Has the House Hunter Found a Place Yet?

Houses in Chisago County are plentiful now and in many cases the prices have been reduced significantly. Now that Gas Tax Kalin has secure employment for the next two years I suspect he will want to settle in and buy a house so he can be "one of us" and get homestead credit while paying real estates taxes, as far as we have been able to determine, for the first time in the District he represents. That seems like a reasonable expectation on our part.

Gas Tax Kalin

Anonymous took Freedomwriter to task for giving Rep. Kalin the nickname of Gas Tax Kalin.

Anonymous identifies it as a ". . . name-calling, negative attack approach. . ."

Anonymous Democrat, you should talk to the DFL party leadership about their name-calling, negative attacks, identifying Don Taylor as a hand-picked parrot, a hand-picked blind party loyalist, and a stooge of lobbyists.

Anonymous may have just crawled out from under a rock and is thus not aware of these previous blog posts implicating the DFLers in the very thing for which he condemns Freedomwriter.

Then again, perhaps Anonymous just can’t recognize a ". . . name-calling, negative attack approach. . ." when it is bloviated by Democrats, but only when it is well-articulated by Republicans.

In addition, Anonymous has an excess of chutzpah to condemn Republicans for what the Democrats continually practice. In other words, the playing field is not level, Republicans must play by the rules—rules made by the Democrats for the Republicans to follow but not themselves.

Indeed! How embarrassing (for Anonymous)!

When you get the DFL party leadership to retract, with apology, its demeaning of Don Taylor, then we will stop using Gas Tax Kalin as a nickname. Fair enough? We just made a rule to level the playing field.

A New View On the "Buy-outs" - Evolution to Total Socialism

Probably few, in the short run, will acknowledge it but eventually the hard lesson will be learned that union power has essentially charged American business out of business.

Employers are, for all practical purposes, held hostage to the unions. Unions demand maximum wages and the demands are enforced by strikes or threats of strikes. To the employer the message is: "Pay up or we shut you down" - through the mechanism of the "strike."

The employer has two alternatives - go out of business or accede to the demands of the unions. So the employer knuckles under, the strike ends and production resumes.

The problem, then, is that the product price is so labor intensive and labor expensive that products become so high priced that the company cannot compete with, for example, foreign products produced by cheap or at least less expensive labor. Any number of citations could be listed - virtually nothing is "Made in America" anymore - but, for example, we look at the most current problem, namely, the automotive industry. Vehicle sales have dropped so severely that the manufacturer will either collapse in bankruptcy or have to be bailed out.

So, the unions having killed the "Goose" that laid the golden egg - namely the private enterprise employers that paid their wages and salaries, turn now to the only entity large enough to "bail out" the auto industry, namely, the "federal government" through its ability to raise the "bail" money by way of laying the labor burden upon the taxpayer. That's you and that's me.

The problem is not that the American product is not good but rather it is too expensive to compete price-wise. But to cover their tracks the unions find fictitious causes to blame private industry - "they are producing vehicles that people don't want so buyers are turning to foreign manufactured vehicles." Not true - buyers are turning to foreign products because they are produced by labor that is less expensive and the resultant end price is less.

The back of the private enterprise system has been broken and now the larger resource base becomes the taxpayers by way of the federal government. The Unions having killed the capitalistic free-enterprise system now turn to the socialism of the federal government bail-out in which the government essentially buys out the industries by way of the so-called bail-out and the government becomes the essential employer.

The end result is socialism - and socialism never works wherever it has been tried.

Kalin on Gas Tax

Elephant Herd: At your Friday, November 07 posting under "Labels" we read: Gas Tax, Kalin as reference points for further information.

Here's a somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion - since Kalin, proud of the gas tax he increased, with just a slight change and rearrangement of punctuation it could read Gas-tax Kalin.

From here on our esteemed state representative could then proudly wear the nickname Gas-tax Kalin!

Thank Kalin

A gallon of gasoline is commonly $1.999 today. The price has dropped below the $2.10 per gallon that was a benchmark before the dramatic spike in prices this last year.

It's great to see the price below the $2.00 mark. But the next time you fill up, look at the $1.999 per gallon price and realize it would have been $1.944 if Kalin and his pals had not dipped their hands into your wallet. Because they raised the gas tax 5½¢ per gallon, the price of gasoline is now $1.999 rather than $1.944.

While you are forced to feed the pig, government refuses to go on a diet.

It is $1.999

think $1.944

___________________________________________

Update 11/23/08

Gas is now $1.599

think $1.544

___________________________________________

Update 12/06/08

Gas is now $1.499

think $1.444

DFL Hypocrisy

The DFL attacked our Republican candidate as someone who would be kept in line by the party bosses (see here, here and here) as if Kalin would never vote the party line.

Of course a Democrat would never vote the party line, never parrot the party talking points, be influenced by lobbyists or be strong-armed by party bosses. It’s also true a Democrat never exercises the freedom of the Override Six, but lives vicariously through those Rogues.

Why certainly a Democrat who has voted the majority of the time with the party would never be told to toe the mark. Majority Leader, Senator Reid, was just having a friendly chat with Senator Lieberman, the Independent. Of course this doesn't have any equivalency to the claims made by Kalin's pals.

___________________________________________

News flash: Senator Reid strong-arms Senator Lieberman

Read all about it here! According to Kalin’s Minnesota pals, Democrats never do such a thing.

Time to rebuild...

Many of us saw this coming, as republicans we compromised our values in picking candidates that we thought would appease the many in place of candidates that stood for true conservative values. This landslide was inevitable, I’m not so sure that we (conservatives) stood a chance to win regardless of who ended up in the white house. It may have been worse for us if it had gone the other way. As a veteran and as a patriot, I stood behind Senator McCain once he became the candidate. There is little doubt that he has served our country with honor and has given more than most will ever give. He is a good man and I am hoping that this experience may have put him back in touch with some of the true conservative values that he seemed to have drifted away from over time.

That said, we now begin to rebuild. Where do we look for the leadership within the conservative Republican Party? Do we look for moderates such as Governor Pawlenty or do we swing the pendulum to the far right wing and embrace those who claim to be Republicans but are more Libertarian at heart?

I think that this is the perfect opportunity to rebuild our party, evaluate our platform, set the base and regroup. There have bee too many compromises to the base of our platform thanks to many who thought it best to move to the ‘center’ in order to gain or maintain seats and positions within the various elective offices.

As Ronald Reagan advised many years ago, we need to begin at the local level. I believe that we need to begin at the grass roots and start from scratch. Does our platform truly represent our values and positions? Lower taxes, responsible spending, accountability, and family values, do these sound familiar? I know that the ‘national’ platform has become convoluted by special interest and it will be nearly impossible to repair from the top. Our platform needs to be streamlined at the local level, build it again from the bottom up using the conservative Republican values and ideas that built the party of Reagan.

We have our work cut out for us…..

Do Not Give Up

Conservatives:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair;

annoyed, but not annulled;

struck down, but not destroyed.

Fight the good fight!

Vote for Freedom

Someone left a link in the comment section that I will bring forward in this post. Tomorrow Vote for Freedom. Watch it and be stirred.

This election comes down to a vote for freedom or tyranny.

A vote for the tyranny of more government

Obama-Biden

Franken

Kalin

A vote for freedom and self-determination

McCain-Palin

Coleman

Taylor

John McCain knows what freedom is

and he knows experientially

that bondage removes

personal freedom.

William F. Buckley Fan

You say you are trying to make a point and you criticize us for not responding. Here is some food for thought for you regarding the logic you use here, here and here.

In the picture, Joe the Farmer is criticizing Obama’s spreading the wealth around. You then criticize his criticism. However, your criticism doesn’t answer his criticism.

