Chisago County is GOP

The politicians are at it again…

2009-09-29T12:51:00.000-05:00

Does this theme sound familiar… We need to refine our strategy and determine the necessary direction before we commit any more troops in Afghanistan. This exact political interference is what bogged down our forces in Vietnam and created the quagmire that inevitably created the mess that was Vietnam.

When we were attacked on that fateful September day in 2001, the enemy was clearly identified and their primary hiding place and training ground was located. Our resolve to destroy them and protect the American people from ever being attacked in such a way from this enemy was clear and precise.

There can be no argument that if done correctly and with the mighty force of our military, we can crush this enemy without mercy and without reservation. Afghanistan is a tough country, it’s a country that many have tried to conquer in history and failed. The difference being that we are not interested in conquering this primitive nation, our intent is to crush al-Qaeda, crush the Tali-ban who supported this terrorist organization, and insure that these groups never terrorizes the world again.

Asking our military commanders to accomplish this job is the right thing to do, we need to crush the enemy on their home field before we are fighting them on ours. To delay and deny our military commanders of the resources necessary to complete this mission is reprehensible and will only give our enemy the resolve to fight on. The message being sent is to wait us out, hide and wait, terrorize and wait, we will grow tired and leave and they can have their training ground back.

This is unbelievable, the progress gained in that region stands to be lost to an enemy that would destroy us at the first opportunity. The lives lost will have been in vain if we don’t apply the pressure right now and crush this enemy with the full force of our military once and for all.

How quickly the lesson of September 11, 2001 has been forgotten.

Governor Pawlenty's Letter to DFL Legislative Leadership

2009-08-14T21:18:00.003-05:00

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

No Town Hall Meetings For Oberstar!

2009-08-14T21:09:00.002-05:00

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!

What am I missing here????

2009-08-11T14:44:00.002-05:00

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?

Un-American? I think not!

2009-08-11T13:34:00.003-05:00

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.

Just another example of hypocrisy and the double standards…

2009-08-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

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

A WHOLE LEGISLATIVE SESSION IS NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR TAIL-DRAGGING DFLers!

2009-08-09T15:46:00.003-05:00

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!

Soylent Green keeps coming up in conversation

2009-08-01T21:18:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-08-01T18:48:00.002-05:00

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!!

2009-08-01T10:55:00.003-05:00

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)

The Republican Leadership has to get it right this time

2009-07-29T07:59:00.003-05:00

Rumblings of fear can be heard even over at the Huffington Post today on the potential for the GOP to make huge headway in taking back the reins of the country. Citing the growing discontent of the electorate at the Democrats 'experiment' with our economy, our social programs and our jobs, the writers nonetheless curb their hand wringing with the solace that the Republican Party is unable to find a way to get it's message out. They are right (pun intended). Stridency does work to some extent, with the Glenn Becks and various radio personalities revving up sentiment and getting their messages out. Unfortunately, these are the people that many believe are in charge of the party.

We need the calmer, level headed point men to be the face of the party, men and women who exude a sure and confident belief that they can get the country back on track after the attemtped derailment by the socialists now in charge. Of course they cannot call them socialists, just like the o cannot say he support euthanasia.

We all know that the o did not win by his stellar performance. He was placed in office by masterful manipulators, funded by most likely another state (opinion). Unthinkable cash placed him in the highest offices, as he was teleprompted by some of the best handlers in the world. Social platforms that turned out the young vote, rhetoric delivered that was energizing and carefully refined to feed the public what it wanted to hear, with no vetting by the media.

Now that America has had the great O, it is time to settle down. The afterglow is waning, and it is time to go back to being the grown up. Our leaders must show calm confidence to an electorate that has been shaken. The need a strong point of reference to focus the scattered energy. Sarah captured the need for plain talk. Not perfect, but a perfect example of the need for people to connect and believe that their leaders are not as disconnected as the president and his cronies are proving themselves to be. As they continue to shoot themselves in the foot, we need to quietly keep the gun loaded. The supply line needs to be established quickly with solid men and women who can use logic and humor to prove they can lead, not punish the nation, into future prosperity.

2009-07-27T13:22:00.002-05:00

Barney Frank… Enough said huh? Well, not really, the ramblings of this man today at his press conference only compounds my confusion as to how he remains to be a person of influence in our federal government.

Barney Frank became the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007 when the Democrats took control of the House. Now that may seem innocent enough, after all Mr. Frank is a Harvard Law School Graduate and in Washington we know that means everything, but in 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

A few more tidbits on Mr. Frank’s resume in congress…

In 2006, Frank was one of three Representatives to oppose the Respect for America's Fallen Hero's Act, which restricted protests at soldiers' funerals.

Frank has a 100% rating from NARL. He voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and against the criminalization of the transportation of minors across state lines by non-family members to circumvent local abortion laws.

In March 2008, Frank proposed the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008 (HR 5843), which would decriminalize small amounts of the drug.

Barney Frank’s guidance and influence has been a main contributor to the current financial mess our mortgage industry is in and this congress continues to allow him a pulpit to spew his inane ideas to those who will listen.

Barney Frank is one of the top respected democrats in Congress… should it really be tough to turn this thing around??

Healthcare Reform, the beginning of the end?

2009-07-25T21:29:00.001-05:00

As news trickles out begrudingly to the unwashed masses, the new world leaders are becoming more visible for their total disconnect from what makes us human. Ezekial Emmanuel, Rahm (the chief of staffs) brother is tapped as the presidents potential Medical Czar, the clarification of the character of this administration becomes more clear. Quotations from previous articles, published by respected journals such a the Lancet provide an insight into the thought processes that terrify me, and should anyone who has respect for the sanctity of the individual, not matter their physical condition. It is part of what makes us American, and what this administration continues to miss.
Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).
"Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31). The bills being rushed through Congress will be paid for largely by a $500 billion-plus cut in Medicare over 10 years.
Dr. David Blumenthal, another key Obama adviser, agrees. He recommends slowing medical innovation to control health spending. Blumenthal has long advocated government health-spending controls, though he concedes they're "associated with longer waits" and "reduced availability of new and expensive treatments and devices" (New England Journal of Medicine, March 8, 2001). But he calls it "debatable" whether the timely care Americans get is worth the cost. (Ask a cancer patient, and you'll get a different answer. Delay lowers your chances of survival.) Obama appointed Blumenthal as national coordinator of health-information technology, a job that involves making sure doctors obey electronically deivered guidelines about what care the government deems appropriate and cost effective
In a Nov. 16, 2008, Health Care Watch column, Emanuel explained how business should be done: "Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda. If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration's health-reform effort."
Many of the quotations on this page were taken from an article in the New York Post, authored by Betsy McCaughey who is the founder of the Committee to Reduce Infec tion Deaths and a former New York lieutenant governor
I spent the day with friends to celebrate the 97th birthday of my greatest supporter. She is in a wheelchair, wears a hearing aid, and is otherwise terribly healthy. Ten years ago, after a horrendous car accident which took the life of her driver, she was in the ICU for a week. They told me she would not live, I carry POA, and said she would. Her incredible strength, humor and tenacity anchor me and those of us who were with her today. Who in hell is Ezekial, Obama, anyone, to tell me, that her life force is not worthy of their consideration?
Do we begin the slippery slope to dehumanizing us all if we accept this?

