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!

A Vote for Jeremy Kalin has Negative Consequences

Jeremy Kalin is a spender defender. It is just that plain and simple. In two years in the legislature he has not run into a tax that he does not like. We cannot afford two more years of Kalin's happy spending spree.

Political Truth With Humor

Tennessee Republican Party Bumper Sticker:

"YOUR WALLET - the only place Democrats want to drill."

Democrat Failure

Kevin Hassett, commentator, lays the blame for the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae debacle at the feet of Democrats.

He writes,

Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that's worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess.

Read his whole commentary about the mess the Democrats have brought upon us.

IF YOU ARE A DEMOCRAT - - -

If you are a Democrat and plan to vote for Obama here are some things you will be supporting or opposing - no matter what your personal views are - because this is what candidate Obama* supports or opposes.

OBAMA OPPOSES: Federal Protection of Traditional Marriage.

OBAMA OPPOSES: State Constitutional Amendment that Protects Traditional Marriage.

OBAMA SUPPORTS: Teaching of Homosexuality in Public Schools.

OBAMA OPPOSES: Protecting Infants Born Alive as a Result of Botched Abortion.

OBAMA OPPOSES: Private Handgun Ownership.

OBAMA OPPOSES: Reducing U. S. Dependence on Foreign Oil.


*source: AFA 2008 Presidential Race Voter Guide - wwwAFA.net

The Truth Will Out! No,The Truth IS Out!

Thanks to a North Branch Democrat letter writer who "got it right" in a letter to the Editor about Representative Jeremy Kalin published in the (Cambridge) STAR, page 4, Saturday, September 20, 2008. We thank the letter writer ever so much for his insightful commentary.

The Democrat writer said in succinct fashion in the opening paragraph of the letter exactly what we have been trying to point out for some time. And sometimes we have used a lot more words to make the point! So, thanks friend!

And here, in his very own words, is what the Democrat letter writer said in the very first paragraph: "Sorting truth from fiction at election time may take a little effort, but it is easy to discover regarding our local Representative Jeremy Kalin."

Oh, boy, is it ever "easy to discover truth from fiction regarding Representative Jeremy Kalin."

The Heartland..Random thoughts on a drive

I drove my daughter back to college across the heart of Minnesota farmland today. The incredible beauty of the farmland, swaying wheat setting off the beans, hayfields gone yellow. A lot of driving across this quietly beating heart of our country. Random thought: this is a place Obama will never understand. These are the people who are expected to be the donors for his economic largesse. The occasional Obamination sign springs up, fewer here than in the college town I just left..my daughter has been warned not to admit her political inclinations on the campus after careful grilling by a concerned student was shocked by her "freshman" honesty of blurting out " I'm Republican". Only after explaining its the economy dummy, was she allowed to have a marginal reprimand, but warned that there are only 4 of you here, and it might not be safe. You are nice, so be quiet.

I admit to becoming irrate with a neighbor who has voted socialist, whoops, democratic, all her life. When showed what her shining knights capital gains will do to her plans to downsize, she almost fell off her chair. She never questioned straying from the party from college years on. Apparently the indoctrination from school years on is so insidious, even intelligent people are missing it.

My beautiful daughter asked why schools are so entrenched in the welfare state mentality. She has read Rich Dad Poor Dad...a great read for high school kids and up...I reminded her that the authors dad is a professor. These people never leave the womb, safe and warm from kindegarten, attached to the breast that continues to feed them just enough to keep them latched on into their not quite comfortable golden years. Secure in the knowledge that they will be taken care of, maybe not richly, but comfortably...just enough to chafe at their own inadequacy at moving on, surrounded by the kids they hope will emulate them. Of course they are democrats, they have been entrenched in the socialist way of life, for life.

It was very funny to see the light go on, as she said the only professor she has ever heard admit he was a Republican, worked full time for a major corporation, before coming to teaching part time in a subject he loved. He was so disgusted with the hierarchy and political correctness that he is most likely gone by now. The left, party of compassion, heart and largesse, shows not tolerance for opposition. The feeding frenzy is immediate and intense.

