Under the date of August 11, 2009 Governor Tim Pawlenty sent the following communication to the DFL Senate Majority Leader and to the Speaker of the House of the Minnesota legislature.
We thank Governor Pawlenty for his forthright message pointing to the failure of the DFL to do their duty during the legislative session just concluded.
The quoted letter follows:
"Dear Senator Pogemiller and Speaker Kelliher:
Thank you for your recent letter regarding plans for a Minnesota Leadership Summit in early September.
My Administration and I are declining the invitation to participate in your summit. As we have witnessed over the past year, DFL legislators have done a thorough job of admiring our state's budget difficulties, but have refused or been unable to take action to address them.
The state already has an annual Minnesota Leadership Summit. It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months. This past year, rather than taking timely and decisive action to deal with our budget deficit, the Legislature's DFL leadership wasted the first few months of the session. Passage of your final budget bills in the last few minutes before midnight on the final day of the session was indicative of how you managed the situation.
Rather than calling together former legislators and governors to rehash already established concerns, the Legislature's time would be better spent coming up with reasonable solutions, negotiating with my Administration, passing bills, and having them signed into law."
Sincerely,
(Governor's signature here)
Tim Pawlenty
Governor
Friday, August 14, 2009
No Town Hall Meetings For Oberstar!
This is copied from the MinnPost.com
"Now that Congressman Tim Walz in southern Minnesota seems to have buckled to the pressure to have a town hall meeting on health care reform, folks in the northern part of the state might be wondering if Congressman Jim Oberstar might have similar plans.
Nope, says the Duluth News Tribune.
The paper reports:
"[Oberstar] typically does not do townhalls per say [sic]," [said spokesman John Schadl.]
Oberstar prefers forums with specific focus groups or interested parties, such as a forum he did last week in Pine City with farmers on dairy issues, Schadl said. "These town hall meetings have become so politicized, and he finds it so valuable to reach out to people when he travels, talk to them directly."
Schadl said that Oberstar has had numerous meetings with constituency groups on health care reform in the past year.
Of course, Oberstar is a 17-term DFLer in a DFL district, while Walz is a second-term DFLer in a traditionally Republican district. "
There is a letter from the editor in the Post Review, I have written this man, called his office, gone to his facebook page....How do you stay a 17 term Senator without talking to your constituents? Oh, I forgot, dfl district..no questions asked for many, many years...time to wake the sleeping elephant people!
"Now that Congressman Tim Walz in southern Minnesota seems to have buckled to the pressure to have a town hall meeting on health care reform, folks in the northern part of the state might be wondering if Congressman Jim Oberstar might have similar plans.
Nope, says the Duluth News Tribune.
The paper reports:
"[Oberstar] typically does not do townhalls per say [sic]," [said spokesman John Schadl.]
Oberstar prefers forums with specific focus groups or interested parties, such as a forum he did last week in Pine City with farmers on dairy issues, Schadl said. "These town hall meetings have become so politicized, and he finds it so valuable to reach out to people when he travels, talk to them directly."
Schadl said that Oberstar has had numerous meetings with constituency groups on health care reform in the past year.
Of course, Oberstar is a 17-term DFLer in a DFL district, while Walz is a second-term DFLer in a traditionally Republican district. "
There is a letter from the editor in the Post Review, I have written this man, called his office, gone to his facebook page....How do you stay a 17 term Senator without talking to your constituents? Oh, I forgot, dfl district..no questions asked for many, many years...time to wake the sleeping elephant people!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What am I missing here????
I just can’t help myself sometimes, but am I the only one out here thinking the obvious?
Explanation: In his speech to some folks in New Hampshire today (very select bunch of folks I might add) Mr. Obama explained that a government insurance plan will sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, thus private insurers should be able to compete with a government plan as long as they have good plans.
If a government plan is an option, we all know that it will not sustain itself through premiums and non-tax revenue (whatever that is.) The government loves to create fees added to things like private insurance premiums to help offset costs incurred to run the government plan.
The good president goes on in New Hampshire to explain how private insurance should be able to compete with a government plan. “They do it all the time,” he said. “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine… It’s the Post office that’s always having problems.”
Ok, Ok, so I get it, the federal government has a monopoly on the delivery of letters and mail, they have a mail box in front of every home in this country in which to deliver mail, and they still screw it up and haven’t run that operation in the black in so long that no one can remember. And they expect to deliver health care to people???? Give me a break, someone help me out here… what am I missing???
If the federal government gets its dirty grubby little hands into health care any deeper than it already is, it will cause the entire private health care insurance system to offer products to its customers that will compete with a system that we already subsidize. The lousy care, the ‘end of life counseling’ will all transfer to every plan at the lowest level tier whether public or private. It will in fact end in a single payer federal system for those of us that cannot go pay directly for open heart surgery or those of us not fortunate enough to be covered by the same policy as those elected in Washington.
Someone out there help me out on this, what am I missing?
Explanation: In his speech to some folks in New Hampshire today (very select bunch of folks I might add) Mr. Obama explained that a government insurance plan will sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, thus private insurers should be able to compete with a government plan as long as they have good plans.