God Bless Those Who Serve and Those Who Gave All...

2009-07-24T16:15:00.002-05:00

This weekend the bodies of three honored military soldiers will be laid to rest. These soldiers were serving the country they loved and honored and were true patriots.

Freedom is something that many take for granted. We go about our daily lives and don’t have to worry about bombs and mortars dropping in our neighborhoods, or secret police sweeping into our homes in the night to carry us off to some political prison for voicing our opinions. Freedom is a wonderful thing and it should be defended to the end.

Take a moment now, tomorrow, sometime, and think about the brave men and women who have served in the past, who are serving now, and those who will answer the call to service in the future.

I have known many veterans from many different times in our history, I am a veteran, I have a daughter serving today as you read this, and I have known many who have not served and would not ever serve. Each of us has reasons why we do things in this life, to each their own.

I hold a special place in my thoughts and prayers for anyone and everyone who has ever worn the uniform, braved the loneliness of that first flight out to a far away, unknown place, alone and a little scared for what lies ahead. I have also met very few people who have served who did not become better people for having served. It is an experience that few can relate to if they did not serve themselves. It takes a special courage to serve and put ones life on the line for the love of freedom and to protect those who we love.

I would also remind everyone that there are nefarious outlaws in this world who would do us all harm, bomb our schools and malls, poison our waters and destroy the freedom that we love. September 11, 2001 has become too faded a memory for many and we need to remember that the fight for freedom is not one we want to have to fight on our shores. There can be no compromise to the relentless fight that needs to be taken to the ones that would do us harm and those serving this cause are truly patriots and heroes.

Save a moment in your thoughts and prayers for the young soldiers who gave all in the name of defending our freedom and liberty and may God Bless them and their families.

Bar None

Will we seize the moment?

2009-07-21T09:30:00.002-05:00

This is the time in history to rediscover the body of the ideology we as conservatives call the platform of the Republican Party. How high on moral ground do we dare climb while defending fellow conservatives who have crossed this line of morality which we defend? It’s time to re-evaluate our goals and define the path with which we plan to move into the future.

It’s easy to maintain the obvious and usual in our platform, pro-life, pro-family, fiscal responsibility, and smaller government, all which we can recite from memory. But what defines us as progressive reformists that will resonate with not only the majority, but the minority as well?

The time is now to define a platform with a not only a strong moral lining, but also provides direction defined by the needs of our nation now and moving into the future.

There is no doubt that the majority of Americans are starving for great leadership. It hasn’t been more obvious in recent memory than now that a well defined, well organized party will energize the voters in this country if the message is clear and positive. The American public will be looking for a clear message that the best of times are ahead of us and that the road to economic prosperity is through lower taxes, less spending, and fiscal responsibility within the government.

This economic recession is the opportunity for the Republican Party to stand up and be heard. The democrats are in charge of this mess, they own it and recovery will be slow at best. We will have plunged deeper into debt than at any time in our history as a nation and Americans will be looking for new leadership in the future who can provide hope and offer responsible plans to restore this country to its position of prosperity and envy of those around world.

As a party we have sacrificed all too often, we have condoned the inappropriate behaviors and brushed aside the utter malefaction of some we elect to high office and proceed to offer ourselves as the party of morality and family values. We have come to define ourselves and our party in terms of the things that we oppose, instead of clearly defining ourselves in terms of the things we believe to be right, honest, and best for our country.

I have heard the outcry to do whatever it takes to get our party elected and back in the majority. The fact remains that if this is the party with which we rally and regain control with, we truly won’t be any better off as a nation than we are right now. Those who believe that our platform should allow the compromise of our core values are compromising the future of our party and that of our country. Any platform not built on a strong foundation will fail in the long run. They may achieve moderate success but it will inevitably be temporary and fail to provide a base with which a democracy can survive and flourish.

In the last presidential election this country chose the only candidate who provided a glimmer of hope that things in Washington would change in the future. This candidate is in the process of proving that his is the party of politics as usual in Washington and ultimately more of the same.

As Republicans we have the opportunity of a lifetime at hand. We can seize this opportunity to rebuild our party from within, lay the foundation of our party on a platform that defines us for the things that we believe to be in the best interest of our country and our future. We need to recruit candidates, organize ourselves, and begin a grass roots movement to rebuild our party from within. If we don’t, I don’t see how we can expect the American public to hear our message, let alone believe in it.

The ultimate question remains…. Will we seize the moment?

Dusting off old candidates...?

2009-07-20T10:37:00.002-05:00

The pendulum of politics has swung left, as far left as we have seen in generations. The spending and government dependency being crafted by the current presidential administration is unlike anything this country has seen since the boondoggle called the new deal.

Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his plan for economic recovery to the masses as a means to rebuild the American infrastructure and put people to work in a time when there was very little work. Today we call this ‘stimulus funding.’ We prop up corporations like GM and declare that ‘we’ cannot ‘afford’ to allow them to fail. ‘We’ are now getting exactly what we asked for right? The new deal failed miserably and the economic policies of the administration today will fail as well.

As Republicans we have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to recast ourselves as the party of the people. We are the people who cherish freedom, liberty, and respect the constitution as scribed by our founding fathers. It will never cease to amaze me that the founding fathers of our country, and there are many who do not get the credit that they are due, we so brilliant in construction of a free country. This was done in a time that travel was difficult, getting together as a political group involved great sacrifice to family and farm, and yet these sacrifices were made in the name of something great. Most helped shape our constitution and form a government, then went quietly back to their farms and families without fanfare.

As history tells us, our political landscape changes over time and the pendulum is as far left as it can go right now. We need to gear up and be ready for the swing back in the right direction. We can dig up our candidates of old and dust them off to march in parades and kiss babies, or we can take this opportunity to recruit our party back to greatness. I find it impossible to believe that we are so thin of right thinking people in this district that we cannot offer the voters a ‘great’ candidate. If we are in fact so thin of our base in this district, we indeed have a large hill to climb.