She is one of the hopes for our national future. She is sickened by this election process, the name calling, no facts, sound bites but no true positions. She is young, and sees the hollowness of the born and groomed icon of the socialist party..but she also is upset that our party does not just stick to the issues..The name calling, the sound bites..she would like to see us act like the grown ups and take the high road, give the facts...show that someone can actually walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

Understanding Palin

Here are three articles that give a perspective on Sarah Palin: one by William Katz, one by Ralph Peters and one from England. The Left is panic struck.

The Monkey Is On Your Back!

Out of the November 4th general election only one will win - either Jeremy Kalin or Don Taylor. Kalin has had his chance and failed us miserably.

Think of how Kalin has failed you and the other voters of this District the next time you pump forty or fifty dollars into your gas tank on your way to your work - thanks in no small part to Jeremy Kalin.

Think how Jeremy Kalin has failed the voters of this District (this STATE!) because he gladly signed on to the flawed Transportation bill which passed with Jeremy's help in the last legislative Session.

And Jeremy is ready and quite willing to tax you more next time if he gets another chance! The next election is a "pocket-book" event and the outcome rests with the monkey that is on your back.

When these thoughts enter your mind that's when you need to think, too, of the power you have in your hands when you vote on November 4th. Go for it!

SENATOR RICK OLSEEN AND REPRESENTATIVE JEREMY KALIN ARE THE ISSUE!!

Message to Voters of District 17a & b: Don't be side-tracked by the political antics of North Branch's most embarrassing DFL'er. You ought not waste your time arguing with him or criticizing him for his political extremism and verbal excesses. He has made such a public fool of himself, over time, with his outbursts of irrationality, that he has absolutely no credibility politically, intellectually, educationally, religiously, socially and civilly wherever he is heard or read. Check it out with readers of the local papers - they'll tell you his name. I won't pile on him. I don't need to do that.

It is important that you as a voter stick to the issues. The issue in this political District is not North Branch's most embarrassing DFL'er - he is not running for office. Let him go. Let him continue to make a fool of himself.

What we as voters in this legislative District must concern ourselves with is the grossly - I say grossly - incompetent representation we have in the legislature in the person of our Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin.

Kalin and Olseen are the ones that ought to be the object and subject of our concern. They ARE the issue. These two are the pair who vote for us in St. Paul. Kalin and Olseen are the ones who help to raise our taxes by the votes they cast. Kalin and Olseen are the ones who restrict our freedom by the bills they introduce and the laws they pass or help to pass.

Pick up any of the local papers you want and you will find that other people are having to "cover" for our State Representative and our State Senator with letters to the editor manufacturing phrases of praise and dodging the damages they have done with the positions they take and their lock-step commitment with the Liberal extremist DFL leaders in the legislature and the special interest groups and organizations that support and fund Kalin and Olseen.

Election day is not far ahead of us. This time around, for the sake of all of us, we need to "retire" Representative Jeremy Kalin and get the kind of representation that will do us all some good by replacing Kalin with Don Taylor as the new representative from District 17b. Your future is in your vote!

DFL (Kalin) Tax Increase or A November 4th Surprise!

Quibble it if you will and if you want to fight facts - but here's what you face as you go to the ballot on November 4th - thanks to that nice, well-groomed, friendly State Representative named Jeremy Kalin who tells you he always "puts people before politics."

The "facts" are contained in an information piece produced by the "NO CONSTITUTIONAL TAX INCREASE COMMITTEE" - a "grassroots organization committed to you, the taxpayer . . . ." (http://www.nosalestaxincrease.org/)

Here's what that Committee shares with you: "Why is the Constitution being amended to increase taxes? The tax increase on the ballot didn't start out as a tax increase at all.

Initially the idea was to dedicate a portion of the existing sales tax to environmental conservation programs only.

But that plan proved unpopular with liberal (DFL) legislators who didn't want to divert current sales tax revenue to rural envronmental programs.

So instead they are asking voters to increase the state's sales tax by an additional 3/8 of a percent . . . . . ."

"It doesn't sound like much, but 3/8 of a percent on top of one of the highest sales tax rates in the country (6.5%) is projected to increase tax revenue by over $275 million per year. Over 25 years that's over $11 billion total."

Ask Representative Jeremy Kalin how he voted on that one.

And then, as always, check Jeremy's voting record! It pays, you know, to follow the advice contained in Ronald Reagan's famous comment: "Trust but verify!"

