National News

This email correspondence between Victoria Pellar Price and a Target PR liaison took place before Target's CEO issued an apology to their employees.

Subject: RE: Target Donation to Tom Emmer

Dear Lena,

Thanks for your return call.

The effect on Target's recent campaign donation of $150,000.00 to the PAC MN Forward for Tom Emmer's (R) campaign for Governor in Minnesota has already had a national impact on consumers.

From San Francisco to the East Coast, the Internet is a buzz with anti-Target sentiment.

Though Target says the contribution was made for purely business reason it alienates half of Target's clientele.

Target Boycotts are already up on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140625909288550&v=wall&ref=mf

The current top story on NBC Bay Area's website is headlined "Target Supporting Anti-Gay Minnesota Candidate." "A recent Star Tribune article indicated optimism for Emmer's "wave" yet, the polls never gave him more than numbers in the low 40's and he is trending down, not up. The wave is rapidly becoming a ripple.

The article did point out some truths....

Some Republicans worry that Emmer has never run for anything outside his district and that his anti-government and anti-illegal immigrant beliefs could tie him to sentiments many Minnesotans find distasteful.

Part of the wave?

And not even all Republicans are on board...

Former U.S. Sen. David Durenberger, a moderate Republican, said Emmer is so divisive that he may not be able to broaden his base enough to win. Durenberger, who supports Independence Party candidate Tom Horner, said he used to be fan of Emmer's political musings, but is put off by what he says is a new, stronger edge. "It doesn't feel inclusive," Durenberger said. "You can't reach right of center from this far out."

Emmer's concern is not about the "little guys", its about corporations. He is concerned that our poor corporate giants can't make enough money and its those pesky workers who are asking for too much pay. And government wants too much in taxes."

http://www.mnpact.org/sblog/blog.php?id=2379

This is the view that many progressive Target customers have.

Here is the question:

What steps will Target take to show that Target isn't just supporting the anti-health-care, anti-wage increase, anti-illegal immigrant, anti-GLBT, anti-government, anti-union candidate, that Target is inclusive and also donates to candidates who aren't as narrowly focused, candidates who actually represent as many or more of Target's own customers? (There are actually more people who identify themselves as Democrats or progressives in MN)

Thanks so much for your participation..I have been a Target customer for years and have featured some Target products at PrairieHOMEliving.

Victoria Pellar Price

Subject: RE: Target Donation to Tom Emmer

Hi Victoria - from your note, you're aware that Target contributes to causes and candidates - on both sides of the aisle - based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business objectives. In fact, Target’s Federal PAC contributions year-to-date are very balanced between Republicans and Democrats, and we work collaboratively with legislators and officials at all points on the political spectrum. We are very proud to call Minnesota home, and we have a large stake in the continued economic growth of our state. It is critically important for us to be able to create jobs, serve guests, support communities and deliver on our commitment to shareholders.

Target also fosters civic engagement through a wide variety of nonpartisan efforts aimed at enhancing team member and citizen participation in the political process. We encourage team members and citizens to engage in civic activities in the ways that are most meaningful to them, as we believe that engaged communities are healthier and stronger communities.

I want to assure you that at the heart of our company are the diverse perspectives and backgrounds of more than 350,000 team members, and we have always focused on embracing diversity. It is this diversity that creates our unique and inclusive corporate culture while helping our company remain relevant and competitive.

Sincerely,

Lena

Thanks again for your reply Lena ,

Yes, I have been aware of Target's non-profit giving to the community. Please answer questions 1 through 5.

1. I would be interested in seeing Target's most recent Federal PAC contributions, for instance toward Minnesota candidates, both state and federal.

2. My understanding, for instance in the last House race in district 3, contributions were made to Erik Paulsen (R) former Target employee and none to his opponent Ashwin Madia (D).

3. Target has made contributions to Erik Paulsen's current reelection campaign, as far as I am aware none have been made to his opponent, Jim Meffert (D).

