First, we all owe Norm Coleman our thanks for sparing us six years of Walter Mondale and six months of Al Franken in the U.S. Senate. He was mostly a good Senator, always strong on defense, and points for that. And points for conceding gracefully now, something Al Franken never would have done.
But let's face it, he made a few too many liberal votes for his and our own good. That's been his style, to reach across the aisle to moderate Democrats, only they no longer exist. He gained nothing while losing the confidence of enough Republicans to cost him the election. Has he learned his lesson, like Pawlenty apparently did this term?
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I thought I'd take a moment to remind you to try to squeeze in the Taxpayer Tea Party on Saturday, July 4, at the State Capitol grounds.
The press release explains it all:
In keeping with the tone of the Tax Day Tea Parties, We the people are gathering to celebrate our independence. Let’s declare the values and principles that have made our nation the greatest in the world! Let’s celebrate Limited Government, Fiscal Responsibility, and Free Markets. Ladies and Gentlemen Let Freedom Ring! The Tea Party Patriots of the Twin Cities are hosting a rally on the upper and lower malls of the State Capitol on July 4th 2009. The event will run from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. Let’s show them how Tea Partiers Party!
I'll be speaking, along with Barb Davis White, Dennis Madden of "Fair Tax" and...well, some surprise guests. I'll have it at that.
For more info - or to help out, or donate a buck or two (because lefty rumors aside, Fox News isn't paying for anything), check out the website.
Hope to see you there!
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Think Obama’s cap and trade plan is bad? MN already has cap and trade legislation and it is worse. Governor Pawlenty signed it 2-22-07. The legislation was bi-partisan and had lots of authors including Senator Julie Rosen (RINO-Fairmont). The bill passed 64-4 in the Senate and 123-10 in the House.
Does the legislation include carbon credits? Yep. Does it include emissions standards? Yep. Are the standards even higher than Obama’s cap and trade bill? Yep. Will the bill drive up the cost of energy for every Minnesotan? Yep. Will the bill improve the environment? Not one single bit.
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In the course of his post on the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran-backed terrorists and the release of a terrorist responsible for murdering American troops, Andrew McCarthy asks four questions:
Will no one ask about why we have released an Iran-backed terrorist who is responsible for the 2007 abduction/murder of our troops (five murdered, four of them after being kidnapped) in Karbala?
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I am going to say for the record that I believe you and the governor have taken the unallotment statute far too far. And in fact I believe it is going to be necessary for the Legislature to change the law next year to modernize the unallotment law in accordance with what other states do.
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DFL gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza thinks that "wind industry and alternative energy will be a source of economic development for southwest Minnesota and the entire state..." In making this statement, Entenza also took the obligatory shot at Gov. Pawlenty, albeit a mild one:
The wind industry and alternative energy will be a source of economic development for southwest Minnesota and the entire state, Entenza said. But the present administration is doing little to lead Minnesota in the development of wind energy and other alternative jobs, Entenza said.
Here's the part that thinking people will question Entenza about:
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Board Votes Down Extension of "Card Check" in Hennepin County
One of the political issues that will soon dominate the news coming out of Washington, D.C. is "card check" (a.k.a. The Employee Free Choice Act), the proposed change to federal law which would, in essence, take away the right to a private ballot for employees in a union organizing campaign.
The Hennepin County Board yesterday had its own mini-battle over a very similar issue. Here's the story:
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Senator Al Franken. Eight arduous months of labor and finally out pops that sarcastic cheesy Saturday Night Live smile. Minnesota's new Senator. He's good enough, smart enough, and dogonit the supreme court likes him. All joking aside, I sincerely wish Al and Frannie the very best as they embark on a wonderful Washington D.C. adventure.
But I'm still perplexed. No matter how you slice it Minnesota's voting procedures invite monkeybusiness. The Secretary of State is deeply complicit with ACORN. The conflict is undeniable. ACORN has been sued in almost every state it operates in, except Minnesota. The unwillingness of Minnesota's trusted leaders to do ANYTHING about investigating ACORN is unconscionable.