See if Jeremy "Put People Before Politics" on this one!" Unless, of course, you are like some DFLers, including some locals, who have money burning in their pocketbooks and who think they aren't already taxed enough and want to add to the State's coffers!

Republican Delegates

Mr. Walz’s LTE in the Post Review is a rich mine, so let’s dig in again.

He wrote:

The real tragedy, of course, is that McCain did not address the real issues in his acceptance speech: the recession, racism, health care or the environment. Of course he was speaking to mostly white millionaires (more than half of the delegates earned $500,000 or more and there were almost no people of color, far fewer than previous years).

Walz opines, "Of course he was speaking to mostly white millionaires. . ." Those Republican delegates are just filthy rich people! How awful! He explains parenthetically, ". . . more than half of the delegates earned $500,000 or more. . ." I guess this is bad too. Walz did not state a time period during which more than half of the delegates earned $500,000.

So where did Walz get his facts? He couldn’t bother to tell us.

By doing a simple Google search, I think I found the data which Walz is referencing. It is data attained from a poll of Republican delegates to the national convention.

The article states the results of the poll:

Thirty-four percent say their net worth is over $1 million. . . .Seventeen percent say their net worth is between $500,000 and $1 million, while 32 percent estimate their net worth under $500,000.

Adding 34% and 17% gives 51% of Republican delegates who say their net worth is more than $500,000. So Mr. Walz is half right. He said, ". . . more than half of the delegates earned $500,000 or more. . ." That half is wrong. In order to have a net worth of more than $500K, one must earn much more than that. So Mr. Walz didn’t paint the terrible Republicans as bad as he should have. Why those GOP folks had earned more than a million to have a net worth of $500K!

Now Mr. Walz, think about this for a couple of seconds. It’s great that these Republicans have earned so much because they have paid bushels of taxes to support your poor Democrat friends. Without these rich millionaires, you poor Dems couldn’t feed, clothe and shelter your own folks. So you should be happy we make so much money.

Secondly, what’s wrong with you Donkeys that you can’t make as much as Elephants?

Or is it that you make as much as us but don’t know how to conserve what you make because you aren’t conservatives? That must be it. You don’t conserve the money; you liberally give it away to charity so you don’t have much left. Cough. Cough. The polls don’t show that either.

In reality, a net worth of $500K isn’t all that much nowadays. Back in the ’50s a millionaire had some substance to himself. A millionaire today is worth about a tenth of that. A $100,000 might buy half a house these days. By the time a person adds together his $200,000 house, its furnishings, a couple of cars, a boat, snowmobile, some other trinkets, his 401k plan, etc., average people in their fifties and sixties have half a million.

I wouldn’t hesitate to conjecture that Mr. Walz has his half a million net worth. And if he does, that makes him a hypocrite (tongue in cheek!).

Oh, and while Walz was castigating Republican delegates for having so much, he forgot to tell us something. Thirty-four percent of Republican delegates have a net worth of more than a million. And the same article says, "Twenty-two percent of the Democratic delegation has a net worth that high (1 million)." For every hundred delegates, the Democrats are just 12 people behind the Republicans.

Apparently these are unenlightened Dems who have not yet seen the light to give away their money. Walz doesn’t want you to know about them.

Now the Democrats and Republicans have the same opportunities in life. Why does the donkey party have less millionaires than the elephant party? The same article probably has the answer: ". . . 24 percent [of the GOP delegates] say they considered themselves Democrats at one point."

One out of every four Republican delegates once was a Democrat. It must be that as these erstwhile Democrats accumulated their net worth they began to see the Dems keep taking more and more of their hard-earned dollars away from them. They, being greedy Democrats, devised a plan. They switched to the Republican party and promoted less taxation and less spending so they could get richer. That’s why there are less millionaire donkeys. Without this catastrophic shift, the two parties would have about the same number of millionaires.

And there goes Mr. Walz point about Senator McCain "speaking to mostly white millionaires."

McCain and Palin Visit

Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin will be in the Twin Cities on Friday, September 19.

You can click here for the details, to register and print your free tickets. They will be at the Anoka County airport, conveniently for us, on the north side of the metropolis.