1. You assumed Joe the Farmer’s criticism. In fact, you don’t know what his criticism is. Earlier I had written, "This "farmer" is making a statement which cannot be fully understood without more information from him." Yet you jumped in head first and criticized an unknown, but assumed criticism. You created a straw man to criticize.

2. You then transferred Joe the Farmer’s assumed criticism of Obama’s spreading the wealth around to all the Joe the Republicans on this blog.

3. You then criticize Joe the Republicans as if they support spreading the wealth around through farm subsidies.

4. You then tell us that Republicans are hypocrites because they aren’t supposed to support farm subsidies.

5. Further, you appear to support spreading the wealth around through farm subsidies because you claim to understand the logic behind such programs.

6. So you criticize us for supporting what it appears you actually support.

Wow! Your logic is stunning. If you can follow the erudition of William F. Buckley, you should not have any trouble setting forth your case logically and cogently. Please indulge us.

Kalin Doesn’t Fulfill His Promise

In a political insert for newspapers for the last week of October, Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) bragged, "I helped create 40,000 new jobs." So where are the jobs?

First Kalin asserted on Feb. 22, "Passage of this [transportation] bill will also result in over 30,000 new jobs every year for the next five years – nearly all from private contractors."

A few days later it increased when on Feb. 25 he wrote (also here), "I am supporting this bill because more than 31,000 new jobs a year will be created by private contractors, repairing and building our roads and bridges."

On the same day, Senator Olseen increased this figure: "This transportation funding package will not only improve the safety of the state’s roads and bridges, but will create an estimated 33,000 jobs per year." After Feb. 28, Kalin’s campaign manager, Wade Vitalis, wrote, "But it is also a fact that 33,000 jobs/year will be created by the transportation bill recently passed by the legislature."

On May 27, Kalin reported, "The Roads and Bridges Bill will invest in our long-term infrastructure and grow at least 33,000 jobs a year for the next five years - nearly all through private-sector construction firms."

In the same press release, Kalin wrote, "We balanced the budget, provided property tax relief, adopted meaningful health care reform, delivered new funding for schools and area nursing homes, helped create more than 40,000 new jobs, and enacted the historic 2008 Roads and Bridges bill" without explaining how he arrived at the 40,000 figures versus the 33,000 figure.

And now he brags, "I helped create 40,000 new jobs."

All this bragging occurred while reporter Tom Hauser took the claim to task on Feb. 19. The link is available here, but the video story apparently is no longer available. We had noted it here.

So where are the jobs that Rep. Kalin created? The unemployment rate is up a half percent since his first announcement in February. During that time span, 19,000 more people are out of work. The Dem’s and Kalin’s claim was unfounded and reckless. By virtue of his promise, the unemployment rate should have dropped.

Life Democrat Style

Spreading the wealth around

by taking and giving

and taking a cut!

Joe the Non-plumber

They call me Homeless Joe. I stay down the road from Joe the Plumber who owns a house.

I’ve never been a plumber, not much of anything actually. I don’t have any REAL estate like Joe the Plumber has, but a judge just ruled in my favor. I can now vote because I get to use my park bench as my address. Send your congratulation cards to:

Homeless Joe
12345 Park Bench
Anytown, Ohio 34567-1345

Boy am I coming up in the world. I don’t own any REAL estate in this world. I don’t own any PRIVATE property, but now I can use a FIXTURE (an appurtenance they call it) on PUBLIC property as my address. So now I can vote!

Yesterday Jo the Paralegal was walking by 12345 Park Bench and I heard her mumble something about a legal fiction. I guess she didn’t like it that she had to rent or buy her REAL estate so she could have an address while poor old Homeless Joe could get one for free in the local park. "Whatever," I said as she continued to mutter.

My right to vote was always there, but I didn’t have an address so I just figured I couldn’t convince the election judges to allow Homeless Joe to register. Then an amazing thing happened; an angel of mercy came by this morning. Jo the Registrar from ACORN told me I could register to vote now that I had an address. She gave me a cigarette and a buck and arranged to pick me up on voting day.

Homeless John came up the back alley just then and Jo the Registrar gave him the address of 12346 Park Bench across the sidewalk, signed him up to vote and arranged for him to get an absentee ballot because he was going to be too busy to vote on Tuesday because he had a drug deal going down that day.

Yah know, I just thought of something! Now it makes sense. Homeless Joe’s vote counts just as much as Joe the Plumber’s does. I heard him protesting the other day to his helper when they were fixing MY public drinking fountain that some guy named Senator Obama wanted to spread the wealth around. Joe the Plumber was steamed. I bet he’ll really be steamed when he figures out I’ll vote for this Obama dude ’cuz I’m gonna get some of that wealth.

It gets even better than that. Homeless Joe’s vote is gonna count for a lot more than Joe the Plumber’s. 12345 Park Bench is just where I sleep. I have coffee break at 12001 Park Bench in the morning and 9809 Park Bench in the afternoon. I have a snort at 12357 Park Bench after supper (I know they're all odd addresses. I'm an odd kind a guy). I’m sure I could arrange all the addresses with Jo the Registrar from ACORN and I’d get more cigarettes and some more bucks. With all my addresses I can vote in the Socialism Joe the Plumber was so angry about. That Marx guy sounds pretty good—"to each according to his need"—something like that. I'm gonna visit a lot of precincts on Tuesday that I have never seen before.

And now with an address, I can build a shanty on public property over this park bench and have some REAL estate and I won’t have to pay REAL estate taxes like Joe the Plumber does. I could build an afternoon cabin too. Oh man! This is REAL living. This is representation without taxation! It can't get any better than that.

I'll see yah later. I've gotta run. I have to find that guy with the little red wagon.

DFL Chutzpah

Below is a shot of a political flyer produced by the DFL in behalf of Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B).

The DFL touts:

Rep. Kalin voted to put an end to members leaving the Legislature to become lobbyists and attempt to influence their former colleagues. (House Journal Page 680, 2007)

And he refuses to allow lobbyists to buy him expensive gifts or meals.

In this part of the brochure, the DFL says with a straight face:

Taylor was handpicked by his party leaders in St. Paul who voted against new rules that put an end to the lobbyists’ revolving door. (House Journal Page 680, 2007)

Now this is certainly magnanimous of Kalin. Wow is he an ethical person and those Republicans are just pathetic for voting against the rules regarding lobbyists!!

It’s true the Republicans voted against the rules regarding lobbying (House Journal, March 1, 2008, pages 680-702, find lobby info on page 702). It’s not too difficult to conceive that most Republicans voted against the referenced lobbying rules precisely because they voted against all the permanent rules proposed and adopted by the DFL controlled legislature. Undoubtedly there were rules that Republicans properly did not like and they had to vote up or down on the whole package. So the vote says nothing about any specific rule.

When the Republicans were in control of the House in 2005, they proposed and adopted rules that also included lobbying issues (House Journal, February 10, 2005, pages 374-396). And guess what. Why so many of those ethical Democrats voted against the House rules! Can you believe that?!! They too must be against all those lobbying rules proposed by the Republicans in 2005.

The Republican rules regarding lobbying in 2005 are very similar to the Democrat rules in 2007. So it would appear that neither party voted against the rules specifically because of rules about lobbying.

The new rule was added by the Dems in 2007 that keeps a retiring legislator from becoming a lobbyist for one year after leaving office. For the DFL to pick out that rule, as if the Republicans voted against that specific rule when they voted against the whole package, is ludicrous. But the DFL leaders are so stupid they themselves got snagged in the revolving door of rule-making while trying to make the Republicans look guilty for doing the same thing the DFLers do. And the DFL stoops to this shoe-bottom level to try to muster votes!!

Kalin and the DFL "leadership" love to play politics by putting politics before people. This is unadulterated childishness. This DFL and Kalin level of ethics would be beat by Taylor hands down without even having to think about it!

Spreading the Wealth

Joe the Farmer's view of spreading the wealth

Listen to a 2001 interview with Obama on redistribution.

