In 2010, Michele Bachmann has turned into a conservative cultural icon.  We knew Michele in Minnesota when she was quixotically introducing her Marriage Amendment in the Senate, before she was elected to Congress in 2006 to replace Mark Kennedy. Mark, please come back! All is forgiven.

In these four short years, her stock has risen among the conservatives.  Perhaps I should refer to them as the nouveau conservateurs, those unwashed who think that conservatism is all about “God, guns, and lower taxes.”  The representative has been touted as a possible vice presidential candidate. She is a fundraising force for “Tea Party Conservatives.”

She is an embarrassment to most Minnesotans.  I say “most” Minnesotans, because she does have a large following even here.  The rest of us scratch our heads in wonder at how so many people take her seriously.  We also find it amusing to be accused of sexism when we make fun of her, especially since these accusations made by people who hate feminists.

There is much to mock in Michele Bachmann.  I find it hard to listen to her without laughing at her weird claims and conspiracies, but I also find myself agape at the force with which her supporters defend her.  With that, we at Quiche Moraine have decide to revive yet again, a collection of articles and blog posts noting the weird and wonderful world of the representative from Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

To get you warmed up and in the mood, Buzzfeed gives us the top ten craziest Michele Bachmann quotes Photoshopped for your viewing pleasure.

Michele has a fan. He’s an articulate fan, and we know this because he makes up clever 7th-gradish nicknames for people.  I am glad that this person is not a fan of Quiche Moraine:

Okay, so here she is at the historic confrontation. She is a member of the House Financial Services Committee. She is interrogating international swindlers Little Timmy Geithner, pretend Secretary of the Treasury and “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke, chairman of the non-Federal non-Reserve System. This I know you will find hard to believe, but she speaks without a teleprompter. Don’t believe me? See for yourself on You Tube.

She is a tax attorney, but, as she cut these two smirking mountebanks into uniform chunks of smoking stench, I could not help but think of a surgeon. She kept asking them to cite the constitutional authority for each of their actions. Of course they couldn’t do so. They stumbled. Ben refused to say where the money had gone. The farce ended when her time expired and the committee chairman would not allow Little Timmy to say how much money the Treasury would get back from the anonymous banks it had bailed.

I don’t honestly know what to make of Arlen, but I am happy he is not a fan of Quiche Moraine.

The American Spectator takes aim at Bachmann for either being crazy or loving the limelight (they aren’t sure which is the priority). They point out that she has not, in two terms, passed any meaningful legislation in Congress.

Still, Bachman’s headline-grabbing stunts, time spent on talk radio and cable, and even labels from staff and peers would be worth it if she could put her money where her mouth gabbed. This is her second term as a U.S. Congresswoman. She has yet to sponsor and pass any effective legislation at all, let alone any related to the issues that put her in the spotlight — though in her defense she’s outnumbered, and to her credit, she has co-sponsored some good bills.

She’s one of Hannity’s favorite conservatives and she knows how to draw a crowd, but a November Rasmussen poll showed Bachmann’s district may not love her as much as everyone else does. Fifty-one percent of likely voters said they somewhat approve of Bachmann’s job performance and 45% disapprove. That could be more due to the fact that the district has been trending left in recent years, as local Democrats have picked up several state seats, rather than Bachmann’s vocal conservatism.

Bachmann has introduced us to a new way of looking at economics, with the claim that the “private” economy is in the hands of the government. All of that has happened, of course, since Obama took office 14 months ago. And the sista’s are doing it for themselves:

Bachmann’s speech, which included her typical rhetoric about government takeovers of the “private economy” that was previously “100% private,” focused on what she said was President Obama’s weakness on national security weakness. But, she also made gender a theme. “I think I heard somebody say ‘repeal,’” Bachmann said, in reference to the health care bill. “You better believe it, baby. Repeal is what this girl is gonna be all about after November.”

This event was not in Bachmann’s district, but was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in district of Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison.

In introducing Palin, Bachmann spoke of the admiration they all felt for Palin’s fortitude and determination, and her appeal: “Part of it is that she is so much a one of us. And as absolutely drop-dead gorgeous as this woman is on the outside, I am here to testify she is 20 times more beautiful on the inside.”

In February, she sent out a fundraising letter claiming that Obama is out to “annihilate conservativism:”

Just consider Obama’s ties to the radical group ACORN.

For years Obama worked with, advised, and even trained ACORN and its volunteers in community agitation.

So close is Obama to ACORN that his presidential campaign relied on it for crucial get-out-the-vote drives to win.

But ACORN is a corrupt group, rotten to the core. It’s been investigated for voter fraud in 14 states and its workers have been caught on tape in 5 separate cities willing to help set up brothels for underage illegal alien child prostitutes.

Yet, Obama has used his enormous power as president to funnel millions of dollars into ACORN’s coffers to strengthen this radical group and his base.

Because Obama sees ACORN as his ideological “shock troops” leading his “revolution.”

Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives…

…HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US!

That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.

The frightening thing is that she has been raising money, a lot of money, and the congressional race in the 2010 elections for the 6th district in Minnesota is going to be expensive. Michele Bachmann’s campaign has reported that she has $1.5 million in donations to her credit in this election cycle. Her chief opponent in the race is Tarryl Clark who has raised $1.1 million. Much of the money for both candidates is coming from outside of the district, owing to the fact that Bachmann has been a nationally-known crazy since 2008 when she invited the press to look into “anti-Americans in Congress” and the “anti-Americans” that are Obama’s friends.

The next day I was campaigning for her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg. Most of the people I talked to were extremely embarrassed that their representative had made such a fool of herself, but I knocked at the door of someone who had gotten on to a Democratic list, somehow. She came to the door and saw that I was campaigning against Bachmann and said she was voting for her Congresswoman. I was incredulous and asked her, “Even after what she said on TV last night.” The woman looked me in the eye and told me, “Yes.” Then she shut her door on me.

So, we can all think that only crazy and stupid people will vote for Michele Bachmann this year. If that’s the case, then there are a lot of them in her district. Or we can support the Democratic organizations in the 6th District and the candidate who is running against her in the general election. Quiche Moraine will give you periodic updates on the reasons to help defeat her and get some semblance of sanity back in Minnesota’s 6th District.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is a very small space that separates the behavior of Michele Bachmann and her supporters and the medieval pheasants lampooned by Monte Python in various skits and the movie Holy Grail. The problem is that the Monte Python characters are fiction, obvious jokes, and utterly unbelievable, while the Teabagging Insurgents are real, don’t get the joke, and are…utterly unbelievable.

It will be interesting to see how the National Democratic Party and its cognate organizations will approach Michele Bachmann as the next election approaches. There is a great risk in going after her and not succeeding in replacing her (which is a distinct possibility). But if an opportunity arises…if she stumbles and bleeds and thus allows her opponents to go in for the kill…it will be hard to resist. However, it will be easy for the Democrats to misjudge a stumble. Her famous call for an investigation of all members of Congress to see whether they have anti-American views, while being interviewed on Hardball, would be considered a stumble by most thinking Democrats or Progressives. But it was not. Well, yes, it was a bumble, as in “bumbling idiot,” but not a stumble. It was more like an accidental double play, in which she got the left to hate her vociferously and the right to love her passionately by being an unmitigated ass. If she does that again and the Dems go after her, the Dems lose. But they may not be able to resist. I know I won’t resist.

It is strange for those of us who have followed Bachmann’s career since back before she was in Congress to come to the point where she is likely to be a key figure in national-level politics. It is strange because she has obtained this position by being a moron. An unmitigated, hateful, radical, unthinking jerk. A hypocrite with no fundamental values except to oppose whatever is suggested by the nearest visible liberal political entities. In other words, the archetypal Republican.

Well, thanks for covering this, Ed. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you around quite a bit over the next couple of years!

I live in Minnesota’s Senate District 51. Here in Minnesota each senate district is divided into two separate legislative districts, and I live in District 51B. This means Tom Tillberry is my elected representative in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Tom is a good legislator, mainly focused on education and fighting the shift of taxation from the state to the local cities and counties. I spent a great deal of time door-knocking with him and for him in 2008, and when he sent me an invitation to his fundraiser for Saturday night, I didn’t want to miss it.