You can see the lady who drives donkeys mad. In their backhanded way, the liberals have been telling us how good Sarah is. Why she is so good that Obama is running against her!

Hypocrisy: Part 2

In a letter to the editor of the Post Review, Robert Walz, wrote:

It is a bit strange that the party that promotes "family values," doesn’t walk its talk. Neither McCain nor his running mate, Sara [sic] Palin are good examples. McCain cheated on his first wife, obtained a marriage license for his second before his divorce was final, and then used her family wealth and connections to win a "safe" Republican seat in a state he had never lived in. Sara [sic] Palin, a former Catholic, like her daughter, was pregnant before she married (her first son was born less than nine months after she eloped).

Do they represent wholesome family values? Is the "shotgun" wedding for her 17-year old daughter in anyone’s best interest? How about the DUI her husband got?

Not walking one’s own talk makes one a hypocrite. That is true. However, in his LTE, Walz leads us to believe that hypocrisy is worse than the act that violates walking the talk.

Follow what he says. His paragraph is framed by its first sentence that speaks of not walking the talk. He illustrates this with examples from McCain’s and Palin’s life, who are framed as hypocrites. Their misdeeds make them hypocrites, which is worse than their misdeeds.

Walz isn’t really concerned about the Palins’s fornication or drunkenness or McCain’s cheating on his wife (which countless Democrats do). Those misdeeds are important to identify them as not walking the talk and therefore being hypocrites. In other words, if the Palins and McCain didn’t have the talk, they would not be dastardly hypocrites.

This reasoning makes hypocrisy the significant fault and downplays the misdeeds as insignificant. Walz knows Palin’s husband’s DUI, her daughter’s fornication and her own supposed fornication do not disqualify Sarah Palin from being VP. But hypocrisy assuredly disqualifies her, he thinks.

Walz’s insistence that others must walk their talk implies that a person should never talk about pursuing a virtuous walk in order never to be identified as a hypocrite. Walz’s approach honors those who sin without hypocrisy and dishonors those who preach the pursuit of virtue and end up sinning. How despicable!

In contrast, we should preach what is worth practicing precisely because we do not always practice what is worth practicing. None of us has ever met a person who fully practices what he preaches. And many repent of it when they fail.

Furthermore, if someone can truly and fully practice what he preaches, he isn't practicing anything worth preaching.

One who sins non-hypocritically will never inspire moral excellence in others, but a hypocrite who repents, will. Walz doesn’t allow for Sarah Palin’s repentance; she must forever be a hypocrite.

Hypocrisy

In a letter to the editor of the Post Review, Robert Walz, wrote:

It is a bit strange that the party that promotes "family values," doesn’t walk its talk. Neither McCain nor his running mate, Sara [sic] Palin are good examples. McCain cheated on his first wife, obtained a marriage license for his second before his divorce was final, and then used her family wealth and connections to win a "safe" Republican seat in a state he had never lived in. Sara [sic] Palin, a former Catholic, like her daughter, was pregnant before she married (her first son was born less than nine months after she eloped).

Do they represent wholesome family values? Is the "shotgun" wedding for her 17-year old daughter in anyone’s best interest? How about the DUI her husband got?

This is typical Democrat rant about the Republican Party of family values being full of hypocrites who should not be in political office because they don’t practice family values which they preach. Let’s start to analyze Robert Walz’s reasoning.

Walz wants us to conclude that McCain and Palin are hypocrites because they talk about family values but don’t walk that talk. However, he doesn’t actually say that. Rather he says, "It is a bit strange that the party that promotes 'family values,' doesn’t walk its talk" (my emphasis). He implicates McCain and Palin by implicating the party—the political party is a hypocrite. This is the old "guilt by association" argument—a person is guilty because the party is guilty.

While McCain and Palin are guilty because the party is guilty, Walz knows the party is guilty because his two examples, McCain and Palin, are guilty. This is circular reasoning.

By his standard of guilt by association, Mr. Walz would be self-condemned. Consider, if Walz is a member of an organization that avows a certain standard of behavior and Walz does not act accordingly, then, by his own measuring stick, he too would be a hypocrite. I doubt he would like to be implicated personally on the basis of that organization’s failure to abide by its own standard.