___________________________________________

A Response, October 31

Anonymous, thank you for your comments. Here are mine.

I don’t need to know if the "farmer" who displayed this sign is a full-time farmer, a hobby farmer, a part-time farmer or a non-farmer who rents out his land. I don’t need to know if the "farmer" is an avowed Republican or Democrat (he actually might be a Democrat who sees through the Socialism of the American system which Obama vows to intensify).

This "farmer" is making a statement which cannot be fully understood without more information from him. Don’t make more of it than is warranted by its brevity. It clearly is a statement in reaction to Obama’s "spreading the wealth" declaration to Joe the Plumber. And this "farmer" doesn’t like that idea.

Anonymous complains that "Farming in this nation is the most protected economy, and it is protected by redistribution of wealth from non-agricultural taxpayers to agricultural land owners." You know what? I, as a conservative, agree with you, Joe the Non-agricultural Taxpayer. Probably most Republicans in Chisago County agree with you. Perhaps this "farmer" agrees with you. Don’t jump on this "farmer" as if he were your enemy.

I will assume you are a Democrat and the "farmer" is a Republican. If you, Joe the Non-agricultural Taxpayer, don’t like redistribution of wealth, then you need to get together with Joe the Farmer and fight Socialism. Joe the Non-agricultural Taxpayer needs to recognize what Joe the Farmer understands, that Obama is a Socialist and not vote for him.

Socialism is not the invention of a Bush administration, nor other recent Republican administrations. Joe the Non-agricultural Taxpayer needs to learn some history. Socializing farming began under the Republican Hoover administration and mushroomed in the New Deal under the Democrat Roosevelt administration. It’s been around ever since. Obama, as a late child of Socialism, wants to socialize America even more so.

You can accuse Republican presidents for this all you want (of course it's Bush's fault; everything is his fault according to Dems), but remember the Democrats have controlled congress for most of them. The Democrats have been propagating Socialism and have had more than their share in redistributing wealth in the farming sector of the economy, plus all the other sectors.

For starters, I urge you to read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. It is a history of the Great Depression. Read it and you will understand Obama, at least his economic policies. If you vote for Obama, you will be voting for an intensification of redistributing wealth, not just in farming, but in every aspect of American life. A vote for Kalin does exactly the same thing; he will run your life through government worse than it already is.

The Forgotten Man is available at Amazon. Look at the reviews and comments available there. Educate yourself. While far too many Republican elected officials are socialistic, Freedomwriter is correct: Socialism is the Democrat Party platform.

KALIN - The Walking, Talking Fraud

It has already been established that Kalin is a walking, talking fraud who is not worthy of the office of State Representative and he should be summarily voted out of office and replaced by Don Taylor who will bring decency, dignity, even-temperedness and honesty to legislative leadership from this District.

Kalin has loaded up his credentials with things he claims to have done or accomplished or educational achievements that are questionable. He has never adequately explained his supposed years of "teaching" experience and his teaching credentials; you would think he was a full-fledged architect/engineer or something by the credential inflation he has entered into his "experience" claims. He claims teaching experience but does he have licensure to teach as a public school teacher? It is claimed that he is a law school student at William Mitchell College of Law but we have seen no proof of that; he claims to have worn out (varying numbers) of shoes from knocking on doors while campaigning; he claims to have "knocked" on variable thousands of numbers of doors while campaigning - how did he record those numbers? Maybe he had on his belt an old-fashioned Jack Armstrong Hike-O-Meter from a cereal box! Do you realize how long it would take to knock on "thousands" of doors? He claims now to be "on leave" from his supposed "employment" with the Dome Homes or Space Domes or whatever is the correct corporate name of the company in North Branch which is owned by the husband of the late DFL Senator Janet Johnson who unfortunately died in office at an early age while serving as Senator from this District. Has anyone ever seen a pay-check that Kalin received for employment there? Was that a legitimate job for Kalin or was it just a "front" to give him employment status? It would be interesting to see what he has reported on his state and federal income taxes. Kalin in a recent statement in the Cambridge Star claimed that he paid all his taxes and so forth - indicating or implying that he paid real estate taxes (on a property that he doesn't even own!) and apparently only rents or leases or something in the Kost area to make it look like he is a resident of Chisago county - his "residency" apears to be only a residency of convenience.

And now with this latest revelation of essentially a "theft-of-credential" claiming, by mis-application, an earlier commendation from the Governor of Minnesota, to a more recent legislative initiative, which Elephant Herd has exposed, is the "last straw!"

Kalin Fraudulently Misquotes the Governor

Below is a picture of a recent campaign flyer from Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) in which he brags about his accomplishments for Chisago City.

Kalin brags about things he was working on in 2008. He then pats himself on the back with:

"Representative Kalin, thank you for your leadership..."
—Governor Tim Pawlenty
June 14, 2007

Notice something wrong with this picture?

• The sex offender meeting occurred on July 22, 2008, being noted in Kalin’s post on June 30, 2008.
• Funding for Ojiketa Regional Park was passed in 2008 (House Journal, April 10, 2008, p. 9877) and see HF380, lines 31.9-31.21.
• While HF2245 was passed in 2007, HF1812 was passed in 2008 (House Journal, May 29, 2008, p. 13041).

Now how can the Governor make a statement about a legislator in 2007 for some action he does in 2008? Kalin has misquoted Gov. Pawlenty’s words to fit his own time scheme. Pawlenty’s words clearly do not apply to Kalin’s work in 2008, yet Kalin takes those words and misapplies them to 2008. Kalin is downright dishonest.

Further, Kalin makes the Governor praise him on different topics. The Governor’s words are also quoted by Kalin in an October, 2008, newspaper campaign insert.

So Pawlenty made a statement about Kalin on a specific topic in 2007. Kalin then shortens the quote and takes it to apply to completely different topics in a later year. This is a fraudulent and deceptive misappropriation and misapplication of a statement by the highest official in Minnesota government that falsifies the original intent of the Governor’s words.

It is worthy to let another praise oneself rather than touting oneself, but to make someone else fraudulently praise oneself is despicable. Anyone who does this is not worthy of representing us in the legislature. This is self-serving abuse of a respected public figure for his own political advancement. This is patently putting politics before people.

It's time to elect Taylor.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

In a half-page full-color advertisement (p. 14B STAR Weekend, Saturday, October 25, 2008) the slate of DFL candidates to be voted on for election or re-election by voters of this area was pictured and posted.


Under the heading VOTE FOR A CHANGE the DFL advertisement said (and what follows are THEIR words!): Here, in their own words, is what they, the DFL, are calling for:

"VOTE FOR A CHANGE

IF YOU BELIEVE IN . . .

• 
  
  A Strong America


• 
  
  Support for Our School (sic)


• 
  
  A (sic) Economic Market With Proper Oversight


• 
  
  Energy Independence


• 
  
  Green and Renewal Energy


• 
  
  Health Care As A Right


• 
  
  Labor And Farmers


• 
  
  Living Wage Jobs


• 
  
  Equality For All"

The "change" the DFL are advocating with this advertisment is for just the opposite direction we should go - by what the DFL are counseling in this advertisement they are advocating: a weakened America; a further dumbing-down of education efforts; more socializing of the American free enterprise system; the DFL are the ones who have stood in the way of energy independence; for socialization of medicine which has failed wherever in the world it has been tried - Sweden, Britain, Canada are but three examples; and on and on one could go through the whole list.

Protection of Life

The document Freedomwriter mentions is also online here. MCCL asked each House candidate 9 questions that can be found on pages 1 and 2. Their responses are listed, starting on page 3.

On page 3, candidate Don Taylor’s responses are listed under 17B. He answers yes to all the questions.

Rep. Jeremy Kalin did not respond to any of the 9 questions. His silence speaks loudly.