This was a joint fundraiser for Tom’s campaign and the campaign of Carolyn Laine, the representative in District 50A. The main reason I wanted to go was to hear Tom play trumpet with his favorite band, KadiWompus.  Tom sings, too, but the main contribution is his trumpet playing.

I found the place and pulled into the parking lot at the same time Sen. Don Betzold arrived. We chatted and walked in and I paid my admission and looked around for people I knew. I had only the briefest time to say “Hello” to Tom before he got up on stage with the band. Now, what you should probably appreciate is that bar bands in the suburbs are by and large cover bands. This band doesn’t really have a repertoire of their own compositions, but they do classic rock, folk rock and alternative rock. Tom joined them for their version of “Margaritaville.” Very good, but I don’t think Tom plans to resign from the legislature to head to Hollywood for a record contract.

I was standing there listening to them and chatting with Colleen Hogan, his campaign manager. A man wandered over from the bar and started asking me about Tom Tillberry. He wanted to know who Tom was, what he stands for and why we were all there. I was explaining about education funding and all that political stuff, and we came to some agreements about the overall importance of education. “Yeah,” he said, “I don’t want the guy that’s trying to diagnose my car problems to be a dumbass.” I think he was ahead of me in the number of glasses of beer he had drunk.

But then the conversation took an unexpected turn. “I can’t believe he’s up there playing trumpet. This is really cool!” He went on about it too long, but I could relate to what he was getting at. I asked him his name and told him mine. “Lance,” he told me. Lance had never really closely encountered a state rep or a politician, so I don’t think he had ever really thought about the fact that they are real people. Here he had gone into the bar on a Saturday night just to have a few beers and maybe get laid. I don’t know, and I didn’t ask, but I can guess on it. He told me he is 52 years old, and he has a pair of grandkids, but then he got back to his amazement that his state representative would play trumpet in a rock band.

I haven’t been involved in politics for too long. It was only in 2004 that I went to my first caucus for the DFL. I shortly followed that with being a delegate to the senate district and then the congressional district conventions. At each level I met people I had only heard of or seen their campaign signs, but I didn’t really know who they were. Sure, I saw them in parades and all, but they seemed so remote and distant from me and my life. I had not thought of them as being approachable.

In 2004 I met people like Mark Dayton, David Dinkins, Betty McCollum and people whose names had been in the news for winning elections. I was starstruck for most of that year, and it inspired me to actually work for their candidacies (and of course for John Kerry). I had never actually thought of people who run for office as being “real people.” They were “others.” They were people I thought of has having been born to politicians and not as people who started out as community organizers and volunteers, or as teachers who were unhappy with their school boards or otherwise motivated to run for office.

In 2004 I got the chance to sit down and talk to some of the people who make the decisions on the way that our government is run. I found out that for the most part they actually have lives outside of politics, and of all the astonishing revelations that I have found the one that got to me the most was that they had lives before they started running for office. Tim Mahoney, who has turned into a close personal friend, was just a pipefitter in 1997 when someone suggested that he run for state legislature. So, he mulled the idea, and decided, “Sure.” Now, he represents the East Side of St. Paul (District 67A) and is a power broker of sorts. He hadn’t considered running before that race.

They all start somewhere and are actually ordinary people. One of the important things that we need to remember about living in a democratic republic, one in which our constitution forbids the granting of titles of nobility, is that people have the opportunity to put our hats in the ring if we so choose. Of course, it isn’t easy. Campaigning takes a lot of face-to-face talking, and it takes a great deal of personal chutzpah to be able to walk from door to door and ask your neighbors to vote for you in your first political campaign.

Lance had never considered the idea that his legislator would have ever done anything outside of running for office and sit in the state capitol raising his taxes. It astonished him that Tom played music as a hobby and was actually good at it. He had never been close to the humanity of a politician.

Our political leaders have faults, and I will be the first to admit that many of them try to over-reach their power, and their egos drop in to give them a greater sense of their selves than they otherwise would have had. But they do have lives outside of their office.

When I talked to Lance, I realized that what has become second nature for me is still a distant reality for many people. I wonder if he will be at work today talking about meeting and listening to his trumpet-playing legislator.

I hope that it will motivate him to vote for Tom next year.

Lance, will I see you at caucus time this year? I don’t think Tom will have his trumpet this time, but you can talk about education and what we can do to avoid dumbass mechanics in our future.

Just this last Saturday I went to the Teamsters Hall in Blaine so that six DFL gubernatorial candidates could make their pitch for delegates before the big push comes in February.  The press weren’t invited (although they would not have been excluded had they come), because this was more of an “inside” meeting. I was, in this case, an insider. I had invited both Greg and Stephanie to come with me, but they were unable to make it for very good reasons. I promised to write this up so that they could feel like they had been there. It’s my pleasure to share it with all of our readers.

Saturday started with the gentle reminder that even though we have summers with green grass and leaves on trees, and lakes that open up from ice-over to allow fishing, this is Minnesota. We had a wet, sticky snowfall overnight, and it was pretty cold when I went outside to have my first cigarette of the day. It was still below freezing (as it is on Sunday while I write this), but I knew that it would warm up enough during the day for the snow to melt. We know that the first snow never stays on the ground long; it’s just the weather’s way of nudging us that the autumn good life in Minnesota doesn’t last all that long.

On Highway 10 to Blaine, the freeway was still icy, and there were cars in the ditch and a wrecker clearing the scene of an accident. I anticipated a light turnout for this forum, and when I arrived, I was proven correct. All told, about 75 DFL delegates and potential delegates had come out to question announced candidates for the DFL nomination:

State Senator John Marty, from Roseville
Former State Senator Steve Kelley from Hopkins
State Senator Tom Bakk from Cook
Former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton from Minneapolis
John Wodele, filling in for Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner (she was not feeling well, but wanted to be represented)
Former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza

Jeremy Powers, Chair of the Senate District 51 DFL, ran the meeting. Before it all started, I had a chance to chat briefly with the campaign coordinators for Dayton, Bakk and Marty, and they each agreed to meet with me for lunch, coffee or dinner to do pieces in the near future for Quiche Moraine. I also signed up for a framed Obama “Hope” poster to be given away in a drawing after the forum, but another Mike won that one.

Each of the candidates was given an opportunity to make an introductory pitch and then followed with a Q & A from the audience. Jeremy consolidated the questions we had submitted prior to the forum and then read them to the candidates.

I am not going to bore you with details of each presentation, but rather pass along the gist of each campaign’s theme. (I have written about my dinners with Matt Entenza and Steve Kelley, and you can read them here on Quiche Moraine.)

Since this event was directed towards potential delegates, the candidates were intent to focus on why each of them was more likely to win. Bakk reminded us that, in this blue state, the last race won by a Democrat here was in 1982, when Rudy Perpich took the win over Wheelock Whitney. For all of these years, we have had candidates tell us that the key is capture of the “swing” voters, those middle-of-the-roaders who don’t cling to a certain party. I’m not one of those “swing” voters, so I get frustrated that the DFL spends more time courting them than they do getting the progressives out to vote.

Tom Bakk, as a carpenter and a union negotiator who says he “understands that if we don’t make sure that the employers can make a profit, then we won’t be able to bring the jobs back,” said in the main that we need to have an honest discussion about raising taxes. Reindexing the progressivity of the individual income tax in Minnesota will redress a wrong but will not be enough to make up for the lost revenue of the last 12 years of tax cuts. We have serious problems with funding our roads and infrastructure, and our schools, but concentrating on jobs first will build the revenue to build those funds back, as long as we address the tax fairness issue and honestly have a conversation about raising taxes on everyone. We can’t do it by raising taxes on the wealthy alone when there is a projected six billion dollar deficit.

Steve Kelley is big on building education and always has been. He currently teaches at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute and is the director for the Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy. We have let our zeal for cutting taxes and Local Government Aid create disparities in education. Businesses that once looked to relocating to Minnesota because of the education priorities here are now seeing a different story, and Kelley shares the belief common to all candidates that preparing an economy for Minnesota’s future starts with good education and technological investment in a green economy.