Second, a person’s own stated standards are a measure by which a person should be judged. A person may be a hypocrite if she violates her own standards. Walz assumes Sarah Palin was pregnant prior to eloping (which he himself cannot prove). And he assumes that as a young person, she held the standard that premarital pregnancy is wrong. Only then can she be regarded as a hypocrite. Walz is claiming to know two pieces of information that he actually cannot know to be fact.

We do not need to excuse McCain’s or Palin’s behavior. However, we should identify Walz’s behavior for what it is. It is actually hypocritical of Walz to apply his two standards to others which he would hate to be applied to himself. By his own measure of guilt by association, he would certainly be a self-condemned hypocrite many times over.

And by his own measure of assumed personal standards, anyone could insist that Walz holds to a standard of personal behavior without proof and all departures from that assumed standard would be regarded as hypocritical.

None of us ever wants to be judged by the measures which Walz has condemned McCain and Palin and her daughter. Indeed, he would not either.

Praise If Earned - Criticism If Due

Ponder well the following news item on abortion quoted IN CAPS from Baptist Press News Service followed by its applicability to our two local legislative "voters-on-our-behalf " namely, Senator Rick Olseen and Representative Jeremy Kalin as their views and actions fit into this timely topic in the Minnesota venue:

"UNLESS SHE HAS A PARENT'S PERMISSION, A TEEN-AGE GIRL IN CALIFORNIA CAN'T GO ON A SCHOOL FIELD TRIP; SHE CAN'T GET A BODY PIERCING; CAN'T GO TO THE TANNING SALON AND CAN'T EVEN GET AN ASPIRIN FROM THE SCHOOL NURSE."

Quite a list of "protections" built in by society is it not?

Yet with reference to the most important possession in life - life itself - the same girl, on her own initiative or somebody else's counsel, is guaranteed the "right" to destroy (abort) the separate life living within her and to subject the girl to the life-threatening risks to her own life from the abortion procedures.

And no one - not even her parents - can stop her because the parents are taken totally out of the picture! Surely that is not the society we wish to foster in Minnesota.

Maybe it stretches hope and credulity to think that Senator Olseen tilted his windmill in the right direction by getting a bill signed into law by Governor Pawlenty on May 21, 2007 imposing restrictions on "body piercing" under a certain age.

But even with that as a very charitable interpretation or hopeful sign of progress toward moral insight by Senator Olseen nevertheless a ghoulish irony leaps out.

Senator Olseen would, by law, restrict a minor's relatively minor act of permitting the piercing of a part of the human body for the purpose of attaching decorative ornamentation because of the "risks" involved in "piercing" while giving free reign and absolute permission for abortion providers to rip into her body and destroy a developing person.

Representative Kalin, as far as can be determined by available records, evidently is solidly pro abortion.

These two legislators have a lot of explaining to do to justify their stand on abortion.

A Milestone Worth Celebrating

As of 10:00 p.m. on September 10, 2008, this blog received its ten thousandth hit. That is cause for celebration. We never dreamed of this a year ago.

On June 16, 2007, continuous posting began at this blog. Since then a total of 460 posts have been made by a handful of contributors.

Some posts don't take much time to create, but countless hours are poured into drafting others. It takes considerable time to research issues and document facts. Then putting the information together in a concise, readable post takes more time.

We are just your average, run-of-the-mill neighbors, but we try to be good writers who improve our writing capabilities. We are not professional journalists and don't pretend to be. But we all like writing for you, our readers.

We contributors are women and men, younger and older, diverse in employment, interests, religion and education, and from all over Chisago County. Yet we have a common interest in life--conservatism, which we try to foster through this medium.

We are biased writers who are comfortable with our slant on life. We have a conservative slant on life and want you to come join us. We are convinced conservatives. By that I mean we have thought about our prejudices and presuppositions.

From this starting point, we write opinion and commentary, with an intent to convince you or at least make you think, knowing that we frequently are not up to that task.

Thank you to my fellow contributors who have made this blog a success. Ten thousand hits is a significant milestone even though it falls far short of countless other blogs.

Thanks to our readers, for without them, this blog would shrivel and die. Our readers are from all over the United States and around the world. They are only a click away, which is not any farther away than clicking from Chisago County, Minnesota, USA.