4. I'm also not aware of like-contributions to PAC's or directly to any of the DFL candidates running for Governor in Minnesota.(Kelliher, Entenza, Dayton)

Yes, I do see that the Target URL below lists the direct contributions made in 2006-07 of which it is stated that 28% went to the DFL, 22% went to Republicans and 50% went to non-partisan to candidates, caucuses and causes.

http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-034171

I think the problem for a lot of people is that though Target may embrace diversity in many of its ongoing charitable activities, the corporation just donated to a candidate who does not share Target's value to "embrace diversity."

The controversy seems to emanate from Emmer's support of an anti-gay, anti-Semitic religious group. For Emmer to embrace this group "as good people" is totally outside Target's historical support for inclusiveness and "embracing diversity."

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2010/07/19/minnesota-gops-would-be-governor-anti-gay-anti-semitic-group-good-people/

The following comes from an article in the Minnesota Independent which characterizes Emmer as someone whose views aren't even in sync with Target's historical support for LGBT causes:

"OutFront Minnesota, Alliance for a Better Minnesota and a handful of other groups have begun to push back against the retailer, which is often seen as a huge backer of LGBT causes.

OutFront wrote a letter to Target CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel: “Emmer stands alone among candidates for governor in opposing equality for GLBT Minnesotans. Target should not stand with him. Target Corp. has long been a strong ally of Minnesota ’s GLBT community and OutFront Minnesota and many other GLBT organizations have looked to Target as a model of the corporate support for diversity.”

The group added, “Because of this, OutFront Minnesota is disappointed and appalled to learn that Target’s political action committee recently contributed $150,000 to a right-wing political group called Minnesota Forward, which is working to elect State Representative Tom Emmer – a candidate with a long history of attacks against GLBT Minnesotans and their families for his own political gain.”

Meanwhile, progressive group Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a group that has already released ads critical of Emmer, bought ads on Facebook targeting Target employees with information about Target and MN Forward.

Target is one of the largest sponsors of LGBT events around Minnesota each year including Twin Cities Pride and the Minnesota AIDS Walk. Twin Cities Pride says it is reviewing its partnership with Target following the disclosure of the company’s donation.

Adding to the pressure: A new blog and a half-dozen Facebook groups have cropped up, created by voters angry with Target’s decision to back MN Forward and Emmer"

http://minnesotaindependent.com/61801/target-targeted-over-pro-emmer-ad#more-61801

In the long run the controversy will continue to build, and ultimately it's going to hurt Target and the candidate because it brings that much more attention to Target and Emmer's vulnerabilities of which fair labor practices, real workplace diversity, fair wages, worker rights are part of the controversy. The rub that people are feeling goes deeper: it's not just about equality and non-discriminatory practices.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13508

5. What can Target do NOW to stop the snowball effect that ultimately could cost Target part of its customer base?

Best Regards,

Victoria Pellar Price

Hi Victoria - I appreciate your additional questions, but don't have anything to share at this time beyond the statement I sent. If that changes I will let you know. What I can tell you about contributions from our PAC, TargetCitizens, is that support is not based on party affiliation and that TargetCitizens has a history of balanced giving to candidates. I'm sure you're familiar with Federal PAC reporting on the FEC website.

Sincerely,

Lena

Franken on the Issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Al_Franken_Health_Care.htm

Franken's been in the state talking about Health Care Reform:

http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S1089469.shtml?cat=10151

Franken's Senate Page

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/one_item_and_teasers/franken.htm

How are they voting?

Erik Paulsen (R)
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=3833

Amy Klobuchar (D)
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=65092

Health Care Reform‏

Details of what's currently on the table

http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/107379/what-health-reform-means-for-you.html?mod=insurance-health

Health Care Reform- Statements from Amy Klobuchar and Erik Paulsen's web sites

Two Senate committees are working on markups for Health Care Reform- HELP Committee Begins Mark-up of Affordable Health Choices Act

U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, Ted Kennedy (D)

http://help.senate.gov/

United States Committee on Finance, Max Baucus (D)
http://finance.senate.gov/

Call Erik and Amy with your suggestions for health care reform- Erik- 202-225-2871 and Amy- 202-224-3244
Statements on Health Care from Erik Paulsen's and Amy Klobuchar's web sites-

http://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=16§iontree=13,16

Ask any student, parent, worker or small business owner, and they will tell you that the skyrocketing cost of health care is one of the greatest challenges we face. Rising costs hurt family budgets, business’s bottom lines and make access to health care more difficult for everyone.