Matt Entenza focused on a green economy, education, restoring tax justice, returning to the idea that as a state, Minnesota has a reputation for neighbors helping those of their neighbors who are in trouble. Entenza made very clear that he supports marriage equality for GLBT and was the first candidate in the forum to mention the idea. I applauded out of order when he said this, because even though none of the other candidates would fight against marriage equality, I was proud that he mentioned it unprodded.

John Wodele apologized that Susan Gaertner needed to have a surrogate, but she had come down with a touch of the flu that morning. John filled in very well for her. He was a spokesperson for Jesse Ventura during Ventura’s term. The emphasis that Wodele placed was on rebuilding the economy, being honest about taxes, building education and a new green economy. Gaertner has one key insight that I haven’t heard elsewhere regarding health insurance: “The healthcare industry in Minnesota, much like the rest of the nation, is the only consumer directed industry where the consumer does not materially influence its delivery and consumption. The result is that the consumer, unlike in any other industry that serves them, does not demand efficiency and cost containment.” The only time I have ever had the chance to talk to Gaertner was at a Senate District 50 DFL convention at which I was campaigning for Cory Tennison to unseat her as Ramsey County Attorney in 2006. I hope she doesn’t hold that against me.

Mark Dayton had recently undergone surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and was wearing a bandage on his hand-shaking hand. I asked him if he was doing well after the surgery, and he explained that it was just padding to protect his healing wound. He said he “felt great,” but I am not sure what else he would say. Dayton has announced that he is not scoping for delegates, as he plans to skip the DFL nominating convention and will take his candidacy up to the primaries. Nonetheless, he has come out very strongly in favor of making health care affordable and returning to the idea of tax equalization for school districts. Dayton decided not no seek reelection to the Senate in 2006 because of the revolving door nature of lobbyists and Senate aides, pointing out that Max Baucus of Montana’s adviser on health insurance issues is a recent lobbyist for the insurance industry.

And then we get to John Marty, who I personally think has the best ideas. I haven’t necessarily endorsed him, but I am glad that he is running again because he has been fighting the longest and hardest among the candidates for the “Left of the Left” issues in Minnesota. He touched on the above issues as much as the others, but he also discussed the foolishness of a plan to introduce a casino in Minneapolis to pay for a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. He doesn’t like the idea because it would require an amendment to the state constitution to allow nontribal casinos in opposition to a compact with the Indians in Minnesota. The other factor is that at a time when education funding is being held low, and when provisions for social services are being cut because “we can’t afford them in this economy,” there is a proposal that would have the net effect of the public subsidizing tickets to see the Vikings that would cost the state $30 per ticket for the next 30 years. Marty’s other complaint about the healthcare bill making its way through the Senate Finance Committee is that it promises coverage for 94% of Americans, while Minnesota already has 92% coverage through our public option. He wants a plan that will cover everyone.

The candidates are in general agreement on most issues, being of the same party: education, green technology, public-private partnership, restoring tax equality so that the rich no longer get the benefits without paying their share of the tax burden (our regressive tax structure, while partially equalized through a progressive income tax structure, still lays the largest overall burden on the lower two deciles of the population), restoring Minnesota’s industrial reputation through an educated workforce and, finally, fixing the healthcare funding crisis while dealing with a projected six billion dollar shortfall. They all agreed that Tim Pawlenty is no longer paying attention to the problems of Minnesota. I breathed a sigh of relief on that one, myself. We don’t need Tim Pawlenty paying attention to Minnesota given his track record.

My favorite line at the forum was the joke, “What is the difference between retired governor Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty? Pawlenty is still getting a salary.”

The candidates threw out numbers on how much Minnesota has fallen behind in education rankings in the last ten years, how businesses looking to relocate here have been seeing that we are no longer the state with the best-educated workforce, etc., but I had a hard time finding actual ratings that I could use to back their claims. I am sure that they have good sources, but I would need to do more research to find said rankings, and so far there is mixed data. The sad fact is that Minnesota no longer maintains its reputation among business circles. The Republicans have always said that if we just lower taxes, we will be able to create more jobs and then be able to pay for essential services. The candidates agreed that this plan, first popularized by Ronald Reagan, spread among the states even after its failure to deliver, and Minnesota is paying the price.

Overall, I am pleased with the bunch that are vying to be our candidate. It would have been better had R.T. Rybak, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Tom Rukivina and Paul Thissen been there. It is a busy season for the candidates, running all over the state trying to pick up supporters, and to be fair, Rybak is also in the final days of his mayoral race in Minneapolis. They can’t be everywhere at once, and the caucuses are coming up in four short months. I will be sitting down with as many of the candidates as I can before the caucuses and Senate District conventions and will write up more detailed pieces on them as I do, so keep watching Quiche Moraine!

I had finished eating and finally had my hands free to take some notes, but I couldn’t keep up with Matt Entenza’s torrent of ideas for what he sees in Minnesota’s future.  In particular, his ideas on what he would like to do for an economy that needs boosting.

Now, one of the means that the Republicans in this state have been touting in order to “grow the economy” is to cut services and cut taxes so that big bidness will flock here and give us middle class jobs.  I understand the appeal; I really do.  I look at the pay stubs I get and how much the State of Minnesota takes from me every two weeks and I wonder to myself what I would do with that money if I kept it.  And such expenditure would likely be to add fuel to my tank.  The amount that I pay every two weeks would fill up my tank twice at the current price per gallon, and I can appreciate that.

The thing is, it is gasoline.  Gasoline is distilled from crude oil.  Crude oil is an expensive source of energy because there is a finite amount available, and also because of the carbon load that burning it adds to the atmosphere.  As a nation we burn a lot, and we import an incredible amount.  There is no question that our economy is driven in large part by a quest for energy. As an armchair economist, it doesn’t take long for me to realize that there is a need in our society. We are driven to push and grow in order to survive. It is high time to get our butts in gear to find better and more sustainable sources of the energy to propel the economy.

Matt Entenza sees a future for Minnesota as a “Silicon Valley of the New Green Economy.”  We stand on the brink of competition (healthy) with other regions of the country for leadership in developing sources of energy that take advantage of renewable resources.  Matt is fortunate to have a partner in developing these ideas, and his partner is his wife, Lois Quam.

You may have heard of her.  She is an amazing individual, having started out in a small town in Minnesota and worked her way to Fortune‘s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business.  Now she is starting up a new company with ties between Norway and Minnesota.  Tysvar is the town in Norway from which her ancestors came, and she still has family there.  Tysvar, Norway is in the process of building the world’s largest offshore wind farm, and Quam points out that the Norwegian carbon tax has spurred development of a successful New Green Energy industry in that country. It may be just a coincidence, but Norway is also riding out the recession very well with a jobless rate of 2.6 percent.

And Lois’ vision in creating Tysvar, the company, includes developing solutions for health care as well:

At Tysvar we believe new businesses and organizations are required to make NGE changes happen at scale, therefore, we work as a strategic advisor and incubator of ideas, organizations and people to facilitate and encourage the birth of those new concerns.

In the NGE, we foster ideas and innovation, building on our collective experience to create socially relevant jobs, while designing better ways for governments, companies, unions, and civil society to work together.  At Tysvar we view this work as both important and fun.

At Tysvar, we work with businesses and institutions committed to finding creative and sustainable ways to address our challenges, and our best results come when we collaborate with others for a common solution.  We work best in teams and we value our relationships.

At Tysvar we are also committed to establishing universal health care reform in America. Universal health care is the answer for dependable, affordable health care for all Americans, it is necessary to help rebuild the American economy, and restore American competitiveness around the world.

Business and government have always worked in partnership, and in the current environment, it largely seems as though the partnership has worked to give competitive advantage to large businesses through a peculiar tax structure.  What I see in Matt and Lois is the desire for government to work with smaller, entrepreneurial businesses to benefit society as a whole with better access to health care and jobs while finding ways to de-couple from dependence on oil.

