Commentary On Kenya McKnight Commentary...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Maybe I could have written this commentary while the previous issue of Insight News was still sitting on the news racks, but one thing I've noticed is there's always PLENTY of copies left sitting on the news racks. And I wouldn't want to leave the impression I just couldn't wait to read the article by Kenya McKnight about Kenya McKnight...no, that old copy of Insight News was stuffed in my backpack, forgotten, and I found it recently while looking for some object. Not sure what object it was, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't a Sharpie marker.

So, months after some fairly brutal election results which left no doubt about the popularity of Council Member Don Samuels against, gee, four other contenders (political midgets one and all, but some were more midget-ey than others) unsuccessful Fifth Ward Candidate Kenya McKnight has published some commentary which, truthfully, would have been better off left unpublished.

In the article, McKnight talks about how her life had been "in a funk" for two years and how she'd "lost interest in everything including my responsibilities to support my life and eventually grew very tired of the world that surrounded me." As I read this article, dear reader, I had to ask myself...

...did I write a political parody piece and submit it to Insight News without REMEMBERING I'd done that? Because I could hardly believe what I was reading, here. In politics it is always possible to reinvent yourself, and the public has a short memory. Kenya could have waited a number of years, kept her head down, and tried running again. And, yes, she might still do that...but this article won't help her. In fact, I think this article will set Kenya back further, politically, than even her utterly unsuccessful run for public office.

Honestly, what voter in their right mind wants an elected official who makes running for public office sound like, well, an alternative to suicide or psychiatric hospitalization?

The fact Kenya wrote such an article is not THAT shocking...after all, a reliable source told me about Kenya's rather quirky beliefs in regard to the Queen of England, and when I asked Kenya about that subject directly, Kenya didn't go out of her way to deny it...so, yeah, I can see Kenya writing something c-r-a-z-y like this piece.

But what surprises me is the damn thing got PUBLISHED. That's what I find shocking. Didn't somebody at Insight News say, ever-so-gently, "Kenya, do you really think you want to say this kind of stuff? How you lost interest in your personal responsibilities so you decided to run for an office of, well, great responsibility?"

But everybody who was there at the Fifth Ward DFL convention remembers Insight News publisher Al McFarlane talking so long at the podium that Kenya McKnight--the actual candidate--had about 37 seconds left to speak. Once again, while taking on the guise of supporting Kenya McKnight, Insight News has done the young woman no favors.

Johnny Northside "Gloves Are Off" Post-Election Analysis

Contributed photo


Walking to Cub Foods today, to buy some cage-free organic eggs, walking around unafraid of street crime, practically skipping and jumping with love for my rapidly-improving NoMi neighborhood, I picked up a copy of a not-very-widely-read North Minneapolis publication printed on overly-slick, too-glossy paper kind of like a porno magazine. Careful not to drop my eggs, I flipped through some old articles about candidates in the Fifth Ward city council election.

"Geez," I thought. "What a crude axe job on Don Samuels. Good thing I didn't read this BEFORE the election, because it would really irk me."

While scrambling my eggs, sizzle sizzle, I found myself basking (yes, BASKING) in the post-election world of FOUR MORE YEARS OF DON SAMUELS, WOO HOO!!!!!!!

How Many Years, Don? FOUR MORE YEARS, DON!

Well, I don't want to be a "sore winner" and go on about the crushed, defeated hopes and dreams of the losers--losers who said terrible, ugly, untrue things about Don Samuels--but those articles in The Sentinel really got me going. And even though I was holding back, even being a little bit lazy and procrastinating, I decided over that plate of scrambled eggs that it was time to do the JOHNNY NORTHSIDE "GLOVES ARE OFF" POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS.

So here we go...

Let's start with Lennie Chism, so Lennie can actually be first at something, for once. Lennie appeared to be playing the role of "bad cop" in this election, saying the kind of mean stuff Natalie Johnson-Lee couldn't say, because lord knows it didn't work for her in the last election. Yeah, let's just leave Lennie by the roadside for a moment, and talk about Natalie for a second (or, as the Sentinel called her, "Natvalie.")

Isn't it about time "Natvalie" found something better to do with her life than run against Don Samuels? I just thank god for heavy rain on election day, so people driving along Broadway didn't have to endure the sight of "Natvalie" holding a campaign sign and doing the bah-donk-a-donk for passing cars. I wasn't here four years ago to see it myself, but I've heard the stories.

In any case, what's the most amazing about "Natvalie's" campaign is that she basically used the same tactics, the same arguments that failed four years before. You know that old saying about fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? Well, what about when you manage to fool yourself twice into thinking you can win? HELLO, she couldn't beat Don in HER OWN WARD after she'd been in office for FOUR YEARS and he was the NEWBIE TO THE FIFTH WARD. So what made her think she could beat Don after she'd been gone four years and CRIME WAS DOWN FORTY PERCENT? That's the kind of delusion which requires more than just a mental reassessment, but may call for actual psychotropic meds. I'm just saying.

Now let's say a word or two about Roger Smithrud. I tell you...