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Reminder - Join us this Saturday, July 4 for another Tea Party at the State Capital in St. Paul. Hours, 3-6 PM. You may want to stay for fireworks. For those of you in other parts of the state, go here to find a Tea Party on Independence Day.
A great turnout would be wonderful!
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For those readers outside of Minnesota, we are not all crazy liberals here and Al Franken in no way mirrors what most Minnesotans believe in. Here is what we are like in Minnesota.
Minnesotans:
don't write books with the words fat or idiot in the title
do pay their taxes
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The DFL legislative leaders continue to use the Legislative Advisory Commission as a free press conference to spew their hatred of Governor Pawlenty and his executive branch. They decided to resurrect the Commission this session under the guise of a two chamber attempt to balance the projected state deficit. Instead, they convened only when publicly expedient for the DFL and treated any Republicans at the table like ants at a picnic.
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Political activism at it's best is honest grassroots efforts by people finally fed up with lying politicians who decide to do something about an issue rather than just complain. We have a great example of that coming up here in Minnesota on the immigration issue.
On Saturday, July 11th at 2 PM, there will be a rally held at the Mower County Courthouse. It's located at 201 First Street NE, Austin, MN. This will be the second rally in a month at that location.
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According to Scott Rasmussen's polling, "Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say they are not willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming." Here's more of the details on Scott's polling:
Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say they are not willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken since the climate change bill was passed on Friday, finds that 21% of Americans are willing to pay $100 more per year for cleaner energy and to counter global warming. Only 14% are willing to pay more than that amount.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of all adults say it is more important to keep the cost of energy as low as possible than it is to develop clean, environmentally friendly sources of energy. But 41% disagree and say developing cleaner, greener energy sources is the priority.
Sixty-three percent (63%) rate creating jobs as more important than taking steps to stop global warming. For 22%, stopping global warming is more important.
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Senator David Hann, Republican from SD42 has officially put a toe in the Governor's race. I saw Senator Hann at a recent CD3 executive meeting focused on listening to candidates concerns, where both he and Patricia Anderson gave a brief speech about their future campaigns. His spoke about his reason for running—in large part focused on his concern for the future of education and as he sees it the future of the state which is directly tied to it. Here is his press release from today.
SAINT PAUL, MN - State Senator David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) submitted documents on Tuesday to the Campaign Finance Board forming a committee to explore his candidacy for Governor.
"I have been encouraged to take this step by the depth of support I have received in recent days, and I will continue to talk to party activists and supporters across the state about the future of Minnesota," Hann said. "In the next election, we must engage the public in a debate about the direction our state will take in the coming years. We have to control state spending and lower taxes to encourage investment in our economy. We need to structure our education system to enable all students to succeed and take steps to ensure health care decisions remain between patients and their doctors."
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I have to shake my head in sheer disbelief. After 16 months of listening to whisper campaigns against Hillary (during the "Democratic" Primary) and Sarah during the general election, we are now starting to see the whispers against another ambitious woman politician - Minnesota's Laura Brod. The comments first started showing up on conservative leaning blogs within the past week. While the blog owners rightly pulled the comments down, it was not done before lefty blogs picked up on the allegations and ran with them. Shawn Towle at Check's and Balances ran with it as did AAA at Residual Forces (after digging into Towle's allegations to try to disprove them. AAA's post was filled with a lot of "various sources told me" type comments that led a lot of people to complain and in the end AAA pulled the post. However, one lefty blogger saved a copy of the post and posted it at his site. In all of the comments that were made about the situation (at RF anyway) not ONE COMMENTER had the dignity to condemn the rumor mongers. Not here - right here right now I join with the blogger at Change We Must Fight For in saying what needs to be said....