I don’t believe that we are thin of right thinking folks in this district. In fact, I believe that we are in the majority and in recent past the all too silent majority. Our message has not resonated with the majority and for this we have failed and given way to the left.

Gore Vidal once said,” Democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.” Our platform has not been defined in a way that the voters in this district can attach hope that things will change if our candidate is elected. The silent campaign slogan has been, “ If elected, I will go to St. Paul and vote the party line, fall in line with the senior members of my party, bash the opposing party at every corner, and allow nothing to be accomplished as long as I hold the office!.” This campaign strategy knows no party line. Of course I am being facetious, no candidate in their right mind would actually utter those words out loud, but that is the message that the voters are hearing.

We have an opportunity to speak our message loud and clear. There has never been a better time to define ourselves as the party who represents the people, the individual, the small business owner, and the farmer, while assuring the downtrodden that there will be a helping hand available when needed. The people of this district are listening and we need to speak to them.

We will miss the opportunity of a generation if we don’t make these next elections great and elect candidates worthy of those who founded our great country and this great state. Dusting off old candidates who have made politics a career is a bad plan, more of the same old same sends a bad message to the voters and will only ensure that the strangle hold currently known as a DFL majority remains in St. Paul.

My 2 cents worth...

Chisago County Parade

2009-07-18T19:57:00.004-05:00

Everyone loves a parade, right? As one fellow volunteer noted, thank goodness for global warming, it was the coolest parade in years! Passing out stickers for Sean Nienow, many of the people on the chairs and sidewalks throughout the route asked the question "which party?" We were comparing responses at the end, and found that 'conservative' was very well accepted, and even Republican, in the heart of the DFL! We can only hope that the mass insanity which helped to elect the current regime is subsiding.
In Minnesota, when you drive on the ice, our learned elders taught us to drive slowly..that speed creates a wave that can come back and crack the ice, sinking you and your vehicle. Let us hope that the Democratic party feels the repercussions of the speed in which they are driving our country into an icy hole, and the wave comes back to sink their plans of a socialistic society for all but their ruling caste.

Who Represents this District?

2009-07-08T08:27:00.000-05:00

I have searched the legislative record high and low for accomplishments achieved by out local elected representatives in this district. Mr. Kalin and Mr. Olseen have left virtually no distinct impression in St. Paul as to having helped in any way. As a constituent of this district, I expect my representatives to not only represent this district, but contribute in plans that will keep our state on the path to a brighter future.

Both of our elected representatives went to St. Paul this past session and received their marching orders from the DFL leadership. I could not find one distinction that either of these two gentlemen represented our district in any manner other than listed as our elected officials in the state register. In fact, I’m not sure that I can even say that it appeared as though they actually represented the constituents of this district at all.

The DFL majority had a plan this session and it was very obvious. The plan wasn’t to attempt to repair the financial situation at the capital, it was to throw together a budget that included tax increases and massive increases in spending. They sent that bill to the governor expecting that he would veto it and they would have their cannons filled with fodder for the next election cycle. Fortunately our governor decided to use the power given to him and fix the budget presented. Right, wrong, or indifferent, he did what needed to be done and in doing so proved himself to be a great leader.

Our legislators in this district played along with this DFL game of cat and mouse and marched right in step with the DFL majority that has created the over taxing and overspending situation that this state has found itself in. Businesses are fleeing this state as quickly as they can, jobs are gone, fuel taxes are being piled on, real estate taxes are out of control, and our legislators have made no contributions to attempt to bring this budget into reality.

How can the voters in this district sit by and allow this to continue? It’s my contention that the voters in this district are ready to support candidates with fresh ideas, ideas that will provide a bright economic future for our district and for our state. In the next election cycle, let us provide candidates that will aggressively push for reform in St. Paul, not be afraid to be heard at the capital, regardless of party line or pressure from those so entrenched in the leadership in the halls of our capital. It is my true belief that a single voice in politics can be heard if it is the voice of reason and it is truly the voice that represents the people.

We have a golden opportunity in this next election cycle, we can find candidates who are truly electable as representatives of the people, by the people, for the people, or we can promote candidates who list their primary occupation as ‘legislators.’

DFL "Blame Game"

2009-07-05T16:27:00.004-05:00

The DFL legislators are engaged state-wide, media-wide in their typical "blame game" tactic following their absolutely abysmal failure in the recent past legislative session.

They failed miserably as statesmen and lawmakers - and that clearly includes our own Jeremy Kalin and our own Rick Olseen as Representative and Senator respectively - in their principal duty as legislators which is to produce a balanced budget for the State.

For months - really through the entire Session - the DFL squabbled and argued and lied and deceived and came up with unconscionable proposals that the Governor simply had to veto to protect the taxpaying public.

And then, the DFLers and their local mistaken minions attempt to mask their own failure and gross incompetence by focusing "blame" on the Governor for carrying out gubernatorial responsibilities that are clearly and legally his to "unallot" portions of the proposed budget.

The Governor was/is obliged to do what the LEGISLATURE FAILED TO DO - namely have a budget in balance. And this he has done legally, constitutionally, necessarily through the "unallotment process."

There can be no blame legitimately ascribed or assigned to the Governor for doing what the process absolutely obligated him to do. The legislature did not balance the budget so the Governor had to do it - let that fact sink in folks!

The Governor was not "mean" or "unfair" or "illegal" in his actions. Bylaw and by state constitution the budget had to be balanced. There are two entities that can accomplish that: 1) the LEGISLATURE or 2) the GOVERNOR by the unallotment process.

The legislature failed whereupon the Governor acted! That is how it works!

Health Care Reform...

2009-07-02T15:10:00.002-05:00

Arizona is on the right track on this. Republican Arizona Rep. Nancy Barto, chair of the House Health and Human Service Committee, has authored a bill, HCR2014, “The Healthcare Freedom Act, which will be placed on the Nov. 10 ballot in Arizona as a referendum.

If voters approve it, “The Healthcare Freedom Act” would, among other things, forbid any law that compels anyone “to participate in any health care system.” It would also allow patients to pay directly for health care services, and for doctors to receive such payments. (Such “topping off” is forbidden in some single-payer systems.) The amendment would also state that health insurance purchases could not be prohibited.

The amendment, then, nails a stake through the heart of two essential elements of a universal, single-payer system: Everybody in the system, and nobody outside the system. It also effectively forbids a Hawaii-style play-or-pay mandate on employers or a Massachusetts-style requirement that individuals obtain coverage. In a press release, Barto claimed that the act would “prevent citizens from being compelled to join a government-run health care system” and “guarantee the right to purchase private health insurance.”