I had mentioned in Part 1 that Matt, despite his height, is not a stellar athlete. At least he wasn’t when he was in high school.  His expression of competition was in debate, and this is how he met Lois.  At a speech contest in Pipestone while they were high school students, Lois won both the competition and Matt’s heart.  She was dating someone else at the time, but something in Matt inspired Lois and they began dating in college.

While Lois was studying as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Matt studied law and taught legal concepts to secondary school students in England.  They returned to Minnesota, and he graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School.  The complete bio is at Matt’s campaign website, and I encourage you to read it there.

As we sat and I sipped my ginger beer while Matt talked about the future of Minnesota, about his kids and his attachment to both his Mac-Groveland neighborhood and rural Minnesota, I began to share his vision.  Then I realized that I had already shared this vision, but he was able to articulate how to put it into motion.  Government and business, I realized, can actually work together to develop careers that go beyond “jobs.”  Government and business can also work to restore the luster of rural communities.

The industries of sun, biofuels and wind energy are by necessity rural industries.  Family farms can supplement their incomes and stay on their land by adding wind generators.  Solar energy, strong in the summer, can supplement wind.  Biofuels can move far beyond corn ethanol to take advantage of natural processes of creating energy.  In order to achieve such changes, however, Minnesota must turn back to education.

A government that cuts education cuts its future.  Minnesota’s reputation as a state that provides high-quality education is falling.  The universities and colleges are doing their best to maintain their rankings, but costs are rising and so is tuition.  Local schools are fighting a No Child Left Behind policy’s crazy policies which guarantee their failures by insisting on continual improvement while facing funding cuts (and NCLB is self-justifying by laying the blame on schools by withholding funding from those schools which most need support).

Entenza wants to restore the vision of such previous governors as Elmer R. Anderson and Orville Freeman, who partnered with the Legislature to create the Minnesota Miracle.  The funding program worked then, and a new commitment to education will work for the future.

I talked with Matt for an hour, and we looked at our watches and realized that we both needed to get home. We shook hands and walked out the door onto Grand Avenue.  He offered to walk me to my car, which I pointed out was ten feet away and he turned and walked home.  I got into my car, and opened my notebook to realize that I had written very little down of what we had talked about.  I half-seriously considered catching up to him and asking if we would talk again so I could take some notes.

Quiche Moraine needs a budget so I can take a stenographer with me on these little dinners with politicians.

The original plan was for us to meet at Coffee News, which is the sort of neighborhood coffee shop (with real food) that Starbucks and Caribou would like to pretend to be but instead have been madly rushing to replace.  I pulled into a parking space near the coffee shop (meters don’t charge in St. Paul past 4:30 in the afternoon).  I saw Matt enter the shop, so I followed with my notepad and pens, excited that this time I had the appointment written down for the correct date.

Matt saw me walk in and said, “Hi, Mike!”

I was impressed because we had only really spoken once before, and that was at Tim Mahoney and Susan Bishop’s wedding last year.  We’d had a good conversation about energy strategies and the Minnesota 2020 project, which was just getting going.  Since Matt has been in political circles of power in Minnesota for several years, I was flattered that he recognized me.

Before we had a chance to sit down, he suggested that we head down the street to Shish, a Middle Eastern cafe on Grand that Matt likes.  This was an introduction to “Matt the Neighbor.”  He lives only a few blocks from Snelling and Grand, and this was his hood.  He called out to Leo, the restaurant owner, and I told Leo that I would be doing a story based in Shish for Quiche Moraine.  Leo gave me his address and asked me to e-mail the link to the story when it is published.

Matt recommended the steak kebab, and I took him up on it. Tenderly cooked with Mediterranean spices and set on a bed of saffron rice, it was the best kebab I had eaten in a very, very long time. I highly enjoyed myself.  The meal and the food were important but more important was the company.  Matt proved to be very good company indeed.  He “got” that this is not a standard journalist’s interview, this Quiche Moraine thing I do.  It’s a conversation, and the hallmark of a good conversation between two people is generating a level of interest that goes both ways.  So he asked me as many questions about me as I did of him.

And these are the things we learned about each other.

We both graduated high school in 1979 from small towns in Minnesota.  We have both lived in California, and after living in other places, we both returned to Minnesota.  I learned that he has spent a good deal of time in Hallock, and we share mutual friends in Kristin Eggerling and Paul Blomquist.  Matt even bought his most recent car at C & M Ford in Hallock, a dealership that Kristin and Paul own. I also learned that we are both less than stellar athletes.  Despite his height, Matt is only an average basketball player and preferred debating when he was in high school.  More on that later.

Matt is only slightly younger than I am, but in our conversation I realized that if he wins the governor’s race in 2010, I will be older than both the President of the United States and the governor of Minnesota.  This is a new phase for me, as I have always thought of political leaders as being my seniors.

He has read the posts I wrote about Steve and Sophie Kelley and explained to me that if Steve Kelley is on the ticket for the DFL in 2010, he will be right out there working for him and supporting Kelley all the way.  I sense a genuine mutual respect and friendship between the two of them.  Steve had said the same thing about Matt when I ate pizza with Steve.

So, as governor, what does he think of the ways that the Minnesota economy can best recover?  Energy, education and investment.  We looked at the states that use low taxes as their main business attractor, including South Dakota, and compared them to Minnesota.  Minnesota has historically used private/public investment partnerships to build our economy. We have historically funded innovation and education.  We have historically maintained better roads and highways than our neighboring states, facilitating transportation for commerce.

In the last eight years, we have entrusted Minnesota’s growth and innovation to a governor whose priority is to lower taxes no matter what the effect on education, innovation and commerce.  The concept is that if Minnesota changes its perception from being a “high-tax state” to being a “low-tax state,” then all of the major corporations that have been avoiding relocation to Minnesota will swoop in with jobs and careers.  Matt and I discussed how well this is working for Sioux Falls, SD.  In 1998, the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce started airing commercials on Twin Cities radio promoting the property tax savings that businesses enjoy by relocating.  We both noted that the Twin Cities still provide more jobs and a better standard of living than does Sioux Falls.

I don’t mean to knock Sioux Falls, mind, and neither does Matt. It’s a nice place with a great convention center and some powerful banking operations.  I did note the last time I was in Sioux Falls, though, that the streets needed repair….

Entenza has a vision of energy innovation and Minnesota leadership.  Anything that is done to increase accessibility to carbon-based fuels, including ethanol production, is gong to by necessity be a bridge to a future of energy being produced by fewer and fewer carbon-based methods.

On the day I met with Matt, the northern suburb of Shoreview, where I work, was under assault by the power of the sun in the form of wind.  I thought during a smoke break of all the energy pushing me and making my cigarette difficult to light.  I thought of southern Minnesota with its many wind farms along I-90, and since southern Minnesota was the region he grew up, I asked Matt about it.

Matt thinks that with strategic investment, Minnesota has the potential to take leadership in developing a new green economy.  We can grow to be the equivalent of the “Silicon Valley of green energy,” in his words.  He asked me to make note of Dan Juhl, from Woodstock.  Consider the idea of the family farm.  Many people who have migrated from the rural areas to the urban areas tell me that they wish they could live in rural Minnesota, but with the changing economic face of agriculture, can’t see how a family can compete with corporate farms.  Moving back to a small town or to a farm is difficult economically, because the jobs and small businesses that support agricultural regions just aren’t as likely to support a modern lifestyle as they once were.  Juhl Wind, Inc. is just one example of an idea Entenza supports to rebuild Minnesota’s economy.

We met in the wake of the end of a legislative session cut short by the current governor’s unwillingness to negotiate a budget deal.  The DFL managed to pass a budget, and one that met many of Pawlenty’s requests, but the red pen of the veto and unallotment of previously budgeted services cut short a great opportunity to get moving on the new economy.

Matt is not alone in his drive to improve Minnesota.  He is married to Lois Quam, an innovator in her own right.  In the second installment of this post (June 8), I’ll tell you how they met and go into more detail about the leadership and innovation Matt Entenza intends to bring to the head of government in Minnesota.

Shish, at 1668 Grand Avenue, is a Middle Eastern deli in St. Paul.  Menu prices very reasonable and delicious.  Be sure to try the ginger beer.