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Yesterday, in conceding that Al Franken is going to be the next (puke a little in my mouth) Senator from Minnesota, the Minnesota GOP sent out a press release:
St. Paul- Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman-elect Tony Sutton today issued the following statement regarding the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling in the U.S. Senate race.
“Today’s ruling wrongly disenfranchised thousands of Minnesotans who deserve to have their votes counted. Alongside Senator Coleman, the Republican Party of Minnesota has fought to make sure every vote counts and all voters are treated fairly and uniformly. As we move forward, our deeply flawed election system must be dramatically improved to ensure our state’s elections are fair, accurate and reliable.” (Republican Party of Minnesota)
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The Minneapolis Star Tribune supports St. Paul's plan to buy new accounting systems. It will cost about $14 million, and use software from Lawson, a company headquartered in St. Paul. I don't see much to quibble with here, even the price.
St. Paul has been limping along with a Flintstones system while some other regional governments, including Hennepin and Ramsey counties and the city of Minneapolis, are on their second generation of Jetsons technology.
The current systems are 24 years old, which supposedly explains why (per the Editorial):
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The Minnesota Supreme Court has issued a unanimous per curiam ruling against Norm Coleman in favor of Al Franken on Coleman's appeal of the election contest panel decision awarding the election to Franken. The Minnesota Supreme Court expresses no disagreement with Coleman's contention that absentee ballots were subject to disparate requirements around the state -- the heart of Coleman's appeal -- but finds that any disparate treatment was not intentional.
The Canvassing Board (including Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice Barry Anderson), the election contest panel and the Minnesota Supreme Court honorably discharged their respective roles in the post-election proceedings. I strongly disagree with decisions made by each of these bodies, but they performed their jobs admirably under difficult circumstances.
It should be noted, however, that the Minnesota Supreme Court decision gives no guidance to Minnesotans concerned about the prevention of the disparate treatment of absentee ballots in the future. While the decision is not wrong on its own terms, It is complacent in a way that is hard to understand.
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The same weekend a peaceful Christian family was arrested for passing Bibles out during the Twin Cities Pride festival, KSTP reported this incident with Muslim Somali boys caught on camera:
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But unlike way too many lefties the past eight years, I’m not going to disgrace myself by whinging about the results, or chanting “Selected Not Elected!”. Senator Franken is going to be a terrible joke, and the sooner he gets into office, the sooner the citizens of Minnesota can start realizing their error. Hopefully.
But here’s the question Minnesotans (or at least Minnesotans who care about Minnesota and its future) need to ask themselves: how many Minnesotans do you think can actually, correctly explain how this election went from a 200+ vote Coleman victory eight months ago to a 300 vote collective humiliation of the whole stateac?
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The last time the DFL elected their candidate as governor, I was still young.The year was 1986. Since then, pundits have pontificated on why the DFL hasn't elected another governor. Recently, Sen. Tom Bakk asked former Gov. Wendy Anderson for his opinion on why the DFL has had such a long dry spell. Here's what Windy Wendy said:
Sen. Tom Bakk, a 2010 gubernatorial candidate, said he asked former Gov. Wendell Anderson why he thinks that is so. Bakk said Anderson's answer was that [DFL] candidates over the past two decades haven't appeared genuine enough to Minnesotans.
There's truth to that opinion. DFL candidates can't appear real because they'd never get elected if they told people what they really believe. While DFL activists wouldn't hesitate in voting for a candidate that refuses to say no to the DFL's special interest allies, John Q. Public won't. Another thing that John Q. Public won't vote are politicians who vote to increase spending to unsustainable levels.
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If there's anything that Tom Friedman's article does, it's to clarify that Tom Friedman is as clueless about climate change as anyone in the media.
There is much in the House cap-and-trade energy bill that just passed that I absolutely hate. It is too weak in key areas and way too complicated in others. A simple, straightforward carbon tax would have made much more sense than this Rube Goldberg contraption. It is pathetic that we couldn't do better. It is appalling that so much had to be given away to polluters. It stinks. It's a mess. I detest it.