Roger Smithrud has class. And, I might add, good sense. On election night, he came to Don's victory party and reportedly scored more than one slice of pizza after congratulating Don. I picture that scene like something out of The Godfather. First, lay down the Italian opera soundtrack. Then in comes Roger, hat in hand, a terrified look on his face. He approaches Don, trying not to grovel but he's quaking inside. He says, "Don...Don...I don't know what I was thinking, trying to oppose you. I must have been crazy. My no-good slumlord brother, he put me up to it. Please, don't make me meet you at the Butter Roll Bakery. I'll be loyal from now on. I promise. I SWEAR IT--!"

And Don pats Roger on the cheek and says, "Roger...you think I thought for a minute you could hurt me? Roger, you amuse me. It's good, you coming around like this to show respect. Roger, have yourself some pizza. And, oh, hey...I like your hat. Can I have your hat? Thanks, Roger. This is kind of a trophy. I'll put it right next to the brick I got from Uncle Lennie's."

What's really funny about Roger Smithrud is that here's a guy who complained in the pages of The Sentinel about how he couldn't even swing enough time off from work to run a real campaign. And yet his vote totals--minor as they were--still blew Lennie Chism out of the water. And this with Insight News saying nice stuff about Lennie, virtually ignoring Roger.

Oh, yeah, let's talk about Insight News for a moment. This publication did everything in its power to promote Kenya McKnight, including having its publisher--Al McFarlane--speak so long and glowingly of Kenya at the Fifth Ward DFL Convention that there was hardly time for Kenya HERSELF to speak. At times, Kenya seemed almost like the CREATION of Insight News. Gee, I'd sure love to see the campaign expense reports showing who actually paid for all those large "dead tree" ads for Kenya in the pages of Insight News.

But when the rubber met the road, and those who actually SHOWED UP at the polls cast their votes, Kenya had a paltry 15.6 percent of the vote. In fact, she had less votes than 500, the magic number of residents on her so-called "petition" allegedly supporting her run for office.

First of all, this embarrassing public episode shows you what an endorsement from Insight News is worth. Second, Kenya needs to rethink who she lets into her life to advise her and put her up to stuff. Here's free advice to Kenya: go finish up your college degree before you try to run a major metropolitan area. The cringe-worthy misspellings on your Facebook page alone are a good reason to go back to school. And, really, why was Kenya running anyway when she knew the whole thing was rigged by the Queen of England? (Click here if you don't follow what I'm alluding to)

But back to Insight News and Lennie Chism. Insight News praised Lennie as somebody who brought new "firepower" to the contest in the Fifth Ward. OK, so let's talk about Lennie and "firepower." Lennie is a documented abuser of women whose ownership and possession of firearms anywhere in the United States--and Native American nations--is prohibited by law. So the idea of Lennie and "firepower" isn't even legal to have in the same sentence. Is this the kind of "insight" which this publication delivers to the community? Praise for a woman-abuser because their blind hatred of Don Samuels is so strong? I weep for the trees sacrificed to publish their evil gibberish about city council elections. (I will draw the distinction between their abysmal election coverage and their coverage of other stuff, some of which is actually useful and informative though still hardly worth the trees)

Last of the last, let's talk about the mayoral race. Mayor Rybak's tactic of not wasting time on a campaign against fringe opponents paid off handsomely for all of us. The mayor kept this great city running and didn't needlessly waste energy on an election that was already sewed up tighter than a professionally-rolled blunt. (Al Flowers...cough cough) The mayor's opponents were left to stew in the gut-wrenching bile of their own irrelevancy and whine about how the mayor wasn't running a real campaign against a motley grab bag of pity-inducing also-rans.

Mayoral candidate Al "I Am The Community" Flowers predicted he was running second in the mayoral race. In fact, he was third. Way third. When his votes were counted, Al Flowers had four percent. I say again, AL FLOWERS HAS GOT FOUR PERCENT. For those who aren't already familiar with the many North Minneapolis in-jokes about notorious loon Al Flowers, here is one of them: Al Flowers showing up at the JACC press conference, and yelling, "I got FOUR PEOPLE says you was illegal..." Over and over he shouts "I got FOUR people." So when people want to imitate or parody Al Flowers (and people often do) what do they say?

I GOT FOUR PEOPLE--!

Well, what does Al actually have? FOUR PERCENT OF THE VOTE.

Four percent of the vote and a couple bucks will get you a ride on the bus, but that still won't take you to the imaginary intersection of West Broadway and Colfax.

But enough about losers. Let's talk about winning. North Minneapolis (NoMi) just won another four years of unstoppable revitalization. Ironically, the folks who will benefit the most are the ones who were the most vulnerable to the hateful snake oil being sold by shysters like Lennie Chism. Thanks to Don Samuels, jobs and development are coming here, as well as higher-quality housing as slumlords are forced to provide the rental housing equivalent of good customer service. Children who were born into a tough neighborhood might yet live long enough to find themselves in a cool neighborhood, a fun neighborhood, a safe and prosperous place where everybody wants to be. They might take on a new sense of identity and make something of their lives instead of dying on a corner in hail of bullets.