Health care is simply too expensive and in need of serious reform. Congress should embrace consumer-driven, common sense health care solutions to ensure everyone has accessible to affordable, high quality health care that they, not government bureaucrats, control.

We can do this by expanding competition in the health care marketplace, increasing transparency for both costs and services, focusing on prevention and quality, allowing small businesses to band together to purchase more affordable health insurance and putting doctors and patients in charge of health care decisions.

These investments will help lower costs and improve quality by dramatically reducing administrative costs, enabling doctors across the system to have access to patient information when and where they need it, and reducing medical errors. We also need to reform our payment system so providers are reimbursed for quality of care, as opposed to simply the number of procedures they perform.

I believe all Americans should have access to affordable, high quality health insurance that they control. We can accomplish this without a government run system – by empowering consumers, doctors and the innovation that Minnesota and American are known for when it comes to health care.

As a co-chair of the House Medical Technology Caucus, I will promote using the latest technology to help lower costs and improve quality for better outcomes for patients. Minnesota is home to the most cutting-edge developments in medical technology we should use these homegrown innovations to reform and improve health care practices across the nation.

http://klobuchar.senate.gov/healthcare.cfm

I believe every American should have access to quality, affordable health care. Minnesota is already a leader in quality of care and the percentage of citizens with health insurance, and there is much that the rest of the nation can learn from Minnesota about quality and access. But Minnesotans also face higher health care costs than ever before - costs that have far outpaced the growth in family incomes.

Many of our businesses, particularly small businesses, can no longer afford the costs of health insurance, even though they want to cover their employees. Employees are forced to pay a larger share of the premiums - or they get no health insurance at all. As a result, more and more uninsured people are forced to seek basic care in emergency rooms, the most expensive and inefficient place to deliver medical care. This raises the bill for the rest of us. And more and more Minnesotans with health insurance struggle to pay escalating deductibles and copays.

I believe that for far too long, the health care debate in Washington has been dominated by the giant drug companies and the big insurance companies. When our health care policies are written for the insurance companies and the drug makers instead of America's families, we all lose out.

Business-as-usual in health care policymaking needs to change -- too much is at stake.

Since coming to the Senate, I have focused on these health care priorities:

Make health care more accessible:

Expand health care coverage for more Minnesotans and Americans.More than 45 million Americans are uninsured, including 8 million children. I have worked in the Senate to extend coverage to more children through reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) and to protect Medicaid from excluding populations that can benefit most from quality preventive care. As a co-sponsor of the Keep Children Covered Act of 2007, I fought to make sure that state SCHIP programs have adequate funding. This is important for Minnesota, which has been very effective in using its SCHIP dollars to extend coverage.
Provide fair and equal access for mental health and chemical dependency treatment. I helped secure passage of legislation to provide insurance parity for mental health coverage for millions of Americans. The legislation, signed into law in 2008, fulfills the dreams of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. For the first time, this law will provide justice for millions of Americans living with mental illness who face unfair discrimination in their access to affordable health care treatment.
Strengthen Medicaid. The Medicaid program provides health insurance for our families, children and seniors who need health care the most. I sponsored legislation to block efforts by the Bush Administration to drastically cut payment for vital (and fiscally-sound) Medicaid "case management" services which help children and seniors obtain necessary medical and community services.

Make health care more affordable:

Crack down on excessive costs. In order to make health care more affordable, we need to reduce administrative waste. Over 30 percent of each health care dollar is being spent on paperwork and administration. That money should be going to medical care, not paper pushers. We must modernize our health care system and to this end, I cosponsored the Wired for Health Care Quality Act, which will facilitate the use of electronic health records to cut down on excessive administrative costs and reduce medical errors.
Reform and strengthen Medicare. To ensure that Medicare continues to provide the quality care that Americans deserve, we must bring costs under control and reform it to reward efficient, high-quality care. With harmful cuts looming to Medicare services, I cosponsored the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which aimed to avert those payments cuts and institute reforms to reward doctors and hospitals for delivering high-quality care. Earlier in 2008, we passed this legislation with a large bipartisan majority and overrode the President's veto. I also fought to end the geographic payment disparities that penalize high-quality, low-cost states like Minnesota. In 2005, Medicare spent more than $15,000 on the health care of a typical beneficiary living in Miami, but for patients living in Minneapolis, it spent only about $7,000. If we reform Medicare so it's buying the best care at the best price, we can improve the quality of care for our seniors and save huge sums for taxpayers.
Fight price gouging by pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies appear to be targeting outrageous price increases at selected drugs used by vulnerable populations or for rare diseases. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota brought one example to my attention: a drug known as Indocin I.V. For many years the drug has been crucial in treating a heart condition in premature babies. But after Ovation Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to the drug, the company quickly increased the drug price from $100 to $1,875. I asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Ovation for anticompetitive practices and price manipulation and together with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), I then called for a broad Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into prescription drug pricing. Acting on this complaint, the FTC is now taking legal action in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, charging Ovation with violating federal antitrust laws and artificially inflating the price of the two drugs.

Move health care forward:

Invest in science. In Minnesota, we believe in science. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is our nation's primary entity for biomedical research, and I supported increased funding of the NIH so our scientists can concentrate on finding life-saving cures and not on finding money to do their research. I also introduced, and Congress passed into law, the Paul Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Act to strengthen research and determine best care practices for people suffering from muscular dystrophy.
Utilize technology. Information technology is transforming all aspects of our modern society, and it holds the same promise for the health care industry. I have sponsored legislation that would give health providers the resources they need to establish secure and effective health IT systems that will reduce administrative costs and bring health care into the 21st century.

As Minnesota's U.S. Senator, I will not only continue to fight for these priorities, but for the broader health reform our country deserves. I will work to:

Make quality, affordable health care a reality for all Americans. We must expand health insurance coverage and make that coverage meaningful rather than riddled with high deductibles and exclusions. But we cannot do so without simultaneously tackling a health care payment system that rewards volume rather than quality services and preventive care. As Senator, I will work to pass health care reform legislation that dramatically expands coverage and redesigns the perverse incentives in our health system that drive up health spending and make our current system unaffordable.
Empower Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors. When the Medicare Part D program was written into law, an army of lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry triumphed over America's taxpayers and seniors in the halls of Congress and secured a prohibition against government negotiation for lower prices. That prohibition is a sure prescription for inflated health care costs. We must make changes so that Medicare can negotiate the best prices for our seniors.
Promote affordable care by paying for value, not volume. Growing research tells us that Medicare could substantially reduce costs and improve health care quality by tying its spending to medical outcomes. I will continue to fight to make that happen, building on my co-sponsorship of the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination Act, which would reimburse health care providers who coordinate patients with chronic disease.
Improve health care access in rural Minnesota. If you look at a map of Minnesota, large portions of the state are without any specialist physicians, mental health practitioners, or pharmacists. Rural communities also face a critical shortage of emergency medical personnel. That's why this year I introduced the Veterans-to-Paramedics Transition Act, which would accelerate and streamline the transition to civilian employment for returning veterans who already have field emergency medical training. I will build upon this work to provide incentives for health professionals to live and work in underserved parts of our state.
Support stem cell research to seek new cures. Stem cell research promises to be the pathway for a new generation of life-saving cures, offering hope to millions of Americans and their families. I voted in favor of the bipartisan Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which would expand the number of embryonic stem cell lines accessible to federally-funded scientists who are seeking new treatments and cures for severe medical conditions such as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, spinal cord injuries and certain types of cancer. Under a new Administration we will push to pass this vital legislation.

WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS

English passed the 1,000,000 threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT

Should we care? Evidently lots of us do.

The lucky lexeme? “Web 2.0,” which edged out “slumdog,” “octomom” and “N00b,” a disparaging term for video game newbies.

Learn the buzzwords, the most confusing high tech words, trend toppers, politically incorrect words, and words you thought never existed.

Check out these links:

One good reason to brush up on your lex is to improve your Scrabble scores and crossword skills
Discover weird and wonderful words at Wordnik....

http://www.wordnik.com/

Get all the latest at the Global Language Monitor-

http://www.languagemonitor.com/