Taylor isn’t afraid to support life. Kalin doesn’t even care to take time to support the unborn. How a person treats the God-given life of those most incapable of defending themselves is a significant measure of a man.

BOLD LEADERSHIP SHOWN BY REPRESENTATIVE JEREMY KALIN

Now here is an example of leadership! Bold Leadership! Exemplary Leadership! Leadership that communicates with the constituents!

MINNESOTA CITIZENS CONCERNED FOR LIFE - (MCCL NEWS) - Vol. 38 No. 9 November 2008 issue provided Legislative candidates and incumbent legislators with the opportunity to respond to nine questions.

Bold leader Jeremy Kalin chose the "chicken" way out and answered "NR" (no response) to each and all of these questions. In so doing Kalin stuck his finger in the eyes of the constituents of District 17b and joined virtually every single one of the DFLers who responded with a "no response" answer!

By way of contrast DON TAYLOR responded to each question. Thanks for your leadership DON TAYLOR! You get our vote!

Reflections on Annexation

Chisago City and Wyoming have settled their annexation dispute. The account of the settlement is available at the Forest Lake Times. Congratulations to Mayor Don Taylor and Mayor Sheldon Anderson and their councils for working out a resolution.

In a county close to the metro area, it is a given that townships will be absorbed into cities unless a township chooses to become a city as Columbus, MN did in 2006. Wyoming Township, because of its geographical location, was ripe for this to happen, even though many did not want it to happen.

It’s easy for residents to settle down and enjoy the rural setting they chose, never thinking that their form of government might change. It’s easy to fail to think that a neighboring city has its eye on township land for expansion. It’s easy to not think about developers wanting to annex land for a residential plat. And if one thinks about such things, it’s easy to put off doing anything about it.

And then it happens. And residents are shaken to the core and instinctively fight for survival of their way of life. There are lessons here for all to learn.

People in townships do not want to lose their identity any more than a city wants to lose its school through a merger with a neighboring district. Yet cities need to expand, which often is not resolved as smoothly as another merger in Chisago County some years ago.

North Branch and North Branch Township merged after a long, deliberate effort of considering the pros and cons of merging. They had foresight and thought about it. And then they merged. Often times it does not proceed that well.

It would be ideal for all neighboring jurisdictions to talk through annexations, but too frequently that does not happen. A city has rights. A township has rights. And the law defines how they can exercise those rights. Using that prescribed procedure, in which an administrative law judge makes an informed decision, is not different than what happens in courts of law everyday concerning many issues. In and of itself, it is not wrong to use the procedures laid down in state statutes, especially when two jurisdictions cannot agree on their own. Those rules are there to handle disputes as amicably as possible.

Sometimes it appears the prescribed procedure is not working because personalities get heated, write nasty letters, act belligerently or make false accusations. That is not the fault of the procedure, but of the people involved. For the October 16th Chisago County Press, candidate Don Taylor and Rep. Jeremy Kalin were asked to respond to a statement: ". . . Minnesota annexation laws continue to be blamed by township and city officials in this region as actually hindering productive town/city relationships." Now that is a fair statement which could illicit a response. However, the Press prejudiced the statement by adding the word "antiquated" where the ellipsis is located in the above sentence. The County Press did not serve well the respondents nor the readers by making it prejudicial.

Perhaps the laws are not antiquated at all. Annexation laws are frequently adjusted, but will likely be regarded as antiquated by any jurisdiction that comes out on the short end in their mind. It would be a good exercise for each of the entities involved, Chisago City, Wyoming Township, Wyoming and Stacy, to individually identify the inadequacies in the law and then get together to compare notes civilly and analyze the process. A joint report would be beneficial to other jurisdictions in our county and elsewhere and for possible changes in the law.

In the midst of annexation struggles, Mayor Don Taylor demonstrated leadership by getting city mayors together to discuss issues. He also started meeting with township chairs to discuss annexation issues to get jurisdictions to talk with their neighbors. That is leadership. It has already borne fruit. In the same County Press issue there is a report that Taylors Falls, Shafer City and Center City have agreed on future boundaries.

Mayor Sheldon Anderson and Mayor Don Taylor have both shown leadership to settle the extended dispute. Both are commended for this resolution between two new neighboring cities. Both councils are commended for supporting the agreement.

In my reflections on the annexation, I have some comments on Rep. Jeremy Kalin's participation in the case. He tells us the legislature established a Boundary Adjustment Advisory Task Force to evaluate annexation policy. That may work; time will tell, but it did nothing for the current case.

He also helped to change annexation law to state ". . . our legislative preference for orderly annexation." That’s window dressing, for it states the obvious.

In his response to County Press questions, Rep. Kalin took Mayor Taylor to task for Chisago City’s decision, against Kalin’s advice, to exercise their city rights in the case. Why would a state representative even involve himself in a dispute among entities that he must represent at the state level? That shows preferentialism and a lack of leadership.

Important Election Coming Up!

This time vote for DON TAYLOR for State Representative for District 17b.

The Risk

In a neat five-panel foldover political leaflet the ACU has posed seven questions prefaced by "Is this a risk you are willing to take?" For any sane (o.k."sane") person the answer is obvious and could be answered with the positive affirmation that "this is a risk I am not willing to take!



Selectively lifted from that leaflet (and with appreciation/apology to ACU) here are some of the comments/questions that are relevant for you to consider if you are thinking of voting for Barack Hussein Obama.



1) (Barack Hussein Obama) "has been endorsed by the extreme left-wing Planned Parenthood Action Committe."

2) B.O. "voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition used for hunting and sport shooting."

3) B.O. is quoted as declaring "The last thing we need is a tax cut for Americans who don't need them."

4) B.O. "was caught showing disrespect (to the flag) during the "Pledge of Allegiance."

5) B.O. "favors giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens."

6) B.O. "foreign policy proposals for America are two-fold: appease and retreat.



Remember - you are going to live under the conditions that develop if Barack Hussein Obama becomes the next President of the United States. The people of Cuba didn't have a clue that Castro was going to be a dictator. You have heard enough about Barack Hussein Obama to make you smart enough to make the right choice. If you choose wrong, the monkey is on your back! You have been warned and forewarned.

DFL Party Bosses

The DFL Parrot Ad and Blind Ad vilify Republican leaders for removing the Override Six from leadership positions for voting with the Dems for the Transportation Bill (HF2800). The vote was 89-44 (House Journal, p 7883-84) to pass the bill.

The Governor then vetoed the bill. The House needed 90 votes to override the veto.

To override it, the Dems needed the 6 Republicans who had already voted for it and none of the DFLers who had already voted for it could depart from their ranks. Plus they needed one more person to vote for the bill to make a total of 90 votes.

In the original vote, 2 Dems, John Lesch and Mary Otremba, voted against it, siding with the majority of the Republicans. Since the Dems needed at least one more vote, imagine the pressure they heaped on Lesch and Otremba. One of them had to vote for it if everything else went right. But the Dems wanted both votes. Otremba had voted against the transportation bill in the previous year.

The DFL can belittle the GOP for demanding blind obedience, as they call it, all they want. But we just implicitly know the DFL demands on Lesch and Otremba were equally great, if not greater. Plus the DFL had to keep the 6 Republicans on their side with cajoling and manipulation to eventually override the veto 91-41 (House Journal, p. 7889-90), with Lesch and Otremba voting in favor.

In the end, the Republicans attempted to keep all party members in line and failed. The DFL made sure they kept all party members in line. The very example the DFL used to claim Republicans are handpicked, blind, parroting followers of "party bosses" actually shows the DFLers are, to use their own language, the handpicked, blind, parroting followers of party bosses. When one is blind, it’s hard to see what is true about one's self.