When I lived in Dallas, I had a friend who had been to Naples to study architecture.  He told me that the first time he went to a pizza restaurant in Naples, he was surprised that pizza in Naples is so much different than it is in Texas.  He described to me a pizza made with a light sprinkling of cheese, olive oil and a pair of eggs.  Instead of placing the pizza in a convection oven, the chef placed it on a hearth to bake.  He told me that while he was hesitant to try it, the pie turned out to be delicious.  When I saw “Pizza Con Uovo,” on the menu at Pizza Nea, I just had to try it.

When last I wrote about this fine meal with Steve and Sophie Kelley, I left off when the food arrived.  In keeping with the Quiche Moraine spirit of using restaurants as the backdrop for good conversation, I would like to share some of what I learned during that meal about Steve and Sophie.

Steve reads science fiction, which I accept as a positive sign that he is truly interested in melding science and culture.  I asked about his favorite writers, and the first name that he mentioned is Minneapolis resident Lois McMaster Bujold. Sophie is more interested in mystery novels. She talked about P.D. James and specifically the book The Children of Men. I would classify that as science fiction too, but such boundaries are not fixed.

While we ate, I made the faux pas of asking Steve a question just as he was about to take a bite to eat.  When I realized that he was about to answer, I told him it was okay to wait until he had finished chewing and Sophie slyly reminded him to not talk with his mouth full.  In the meantime, I talked to Sophie about her own background and history.  As I mentioned before, Sophie has a background in banking and finance.  She worked her way from bank teller to CEO of local banks and is currently seeking a new opportunity in that field.

I first met Steve and Sophie at their headquarters in the spring of 2006, while we were all getting ready for the caucuses.  I had been watching his career and was impressed by the ways that he had used technology to improve public policy (more about that later).  We were sitting and talking in a group, and one of the first things that struck me about him was that he wanted to talk to those of us who were volunteering as much as to his hired staff.  I found this to be refreshing because in other campaigns, the candidate was “shielded” by his staff from the hoi polloi who were the “boots on the ground.”  Steve talked to me, asked about my concerns and won my loyalty.

He didn’t win the nomination in 2006, but he delivered a knockout speech at the convention. I asked him whether he had any regrets over the outcome in that race and in the race for attorney general (which ended up with the party’s endorsement of current Attorney General Lori Swanson).  He told me that he has no regrets, because he doesn’t think that way.  He learned some lessons on how to approach this race, and we need to watch what he does differently.  It is unfortunate that already he has been labeled as a “perennial” candidate after only one concerted effort at the governor’s race.  He referred to Blois Olson’s governor’s race handicapping article at MinnPost.  In my opinion, with the state DFL convention still more than a year away, it’s far too early to begin ranking the potential candidates.

At this point we should be looking both at what is at stake in 2010, and at what the candidates have done to show they can effectively lead this state out of the doldrums caused by a governor who has made a “No New Taxes” pledge the unmoving focal point of his administration.

Minnesota needs to be able to respond quickly to the emerging needs of our state’s deteriorating infrastructure.  Education and science are important tools for knowing how to approach the problems. So, what has Steve Kelley done to demonstrate leadership in using science and technology?

As a legislator and state senator, he recognized early on that emergency services and their support staff need to have the means to communicate across agencies quickly and effectively in order to respond to disasters.  Steve told me about the project to secure frequencies for emergency radio channels.  New York police and fire department officials had publicly stated that after the attacks on the World Trade Center, rescue efforts were hampered by the lack of cross-departmental radio communications. Changes to this infrastructure were recommended in the 9/11 Commission report. Many states and municipalities today have not improved their first responder communication systems.

It took several years to cut through the red tape, but a local system was firmly in place in time to assist the numerous rescue, fire and police departments in Minneapolis, Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota to coordinate emergency response when the 35W bridge collapsed in 2007.

The other major piece of legislation that Kelley was able to work through and see made into law is the one he is most proud of creating.  This is the medical “Adverse Event Reporting System.”  Patient protection is enhanced by monitoring these issues, and the legislation has enabled sites such as this one at the Minnesota Department of Health. What Kelley found most notable is that other states and even the federal government are now using Minnesota’s program as a model for developing their own reporting and procedures.

For Minnesota’s future, Kelley has promoted innovative programs to creatively reward and support schools and teachers.  He thinks that QComp’s incentive programs measure the wrong types of progress.  Both he and Sophie deplore the idea that because of the increased reliance on standardized testing, teachers are finding that they have less room for creative learning that builds on “learning how to learn.”

At this point in the conversation, Sophie looked at her watch. It was getting late and she had to leave for another meeting.  So Steve and I chatted a bit more about plans and politics, each of us saying just enough, and not too much, about our own thoughts about the future.

With two trips to Pizza Nea under my belt, I can give the restaurant a “thumbs up.”  I’d do the same for Steve and Sophie Kelley, but that would give the appearance of a bias….

Pizza Nea is at 306 E. Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Neapolitan cuisine and a cozy atmosphere.

When I contacted Steve Kelley’s campaign director to arrange a meeting with Steve and Sophie Kelley, I suggested Tuesday.  She responded that they had arranged their schedule to meet me on Wednesday.  When I read her response, the part that I saw was, “They had arranged their schedule to meet with you at Pizza Nea, 306 Hennepin Ave…”  The part that I missed was, “…Wednesday at 7.”

Monday evening I prepared some questions for them, and Tuesday morning I headed for work prepared to drive down to Minneapolis from Shoreview.  I had printed my map and directions so I would have no trouble finding them.  I parked my car and fed the meter, and cursed that I only had enough quarters for one hour.  I hoped that would give me enough time to eat a quick dinner and have a nice conversation with a gubernatorial candidate.

I chose a table and the server brought water and menus for three.  I sat and waited.  I waited some more.  At 7:30, I decided to order an antipasto and started wondering whether I had the date wrong.  I cursed that I didn’t have a blackberry or phone with internet access, because I wanted to check my email to see whether I had indeed made a mistake.  At 8:00 I asked for my bill, having consumed a very tasty Polpette Napolitano and a glass of Moose Drool.  The server brought my tab and asked about my “Kelley for Governor” t-shirt (left over from 2006.)  I explained that he was the one I had planned to have dinner with.

“Oh, Rachael called to make the reservations for tomorrow night.”

I felt a bit foolish, but you must understand that I would not have been angry with Steve and Sophie for “standing me up.”  The polpette were delicious, as was the ale.  So I headed home and made plans for meeting with him on Wednesday night.  I did resolve to bring more quarters with me the next night.  I also made a note to try the Pizza Con Uovo from the menu.

On Wednesday when I arrived at Pizza Nea, Steve Kelley was waiting for me at the same table I where I had sat waiting for him on the previous night.  I told him what had happened the night before, even though the server who had waited my table the night before was not working and I could have kept my folly a secret.  He actually apologized to me. I have always liked Steve, and this is just another reason.

Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy

Steve Kelley is currently teaching at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, and is the Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy.  When I asked him about what he was doing there, he lit up, very excited to talk about the way the Center is working to engage the public’s interest in science and public policy through the arts.

Innovation 2008 was a big event at the Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy, co-hosted by Sciencedebate2008.  Here is the description of the conference:

This conference was held on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. It brought together academicians, policy makers, business leaders, scientists, educators, artists, students and the public to discuss solutions to the major challenges facing the United States revolving around science and technology policy, including innovation, energy security and sustainability, health sciences policy, and our ongoing economic competitiveness in a high-tech, highly-educated global marketplace.The goal of Innovation 2008 was to bring scientists together with policymakers and the public, to help move the United States toward policies that are better informed by scientific realities, and to help scientists, engineers and the scientific community as a whole become more engaged in the political process.The conference also explored ways to bridge the divide between science and the broader culture as a way to broaden public appreciation of science.

Here we lead into the topic of broadening the public appreciation of science.  So how is that done?  Bring in the arts and literature!  For the conference, Steve and his colleagues engaged artists, scientists and public policy makers to present their techniques for drawing audiences into the world of science.  Here is a video from the Keynote Event, and astute observers will recognize Lawrence Krauss, Eugenie Scott, Sheril Kirshenbaum and Chris Mooney at the front table.  These are but a few of the presenters at Innovation 2008.  Steve also made note of frequent Quiche Moraine contributor Lynn Fellman.