Congratulations to the Chisago County Republican Blog and all who make it what it is.

And now we welcome your comments.

DFL Example of Farcical Bi-partisanship

Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin crow fairly frequently about ending the legislative session "on time."

Well and good. But read what the Session Weekly*, a Minnesota House publication has to say about that:

"When House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL Minneapolis) dropped the final gavel on the 2007 legislative session at midnight on May 21, one thing was clear: it hadn't been a pretty ending." (italics added for emphasis)

Continuing: "Unfortunately not much else was clear."

"For the first time in eight years, legislators had finished the state budget on time - albeit not without Democrats using a series of unusual procedural maneuvers on the House floor effectively silencing the Republican minority long enough to pass the last remaining budget bills before the deadline. (italics and bold print added for emphasis)

So much for "bi-partisanship" ala Olseen and Kalin and the Democrats in the Minnesota legislature!

*source: Session Weekly, vol. 24, number 21 - June 1, 2007

Sarah Palin Defended

Liberal, libertarian Camille Paglia has a superb piece on Sarah Palin. Here are a few enticements to read her long article.

When liberals come off as childish, raving loonies, the right wing gains. I am still waiting for substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is a dangerous extremist.

....Frontier women were far bolder and hardier than today's pampered, petulant bourgeois feminists, always looking to blame their complaints about life on someone else.

....Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion.

....But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.

She Wrote the Book

Source

Faith and Politics

Over at the Hometown blog, Matt Perkins expresses himself, clearly stating he doesn’t like Gov. Sarah Palin’s religious views. (Please read his post.)

In fact he derides her as some undesirable, unrespectable, dangerous radical. In every paragraph, he belittles her faith. He derides her belief that God created the universe, that he has an interest in his creation, that he has a plan for it or that he directs its destiny. I guess that about covers it!

By condemning Palin, he condemns her church in Wasilla, AK. He derides ". . . the 5-15% of people who truly believe in that. . ." With his broad brush, he implicates Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and numerous others who have theistic world views.

Perkins implicates Benjamin Franklin who urged the Continental Congress to pray to God for guidance when he demeans those who ". . . believe that God guides political actions and decisions."

The US Congress and State Legislatures thus would come under attack for their daily opening prayers asking God to guide the actions, thoughts and decisions of those august bodies. He implicates our founding fathers for their efforts to establish a governmental framework that would protect the right to worship or not worship God as a person chooses, without fear of reprisal. And those same founding patriarchs worked inside that constitutional arrangement without hesitating to believe that God directs the affairs of men.

But somehow Senator Obama’s expressions of faith are apparently OK.

And then Perkins has the audacity to say, "Even if God did exist I don’t think he would want us to be so dependent on him." So who gives the right to Perkins to say what God would want?

While Perkins derides Palin's faith, he fails to realize that he too has faith. Perkins’s view is a faith belief just as much as he thinks Palin’s is. Perkins believes something, just as Palin believes something. He believes either God does not exist (atheism) or he believes he cannot know God exists (agnosticism). In either case, that is a religious belief just as much as theism is a religious belief.

His atheistic or agnostic faith is a philosophy, a world view, a religion, just as ardently and dogmatically held as any theistic view. But Perkins presents himself as if he is above faith, while calling Palin’s faith into question, thinking he is on high ground. Perkins cannot prove his faith so he is not on any better ground than he thinks Palin is.

Perkins has no idea that he is a man of faith, that he cannot prove his faith and that he is just as suspect and radical as he thinks Palin is. Perkins has no idea that his faith permeates and informs all of his beliefs, including politics, just as much as Sarah Palin’s faith does.

Nor does Perkins realize he acts like a "clingy girlfriend" when clinging to his unrecognized faith.

I just don't get it.....

One of my very closest friends is a liberal. A dyed in the wool labor party liberal. I don’t have a problem with his opposing views and I actually love to hear them. I believe it is important to hear all sides of an argument and often the viewpoints of polar opposites have valid arguments.

My friend considers himself to be a proud American and a dedicated citizen of our country and that I would not argue nor would I question. One of the things that I am finding hardest to understand is the blind ignorance regarding this election. My friend (who is also a devoted catholic, very strange considering his views on abortion but that is another topic for another day!) makes the it very clear that he would vote for Satan himself as long it was a vote cast in favor of a democrat and not a republican.