If a government plan is an option, we all know that it will not sustain itself through premiums and non-tax revenue (whatever that is.) The government loves to create fees added to things like private insurance premiums to help offset costs incurred to run the government plan.
The good president goes on in New Hampshire to explain how private insurance should be able to compete with a government plan. “They do it all the time,” he said. “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine… It’s the Post office that’s always having problems.”
Ok, Ok, so I get it, the federal government has a monopoly on the delivery of letters and mail, they have a mail box in front of every home in this country in which to deliver mail, and they still screw it up and haven’t run that operation in the black in so long that no one can remember. And they expect to deliver health care to people???? Give me a break, someone help me out here… what am I missing???
If the federal government gets its dirty grubby little hands into health care any deeper than it already is, it will cause the entire private health care insurance system to offer products to its customers that will compete with a system that we already subsidize. The lousy care, the ‘end of life counseling’ will all transfer to every plan at the lowest level tier whether public or private. It will in fact end in a single payer federal system for those of us that cannot go pay directly for open heart surgery or those of us not fortunate enough to be covered by the same policy as those elected in Washington.
Someone out there help me out on this, what am I missing?
Un-American? I think not!
Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have teamed up to call anyone who dares question the democrats motives regarding health care “simply un-American”. In a column written for and published in USA today, the pair called into question the patriotism of anyone who dared speak up at one of the town hall meetings being held around the country to discuss the health care.
This type of behavior is not new to the Speaker, from accusing the CIA of lying to her and congress, to repeatedly calling Republicans unpatriotic, Ms. Pelosi continues her efforts to call into question anyone who might have an opposing viewpoint.
Ms. Pelosi has become the poster child for the Democratic hypocrisy. The Speaker, who led the charge to withdraw troops from Iraq before the job had been completed, more than tolerated anti-war protesters in the past. As a matter of fact, I quote, “ It’s always exciting,” she said of anti-war protesters, “This is democracy in action, I’m energized by it, frankly.” Yet when someone with an opposing viewpoint speaks up, it is "un-American."
I believe that the very foundation of our democracy is built on the right to free speech. Voicing your opinions to your elected officials is not only your right as a citizen of this great country, it is your responsibility as a citizen legislator to insure that the elected officials are representing their constituents.
We as voters have to remember that we elect legislative representatives, we send them to Washington, St. Paul, the County Seat, City Hall, and we must follow through with giving them direction. We cannot sit idly by and assume that they will have our best interest in mind when making legislative decisions. We need to meet with these legislators, write them, call them, email them, shout them down when they are not listening, and remind them of whom they represent and what our interests are.
Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is reprehensible and too many times in the past has she shown her true colors as a socialist leaning left wing nut case who would have us all in the peasant class serving the aristocracy of the political class.
We as right minded Americans have a great opportunity at this time in history, the liberals could not be making it easier for us and we need to organize and take advantage of this situation and take back our great country.
Let’s take back our country and maybe once and for all we can remember to do it right this time and keep it.
God Bless.
This type of behavior is not new to the Speaker, from accusing the CIA of lying to her and congress, to repeatedly calling Republicans unpatriotic, Ms. Pelosi continues her efforts to call into question anyone who might have an opposing viewpoint.
Ms. Pelosi has become the poster child for the Democratic hypocrisy. The Speaker, who led the charge to withdraw troops from Iraq before the job had been completed, more than tolerated anti-war protesters in the past. As a matter of fact, I quote, “ It’s always exciting,” she said of anti-war protesters, “This is democracy in action, I’m energized by it, frankly.” Yet when someone with an opposing viewpoint speaks up, it is "un-American."
I believe that the very foundation of our democracy is built on the right to free speech. Voicing your opinions to your elected officials is not only your right as a citizen of this great country, it is your responsibility as a citizen legislator to insure that the elected officials are representing their constituents.
We as voters have to remember that we elect legislative representatives, we send them to Washington, St. Paul, the County Seat, City Hall, and we must follow through with giving them direction. We cannot sit idly by and assume that they will have our best interest in mind when making legislative decisions. We need to meet with these legislators, write them, call them, email them, shout them down when they are not listening, and remind them of whom they represent and what our interests are.
Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is reprehensible and too many times in the past has she shown her true colors as a socialist leaning left wing nut case who would have us all in the peasant class serving the aristocracy of the political class.
We as right minded Americans have a great opportunity at this time in history, the liberals could not be making it easier for us and we need to organize and take advantage of this situation and take back our great country.
Let’s take back our country and maybe once and for all we can remember to do it right this time and keep it.
God Bless.
Just another example of hypocrisy and the double standards…
If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to anon-existent 'Austrian language,' would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to remember to pay their own income taxes, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like when Dan Quayle was when he spelled potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?
If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of tax-payer funded jet fuel to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have concluded he's a hypocrite regarding environmental issues?
If George W. Bush' s administration had okayed tax-payer funded Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wonderedwhether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?