Regarding literature, Kelley explained to me that he uses Steven Johnson’s book The Ghost Map as a teaching tool in his class. The story is that the cholera outbreaks in London were blamed on “bad air.”  The science of germ theory had yet to be developed, and so in dealing with ways to confine the cholera epidemics the City of London tried many policy changes and engineering design efforts to steer the “bad air” from the populace.  Cholera returned several times because the efforts to contain the disease actually contributed to its spread.

One brave investigator, Dr. John Snow, determined to find the source of the outbreak (and unconvinced of the “miasma” theory of the spread of cholera), made careful records of the locations and counts of the people who contracted and died from the disease.  Through the map, he and Henry Whitehead were able to track the source of the outbreak to a common well.  From that, he was able to determine that cholera bred in water.  Snow’s persistence in presenting the evidence to a skeptical city leadership eventually led to the use of detective work and science to end the cycle of deadly cholera outbreaks in London.

Steve uses the book to illustrate the importance of working the results of research into the formulation of policy.  This has important implications for education, especially in a time of economic uncertainty.  If Minnesota and the United States are to figure out how to build our way out of this mess, we need an educated populace who understand the process of scientific education.

We agreed that the economic question of funding education must be seen as a societal  benefit and the perception that funding education is solely about an individual’s development is misleading.  If I need services from a business, from a store, from a hospital or even from my government, I want to know that the provider understands what he or she is doing for me.  A drop in the level of education in our communities is dangerous for everyone involved.

Sophie Kelley joined in the conversation regarding education and business.  Sophie is the Chair of the Board of Directors for MEDA, the Minnesota Economic Development Association. Here is their mission:

Founded in 1971, the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA) provides assistance to businesses owned and managed by entrepreneurs of color. Unique among economic development organizations, MEDA’s services are directed toward new and existing businesses whose owners are committed to making an impact through:

• job creation
• their firms’ growth and profitability
• community involvement

MEDA’s portfolio includes management and technical assistance, one-on-one consulting, business planning, sales development, loan packaging and financing, training, networking and procurement opportunities.

Sophie was until recently the CEO of Anchor Bank and is excited about new opportunities opening up for her. As we were talking about this, the pizzas arrived.

More on our dinner next week at Quiche Moraine.

A Renewable Energy House, by Shawn Lawrence and Rebecca Otto

Breezy has many unseen, state-of-the-art features that make it extremely low-impact on our environment. This synopsis contains some brief highlights on many of the key energy saving elements.

Superinsulation. Most houses are insulated to R-11 in the walls and R-25 in the ceiling. Our 2×6 walls are insulated with high-performance R-21 fiberglass and sandwiched with two layers of 1/2″ aluminum-foil-faced foam sheathing, each sheet carrying R-5.5. On the main level, we glued 2″ thick R-10 foam to the block, then built stud walls inside that, filled with high-performance R-13 fiberglass. Overall, our walls are R-33. Our attic has a double layer of high-performance R-25 fiberglass, and 4-mil black poly vapor barrier. Overall, it’s rated at R-55. We laid 2″ thick R-10 foam down before we poured the main floor slab. At the rim joist, where the second floor sits on the first, we held the framing in 2″ from the outside and installed R-10 foam in this high-leak spot, then foil foam over that, and insulation stuffed inside. Overall, the extra cost to superinsulate was about $2,000, or about $.60 per square foot. Payback: 4 years.

Airtight construction techniques. The most common causes of modern home heating inefficiency are the many holes caused by installing wires and pipes in the walls and by poorly installed vapor barriers. In Breezy, all these holes have been sealed with caulk, and all seams in the vapor barrier have been sealed. There is a thick plastic film under the slab, wrapped up around the exterior walls, and across the ceiling, all sealed together without a break. You are standing inside an airtight plastic tent, which has been hidden by the sheetrock.

Air-to-air heat exchangers. With such airtight construction, it becomes important to protect our indoor air quality. We provide the interior with high-quality air with two Van-EE heat exchangers. They continuously change the air in the house for fresh air from outdoors, warming the cold outdoor air in the winter with the heat from the indoor air as it is exhausted, recapturing 40% of that heat. They also monitor the air quality and kick into high gear if they detect carbon monoxide, smoke, or other air pollutants. We have fresh air all winter long with minimal heat loss.

Passive solar design. All the southern glass picks up a ton of heat in the winter when the sun is low in the sky. The sunlight falls deep into the rooms and is absorbed downstairs by the tile-on-concrete floor and the fireplace, upstairs by the massive wood floor, and throughout by the massive 5/8″ thick sheetrock. All these things are inside our insulated envelope, so they act like big radiators, soaking up heat all day long and radiating it at night. In the summer, this doesn’t happen because the angle of the sun is higher in the sky and the eaves and deck on the south side project far enough to shade the windows from direct summer sun. In the summer, we use the stack effect to stay cool: the low south windows and high north skylights (in the library) cause a breeze to form in the house, sometimes blowing doors shut even on still days, as warm air is heated, rises and escapes, drawing in cooler air from below. We stay pretty cool all summer long, and most winter days we come home to 80 degrees, and the heat hasn’t been on all day.

Recycled wood floor. The second floor is eighty five years old. It is old growth Douglas fir from Washington State, which was the floor to the shell manufacturing plant at the arsenal in New Brighton. When the post and beam building was torn down, we bought a ton of this old 2×6 tongue & groove flooring. We like its old character and thought it was perfect for both the interior period style and the ethical motives of Breezy. Plus, the extra heft added needed thermal mass to absorb heat and reradiate it slowly at night. Unfortunately, we didn’t know it had been rained on and was swollen when we installed it, so it shrank and cupped after installation. We used the same stuff for our horse stalls and hayloft in the barn, which was framed with recycled joists from the same place.

Masonry wood heater. The big fireplace in the living room is actually adapted from a very sophisticated German design. We hand built it from parts cast in Vashon Island, WA, then put the stone around the outside. The fires burn very fast and very, very hot (over 2000 degrees F). The “glass” in the door is actually clear ceramic to withstand this heat. The smoke is routed through a labyrinth of chambers where it is reburned and a lot of heat drawn out of it into the mass of the masonry (the fireplace weighs about 6,000 pounds, or three tons). By the time the smoke leaves, it has cooled to about 300 degrees, the extra heat remaining in the house. The fireplace acts like a huge radiator, and stays about 100 degrees on the surface 24 hours a day. We burn only one fire a day. Also, on top of the fireplace we installed a hot water heat exchanger coil, which absorbs extra heat from the fireplace and puts it into the hot water heating.

Wirsbo in-floor heating system. Wirsbo is a Minnesota-based Swedish company that manufacturers a high-tech polyethylene tubing that is cast into the main floor slab. It is laid out in a serpentine pattern, and hot water from the boiler is pumped through it. This way when the heats goes on it warms the floor, which is a very pleasant experience. Unlike forced air systems, the heat doesn’t rise to the ceiling since the air is not being heated but stays evenly warm throughout and feels great underfoot! The second floor is heated by baseboard radiators. Often, the boiler does not have to fire because either the house is warm from a sunny day, or the water has been heated by the fireplace throw-off heat instead. This triple heat source—sun, fireplace and boiler—provides extreme flexibility for lifestyle variations and incredible winter comfort.

Earth bermed, airlocked design. Many people are confused when first entering our split-level house, because they don’t expect to go down to get to the main floor. This is because the entry is on the north, and the north is bermed. We designed the house as if it were a traditional style two-story country home built around 1918 or so, except that its sunk a bit into the hill. This reduces the northern profile substantially (the house looks remarkably smaller when viewed from the north versus the south—try it!), and thus, our exposure to cold north winter weather. Also, we put the garage on the north as well and minimized north-facing windows. You will also note that every door has an airlock-style entry: the front a small porch entry, the side, back and garage enter into the closable laundry/mud room, and the south sliding door enters into the sunroom. The only exceptions are the two other bedroom sliding doors, but you can’t have everything. This airlock system limits heat loss through doors in the winter.