This ignorance of the obvious has me perplexed. I fail to understand how lower taxes, less government, preserving social security, maintaining our position as the world’s only superpower, and making the country a better and safer place for the next generation fails to resonate with all Americans, democrats and republicans alike.

These hollow claims of ‘change’ from the Obama campaign are based on absolutely no prior experience to back them up. Senator Obama has been very careful while in the senate to leave no paper trail or voting record in his path. The fact that the senator voted ‘ present’ on nearly every vote cast indicates that his ability make a decision on a subject of matter is highly suspect.

John McCain has proven himself in every arena to be of the moral character that makes great leaders. He will truly serve his country (us) with the best of intentions and with a mind to preserve what our founding fathers sought to perfect and preserve those long years ago. The United States is the greatest country on this planet and John McCain will be the leader we can all count on to clean things up in Washington.

I pledge allegiance!

Unbelievable, the difference between listening to two people, willing to turn their lives over to the country as servants....and the Obamas, who wish to re-create the lives of the Ceasars, complete with pillars! Anything for power, say what pleases the masses. The speeches this week, culminating in Sarahs and John McCains showed clearly the difference in the calibre of human spirit. Let's hope there are enough people still feeling loyalty to the country to hear them, and not the clarion call of the Obamas promise of instant gratification (at our expense)

Palin: the Trendsetter

The east coast elitist hair stylist, Mario Russo, has some advice for the new VP nominee.

With her long, straight, often pinned-up locks, Palin looks one humid day away from fronting a Kiss cover band.

"It’s about 20 years out of date," said Boston stylist Mario Russo of the Alaska governor’s ’do. "Which goes to show how off she might be on current events."

When liberals cannot deal with substance, they attack the person or something incidental about that person. The frontier woman, the maverick Alaskan just doesn’t meet the modern standards of a Bostonian. Why her hair style is 20 years out of date, which obviously means her views are also not in vogue. I guess that settles it!

Well, Sarah Palin might have the last laugh. She is a trendsetter already because her style of glasses are in huge demand today.

Her hair style just might make a return too. Hair styles do return, just like tie styles. Of course, a frontier woman from remote Alaska isn’t supposed to determine the latest hairdo. That is reserved for someone important in some important place like Boston.

___________________________________________

Update

"Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, has stolen the campaign's style spotlight, causing a run on Kawasaki 704 eyeglass frames and upswept hairstyles," so says Booth Moore.

I doubt anytime soon a new trend will be kicked off by Hillary Clinton’s pumpkin colored pants suit.

Double Standard.....

I would like to know why the liberal left has a problem with Governor (and soon to be V.P.) Palin as a working Mom. This has been one of their most treasured claims (and a rightful claim) over the past, since the sixties actually, that every woman should be able to achieve the same goals as men in the workplace. But now that it is not their candidate carrying this torch, she is suddenly decried as a less than adequate mother who is not putting her family first. The hypocrisy is typical of the left it is the belief of this writer that most liberals with a brain are truly afraid that the addition of Governor Palin to this ticket is that exact formula that will defeat Obama’s quest to become President of the United States.

The liberal left and the liberal press (one and the same in many cases) fail to give the majority of Americans the credit they are due on this issue. Most common sense thinking American voters recognize the double standard being used and do not approve.

Does the left wing and the press really believe that Sarah Palin is less of a parent because she works full time and has been asked to work in one of the highest positions in our country? How does this make her less of a parent that Barack Obama? He has been campaigning for almost three years, traveling the country, one town after another, stumping and posturing that he is the candidate for change and seeks the office of the president. Yet no one in the press has questioned his ability to be a parent to his young children. The double standard is obvious and clear.

What is most comical to this writer is that the kool-aid drinkers of the far left buy this argument hook, line and sinker. They are helping the Obama campaign glue the cracks in that glass ceiling back together as fast as they can with. The truly intelligent democrats (and there are many) will have no choice other than to analyze the actual facts involved in this election and cast their votes for the most qualified and best team to lead our country forward into the future. That team is McCain and Palin and I am proud to say that I am very excited about the future of our country with this team at the helm.