During this last session, Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie sponsored S.F.1281 and S.F. 325, while Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, was the lead sponsor of H.F. 171, which would, among other things, forbid any law that “restricts a person’s freedom of choice of private health care systems or private health plans.” None of these plans made it out of committee but there is an interest in Minnesota to protect states rights and keep federalism from becoming total socialism.

I commend these two legislators for their courage to stand up and speak for what is right. This is the right track for our state now and in the future. This federal government purple gorilla is growing larger and becoming more invasive in the rights of individual states and our individual freedoms. If we allow the federal government to completely take over governing our every act, why in the world would we even have separate states?

The trampling of our rights to govern ourselves at the state level and our individual rights and freedoms as citizens of this free nation can only be likened to the forming of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.

Those in power would have you believe that everyone deserves to have a home, a car, health care, but the simple fact is that in a free world, you deserve what you are willing to work for and that is it. Nothing is free and those willing sit around and do nothing, should get nothing.

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” If you are comfortable with these words of Karl Marx, then God help our democracy because he also said “ Democracy is the road to socialism.”

House Cleaning...

2009-07-01T10:26:00.001-05:00

It is time for the Republican Party to stand up to itself from within. If we are going to convince the American voters that we stand for liberty and family values, we need to clean up our act.

If the best we can endorse are candidates such as Mark Sanford, Larry Craig, John Ensign, Mark Foley… well, you get the idea, the list goes on and on, how do we dare ask the voters to embrace us as the party of family values?

I realize that there is ample representation among conservatives that don’t deserve to be lumped in with these dregs and it is my belief that there are plenty more in our base to fill leadership positions across the board who can refrain from soliciting prostitutes, having extramarital affairs, and sex in airport bathrooms. We need to renounce these worthless hypocrites for what they are. They do not stand for the values that we as conservatives strive to protect. There is no place to defend anyone who crosses the line of morality and those crossing that line should be cast out immediately.

We as conservatives need to aggressively start at the top of our own party, nationally and locally, and clean house once and for all. We need to establish a code of conduct that has no room for compromise. Then and only then can we ask for the trust of the taxpaying voter to lead them out of this economic turmoil.

Tyranny Vs. Liberty

2009-07-01T09:53:00.002-05:00

The next election cycle in this state is going to prove to be more important than in recent history. The record deficit due to the local and national economic situation has left our state government in poor condition from an economic perspective as we all are aware. My compliments and thanks to Gov. Pawlenty for defending the taxpayers and using the powers of his elected office to make some tough decisions and work through the budget as best as could be expected.

The current legislature has failed us all as constituents, they failed to forward a reasonable balanced budget as required and would have increased taxes across the board for us all if left to their desires.

It is time that we as the conservatives in this state unite. Governor Pawlenty is not going to be there to avert disaster next time and the economic situation in this country and in this state suggest strongly that there will in fact be a next time to state budget crisis.

We as conservatives need to speak out loud and clear, we stand for liberty, personal freedom, fiscal responsibility, respect for law, and traditional family values. Every one of these values is under attack from the left in this country and in this state. The core principles on which this country was founded are under attack and there is an obvious attempt to kill democracy as it was intended by our founders. The current administration at the federal level, and the DFL majority in St. Paul is convinced that bigger, more controlling government is what the people desire.

We are approaching a tyrannical level in government and we need to remind the people that we as conservatives stand for liberty, the kind of liberty that stands up to tyranny and protects individual freedom. The freedom and liberty that we enjoy in this country is unlike any other in the world.

As conservatives we have a responsibility to move away from this ‘center’ we have found ourselves embracing. We need to refrain from compromising the core principles that our party was founded on and embrace the ideology of conservatism. I am convinced that the majority in our country, our state, and our district will rally with us to take back our freedoms from the tyranny that has grasped control in our governments.

We cannot afford complacency, our time to act is now or we risk losing every bit of freedom that has been granted to us by our founders and by the men and women who have given their lives to protect.

After all, We are Party of the American Dream.

A Crisis in the Party…

2009-06-30T10:54:00.002-05:00

Rahm Emanuel is famous for his quote, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste’. A first reaction to a statement such as this was likely to be based on political bias. Mine was. Most of us were disgusted and aghast that someone would consider the suggestion of taking advantage of a bad situation to advance a political agenda.

Well, after more thought, it is likely that Mr. Obama picked the right person to be his advisor, confidant, and chief of staff. Karl Rove is considered to be a mastermind when it comes to political strategy and I can envision him making a similar statement but he would have had enough political savvy to have said it in private.

We in fact are in a crisis in the Republican Party. Our party is in crisis nationally, at the state level, and in our local government. We have lost our edge and the confidence in the people, to represent the people, for the good of the people. We are failing to find a base of fresh new candidates to represent the moral and fiscal values that this country was founded on. We dig around in the candidate bucket and grab someone willing to make a run at a seat with indifference to passion or opinion. For this we are now paying a heavy price.

Our party represents fiscal responsibility, moral values which include protecting the sanctity of marriage and the family, and making tough political decisions in tough times. Politics has become a dirty game, every politician will espouse whatever view the electorate wants to hear during a campaign. Once elected, they conform to the pre-existing political hierarchy established by those in power in trade for committee assignments and a potential seat at the power brokering table in the future and it’s business as usual.

Is representation by individuals like Jeremy Kalin and Rick Olseen truly representation of the people, by the people in this district?

I’ll be honest and admit that I had resigned myself to the fact that this district was full of left wing nut cases for having elected the representation that we have at the state level. But having experienced more and more people out in this district over the past months, talking with every day people who are concerned about their property taxes, the deficit we face in our state, jobs disappearing, property values declining, and the constant attack on family values, I am convinced more now than ever that we are in the majority and it is the responsibility of our party to step up.

We need to find candidates who are passionate about the core issues, defend the Minnesota family values, bring fiscal responsibility to state government and accountability to the tax paying citizens of our district and the state. If we want to fix this mess, we need to be prepared to step up and build a viable campaign to elect good candidates. We need to put forth decent candidates who can spell out the solutions to the electorate in this district in language they can understand.

Families in this district are losing their jobs, their homes, and there is an attack on their financial and family stability by those elected and sent to St. Paul tasked with representing us in this district.

Our current representatives are very willing to raise our taxes, promote alternative lifestyles as the norm, and conform to the political leanings of the liberal left entrenched in St. Paul.