Now let's get it passed in the Senate and make it law.
Why? Because, for all its flaws, this bill is the first comprehensive attempt by America to mitigate climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions. Rejecting this bill would have been read in the world as America voting against the reality and urgency of climate change and would have undermined clean energy initiatives everywhere.
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Via the Weasel Zippers and Say Anything, behold the latest in blogospheric outrage: Democrats refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance! In this case, though, the context actually improves the story. This takes place in Albany, where the New York state Senate remains locked in a power struggle in an evenly divided chamber. Rather than an insult to American patriotism, the Democrats here engaged in an insult to the intelligence of New Yorkers:
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Tomorrow, the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy sales tax takes effect, adding 0.375% to the sales tax rates in Minnesota. I said rates, not rate, because of course, there are many. In Wright County, home of the Albertville Outlets, you will pay 6.875% starting tomorrow. In Minneapolis, you will pay 7.775% for the same purchases, 0.9% percentage points higher. For every $10,000 in eligible expenses, a Minneapolis resident pays $90 more sales tax than someone in Albertville.
Why? Well, Minneapolis adds a local 0.5%, Hennepin County opted for the 0.25% transit tax, and of course, we have the 0.15% Opat-Pawlenty stadium tax. But wait, there's more!
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The unanimous opinion ruled that Franken “received the highest number of votes legally cast” and is entitled “to receive the certificate of election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota.”
Franken, a former Saturday Night Live star making the leap from life as a left-wing author and radio talker to the Senate, planned a news conference later Tuesday and didn’t immediately comment.
With credentials like that, it’s official:
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There is no blogger in Minnesota who has had a greater impact on Minnesota politics than Michael Brodkorb.
Michael’s a friend, a former NARN colleague, and one of the sharpest political minds I know.
And Minnesota Democrats Exposed has been both a juggernaut and a lightning rod for the past five years or so; it’s been a powerful force for transparency in Minnesota govenment; it’s broken more stories about DFL malfeasance than, I think, both the dailies and all the TV stations put together. Naturally, it’s drawn ten blogs’ fair share of ire from the local left; the smart lefties know Michael’s a sharp, canny opponent; the rest of them just bay at the moon until they soil themselves, and then go put up a post on Minnesota Progressive Project.
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To no one’s great shock, the Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected Norm Coleman’s appeal of the election contest and awarded the Senate election to Al Franken. The decision, expected last week, stated that Coleman failed to prove that recounting thousands of rejected ballots would have impacted the final results:
It is U.S. Sen. Al Franken.
The Minnesota Supreme Court today decided that Franken, a Democrat, won the highest number of votes in last year’s U.S. Senate race and deserves a signed election certificate.
The court said that Republican Norm Coleman didn’t prove that a lower court made mistakes requiring a rehearing of the case. Coleman had asked the court to order thousands of rejected absentee ballots counted. He had hoped the counting would allow him to overcome Franken’s 312-vote lead.
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People my age and beyond may remember Chester E. Riley saying "What a revoltin' development this is!" That might be said of the Superintendent situation in the St. Paul Public Schools.
You may remember that Superintendent Meria Carstarphen resigned to head the Austin, Texas school district. Sometimes, a new Superintendent can be hired in time to take over when the incumbent leaves, as in the Robbinsdale Area Schools. If not, standard procedure is to name an interim Superintendent to run the District until a new Superintendent is selected, signed, and takes the oath. Sometimes, that interim choice becomes the final choice, as in District 11, Anoka-Hennepin.
In St. Paul, the School Board named Suzanne Kelly its interim Superintendent, effective tomorrow, July 1. But there's a problem, as reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
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Sorry, just had to post this screen capture from the top of Drudge tonight. Here's hoping the only time he opens his mouth is to switch feet.
To no one’s great shock, the Minnesota Supreme Court has 