DFL Blind Ad

The DFL party mailed a flyer as an attack ad against Republican candidate Don Taylor (R-17B) with the theme captured by this picture and [un]developed on the reverse side.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

The DFL claims Republican party bosses demand blind obedience. And since Don Taylor has been handpicked by them, he too will follow in blind obedience. Oh that sounds downright dangerous as if Jeremy Kalin isn't blindly obedient!

The DFL party that is constantly condemning negative ads from the GOP, used an attack ad against the GOP. Obviously they don’t play by the rules they expect others to follow. That’s not new; the DFL party plays dirty politics and continually warns that the GOP is playing dirty politics. Democrats love to condemn the GOP for using the “politics of fear” and then in the very act, use the politics of fear.

The DFL incrimination gets rather old. It is extremely childish, but one expects it from a party full of children who have never matured.

An attack ad, using the politics of fear, doesn’t need substantiation, just as children don’t need a reason more than “cuz.” It is alleged that Taylor is handpicked by state GOP bosses on the basis of footnote number 3 which is a link to the state GOP site.

On that basis, then all the DFL endorsed House candidates were handpicked by their party bosses and the dozens of their local endorsing conventions were a sham. This is the childish reasoning of the DFL, so childish that they can’t even see it can be turned upon them. Nor do they see it becomes an insult to their own grassroots party members.

When the Override Six voted for the Transportation Bill (HF2800), they were obviously not blindly obedient to the GOP bosses. So the blindly obedient message of the DFL has at least six holes in it. The fact that the Override Six were stripped of their caucus leadership positions is besides the point. The point is they were not blindly obedient. The DFL ad designers can’t even select an example that is consistent with their message of blind obedience.

They get farther off theme when they say, “justice should be blind.” Here, the DFL mixes the judicial branch of government with the legislative branch! The judicial branch is expected to administer justice and the legislature legislates what the judicial branch is called upon to interpret.

If they stayed somewhat on theme, they would have to say, “justice should be blindly obedient.” Of course we don’t want judges who are blindly obedient to legislation. With this confusion in the DFL, no wonder we are in trouble. They can’t even do enough critical thinking to write a consistent theme in a one page attack ad. Thank you for wasting so much DFL money on a lousy attack ad. Keep up the great work!

The Non-parrots in the Parrot Ad

The Parrot Ad leads us to believe all Republicans parrot the party line of the Republican bosses. Then strangely, the same ad switches to condemning the Republican Party bosses for punishing the Override Six who didn’t parrot the party line by voting for the transportation bill.

I guess not all Republicans were handpicked by the party bosses after all. Apparently some Republicans can do something original! Thank you Dems for letting the truth slip out. Not all Republicans are parrots!

The ad designers couldn’t even be consistent with an ad theme. Their own exception disproves their own imagined rule. The great DFL thinkers slipped a couple of cogs as they developed the ad theme and then negated it, creating internal conflicts with the ad message. Thank you for wasting so much DFL money on a lousy flyer. Keep up the great work!

Stupid, Empty DFL Rhetoric

In the Parrot Ad, the DFL impeaches Don Taylor with being "Just Another Politician Parroting the Party Line" who ". . . simply repeats the rhetoric he’s told by his party bosses."

Before Taylor is even elected to the House and before he has even cast a vote, the DFL knows that—amazing foresight!

What is their evidence for this charge? Well it’s because he was handpicked by Republican leaders—amazing hindsight!

Of course, Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) couldn’t possibly have been handpicked by DFL bosses. He couldn’t possibly parrot the party line even though he has a two-year voting record, aligning himself with the DFL in the vast majority of cases—amazing blindness!

Applying DFL logic to the DFL, Kalin is "Just Another Politician Parroting the Party Line" who ". . . simply repeats the rhetoric he’s told by his party bosses."

The DFL parrot has a very large blind spot. The DFL parrot spews a bunch of self-incriminating rhetoric.

Questions Addressed to Representative Jeremy Kalin

The following questions are addressed to State Representative Jeremy Kalin with specific answers requested:

In the interest of open-ness in government, which we know you support, we solicit your response, Representative Kalin, to the following questions:

1) Do we remember correctly that you refused (only) the increase in per diem put through by the DFL Majority when you first entered the legislature?

2) If our memory in question number one is correct is it also true that you "donated" the increased portion of the per diem to a charitable organization or charitable organizations?

3) If the answer to question number one is in the affirmative are you still refusing the same amount of increase in per diem put through by the DFL Majority or have you changed your policy and do you now accept the increased per diem in the amount that you initially refused?

4) If you still refuse a portion of the per diem, as described in the previous questions, to which charitable organization or charitable organizations do you donate the described increase?

5) If you make a donation of the amount of the per diem increase to which you are entitled by legislative edict but "refuse" and donate that amount to a charitable organization or organizations do you list the amount of that "donation" as an income tax charitable contribution on your income tax returns?

You have requested that your constituents contact you if we have any questions and so we wait for your answers.

DFL Dodoes

Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) must just love his DFL party for a recent mailer sent out in his behalf. He must be clucking! The picture below is of an innocent parrot hijacked and imprisoned by the DFL and forced to serve their nefarious purposes.

Click to enlarge

Usually reputable organizations add the disclaimer: “No birds were harmed in the filming of this commercial.” Of course, the DFL head honchos couldn’t honestly state that!

The other side has this hen scratching on it that was found in the bottom of their own bird cage.

Click to enlarge

They claim our endorsed candidate was handpicked by state level Republican leaders. Now those are fighting words! They just insulted every Republican in Chisago County who worked through the long process of selecting and endorsing a candidate. They just insulted three candidates who vied with Taylor for this honor.

But how could we expect the DFLers to think the GOP practices politics any different from their own?! How would they know any different? They do it all the time!

They think all Republicans just parrot whatever the GOP leaders say. They can’t understand that "birds of a feather flock together" because each individual bird naturally and freely of his own accord chirps like the others of the same feather. Why they don’t even need a leader to chirp the same way; its part of their nature.

The DFLers have this strange disease (parakeet fever or something) that forces them to look at a flock of individual birds as a class and not individuals. So in the DFL birdbrain, a flock of Republican birds must always chirp as a class, never realizing they are chirping as individuals.

And when a flock of Democrat birds cackles as a class, it is so natural they don’t realize they just parroted the cuckoo. Why they have never ever ever ever voted the party line!

What a bunch of dodoes!

Kalin Got a Little Better Than a Zero

Minnesota Majority looked at the voting records of the Minnesota House members on 43 issues and compared them to the positions taken by Minnesota Majority on each of those issues.

Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) voted the way Minnesota Majority desired 6 times out of the 43 votes for a 14% rating. That’s better than the zero ratings he has received in other cases we have noted, but he still voted wrong in 86% of the cases.

Debate

It is McCain - hands down!!

A Lesson to be Learned

Anonymous retorted in the third comment: "Your comments about putting down a person who is taking time to assist a local food shelter show how out of touch Republicans have become."

In reality, Freedomwriter’s clever little story shows exactly the opposite. But you missed it.

As a Republican, Freedomwriter is very much in touch with human need and the need for generosity. But you judged and condemned the writer precisely because the writer is a Republican and you built yourself up as if you feed the hungry. In other words, as a Democrat, you politicized the hungry poor. That’s your first mistake.

Your second one is that you missed Freedomwriter’s statement: "Hunger and human need is a bigger load than what the little red wagon will carry. Big problems need big solutions." If you contemplate that, you will know the writer is not diminishing hunger, but you are too busy politicizing hunger to notice that.

Your third mistake is your failure to understand the meaning of the sentence: "Wagon was last seen being tugged along in public parades by State Representative Kalin. . ." In other words, Freedomwriter identified your problem and you could not even recognize it. There are some key words in that sentence—parade, public, Representative. These words indicate Freedomwriter was mocking the politicizing of the hungry by a politician.

Why does a candidate for public office walk a parade route? It is to become known and gain votes. There is nothing wrong with that.