Let us take a little advice from Rahm Emanuel, let us take advantage of the current crisis in our party and in the political climate in this state. The voters in this district are going to be looking for new leadership in the upcoming elections, let us offer them viable, enthusiastic candidates who are ready to represent this district and this state with the true values and beliefs I believe are in the majority in this district.

Let us move forward and let us move now.

FACTS ARE ALWAYS STUBBORN THINGS!!!!

2009-06-24T13:50:00.004-05:00

The record is written!

The facts are in!

The truth cannot be disputed!

And now the tale must be told:

The "TAXPAYERS LEAGUE of Minnesota" has just published their Legislative Scorecard for 2009 showing the performance of Representative Jeremy Kalin and Senator Rick Olseen.

Representative Jeremy Kalin 17b earned a score of zero for the 2009 Session of the legislature and a score of zero for his legislative career!

That makes Representative Kalin's overall voting record even worse than the liberal extremist Representative Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis.

And Senator Olseen, Dist. 17, was not much better than Kalin

Olseen earned a paltry score of "7" for the 2009 Session right along down there with Representative Kalin.

Folks, it is not how nice they smile at you or how many little red wagons they pull or tractors they drive in the parades - it is how they vote in your stead that tells the tale.

Clearly Kalin and Olseen must be replaced post haste.

Pity Party for 'publicans!

2009-05-30T16:25:00.005-05:00

PITY! I had such a good idea for how "new Republicans" should act and succeed and then, right away, "Anonymous" blew my good idea right out of the water by suggesting we should go back to the principles of "a second rate, B-grade movie actor." Retrograde!

Have we already forgotten how successfully Representative Kalin "put people before politics" and how he solved the plight of the poor in this area by pulling his little red coaster wagon in parades and collected food in it for them and how, as a result, he won re-election big-time.

And remember, too, how JK (that's JK as in Kalin - not "JFK" as in Kennedy) - and Senator Olseen were both going to come to the rescue of our schools until that right-wing Governor Pawlenty had the "audacity of hope" to not raise taxes and Pawlenty carried out his promise.

But it is very comforting to read repeatedly that Kalin and Olseen and all the other right-thinking (correction: I know it is "left"-thinking) Democrats are "disappointed" with the Governor. I mean their "disappointment" solves a lot of problems and makes us feel good. We know they "feel our pain."

Of course we still have one hope that we can all hold on to and that is that the Courts will get busy and rule in favor of Al Franken for our U. S. Senator. Then we can all sing: "Happy Days are Here Again!" and be entertained at the same time!!

I hope "Anonymous" will take another look at my earlier proposal and have a change of heart and recognize that "bi-partisanship" is what get things done "for the people" even if it does mean such a simple little thing as raising our taxes even more - even in the midst of a deep depression!

Wouldn't you like to "just get along?" People are even more important than principles!

The New Republican Party!

2009-05-28T19:58:00.004-05:00

I know now how to solve the current Republican party problems!! The solution just came to me in a flash of insight. Let's just become once again "big tent", "moderate", "bi-partisan", "revenue enhancing" supporters, "bureaucracy expanding" Republicans who are not afraid to work across the aisle. That way everybody will like us and we can "succeed" together with the opposition party. Let's just be nice. Can't we just all work together? Wow, what an insight I just spelled out for us! Ready to be part of the new Republicans?

Let's Build A Fire...

2009-05-22T09:39:00.000-05:00

The legislature is a mess. Our Governor is working the best he can to balance the budget through line item veto power and has vowed to do so regardless of the political fallout. It is my belief that he likely won’t be seeking a third term as governor and that fact makes his ability to slash spending by line item easier if he does not have to consider the political ramifications.

Where do we go from this point onward? Campaign season will be upon us again soon and we will put forth candidates hoping to gain a bit of ground in the legislature. Do we have a viable platform locally? Do we have a good candidate to offer the people of this district for the State Senate seat? Do we have someone willing to work to better our district and the state by demanding that spending be controlled, taxes lowered, and the rights of the individual taxpayers are protected through fiscal responsibility?

The homestead credit has nearly vanished, property taxes are soaring, a state income tax was dodged this session only thanks to the Governor, and businesses are moving out of our great state instead of being given incentive to relocate here and provide jobs. We as a district and as a state need to be in a better place with the future we are providing for our next generation.

I am fearful that our party has become complacent. We spend so much time pointing out the wrongdoing of our political opposites and fail to offer a better idea or plan. It’s simple to point out the misguided ways of our local legislators, we do it quite well on this blog and let’s face it, Representative Kalin and Senator Olseen make it pretty easy.

But I would challenge the great minds that participate in this blog to challenge themselves, use this forum to open dialog about the current mess we are in and encourage participation to spark discussion as to our future direction and how we are going to address this calamity we have we call State Government. Major changes are necessary at the state level, spending cannot continue to outpace the rate of growth, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

The spending on social programs has to be gotten under control and it’s not going to be easy, spending on these programs has become a runaway train. It’s a difficult thing to even suggest that someone should not have a child (or another child), but the simple fact is that children cost money. If you’re dependent on our state social welfare system to provide food for your children, you may not be in the best position to have another child. We are in a quagmire of generations that don’t know anything different, the welfare system provided for their parents and it now provides for them and will likely continue on until something is done. I realize that this is not a popular subject and most people either run away from the subject as fast as they can or they take the position that we should shut down the welfare system and everyone should get jobs and provide for themselves.

We need to talk this out, figure out viable ways to help those in need and flush the system of anyone and everyone taking advantage of the system We as a society have enabled many of the folks on assistance and we now need to figure out a way to guide them to a means of providing for themselves and their families.

I think that it is a worthwhile investment to provide assistance to those in need, daycare assistance, healthcare, training where necessary, even some sort of income assistance as needed to help out where needed. But if we are truly going to get out district, our state and our country back on track for the long term and for the better, we need to address some of the basic core issues that have created the socio-economic conundrum such as our social assistance programs.

While my rant may seem targeted towards a specific issue, it was not intended to single out a particular problem. There are a multitude of issues that need our attention and this issue is only one. I’m sure that at this point I may have already lost your interest and I will bring my rant to this end.

Let us build a fire under our party in this district, let us feed that fire with guidance and ideas that are productive and realistic. We need to flush out viable candidates who will carry this fire to the capitol and work for us as our citizen legislators.

The same old same we cannot afford, I have been complacent since the election, life is busy, times are tough and it’s easy to stand in the background and hope for the best. Some of you have been diligent and watchful of the current legislators and for that I commend your attention.