Super-efficient appliances. The Asko washer and dryer are Swedish in design, and use about 1/6 the water and detergent, and yet get the clothes much cleaner using less energy. The first time you do a load, the manual says, don’t use any detergent. The residual detergent left in your clothes by your old washer will be more than enough to do the trick. This miracle is accomplished through the front load design, which is far more efficient. Laundromats have known this for years. The same story goes for the Bosch dishwasher. Turn it on – you can barely hear it. Its stainless steel liner and thick insulation make it quiet as well as efficient. By recirculating the water through a series of filters, it triple washes, then triple rinses, and uses 1/6 the water of most dishwashers, and actually less than if you wash and rinse by hand. The Amana fridge is also the most efficient mass-produced domestic model available today (1995). The freezer is on the bottom for a good reason—because heat rises, and cold sinks. Keeping it low makes it more efficient. When the fridge calls for cool air, a little is blown up from the freezer, using a fan. This eliminates the need for a second compressor and greatly increases efficiency. The Turbosoft water softener in the basement recharges based on water usage, not days of the week, and since our usage is so low, we save big time on that! All our toilets flush by only emptying half the tank, using only 1.5 gallons per flush. The tanks don’t sweat because the new cold water is tempered by the half a tank of warm water still left! Our shower heads are super-efficient also, using 2.25 gallons max per minute, compared with 4 in a normal shower. Check out the blaster in the master bath—it rivals anything you’ll find at 4 or even 6 gallons per minute. The boiler is a Utica and runs at about 80% efficiency. It has electronic ignition and an automatic vent damper that closes the vent when it’s not firing. All combined, we use about 1/4 the water and 1/2 the electricity of a typical house this size. This pays us back in lower electric costs, lower wear and tear on pipes, septic system and appliances, and a great feeling about doing our part to help slow the process that’s eating the world’s resources like a hog in slop.

Wind generator. Most of our electricity comes from the big Jacobs wind generator in the back yard. It generates a peak of about 15,000 watts (15 kilowatts) in a 25mph or faster wind. This is enough power to light 250 60-watt light bulbs or about 10 houses worth. The wind turns the 24′ diameter airfoils of the propeller, which turn a big alternator, which generates three-phase wild AC current. Wild means the voltage goes up and down with the wind speed—it’s not tamed to a constant 120 volts like normal house-pet type electricity. This wild power comes down the tower and to the house through some cables we buried underground, where it enters the garage and hits a big mess of electronics called an inverter (the big metal cabinet in the garage) that turns it into normal line-quality electricity. If we are generating more than we happen to be using at the moment, it gets sent back out our lines to Connexus Electric Cooperative, which buys it from us at the retail rate. If we are using more than we are generating at the moment, we draw part from the generator, part from Connexus. It’s a sweet system that supplies about 80% of our power. Connexus makes all their power by burning coal, which of course pollutes the air and puts mercury into our lakes, so we feel pretty good about this rig. All told, we figure we are generating enough power to prevent the burning of about 28,000 pounds—about 14 tons—of coal every year. Plus it’s a big charge, so to speak, watching it turn. We always know what’s up with the weather, which way the wind is blowing and how hard. It’s a more intimate connection with the sky. We like it.

Super-efficient lighting. Much of our lighting is either compact fluorescent or halogen or converted DC bulbs. When it’s not, we have special dimmers or automatic timed shut-off switches to conserve electricity, which is far more efficient than trying to generate it! Even the barn and riding arena are high-efficiency, with the lighting there being high-pressure sodium. Six seventy-watt fixtures light the 40 x 80 tool shed area up bright as day, using less than a seventh of what normal lights would require. We save about $400 a year on this, so the payback is less than a year, and the benefit to the environment is, again, substantial on a per capita basis.

Off-peak hot water. We have a separately metered hot water heater, which is turned on via radio control by Connexus Electric 6 hours at night and 2 during the day. We pay only 2.9 cents per kilowatt hour (compared with 7 cents for normal electricity). This gives Connexus some place to dump their extra power at night when demand is low, since they can’t really scale back production that fast. This is power that would otherwise be wasted by dumping it into a heat sink in the ground. The cost equals gas, and we NEVER run out, because the water is heated hotter than we need, and then mixed with cold through a mixing valve set for our volume of use.

Clean wiring techniques. Electricity doesn’t just travel in wires; it also travels in a field around the wires. Wires that are spread apart instead of bunched together increase the size and strength of this field. The field can easily be measured with a gaussmeter. Certain studies have indicated that these fields may be implicated in causing certain forms of cancer and other nasties by disrupting DNA replication. In Breezy, we figured it was easy to take some precautions, so we did. Our wires are bunched wherever possible to keep fields to a minimum. They are also routed away from sleeping areas and places where we hang out a lot. By careful layout, we spent maybe an extra $50 for wire and an extra 3 or 4 hours of time, but the house is much more electrically quiet than a normal house. Cheap insurance.

Sunroom. The sunroom is a nice place to hang in the winter, but it also is a heat gatherer. It is thermally isolated from the main house, so when we close it off in the winter it gets up to about 100 or 110 degrees on a really sunny day. At night, we open the doors, especially on the second floor into our bedroom, and let this nice warm air soak into the house all night long. This also acts as a huge buffer across much of the south side from the colder outdoor temperatures, greatly reducing heat loss. We do still have a Wirsbo zone out there, so it could be heated like a normal room. Last year we just set it at about 45 and let the sunroom do its thing. It was always comfortable.

Maximizing technology. Humans have never wanted to go backwards. Less comfort, security, pleasure, utility, convenience and strength are not options most people will consistently choose in their lives, even if it is for the betterment of their own bodies or the environment as a whole. We’re wired to eat fat and lay around. This is why selling people on consuming less, conserving more, paying more and getting less has always been a failing political position, even if it’s the smartest long-term approach and the least costly one. The answer to environmental problems, then, isn’t to get people to drive less. It’s to improve our technology with more efficient cars or alternative, lower polluting cars. Or heating systems. Or packaging. Or water use. There are billions of people in the second and third world that are just now beginning to adopt the inefficient technologies that have caused so much of our environmental damage. They won’t give them up because, after having them ourselves for decades, we now tell them it will be better for everybody if they forgo these conveniences. And neither will we. In the long run, the only solution to environmental degradation is improvement of efficiency and quality—and lowering of waste byproducts, which amounts to the same thing. The best thing anyone can do to help the environment is to hasten this development along by becoming a research scientist, or adopting new technologies in our lives, or by spreading the word and challenging people to not just think about these issues but act on them, or by encouraging legislation that supports science education, science and technology grants and legislation that encourages industry to continue to push the technology envelope, especially in regards to increased efficiency. Science and technological innovation—smarts—are our best hope.

WHY? We have asked ourselves that many times during this building process but always about the process, never about the efficiency decisions we’ve made. Since we built the house ourselves, we could indulge our design ideas, which we gleaned from years of research into renewable energy. It costs more to put quality in up front, but things last longer and work better, with much less carrying cost and carrying waste over time. Buying top quality is best for the environment. For us, it comes down to this:

Do something about what we believe in. If our environment goes to hell, not a lot else will matter any more. We want a quality world to be here for our son Jake when he is our age, and for his kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. Its up to us to tip the scales that can help make or break that picture. We wanted to show that it could be done in style, with smarts, not sacrifice. Breezy is not just a house; it’s an attitude.

Note from Mike: Since this original write-up, the Ottos have added a geothermal heating installation. Some may think that what they are building is overkill, but I say that it is a case of leadership.  If new houses are each built with only one of these energy-saving features, we could go a long ways towards reducing the need for coal, natural gas and oil.

Shawn Lawrence Otto is a screenwriter and one of the prime movers behind Science Debate 2008. Rebecca Otto is the current Minnesota State Auditor. Mike Haubrich has profiled them here.