If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is actually being controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a majorcorporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?
If George W.. Bush had then proposed to double the debt yet again within the following 10 years, thereby putting your children and grandchildren in such massive debt that it threatens the national treasury, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, with no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars to take Laura Bush on a 'date night' to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?
Don't worry. He's done all this in a mere 5 months -- So, you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.
Naive, incompetent, and uninformed American voters did this to themselves
If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to anon-existent 'Austrian language,' would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to remember to pay their own income taxes, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like when Dan Quayle was when he spelled potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?
If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of tax-payer funded jet fuel to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have concluded he's a hypocrite regarding environmental issues?
If George W. Bush' s administration had okayed tax-payer funded Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wonderedwhether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?
If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is actually being controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a majorcorporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?
If George W.. Bush had then proposed to double the debt yet again within the following 10 years, thereby putting your children and grandchildren in such massive debt that it threatens the national treasury, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, with no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars to take Laura Bush on a 'date night' to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?
Don't worry. He's done all this in a mere 5 months -- So, you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.
Naive, incompetent, and uninformed American voters did this to themselves
Sunday, August 09, 2009
A WHOLE LEGISLATIVE SESSION IS NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR TAIL-DRAGGING DFLers!
In his "Senate Review" - Isanti-Chisago County STAR - Page A4 -August 6, 2009 - State Senator Rick Olseen is quoted as "very concerned about the possible dire consequences from the Governor's decision" through the use of the line item veto and the "unallotment process where he unilaterally made cuts to the state budget."
Senator Olseen, of course the Governor made unilateral budget cuts through the "unallotment process"; that is the process and gubernatorial power and alternative available to the Governor when the legislature fails to prepare and provide a state-constitutionally required balanced budget.
You had a whole legislative session (five months!) to prepare a balanced budget and you did not get the job done. So the Governor had to do what you people failed to do. And now you come crying that you "fear the consequences of unallotment will result in increased costs and problems down the road."
We appreciate that you are "very concerned" and "deeply troubled" - but the problem is you are five months tardy in your tears!
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Soylent Green keeps coming up in conversation
So...this does seem to keep coming up in conversations about the healthcare debate. Maybe it has something to do with the age of the conversants, but we all remember the movie. It is free online, full version. And there is a great website where the t shirts can be purchased for $10.99. For the uninitiated, Soylent Green is comprised of the elderly population, coerced for the betterment of the human race, to give themselves up as food basically..and be turned into biscuits. "Tuesday is Soylent Green Day"...What a gift this ready made focal point could be! A Free Movie Night at a local theatre, invite our representatives, and start the conversation about where this bill is headed. I was told today that TNT has been showing the movie recently...the timing is impeccable! What do you think? This could be pulled together quickly, and would be so easy to go viral....
So, are there plans to EDUCATE our non representatives while they are on paid leave?
5 week paid vacation..but supposedly these representatives are going to be getting 'in touch' with their constituents and listening..where, when, and how? Is anyone organizing a march on someones office, a group meeting in a town hall? Or are these guys all giving lip service as usual, and not meeting with anyone? I will be checking their websites for schedules next...lets let them hear something about their total lack of ethics in representing the idiots that elected them.
FOLKS, THIS IS YOUR LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATION AT WORK!!
Front page ECM Post Review, July 29, 2009 story headline: "POWER PLANT MEETING PACKS LENT TOWN HALL"
Further important details as unfolded in the story:
"Close to 300 people attended to learn about a proposed electric generation power plant . . . . ."
"A number of guests had been invited to the meeting including legislators . . . . . ."
"Senator Rick Olseen was in attendance."
"Olseen admitted the Legislature (that's him) might have made a mistake and that it would probably be up to (the school district, county and Lent township) to negotiate inflation into the host agreement."
And then there was Rep. Jeremy Kalin - the staunch environmentalist!
Representative Kalin was either not present or, if present among the 300, evidently did not say anything worth quoting by the ECM Post Review editor who wrote the story.
So here is a vivid example of the quality of your representation in the legislature:
The Senator "might have made a mistake" and the Representative was silent, not worth quoting or absent!
(Source of "quotes": ECM Post Review, July 29, 2009 - pages 1 and 2)
Further important details as unfolded in the story:
"Close to 300 people attended to learn about a proposed electric generation power plant . . . . ."
"A number of guests had been invited to the meeting including legislators . . . . . ."
"Senator Rick Olseen was in attendance."
"Olseen admitted the Legislature (that's him) might have made a mistake and that it would probably be up to (the school district, county and Lent township) to negotiate inflation into the host agreement."
And then there was Rep. Jeremy Kalin - the staunch environmentalist!
Representative Kalin was either not present or, if present among the 300, evidently did not say anything worth quoting by the ECM Post Review editor who wrote the story.
So here is a vivid example of the quality of your representation in the legislature:
The Senator "might have made a mistake" and the Representative was silent, not worth quoting or absent!
(Source of "quotes": ECM Post Review, July 29, 2009 - pages 1 and 2)
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