This legislative session has proven that we need to take an active part in our government and participate more. We need new ideas, fresh perspective and we need to move this state in the direction we can be proud of. Let’s get this forum burning with fresh ideas and perspectives and start a fire we can carry to the capitol.

Memorial Day

2009-05-22T08:42:00.001-05:00

Memorial Day really should be a holiday by another name because the word holiday doesn't do it justice.

This is the time to give thanks to our men and women, past and present who have devoted their lives to our security, and the many, all too many, who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.It is a time of mourning for the men and women we have lost, but it should be a celebration too, of what their sacrifice has created for us.

We at home can and should debate the merits of putting our soldiers in harm's way in any given situation and we strongly believe that our forces should never be committed without the commitment and resources to ensure their blood will not be shed in vain.

I would encourage everyone to attend a Memorial Day parade or one of the many services in the area and fire up the barbecue this weekend. Take in a baseball game. Heck, play in a baseball game. Kick off your own summer season in whatever fashion you choose. It's all your choice.

But please, take a moment to attend a Memorial Day activity this weekend. Pause for a moment. Find a veteran and thank them. For all of our problems, and they are significant, we are still citizens of the greatest country on Earth, where it is literally possible to start with nothing and create a legacy.

This year, this Memorial Day, take some time to savor life and appreciate your freedom and what the sacrifice of others has wrought.

God Bless this great Country and God Bless You.

Memorandum to Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin

2009-04-02T10:40:00.004-05:00

Gentlemen:

We read in various media that your DFL caucus considers that "everything is on the table" when it considers ways to balance the state budget.

This, of course, means that you intend to raise taxes. You use euphemisms such as "revenue enhancements" and similar words that mask the reality that you plan to - in plain words - "raise taxes!"

But before you go down that bumpy road of raising taxes we invite you to: 1) take a look in the various local media and study the list of "tax delinquent properties" and 2) observe the ever-growing list of foreclosures in your legislative district.

People do not ordinarily get on the "tax delinquent list" unless they have a problem of paying taxes that are already in place and they do not ordinarily get added to the list of "foreclosures" unless they already have a money problem.

And thirdly, if 1) and 2) above do not move you to vote against tax increases please do us a favor and cause to be publicly printed the names of your constituents who have contacted you wanting you to increase their taxes.

If constituents wish to pay more taxes we trust that they will also be willing to publicly so state. We will be surprised if there are any or many!

You are in public office to represent us but not to rule us. We ask now that you hear us.

Solving the State Budget Problem Kalin/Olseen Style

2009-03-22T15:47:00.007-05:00

In the February 25, 2009 issue of the ECM Post Review (page 5) Representative Jeremy Kalin, by default, outlined brilliantly why the Minnesota State budget dilemma will NEVER be resolved by liberal DFLers.

Mr. Kalin, citing "nonpartisan House Research of the Minnesota Legislature" brought forth these stunning and pertinent facts: (Quote) " . . . . if the Minnesota legislature:

Cut all children's health care ($139 million) and
Shut down 20 percent of nursing homes in the state ($191 million) and
Released all the prisoners ($950 million) and
Let all the sex offenders go ($127 million) and
Close(d) all the state parks ($52 million) and
Eliminate(d) Meals on Wheels for seniors ($7.1 million) and
Shut down 10 state college campuses ($146 million) and
Shut down the Departments of Health, Public Safety, Transportation and the rest of state government ($3.45 billion) that would add up to $5 billion"

Mr. Kalin then continued by saying: "But all those devastating cuts still wouldn't be enough to balance the budget because the deficit is growing every day."

Mr. Kalin, you might also consider, in your brilliant analysis, the savings that could be effected if government did away with all the police departments, fire departments and the schools too. After all we don't need any of them until emergencies arise or fires get started or children need to get an education!

And, while you are at it, you might also include in your further research an investigation into how much could be saved for the taxpayers if bloated full-time salaries and massive perdiems for part-time legislators would be eliminated. The citizen legislature concept is that legislators ought to have gainful outside employment and not be full-time bureaucrats as many of you are and have become.

In summary, since all the budget eliminations outlined by you in your Capitol Commentary still do not balance the budget as required by the state constitution might we not suggest that you and Senator Olseen start to get the picture that state government is way too big and you ought to be reducing it instead of increasing it. If you cannot understand that concept and act on it, clearly you are not representing the people and are only serving yourself.

Memorandum to Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin

2009-03-13T17:40:00.005-05:00

Honorable Legislators:

Please do not further waste our time commiserating in print or in person about the fact that balancing the Minnesota budget is a problem! That fact is in plain and obvious sight.

And please do not further waste our time by telling us that you disagree with the Governor's proposals to balance the Minnesota budget. Trying to make political points with that fact does not balance the budget. Your Democrat party disagreement with the Governor's proposals are legendary and traditional and they are obvious from media releases by you and other DFL legislators around the state.

Here is what we, as your constituents, expect from you based on the fact that the task of balancing the Minnesota budget is a constitutional requirement. As legislators it is you who own the budget balancing responsibility. Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin, you rang thousands of doorbells and wore out many pairs of shoes (by your own statements) running for the offices to which you were elected. Over and over you committed in word and printed page and public meetings that you had better answers and good solutions to state government challenges. You assured that you were head and shoulders beyond and above your predecessors and all that needed to be done was for us to elect you. With smiling faces, happy handshakes and enthusiastic voices you assured us you were up to the challenges. You alleged that your predecessors had fallen down on the job of representing us in the legislature and you committed to the public that in exchange for our votes you would provide the answers to our problems and needs. So far the responses we have from you are largely happy talk while avoiding the relevant issues. Now we need responsible actions based on the commitments you made.

Our firm advisory to you on the Minnesota budget issue is that raising our taxes at the state level is absolutely not a viable option for you to use in balancing the budget nor is it fiscally reasonable to further burden your constituents who are already taxed to the hilt at local, county, state and national levels and with known steep and further increases coming at us from the Obama Administration at the federal level.

KALIN THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER

2009-03-12T15:56:00.005-05:00

Oh, how fortunate we are to have Jeremy Kalin serving us as our State Representative!

Get yourself a copy of the Isanti-Chisago County STAR, Thursday, March 12, 2009 and read for yourself how eloquently, thoroughly and scholarly he summarizes the dire straits we are in and note how carefully he analyzes the actions that will lead the way out to a better day. That ability must be a spin-off of his school teaching days! Why, he's Reaganesque you'll exclaim!