Rumor has it a collective cheer went up inside the election office when the Samuels votes were totaled on the second round. It was like DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD because so many people at city hall couldn't bear the thought of working with Natalie Johnson-Lee. That collective cheer has rippled across our neighborhood, and our city, and as we remake our neighborhood the day is coming when the cheers for Don Samuels will spread across the country and the world. This is NoMi, and the future of NoMi is no longer in doubt.

We've passed the tipping point. We've tipped toward urban utopia.

BREAKING INSIGHT NEWS: Candidates for Public Office Think Highly of Themselves

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman; image from minnesotaindependent.com.

I don't expect Insight News to be favorable to DFL-endorsed incumbent Don Samuels. After all, the paper endorsed Kenya McKnight early on. And that's their right; just like it's the right of Don Samuels supporters on this blog to stake out our positions.

And I'm not saying that an accurate portrayal of this or any other political debate has to present each candidate in an equal light. Could you imagine what would happen if we had to pretend that Roger Smithrud belonged on that stage as a legitimate candidate? What would happen if...I'm sorry, I wasn't as prepared for this question as I thought I would be.

There were two things that REALLY irked me about this Insight article, however...

First off, there were no quotes from Don Samuels whatsoever. Not what he said at the debate, and not his post-debate thoughts or evaluations. As the incumbent, Don's statements rise to the level of being newsworthy simply because he will be the one representing us until he either steps aside or is not re-elected. The statements of an incumbent at a debate give us context regarding what things are like in an area, how we got to a certain point, and what someone's vision is for moving forward.

I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who does not support CM Samuels, and I think of the 2004 Presidential elections and debates. I was virulently opposed to Dubya (although not really enamored by John Kerry). There was nothing that Bush could have said that would have swayed my vote to him. But yet I found his statements during the campaign and debates to be incredibly pertinent and newsworthy. Why doesn't Insight News at least bring its journalistic standards up to the point where even if they won't be balanced in their coverage, they can at least be substantive in their reporting?

Even more annoying though, were the closing statements from each candidate. McKnight, Johnson Lee, and Chism were all asked which candidate they thought did best at the debates. Oddly enough, Insight News didn't ask Samuels who he thought was most effective. It could be that they didn't feel the need to do that after re-posting an editorial full of racial vitriol reminiscent of the ugliness of the last 5th ward campaign. (And no, I'm not posting a link to that piece of garbage.)

So how did the other candidates answer the question of who they thought did best at the debates? This may come as a shocker, but they all pretty much said, "Believe it or not, it's me."

JNS BLOG EDITORIAL: The Usual Lack Of Insight From Insight News...

Photo By John Hoff

The June 29-July 5 edition of Insight News hit the streets and, as always, it's like eating two chicken drummies and calling that "supper."

Your first clue that you won't get much content from Insight News is the part of the paper called the "name plate," where the words "Insight News" are prominently featured. When the name plate of a publication is more than three inches high, (white margin included) you know somebody is trying to fill space...

So, this week Insight News has a story (if you want to call it that) about the National Newspapers Publishers Association, which includes publishers of America's black press.

You would think such an important event would merit some coverage from Al McFarlane (who is, after all, the convention host) but instead we simply have a photo...a really BIG photo...of publisher Al McFarlane posing with some of the convention participants. That's it. That's the coverage. A photo on the front page and a caption. Al is on the far left and, oh gee, the guy on the far left gets his name listed first. That's how it works.

Don Allen of the IBNN blog (who attended the convention) told me the event wasn't publicized very well.

(ADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him)


That's what Don tells me. Well, I can see it certainly wasn't COVERED very well, after the fact. Inside of this week's Insight News are fluffy features like "Three good excuses for having a summer party" and "Retailers cut women sizes to save money" which read like journalistic garnishes instead of entrees. Meanwhile, this blog delivers video of a notorious crack house burning. In some ways I consider Insight News my competition but in a lot of ways...well, I don't consider them competition at all.

The fact this community newspaper is falling flat on its fat, papery ass seems to be admitted between the lines, as one story says, "There were simply too many successful youth at the AAU Youth State Track Meet to mention them all." That same page contains an advertisement from a tire store, a "mortgage modification" business, and a copy shop. In glorious full color.

Honestly, if this blog had an email with the names of all those successful young athletes at AAU, how long do you think it would take me to copy, paste and publish? There are plenty of times this blog puts out more content--by which I mean SUBSTANTIVE stories, instead of fluff and filler--in a SINGLE DAY than Insight News puts out ALL WEEK.

I would strongly suggest advertisers who want to reach a North Minneapolis (NoMi) audience should get in touch with Google ads and find a way to be featured on local blogs like this one. Paper is dead. The internet is the future.

And, hey, it's not like Insight News lacks a website, it's just they're much too wedded to their archaic and gruesome "dead tree format." Every week they put some murdered, violated tree flesh out on the streets, and every week I have to wonder, "Why did they even bother? I weep for the forests." Well, this week is a week like any other. Shed a tear for the ozone, Insight News just hit the racks.

But, hey, at least this week Al McFarlane wasn't trying to prop up Reverend Jerry McAfee's so-called "leadership."

Be grateful for small favors from God.