Now put a red wagon in the hand of the candidate. There is nothing wrong with the red wagon, but it is serving some function in the parade. It is a prop to accomplish a certain goal.

Now write a letter to the editor (as Kalin did) that the red wagon will be used to collect food for the hungry poor and that candidate has implicitly politicized hunger. At the parade, the absent, but implied hungry poor, are used as props to imply the candidate’s compassion toward them.

Then make sure that letter states those hungry props are children (see Freedomwriter’s ". . . he alleges children in his legislative district still have to take turns on who will eat supper tonight") so one tugs hard on the heartstrings of the caring.

All these props, along with the LTE, point to the savior of the hungry (see Freedomwriter’s ". . . unless he comes to their rescue.") All these props are designed to get votes for the candidate. In other words, the candidate, Kalin, politicized the misfortune of some to pander for votes. And he did it in front of God and everybody!

Freedomwriter rightly mocked the public pandering for votes by using the hungry as props just like a politician uses an event as a photo op. Politicians do not respect the hungry in their need; the hungry are used for the politician’s own political end. Kalin put politics before people, or more precisely in this case, people served his politics.

We Republicans believe in quietly feeding the hungry through any number of means. The hungry do not exist for our political gain. We also know we can end up being the hungry ones. And if that happens, we Republicans pray for true compassion, rather than being used as props by Democrat politicians and their crowd.

Living Within our Means

Candidate Don Taylor (R-17B) has signed a commitment to live within our means as a state.

The web site explains:

The commitment form represents the candidate's assurance that he or she will first seek to cut government spending before ever considering additional tax increases on Minnesota families and businesses. It is a commitment from the candidate to the people of Minnesota, not a pledge to any particular special interest group.

Thanks to Don Taylor for this fiscal commitment. Kalin loves to drain your pocket book; he’s never seen a tax increase he didn’t like.

___________________________________________

Response

In the comment section, Anon1 asserted, "Hold on a second - Don Taylor voted repeatedly to raise property taxes on the Chisago council and as mayor."

Hold on a second yourself! You don’t offer any proof that Taylor raised taxes, let alone raised them after making cuts in other areas of government spending. You owe that much to readers on this blog if you expect us to believe your major premise on which your conclusions are based.

Secondly, you don’t tell us how many times he raised taxes. Once? Three times? Nor do you tell us how much he raised taxes. Was it 2%? Was it 18%? That makes a difference too.

Then too, you don’t tell us if Taylor voted against tax increases, but they would still go into effect because the council majority voted to raise taxes. That is pertinent too.

Fourthly, the pledge does not say a candidate will not raise taxes. Be honest with the wording of the pledge. Your comments are welcome here, but please learn to read the intent of a simple paragraph so you don’t show your illiteracy.

Lastly, candidate Taylor signed the pledge with regard to his promised practices at the state level, not the city level.

We’ll wait for you to give us documentation for your assertion.

WANT AD

LOST, MISPLACED OR RETIRED! One tiny little red toy coaster wagon. Owner: 17b State Representative Jeremy Kalin. Wagon was last seen being tugged along in public parades by State Representative Kalin to gather up food for "the poor."

State Representative Jeremy Kalin has great need for this valuable wagon because he alleges children in his legislative district still have to take turns on who will eat supper tonight unless he comes to their rescue.

In the meantime, until the little red wagon is found and returned to Representative Kalin, any citizen who is aware of people in need should be sure to refer the needy to the county health and human services department, any of the many churches and religious organizations in the county, numerous other civic and charitable organizations in the area all of which will be glad to feed the hungry. Hunger and human need is a bigger load than what the little red wagon will carry. Big problems need big solutions.

Seventeen Seventy

Seventeen Seventy does not reference a particular historic date in the early years of our nation.

What Seventeen Seventy does refer to is the 17 states in which Al Franken failed to pay 70 thousand dollars owed in taxes.

And the mention of Al Franken reminds one of the happy party at the home of Senator Olseen in rural Harris some months back where Franken glad-handed none other than Representative Jeremy Kalin and other DFL notables.

What is the old saying?

Follow the money-trail?

A Distinct Difference

On twelve issues, Minnesota Majority reports on Rep. Jeremy Kalin’s (D-17B) liberal voting record. Minnesota Majority also provides how candidate Don Taylor would vote on those issues based upon a candidate survey. View the results here.

Know Bama = No Bama

Americans have no excuse if they saddle themselves with this Castro-like option. This time around it is clearly "A Time For Choosing!"

Senator Rick Olseen Racks Up a Zero Along with Kalin

The Legislative Evaluation Assembly (L.E.A.) 2008 Report on the Minnesota Legislature shows that Senator Rick Olseen (the Senator for this legislative district -- District 17) has also earned a zero rating along with his counterpart in the House, Representative Jeremy Kalin. (See the blog on Kalin's zero rating also)
What is it with these two -and other - DFL legislators? Back home here they tell folks they are working hard for us but their record at the Capitol where they are supposed to represent us and work for our best interest shows just the absolute opposite? They are "out of sync" with the needs of the people of this district - they talk one thing here and do another thing down there at the Capitol. If they supported good legislation their voting records should not be "in the tank."

DFL legislators seem to have gone absolutely zany "liberal" on everything. One after another shows bad voting records. In addition to Olseen's zero rating we find Senator Lourey of nearby legislative district 8 is also in the "zero" category.

KALIN RECEIVED ANOTHER ZERO - THIS ONE IS FROM LEGISLATIVE EVALUATION ASSEMBLY - (L.E.A.)

Representative Jeremy Kalin (District 17b) received a zero rating from the Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota, Inc. as revealed in the organization's 2008 Report on the Minnesota Legislature.* With this zero rating Representative Jeremy Kalin joins the likes of the legendary liberal extremist State Representative Phyllis Kahn who also received a zero rating.

"The Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota (LEA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established to keep the citizens of Minnesota informed of both important legislation and the voting performance of each Senator and Representative in the Minnesota State Legislature.

L.E.A. bases its evaluation on the traditional American principles of constitutionalism, limited government, free enterprise, legal and moral order with justice and individual liberty and dignity.

The report evaluates each of Minnesota's 67 State Senators and 134 State Representatives on a non-partisan basis.


*(report available for purchase - contact L. E. A. , P.O. Box 818, Forest Lake,MN 55025)

A Zero for Kalin

Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) received a zero from the Minnesota Family Council, meaning he voted against the family.

The Minnesota Family Council ranked each Representative’s votes on 13 pieces of legislation in 2008 that affect the family. Kalin voted against the family in each of the 13 cases, securing for himself a big fat zero.

You can find the legislative scorecard here. The voting record of each Representative is first in the scorecard. The 13 issues are located at the bottom of the document.

Listed just above Kalin in the record is Rep. Rob Eastlund (R-17A: the other half of Senate District 17) who has a 100% family voting record in 2008.

We need to replace the current anti-family Kalin with Don Taylor, a pro-family man.

___________________________________________

Response to Independent and Undecided Anonymous

Anon said: "Can't you guys discuss specific issues, rather than how another right-wing pro-republican website/foundation/think tank rates Republicans vs. Democrats? There are serious issues that should be discussed, rather than the link in this post (Really - look at that table. Objective? Hardly.). . . "

When I point to the scorecards of other web sites, I do it because it is impossible for me to sift through all the legislation to compile the voting record of a legislator. Some people do this for a living and create the databases that give helpful and usable information to the rest of us.

Providing links to the rating of a candidate by various entities is valid. These scorecards are handy starting points for you to investigate more on a particular candidate. Obviously they are not meant to be the be-all, end-all in a debate. I expect my readers to do some investigation on their own.

The scorecards do have objectivity because all legislators are compared to the same standard. The ratings point out the general direction that a legislator takes because they are based on actual votes. A legislator may step out of a voting pattern on occasion and that can be investigated.