With the skill of a deep-thinking socio-political philospher the Venerable Kalin informs us in the opening comment of his extensive House Notes (and notice, even those words are a clever, eye catching title for his tome) that he has "always believed that the best social program in this country (his thinking in not narrowly limited to Chisago County - he thinks big!) is a job."

Further, as he continues to wax eloquently, he strokes his philospher's beard and tells us that "(a)s Minnesotans we pride ourselves on our work ethic and providing for our families by the sweat of our brow! Wow, Mr. Kalin that's almost biblical is it not! (both exclamation points added for emphasis).

But something has gone wrong! Here Representative Kalin lays out the problem. "Every week, more than 1,300 Minnesotans are losing their jobs." (Multiply that by 52 weeks and that's a lot of job losses - if it keeps up at that rate it could become a real problem!)

And here Rep. Kalin further points up the scope of the problem. He tells us that as a consequence of the "global economic recession" it is "harder and harder to hang on to the jobs we already have."

You have to hand it to Rep. Kalin, he's a thorough analyst in defining the problem. You probably were not aware until he told you that this has become a world-wide recession. You see, he "thinks globally" while insignificant little you think only locally!

A few statistics will be helpful to you to follow where he is going with all this. He informs us that "Central Minnesota is ground zero (that has kind of an ominous ring to it does it not!) in the tide of joblessness and home foreclosures - "ground zero" right in Representative Kalin's District no less! But fortunately, to move this along, "(h)elp is on the way (drum roll!) in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The signature achievement (his words with italics added for emphasis) of the 110th Congress and President Obama, the federal recovery funds will help save 45,000 jobs in Minnesota this year - if . . . . " IF and what a big if that is!

And on top of everything else our esteemed Representative had opportunity to demonstrate his humanitarian instincts for "(d)uring the late-February blizzard, I stopped on my way home (was that his Minneapolis house or his Chisago county rent house?) to push a car spinning its wheels in a snowdrift, and I saw dozens of others do the same."

This must have been the other members of the DFL caucus for they are well-known for "spinning their wheels and getting nowhere" while pretending they are accomplishing things!

Kalin and Olseen - Both are Failing as Legislators

2009-03-05T20:30:00.004-06:00

By this time in the legislative Session Representative Kalin and Senator Olseen have introduced many bills and have voted probably hundreds of times in Committees and on the floor on bunches of bills but Kalin and Olseen have reported back to the constituency virtually nothing about their activities or votes on most or any of these bills.
By their silence you would think that nothing important is going on down in the legislature. Do not be fooled by their silence! Nothing that goes on in the legislature is unimportant - legislation restricts your freedom, it reaches into your pocketbook, it tells us what we must do and cannot do. Legislation costs you money, it impacts your future in many ways and for years to come.

Olseen and Kalin are very well-paid in salaries, per diems and are well supplied with public services for their time at the Capitol and they are absolutely derelict in their duties by not giving us constituents routine reports of their votes and actions. Olseen and Kalin have at their command public resources that give them an opportunity to be reporting back routinely to the people with an on-going summary of their legislative activity.
Kalin has rightly been faulted, for example, for voting against picture identification as part of the protection of the voting process. Kalin's vote against that matter would not have been known by us constituents had it not been revealed by a public source other than Kalin. Then Representative Kalin weakly "defends" his opposition to it by citing "the cost" that he said it would entail. Of course that defense ignores the tremendous cost of the legal activity, for example, that is going on right now in the Senatorial court case between Franken and Coleman and the fact that Minnesota has gone at least three months with only Senator Amy Klobuchar having to carry the workload of two Senators.
We don't need to hear that you - Olseen and Kalin - disagree with the Governor's proposals. That's a foregone conclusion and a cheap-shot way of failing to divulge what you intend to do about the State budget and priorities. The schools are hurting, the counties, the cities and towns of your district are claiming financial hardship. The typical taxpayer is certainly saying loud and clear that they do not want you to raise their taxes. Yet you, Olseen and Kalin, sit silent on what you will be doing to rectify the situation. Do not come back to us with the cry that it is going to be hard to resolve the fiscal problems. We already know that. Tells us with frequency and with regularity what you have done and what you are doing for your constituents to solve the problems facing the state.

Withdrawal From Serving in the Obama Administration - A Developing Pattern?

2009-03-05T19:37:00.005-06:00

In view of the numerous appointees, nominees, aspirants and prospects who have "withdrawn" for varieties of reasons from serving in the Obama Administration wouldn't it be an interesting turn of events if the Head Push himself would do the nation a favor and "withdraw" from serving as President! He certainly is laden with as many negative reasons as any of the others as indicators why he should not have the privilege of serving in the highest office - not the least of which is the unresolved question whether he is even Constitutionally eligible to serve as President. The proof positive of his eligibility in the circumstances of his birth has not been made public and a number of negative reasons have been adduced.

Do You Have Your Belly Full of Democrat Lies, Spending, Trickery, Control, Dictatorship?

2009-02-26T13:36:00.002-06:00

The title of this blog is the message - the message is: "Have you had enough?"

The Wisdom of Id

2009-02-18T23:25:00.006-06:00

While Barack Obama has been working on this for a long time, it didn't take long for the peasants to figure it out.

Click the picture to enlarge

Republican Convention

2009-02-18T23:09:00.010-06:00

Calling all Delegates and Alternates

Plan now

The Chisago County Republican Convention

will be held at the

North Branch High School Auditorium

on

Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.

Registration begins at 8:00 a.m.

All Delegates and Alternates will be receiving the official call via the postal service.

PEOPLE BEFORE POLITICS AND OTHER LIES!

2009-02-13T14:38:00.003-06:00

In a shameful slap in the face to the voters of Minnesota and this legislative District, Representative Jeremy Kalin joined ten other DFL House members to kill the Photo ID bill (HF57) which would have required the (simple) showing of a government issued photographic identification (a simple picture ID) when appearing at the voting place.

In the midst of the turmoil that we are experiencing in Minnesota to determine who will be our U.S. Senator it is nothing short of stupid - and a kick in the teeth to the voters - for Kalin to pull a dumb trick like this. It makes a bald-faced lie of his campaign slogan that he puts "People Before Politics!"

People of District 17B - this is who you elected to represent you in the legislature! We hope you are proud of yourself and of Jeremy Kalin.

JUNK JOURNALISM

2009-01-31T20:03:00.004-06:00

A classic example of cheap-shot junk journalism was the front page above- and below-the-fold of the Strib under the date of January 30, 2009 titled: HOW DO YOU GET TO D.C.? with the sub-title: "Coleman went to court and Franken went to Florida. But the real question is . . . "

Two panel pictures involved show a salubrious Al Franken who just happened to be standing in front of a portrait of President Jack Kennedy and then there was the lugubrious shot of a wrinkle-browed Norm Coleman slumped pensively in an obvious court room chair.

