into swift victories in this year's legislative session. A 24-hour waiting period on abortions was signed into law. Permits to carry handguns in public will soon be available to more people. And the Department of Children, Families and Learning is dismantling the Profile of Learning and building a set of academic standards from scratch. All those issues had some DFL backing, but they've topped the Republican agenda for years. While support has grown incrementally since Republicans took control of the House in 1999, the stronger conservative...

<p>Minnesota appears to be on the verge of a metamorphosis.</p> <p>More permits to carry handguns. Fewer highway rest stops.</p> <p>Changes to graduation standards. Restrictions on abortion rights.</p> <p>Cutbacks of $1 billion in health and social services. New revenue to come from casino gambling.</p> <p>Later bar closings. Earlier primary elections.</p>

<p>Jesse Ventura will be the host of a talk show on MSNBC this year, sources close to the deal confirmed Tuesday, but he faces a challenge that might be as tough as his run for governor.</p> <p>MSNBC started in 1996 with great promise, primarily because it could use the resources of NBC News. But the cable network has struggled to find an identity and an audience. In the first two weeks of January, it averaged 397,000 nationwide viewers during prime time, well behind Fox News' 1.3 million and CNN's 941,000.</p>

Ventura reaches deal with MSNBCWATCH VIDEOUpdated: 01-20-2003 07:38:55 PMFormer Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has signed a deal for a new talk show on the MSNBC network and the Mall of America has been scouted as a possible location. Negotiations between Ventura and the cable network were widely reported in November. KSTP' chief poilical reporter Tom Hauser says three unidentified sources confirmed to him that an agreement had been reached. Since taking office in 1999, Minnesota's flamboyant governor had been a regular on the cable television news circuit. Ventura decided against running for a second term and left office Jan. 6. MSNBC...

Less than a week before returning to life as a private motorist, Gov. Jesse Ventura showed off his new ride Tuesday. In an age of gigantic cars, it's super-sized. It thirsts for petrol and looks like it could crush Geos and Corollas without spilling your coffee. It was last seen chasing Saddam in Kuwait. It's a Hummer. "I live in Minnesota — I don't want to get stuck," Ventura explained in showing off his copper-colored, 2003 model Hummer in his parking spot at the Capitol. He slid in the driver's seat and cranked up Led Zeppelin on the 10-speaker sound...

In the weeks and months after 9/11, the mood toward public officials shifts in Minnesota and across the country. The antics and attitude of Jesse Ventura that used to endear begin to offend. State Sen. Dean Johnson was enjoying a late-afternoon break in his office between hearings one evening in March when a breathless gubernatorial aide poked his head in the door. "Joe Bagnoli came charging down the hall. He said, 'Dean, get out of here. The governor's coming your way and he's upset,' " Johnson recalled. "I said, 'Great, invite him in,' " the Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislator from Willmar said....

More and more celebrities using fame to back causes 12/26/2002 Associated Press NEW YORK - From the moment Sean Penn arrived in Baghdad, eager to advance the cause of peace, he was doomed - a dead man talking. He was a celebrity, like so many other celebrities who have waded into the treacherous waters of politics or international relations. So he walked gingerly - he was there, he said, "to learn and not to teach." He avoided reporters. And he was careful not to say or do anything that would cause a meltdown at home. So the Iraqis did...

"I ain't got time to bleed"; or "Barking Seal". Mon Nov 4, 2002, 3:40 PM ET In the above photo; Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura speaks to the media after appointing Independent Dean Barkley as the senatorial replacement for Paul Wellstone at the governor's office in the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, November 4, 2002. Barkley ran for U.S. senate as an Independent Party candidate in 1994 and 1996. Wellstone was killed in a plane crash October 25. Ventura expressed anger at the press for ignoring the Independence Party. REUTERS/Eric Miller

"I ain't got time to bleed"; or "Barking Seal". Mon Nov 4, 2002, 3:40 PM ET In the above photo; Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura speaks to the media after appointing Independent Dean Barkley as the senatorial replacement for Paul Wellstone at the governor's office in the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, November 4, 2002. Barkley ran for U.S. senate as an Independent Party candidate in 1994 and 1996. Wellstone was killed in a plane crash October 25. Ventura expressed anger at the press for ignoring the Independence Party. REUTERS/Eric Miller

<p>Gov. Ventura will meet with his staff and lawyers this afternoon about how to handle the vacancy created by the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone.</p> <p>Ventura's spokesman, John Wodele, says the governor hopes to decide by Monday morning -- if not sooner -- how he'll proceed.</p>

Jesse Ventura in CubaBy Myles KantorFrontPageMagazine.com | October 1, 2002 The first governor of Minnesota, Henry Sibley, held office from 1858 to 1860. Imagine that, during his tenure, Governor Sibley visited slave plantations in South Carolina. When asked about abolishing slavery, he responded, "Ultimately it is the decision of the slaves, not ours. It is the slaves' state, and if there are going to be changes in South Carolina it will be the slaves who make those changes." Sibley's response would have been oblivious to the nature of South Carolina's social order. Since enslaved individuals had no freedom of speech,...