So I do not apologize for pointing you to scorecards. Use them and you may learn something. Further, I do not just dabble at the "scorecard level" on this blog. I have written in detail on many specific issues on this blog. Based on the above, my writing is not "empty headedness" as you charge. Go back and read more of my work.

Bringing up a new topic in the comment section is not necessarily a red herring. But the way it was done in the case you referenced, is a red herring. Funding the Positive Alternatives Program does not answer voting against the Finstad amendment. Bringing it up attempts to divert attention from the Finstad amendment. A red herring is a logical fallacy.

You said, "Undecided voters want to hear about moderation." If you limit yourself to moderation, you will not be listening or reading most Democrats. And you may not be listening to "moderate" John McCain either, because his position on the use of nuclear energy is radical to many leftists. In Minnesota it is illegal to build a new nuclear electrical generation plant, thanks in large part to radicals. Get used to reading and listening to radicals; the political and academic world is full of them. I hope you are more interested in being right than being moderate.

Biden Fibs

During the VP debate the other night, Senator Biden said he goes to his local Home Depot. I laughed and remarked, "Sure he does!" He also mentioned going to Katie’s restaurant.

The only problem is Katie’s has been closed since the Clinton administration and nobody at Home Depot knows the Senator. He didn’t think about someone doing a check on the authenticity of his declarations.

Then again, the old guy might be getting forgetful and living in a former era!

DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR KALIN - THAT'S THE "VICTIM" CARD HE'S PLAYING

Don't feel sorry for Representative Jeremy Kalin. Not quite yet! He's using the old political tactic of nice guy being mistreated.


Gee whiz, on the one hand poor "nice guy" Kalin has had to "charge forward through a quagmire of lies, deception and attacks of (sic) his character by the political opposition" and on another hand an orchestrated push poll using such "ridiculously slanted and biased wording (that it) was enough to make a person puke" (genteel Jeremy would not have used the crude word puke - we are reasonably sure that he would have said vomit but we understand that the writer had to use the word puke to enhance his point) In neither of these instances were any "proofs" of the allegations made - they were only asserted.

And of course the two honorable letter writers who ventilated themselves on behalf of genteel Jeremy in the Letters from Readers section on pages 4 and 5 of the ECM Post Review, October l, 2008 make their assertions (that) it was the nasty "political opposition" known by the second letter writer to be the "Republican Party (which) is playing "'slash and burn' politics in Chisago County as well as in the state and national elections."

Two critical points stand out in these two letters: 1) the "quagmire of lies, deception and personal attack of character by the political opposition" were never defined, demonstrated, illustrated, listed or shown - they were just simply asserted without any proof being advanced. 2) the public was not given any proof that such a push poll ever took place - it was just asserted. And certainly no proof was ever given - even assuming such a push poll did take place - that it was done by "the Republicans." It was just asserted.

This an example of attributing malicious activity to an opponent, in this case the Republican Party being the accused opponent, without a shred of evidence to prove guilt and the letter writers themselves become guilty of that which they accuse.

Kalin: Ultrasound

As noted before, Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) says there are too many abortions and the number should be reduced. This is apparently his lame attempt to extricate himself from having to state clear opposition to abortion.

If he really wanted to reduce the number of abortions, he should have voted for the Finstad amendment to HF3391 (House Journal, page 10064-65, 4/10/08). This amendment would have required an ultrasound and audio recording of any heartbeat of an unborn infant scheduled for an abortion. The mother would then be given the opportunity to listen to the heartbeat and look at the ultrasound image.

This would give the mother pause to consider her course of ending her pregnancy because the ultrasound reveals a human being, not just a blob of tissue (see for example 4D images). But Kalin voted against requiring this.

A woman seeking an abortion would be given the opportunity to view the ultrasound images, but would not be required to do so. Thus the decision remained with her. Yet Kalin did not vote for this amendment which potentially could reduce the number of abortions. He doesn’t seem to be very serious about actually backing up his speech with his vote. His voting record speaks louder than his words.

___________________________________________

Update

Anonymous, in the comment section you had a question about the Positive Alternatives Program. It was established by law (Minnesota Statutes 145.4235) during the 2005 legislative session.

Rep. Kalin was not in the legislature in 2005, so he did not vote on its establishment.

___________________________________________

Update

Anonymous, you had not stated your question that specifically until now.

Funding for Positive Alternatives was reviewed in 2008 as part of HF1812. A committee had cut its funding, but it was later restored. In the end, Kalin voted for HF1812 (House Journal, pages 9761-62, 4/3/2008), but that hardly tells the story regarding his vote on funding the program, because it was a small part of the larger tax bill. Kalin was not about to vote against the entire tax bill even if he did not want to fund the Alternatives program.

The real story is told by how he voted on the Finstad amendment, which was offered again in 2008 as an amendment to HF1812 (House Journal, pages 9734-35, 4/3/2008). Kalin again voted against it.

___________________________________________

Update

In my post above, I addressed the fact that Kalin did not vote for the Finstad amendment. In the comment section, Anonymous tried to divert attention from the truth by directing our attention to Kalin’s vote to fund the Positive Alternatives Program.

This type of argument is a red herring, which, with slight of hand, moves one’s attention away from the fact that Kalin did not vote to reduce abortions. The fact remains that Kalin voted, not once, but twice in 2008 against the Finstad amendment.

Kalin voted to fund the Positive Alternatives Program in 2008, but that does not negate the truth of my post. It is rather easy for Kalin to promise to fund the Positive Alternatives Program which is a very small portion of the omnibus tax bill when he voted for the whole bill. It says nothing more positive about Kalin than it says about the other Democrats who are avowedly anti-life who voted for the tax bill, and coincidentally funded the Positive Alternatives Program by voting for the whole bill.

It’s nothing for Kalin to brag about. He knew that funding would not be in a stand alone bill, but rather in an omnibus bill. The Finstad amendment, not the Positive Alternatives Program funding, is the measure of the man.

A Better Use for $700 Billion

Let's forget the increasing size of the bailout and stick with the original S700 Billion.

What else could we do with that $700 Billion to lessen the financial crisis of the banking industry? Hmmm...Wizbang offered a great idea, not to belittle them, but without requiring much effort on their part at all except a little common sense and a few minutes of time on the internet. Here's the link to the Better Plan:

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/30/understanding-70000000000000.php

Basically, what your leaders either won't tell you or are too stupid to understand - and either is a bad choice - is that there are 33 million first mortgages in America. With a $700 Billion charity fund, they could pay $21,000 on each mortgage. How many mortgages have, lets say...less than $75,000 owed on them? Glad you asked. Around 18,785,000. How much would it take to pay off those 18,785,000 mortgages? You guessed it - $700 Billion.

Now, why couldn't congress come up with something like this? And do you think paying off almost 19 million mortgages would help the housing and banking "crisis"?

We Need a Bailout

The national financial bailout has gotten more complicated in the last couple of days. The bailout bill has gone from a few pages of legislation to more than 400 pages, with an additional $150 billion of pork added to the bailout. They sure know how to muck up a mess!

It is now time for a bailout---a bailout of many, if not most, of the Senators and Representatives in the US Congress. We need them to bailout of their positions. It is time for term limits.

Gonna 'Change' Washington huh?

Body count in the last six months: 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago
221 killed in Iraq
Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley.....the leadership in Illinois.....all Democrats.

Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans, there aren't any!

State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County (Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look'em up if you want). Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois.

And he's gonna 'fix' Washington politics? ? ? ? ?

Kalin: Denies Parental Consent

Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) voted against an amendment that would have required a school district to obtain informed, written consent from a parent or guardian prior to asking a student questions about his or her:

• political affiliations or beliefs
• mental or psychological problems
• sexual behavior or attitudes
• illegal, antisocial, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior
• religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs
  

Kalin voted against insisting on parental consent regarding these issues (House Journal, pages 3979-80, 4/18/07). Kalin snubbed the right of parents to give consent before such a serious invasion of privacy occurs.