The pictures are only part of the story. But clearly the pictures are designed and intended to set a tone or an "atmosphere" for all that follows. And what follows is a real journalistic gem.

Everything written about Franken is positive and light and sunshiney and all that is written about Coleman is dark and foreboding of failure. Of Franken the whole atmosphere of words is anticipation of success as the inevitable outcome. Of Coleman the conclusion is foregone that the court case is an exercise in futility.

The Strib, even as it struggles for survival by going into Chapter 11, still doesn't "get the picture" of why their advertising revenue is down and why their readership has tanked. One wonders if they ever read their own scandal sheet portrayed as mainline journalism.

LEGISLATIVE COUNTDOWN FOR SENATOR OLSEEN AND REPRESENTATIVE KALIN

2009-01-20T17:40:00.002-06:00

Ten - Nine - Eight - . . . . . . . . . . . . . the count goes on! We are waiting for Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin to commit to the very reasonable four-way test for their votes and bill introductions in the current Session of the Minnesota legislature as outlined in the previous blog.

If legislation does not meet the reasonable four-way test why in the world would our Senator and Representative support it or vote for it?

Senator Olseen and Representative you have invited commentary from your constituents and you said you would listen to your constituents - this is our commentary to you! Are you listening?

Democrats and Republicans from your constituency clearly and undoubtedly support these reasonable four-way test questions. You have indicated you want Republicans to work in a bi-partisan fashion with you. Clearly, by definition, bipartisanship must be a two-way street. Can you walk the walk and not just talk the talk?

LEGISLATIVE TEST

2009-01-18T18:38:00.002-06:00

1) Is it Moral/Right?
2) Is it Constitutional?
3) Is it Necessary?
4) Is is Affordable?

We call upon the good Senator Olseen and the good Representative Kalin, who have indicated a desire to work in a bi-partisan manner, to publicly commit to the above four-way test the idea for which comes from a Republican Congressman, Paul Broun, M.D., of Georgia's 10th District.

Presumably Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin should be willing to apply this reasonable four-way test to all legislation that comes before them, or any legislation that they author, in the current Session of the Minnesota legislature.

Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin will you so commit?

ATTENTION TAXPAYERS! LISTEN UP!

2009-01-08T20:14:00.005-06:00

Quoting from Taxpayers League of Minnesota letter November 11, 2008:

"In just the last year Minnesotans have seen taxes increase by over $1 billion:

First the legislature overrode Governor Pawlenty's veto to increase the gas tax, sales
tax, and license tax, for a whopping $697 million per year in higher taxes.

Second, the legislature increased business taxes by $141 million.

Third, on November 4th, voters approved a state sales tax increase of $276 million

per year for the arts and outdoors.

THAT'S OVER A BILLION DOLLARS OF NEW TAXES IN ONE YEAR."

(end of quote)

There you have it people! Can anyone say Senator Olseen and Representative Kalin?

"No New Taxes" in reverse!

2009-01-02T17:09:00.005-06:00

Our local legislators should be happy - "Gas Tax" Kalin and Rick Olseen - since there is already talk at the federal level to raise the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, it appears, anywhere from ten to twenty five cents per gallon. And guess why - because, among other things, the "gas guzzler" vehicles are being replaced and now there is not "enough" gas tax being raised. So once again government works at cross purposes to itself - cut down the consumption but this cuts down the tax revenue so they have to raise the tax burden to make up the difference! Think what a federal tax raise will do to the ordinary wage earner or the over-the-road truckers. Many of them can't make their way as it is and pretty soon it won't pay the commuters to go to work. Oh, the wonders of government problem solving.

Has the House Hunter Found a Place Yet?

2008-11-24T17:59:00.005-06:00

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

2008-11-23T20:58:00.006-06:00

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

2008-11-12T19:43:00.005-06:00

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

2008-11-11T16:59:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-07T15:27:00.019-06:00

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

2008-11-07T00:34:00.010-06:00

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...

2008-11-06T08:37:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-05T17:43:00.005-06:00

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

2008-11-03T14:01:00.009-06:00

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

2008-11-02T11:17:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-31T13:44:00.008-05:00

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

2008-10-31T07:47:00.006-05:00

Spreading the wealth around

by taking and giving

and taking a cut!

Joe the Non-plumber

2008-10-29T23:00:00.014-05:00

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

2008-10-28T00:43:00.023-05:00

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

2008-10-27T09:15:00.010-05:00

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

2008-10-27T07:03:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-26T22:24:00.020-05:00

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

2008-10-26T12:03:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-24T22:47:00.001-05:00

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

2008-10-24T11:59:00.007-05:00

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

2008-10-22T22:56:00.010-05:00

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!

2008-10-22T19:43:00.002-05:00

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

The Risk

2008-10-22T18:51:00.007-05:00

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

2008-10-20T23:25:00.011-05:00

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

2008-10-19T22:25:00.015-05:00

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.

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

2008-10-18T23:37:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-18T12:43:00.007-05:00

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

2008-10-17T13:10:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-16T23:59:00.022-05:00

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

2008-10-16T22:13:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-15T21:38:00.000-05:00

It is McCain - hands down!!

A Lesson to be Learned

2008-10-15T00:38:00.010-05:00

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

2008-10-14T20:28:00.007-05:00

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

2008-10-13T13:23:00.006-05:00

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

2008-10-13T13:01:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-12T22:22:00.001-05:00

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

2008-10-12T08:22:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-09T19:18:00.003-05:00

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.)

2008-10-08T22:14:00.008-05:00

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

2008-10-08T21:27:00.010-05:00

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

2008-10-05T14:37:00.006-05:00

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

2008-10-05T12:18:00.008-05:00

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

2008-10-03T22:42:00.008-05:00

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

2008-10-02T14:25:00.006-05:00

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

2008-10-02T13:20:00.006-05:00

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?

2008-10-02T13:17:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-01T23:24:00.006-05:00

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

2008-10-01T21:40:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-10-01T17:05:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-30T23:26:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-30T22:43:00.007-05:00

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

2008-09-30T21:51:00.003-05:00

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!"

2008-09-28T16:10:00.005-05:00

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

2008-09-26T11:20:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-26T11:15:00.002-05:00

Tennessee Republican Party Bumper Sticker:

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

Democrat Failure

2008-09-22T23:55:00.001-05:00

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 - - -

2008-09-22T15:57:00.003-05:00

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