Tuesday, July 23, 2002Ventura Says Journalists is "Dirt Bags"Outta th' horspital af'er a bout wif a blood clot in his lung, Minnesota Govahno' Jesse Ventura vented his obviously healthy spleen, lashin' out at th' media, political opponents an' TV. "Seein' thet ah's a-gonna live ev'ry day like it's mah last - oh, yeah, th' venomous tongue is a-gonna be out agin," he told th' Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "No one will be safe." To prove his point, Ventura fired volleys at: TV - Only one TV crew bothard t'covah his recent trade misshun t'China. Noospaper columnists, local an' nashunal - they're "hacks...

<p>Maad Abu-Ghazalah, the Libertarian running a quixotic campaign to knock Democratic veteran Tom Lantos out of the U.S. House, has hired the man who guided pro wrestler Jesse ``The Body'' Ventura to a smack-down victory in the race for the Minnesota statehouse four years ago.</p>

Gov. Jesse Ventura's proclamation of "Indivisible Day" sure has divided some folks. Ventura set off some early fireworks at the Capitol when he took the suggestion of an atheist group and declared July 4 as "Indivisible Day" in Minnesota. The proclamation reignited a long-simmering debate about the governor's attitude toward religion and the separation of church and state. "This process is continuing the governor's hostility towards religion that was originally revealed in his Playboy interview when he said religion is a sham and crutch for weak-minded people," said Aaron Hall, a spokesman for the Minnesota Family Council. "He's continuing that...

Now that Jesse "The Body" Ventura has announced that he will not seek a second term as Minnesota’s governor, it is time that we looked at what his administration has wrought. Jesse Ventura has been a boil on the body politic. Some of us initially welcomed Ventura’s flamboyant entry into politics. We thought that this political newcomer wouldn’t automatically embrace the political dogma of antiquated tax and spend policies. Jesse boldly proclaimed he wouldn’t raise taxes and he talked like a man who would tighten the purse strings of government. For a man claiming to be an outsider in the...

At first I liked Jesse Ventura mainly because I hated Hubert H. Humphrey III. Fresh from his battle with the big, bad tobacco companies as Minnesota's attorney general, Humphrey ran for governor, no doubt confident that voters would reward his courage in daring to challenge the least popular industry in America. How wonderful it was to see this self-righteous statist not only defeated but also utterly humiliated, losing to a former professional wrestler with a fondness for feather boas, a bit-part actor and talk radio host whose candidacy was treated as a joke. It was a joke, and it was...

The two stories that broke Tuesday morning were seemingly related. In the one, it developed that the governor's son, Tyrel, was accused by displaced staff of the official residence that he occasionally turned the old place into an Animal House weekend at Faber College. In the other, the big man himself, Gov. Turnbuckle, announced that he would not seek another term as governor, for the most part, he said, to protect his family from the media. In the Tyrel story, just enough hints and vague references were dropped to make you think that maybe Tyrel booked Otis Day and the...

Posted on Tue, Jun. 18, 2002 Ventura bows outBy Jim Ragsdale and John WelshPioneer Press Gov. Jesse Ventura, the Independence Party candidate who ;shocked the world; with his election in 1998, announced abruptly Tuesday morning that he would not seek a second term. He said his heart was no longer in the job. Although the governor said he made his decision several weeks ago, his announcement followed media reports of parties held by his son, Tyrel Ventura, in the official Governors Residence that reportedly resulted in damaged property.;It's difficult to do these public service jobs when your family can...

Jesse Ventura Will Not Seek 2nd Term Tue Jun 18, 2:37 PM ET By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Gov. Jesse Ventura, the former pro wrestler who stunned the political world when he was elected in 1998, announced Tuesday that one term is enough. I am not seeking re-election right now," Ventura said in an interview broadcast live on Minnesota Public Radio. "I will not run again." Ventura said that his heart was no longer in the job, and that he had come to his decision a few weeks ago before leaving on a trade...

<p>Saying that he is still undecided about seeking another term, Gov. Jesse Ventura proposed Friday that his Independence Party pick a successor gubernatorial candidate with the understanding that the candidate would step aside should Ventura run.</p> <p>"If my party feels that I am unfair to them, then they should go ahead and find another candidate, but with the full knowledge that if I do decide to run that that candidate certainly would then withdraw and throw he or she's support to me because, obviously, I'm the most winnable candidate," Ventura said during an interview with the Star Tribune.</p>