In contrast, Kalin’s cohort, Senator Rick Olseen (D-17) authored a bill that became law which requires the written consent of a parent for a minor to receive any body-piercing jewelry, other than an earring (Senate Journal, page 764, 03/12/07).

It seems strange indeed that a minor must have parental consent to receive a body piercing, but it must not be required when the mind and soul of a minor are probed about matters that should be private. Probing the mind and soul of a child is far more serious than receiving a tongue ring, for example.

Kalin was at least consistent because he voted against Olseen’s bill (House Journal, page 6720-21, 05/16/07). He just doesn’t believe parents should have the right of consultation and consent in behalf of their children. His vote is very corrosive to families. He stuck his finger in the eye of every Minnesota parent and guardian. Perhaps the fact that Olseen is a father and Kalin is not, lead Olseen to respect parental rights.

We need to replace the nanny statist, Kalin, with Don Taylor, a father who knows children belong to a family and not the state.

INVESTIGATION CALLED FOR - REP. KALIN CAMPAIGNS AT PUBLIC EXPENSE

A full and complete investigation should be begun immediately into the campaign practice of District 17B State Representative Jeremy Kalin for using state paid (DFL staff interns) to promote and further his political career at public expense.

The immediate basis of calling for an investigation is a letter to the editor appearing in the Wednesday, October 1, 2008, page 4, issue of the (Cambridge) STAR Midweek signed by "Matthew S. Bartholomaus, Captain, Army Reserve."

Preliminary investigation reveals that Matthew S. Bartholomaus is a second year law student at Hamline University School of Law and is working in the Legislative Internship Program at the Capitol with specific and particular responsibility to the DFL caucus. Thus, using State facililties and equipment and on State time and at State expense he is directly assisting the re-election campaign effort of DFL State Representative Jeremy Kalin.

THEM DEMS!! They Sure Like Taxes When You Do The Paying!

Be sure you "thank" Representative Jeremy Kalin for the most recent tax increase which went into effect today (October 1, 2008) - the tax increase today was three additional cents per gallon of gas which you will be required to pay at the pump.

Jeremy Kalin and his Liberal co-legislators were clever about it too. They phased it in to take advantage of their expectation that if they did it by "steps" you would forget the previous increases. The tax increase that went into effect today was part of a larger per-gallon increase that was phased in over a period of several months.

Next time the Liberals, Democrats, Jeremy Kalin (they are one and the same - only name labels are different) complain about "big oil" remind them of "big government" which they have created. And you, the consumer, are underwriting!

Kalin Strikes Again

In less than an hour, on October 1, the gas tax in Minnesota increases another 3 cents per gallon. This is on top of the 2 cent increase last April and ½ cent increase in August.

Kalin has reduced your purchasing power by that amount. For every gallon of gas you buy, Kalin has taken 5 ½ cents away from you. When you turn on that pump, every 10 gallon fill costs you 55 cents more. Every 20 gallon fill costs you $1.10 more.

That means you have $1.10 less to spend on your groceries. And oh yes, your groceries will increase in cost because the trucks delivering the groceries have to pay more gas tax to transport the goods to the store.

For every 20 gallons of gas you have $1.10 less to spend on clothes or your home heating this winter. And you had a hard time saving money before this.

And that gas tax will be passed on to you by the tanker trucks delivering that very gas to the pumps. They too will pay the 5 ½ cent increase for each gallon they burn to get the gas to you. This too will be built into the cost you pay for the gasoline, making it more than a 5 ½ cent per gallon increase.

Thanks to Jeremy Kalin, we all have reduced purchasing power.

Let’s take away his ability to diminish our purchasing power by voting him out of office and electing Don Taylor.

Kalin: Pro-abortion

From his voting record, Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D-17B) is pro-choice and pro-abortion. However, he tries to be coy with his statements regarding the life of the unborn. Instead of definitively declaring against abortion, when asked, he says there are too many abortions; the number of abortions should be reduced.

I take him at his word that he truly would like to see the number of abortions reduced. But his voting record does not substantiate his declaration. He voted to provide public funds to perform abortions for women receiving public assistance (House Journal, page 4075-76, 4/20/07). By a vote of 68-64, the House sustained the public funding. Kalin’s is one of four votes that failed to ban the practice.

This was not a vote to ban abortion. Anyone could still legally obtain an abortion of their unborn child at their own expense. But Kalin voted to expend our tax dollars to aid those on public assistance to obtain abortions—so much for reducing the number of abortions.

It would have been a good start to substantiate his expressed desire to reduce the number of abortions by simply withholding your and my tax dollars from funding it. But Kalin did not vote to reduce abortions. His word means little when his vote speaks contrary to his evasive declaration.

STILL MORE TAXES, THANKS TO KALIN & OLSEEN

Add still another three cents to every gallon of gas you pump at every gasoline station in Minnesota starting tomorrow!!

We read a letter to the editor the other day, in one of the local papers, probably the (Cambridge) Star, but I do not recall for sure which paper it was. The letter was signed by a person one might describe as just another "tax happy Democrat" who stated, in so many words, that she was not bothered by such additional taxes for gasoline and that, in fact, she would essentially welcome more taxes!

What is it with you Liberals/Democrats that you love to dish out the dough when it comes as a result of DFL legislation raising taxes?

You raised cain to high heaven when you snickered about Pawlenty's use of the word "fee" (on cigarettes remember?) and you were absolutely righteously right that a "fee" was just another word for a "tax" and that fees (deemed "taxes" by Democrats) were just a horrible thing.

But then comes this added transportation tax burden of three cents more per gallon supported enthusiasticaly by - by - by - oh, yah, enthusiastically supported by Jeremy Kalin who is running for re-election and by Rick Olseen.

Golly, I wish they would have called it a "fee" then you Democrats would have been mad as hornets because, as you know, "fees" are bad but "taxes" are good.

Clearly "ENOUGH" IS ALREADY "TOO MUCH!"

From a distinguished former State Representative, Phil Krinkie, a veteran of sixteen years in the Minnesota House we hear words of shock and dismay and unbelief as Rep. Krinkie points out the absolutely unsatisfiable appetite of the liberal (DFL) members of the Minnesota legislature who continually hunger for more money under the cry "It's Not Enough!"

Put on your thinking cap and absorb the wisdom of these words taken from a portion of a recent release from the office of the Minnesota Taxpayers League.

Quote: "I was shocked while watching the news last week when I saw former State Representative Matt Entenza holding a news conference, standing next to a highway bridge with the claim that the State Transportation Department doesn't have enough money to fix our bridges.

My first thought was that this was old file footage from last year, when the debate was raging over raising the gas tax. But no, to my amazement this was Matt Entenza last week standing in front of a bridge saying that even after the $6.6 billion tax increase for transportation. 'It still wasn't enough.' Just last February the legislature increased the gas tax, the sales tax and auto license taxes to the tune of $6.6 billion over the next ten years.

Despite an influx of billions of dollars for road and bridge construction from the legislature's override of Governor Pawlenty's veto of a massive transportation funding bill, Mr. Entenze and his liberal (DFL) cronies** don't think it's enough. They believe taxpayers should fork over another $2 billion a year for transportation. (end of quoted Rep. Krinkie comments)


** Representative Jeremy Kalin and Senator Rick Olseen joyfully joined in with their Liberal (DFL) colleagues and proudly voted for this massive tax grab. If your purse or billfold can tolerate it "don't worry - be happy" but most peoples' pocketbooks and checkbooks are emptying fast. There has got to be enough people in this District to see to it that a new Representative who will be on the taxpayer's side retires Jeremy Kalin. He's too expensive for us to keep!