I am reluctant to use the term “power couple” in reference to a pair of Minnesota leaders in the area of science and politics, but considering the contributions of Rebecca and Shawn Lawrence Otto, the term moves past cliché and into double entendre.  Rebecca is the Minnesota State Auditor, an elected constitutional office that I consider to be second only to the governor in terms of authority and importance. Shawn has been one of the key figures involved in the organization Science Debate 2008, originally formed to spur the large field of 2008 presidential hopefuls to have at least one debate on the role of science in making public policy.

Rebecca, Shawn and son Jake

The “double entendre” comes from the leadership role that they have taken as a team in advancing the development of alternative sources of energy to reduce reliance on coal, oil and natural gas in the Minnesota economy. They have, at their homestead, harnessed the power of the wind and the sun in conjunction with practicing conservation to show Minnesotans how to take advantage of renewable resources.

Rebecca has a solid background in science and in policy. She taught environmental science in Minnesota public schools for five years and was a state legislator from 2003–2005. I first met her in 2005 at a Think Blue event at the UAW hall in St. Paul. Tim Mahoney, the guy whose books I keep as campaign treasurer, introduced me and said I should support her in her bid for state auditor. I have to confess to a certain bias here, as hers was the only bumper sticker on my car in the 2006 campaign for state office.

As an auditor, Rebecca showed her worth before taking office. Even before the election, she reviewed the public reports of the Department of Education. Rebecca discovered millions of dollars in errors in the accounting of school funds by the DOE, and over a hundred and eighty million dollars in errors by the incumbent state auditor. Of course this embarrassed the incumbent, Pat Anderson, but it also showed us how important it is to have a watchdog in the auditor’s office. While the state is facing a huge financial crisis, our government can’t afford sloppy books. I think it is important to note that she was endorsed by Anderson’s three most recent predecessors, members of both of the major parties in Minnesota. These were Arne Carlson, Mark Dayton and Judy Dutcher.

Shawn Lawrence Otto is well-known for the screenplay adaptation and his role in producing the movie House of Sand and Fog, a movie I watched and which thoroughly impressed me long before I had met Shawn. He wrote the screenplay for the movie Shining White and has a new movie coming out in 2010, Dreams of a Dying Heart. I have also sent him a book on the history of paleontology that I would like to see made into a movie, and he has at least promised to read it.

As I mentioned earlier, Shawn formed, along with several friends of science, Science Debate 2008. The group didn’t achieve the exact aims they sought but were able to induce the campaigns of both John McCain and Barack Obama to address specific questions on science and technology in policy decisions. Most impressive in this effort is the support of the public towards hearing what the candidates wanted to do. More than 125 million people showed support for science and joined in the request to finally address science in a meaningful manner in politics. According to Shawn:

The organization’s stated goal was to restore science to its rightful place in American public policy and political dialogue.  Since President Obama used those words in his inaugural address, I think we got the message across. Before we started none of the candidates were talking about science at all. So our greatest achievement is that we transformed the way America talks about science and restored some of its importance to policy discussions.  By the time we were done, Senators Obama and McCain had both participated. The initiative made over 800 million media impressions and President Obama put together a top-notch science advisory team expressly to answer our “Top 14 Science Questions Facing America.”

His answers formed the initial basis for the Obama science policy, and all of the Obama Administration’s appointments in science were early Science Debate 2008 supporters, including Steven Chu, Jane Lubchenco, John Holdren, Harold Varmus and Eric Lander.  I think we helped elevate science and research as not only a priority, but as the path to the future, in his policy thinking.  Since then, when we saw that much of the science funding had been cut from the Senate version of the stimulus bill, we mobilized again and were a major part in getting that turned around and restoring some $7 billion in research funding through NSF, DOE, and other agencies that fund university, lab, and corporate research.

This is among the smartest type of stimulus spending because it creates high quality jobs in universities, labs, corporations, suppliers, and construction contractors right now, and leads to the innovations like transistors or the internet that can create entire new economies.  Over half of our economic growth since WWII has come from science and technology, and we have really shortchanged ourselves in the last 8 years, so this is an important new investment that will lead to new prosperity, cleaner energy technologies, a healthier environment, and better healthcare.

The Science Debate 2008 push is still strong and was most evident in the formation of the Obama plan to rebuild the American economy. Shawn was on top of the actions in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and sent updates to those of us who are members, so that when the time came to call or write our representatives and senators, we knew the facts. Thanks to Shawn’s efforts, we were able to stem cutbacks in proposed funding for science in the bill.

Of course, Quiche Moraine is largely about Minnesota, and in our state we are in need of people like the Ottos. I have been out to their farm twice for political fundraisers, and it is a beautiful site. It is welcoming in both the winter and the summer. They have large south-facing windows to capture the warmth of the sun in the winters and natural stone as a feature to insulate their home. In the summer, the stone lends a cool air so that air conditioning is a rare necessity.

Shawn has sent me some additional details on the home and its energy saving features.  Watch for a separate post here on Quiche Moraine.

Perhaps the most notable feature that greets visitors on arrival is the turbine wind generator that provides their electrical supply and, in fact, returns power back to the grid. The Ottos return so much power to the electric company that their electrical bills are often close to zero.

Most of our electricity comes from the big Jacobs wind generator in the back yard. It generates a peak of about 15,000 watts (15 kilowatts) in a 25mph or faster wind. This is enough power to light 250 60-watt light bulbs or about 10 houses worth. The wind turns the 24′ diameter airfoils of the propeller, which turn a big alternator, which generates three-phase wild AC current. Wild means the voltage goes up and down with the wind speed – its not tamed to a constant 120 volts, like normal house-pet type electricity. This wild power comes down the tower and to the house through some cables we buried underground, where it enters the garage and hits a big mess of electronics called an inverter (the big metal cabinet in the garage) that turns it into normal line quality electricity. If we are generating more than we happen to be using at the moment, it gets sent back out our lines to Connexus Electric Cooperative, which buys it from us at the retail rate. If we are using more than we are generating at the moment, we draw part from the generator, part from Connexus. It’s a sweet system that supplies about 80% of our power. Connexus makes all their power by burning coal, which of course pollutes the air and puts mercury into our lakes, so we feel pretty good about this rig. All told, we figure we are generating enough power to prevent the burning of about 14,000 pounds – about 7 tons – of coal every year. Plus it’s a big charge, so to speak, watching it turn. We always know what’s up with the weather, which way the wind is blowing and how hard. It’s a more intimate connection with the sky. We like it.

As land and business owners, Shawn and Rebecca Otto have put into practice the benefits of green energy and energy-saving architectures. This lends authority to the work that the State Auditor’s office has put into publishing the fantastic article on how local governments in Minnesota are able to save money in the long run by implementing best practices utilizing conservation and modern energy production tools.

I have read through the Best Practices Review: Reducing Energy Costs in Local Government (pdf). Published in July 2008, the 132-page report details the ways in which municipalities can retain functionality and service to their communities by investing wisely in proven technologies to save money when budgets are tight. The report includes case studies, including reliable estimates on the time to payback of investment of these processes.

One case study details the process by which the Blue Earth County designed and has built a new Criminal Justice Center using a green initiatives model. When completed this spring, the county will seek to have the building certified as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The goal is to not only expand the capacity of people-warehousing, which is what many people see as the purpose of jails, but to actually create a building that will be a money saver for the county in the long term. This project is a national example of how municipalities are able to perform the functions of government while respecting the specter of cost to residents.

To my mind, the role of state auditor extends far beyond bean-counting and the pursuit of errors in the books of counties, municipalities and nonprofit agencies. I see the auditor as a leader in directing all of the various state agencies in not only saving money but providing more services than standard budgeting would allow. It takes leadership to suggest to a county facing another property tax levy increase that by investing in modern, green technology, they can save their residents money in the long run.

Green technology is a key tool that Minnesota will need to utilize in this blue economy, and I am comforted to have such a “power couple” in Minnesota’s plans for the future.

Additional Resources on Shawn Lawrence Otto and Rebecca Otto:

• Post Election Report to Science Debate 2008 Supporters
• Science on the Campaign Trail
• Rebecca Otto’s Official State Auditor for the State of Minnesota Bio Page
• Rebecca Otto’s campaign site
• Rebecca named one of the Women Taking The Lead to Save the Planet for the National Women’s History Project