Palin! Palin! Palin!

For Chisago County.........

Up with Palin!

Down with Kalin!

The Donkey has a Panic Attack

The liberals are in full attack mode to discredit Sarah Palin as a person. Do not focus on the attack mode so much that you lose sight of why the Dems are in destruction mode. They are not attacking because they believe Sarah Palin is a recognizably lousy candidate for VP, vulnerable, easily damaged and easily dispensed. Rather, liberals are in a fit of panic, knowing her personhood is not easily destroyed, that she is a strong candidate and makes John McCain stronger.

They are scared stiff of her because she is an authentic person with whom voters will connect. Her values are their values. The libs know Sarah Palin will deal the liberal cause a serious blow.

Ultimately, the Dems are not all that concerned about her use of guns. Nor are they concerned about her propensity to clean up political scum. They aren’t one bit concerned whether she can raise a family and be VP at the same time. They don’t care her husband had a DWI 20 years ago or that she was fined for fishing without a license. They think it’s great that a teenager can exercise her freedom to be sexually active.

The liberals are panic struck because of two things Sarah Palin believes. She is a threat to Mother Earth and Prepartum Death. Liberals view her as a threat to holy ground ANWR and a threat to the sacred cow, abortion.

The latter is more serious. Palin is a woman who walks the talk and walks the walk, not only herself, but with her daughter. Abortion is off the table for her pregnant daughter and was not an option for her own pregnancy with a Down syndrome child.

The Leftists are in a panic that Sarah Palin might become VP and ultimately president, appointing conservative judges to the Supreme Court who might overturn Roe v. Wade. Not a whole lot more matters to them than this government bestowed right because what government grants, government can also take away.

The liberal attack dogs will be vicious, but it will demonstrate one thing—the Donkey party is in a full-blown panic.

What is a Vegetarian?

Sarah Palin's father, Chuck Heath, knows the definition of a vegetarian. He wears it on the bumper of his pickup.

Vegetarian — Old Indian Word For Bad Hunter.

Citizens of the world...

“We are citizen’s of the world” Senator Obama told thousands of Germans during his rock star tour across the Middle East and Europe. If the junior Senator for Illinois becomes our next president, the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored will almost certainly become law shortly after his inauguration. Senator Obama’s Marxist leanings are becoming more evident every day.

Senator Obama’s Global Poverty act offers us a global socialist destiny that we do not want nor can we afford. While eliminating poverty and insuring that every child has food, shelter and water is obviously a worthy goal, the proposal makes no mention of spreading democracy, promoting capitalism or ridding these impoverished countries of the very dictators that fight to keep the poor in their place as they see it.

Obama’s plans for the world do not fall far from the plans he has for us as a country should he be elected to the highest office in the land. The reorganization of wealth and resources he is promoting on a global level will begin here. The redistribution of wealth through taxes has become the liberal mantra in this country. An Obama administration will reinstate the death tax, raise the capital gains tax to levels never seen, push the federal income tax rates to record highs and on top of all of this, he will contract our country with the United Nations to siphon off as much American wealth and prosperity as he can under the guise of ridding the world of global poverty.

An Obama administration will be a giant step towards socialism in our country and threaten the very ideals that our country was founded on. Liberals have been preaching that we should feel guilty for our wealth when there are starving children on this planet. They would take food from my table and give it to others without the slightest thought. Obama’s socialist intent for the world will certainly begin here in these United States should he become president.

Iraq is rapidly becoming a classic example of how world poverty should be addressed. Evil dictators like Saddam should be deposed and hung, and these newly freed countries should be propped up and taught democracy and capitalism so they can lead their own countries out of poverty. Remember, give someone hungry a fish and they eat for a day, teach them how to fish and they will eat for a lifetime. This philosophy also works quite well for democracy. Socialism does not work, democracy does. God Bless.

Superb Assessments

Thomas Sowell is always worth reading. He is deeply perceptive and profoundly articulate so that the common man can understand him. Take time to learn from one of the masters by reading his article on Changes in Politics.

Charles Krauthammer has a masterpiece on the Democrats marrying a perfect stranger.

Tax Relief--Democrat Style

I look forward to lower property taxes now that the Democrats have raised all these other taxes I’m paying.