March 30-31, 2007
Mar 30 13:34 A Land Called Reality Mar 30 14:12 The Ultimate Lib Ticket Mar 30 15:49 Prayers For Captain Ed's First Mate Mar 30 17:16 They Won't Listen, They Won't Learn Mar 31 01:49 Total Denial
Prior Years: 2006
A Land Called Reality
Way long ago, in a land called Reality, a horrible condition existed called 'Budget Surplus'. Actually, the surplus was a good thing until...the DFL decided that surpluses were evil. They believed that until they realized that surpluses could be spent. That's when it dawned on the DFL that surpluses were good. Everything went well until they realized that they'd spent all of the surplus before they'd paid off all of their special interest friends.
Then as now, they had to find a way to pay off the rest of their special interest friends. How did the DFL accomplish that way long ago? Who knows but it wouldn't surprise me if they took the same approach as today's DFL is doing. Speaking of which, here's some tasty tidbits on what today's DFL is doing:
Amid a struggle to decide exactly who should foot the bill, Senate leaders on Thursday outlined hundreds of million of dollars in new school spending predicated on a higher income tax.While the "education/tax bill is headed for a Saturday vote", the legislation is headed for the trash can the minute Gov. Pawlenty vetoes it. Let's face facts: The DFL is utterly predictable. They still worship at Education Minnesota's altar. That's sad by itself but it gets worse. A Republican could probably live with that if the DFL only worshiped at Education Minnesota's altar but that's just one stop on their worship tour. After stopping at Education Minnesota's altar, they still have to stop at MnDOT's altar & at the health care altar.
All schools would receive $100 more per student next year and $102 on top of that the year after, colleges would get more money in exchange for promises to hold tuition increases down and more parents would qualify for grants to help pay for early childhood programs. The three items would cost $444 million over the next two years.
Senate Democrats are discussing an income tax hike, maybe across the board and maybe just on the wealthy, to offset the new spending. The combined education/tax bill is headed for a Saturday vote.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, said Pawlenty will need to compromise to get a state budget passed. "If his only strategy is to be telling us `No, no, no,' that's not a form of negotiations," Clark said.Sen. Clark complains that Gov. Pawlenty's negotiating tactic is to just say "no, no, no" but she isn't complaining that the DFL's negotiating tactic is repeatedly saying "MORE, MORE, MORE." The DFL had better learn how to say no more often to Education Minnesota & MnDOT. They'd better learn how to say yes to less. (Saying yes to less taxes & less spending would be a good start.)
"They want to increase spending in this state that is two and three times faster than people's paychecks are going up, faster than the economy is growing," Pawlenty said. "You have to have government finally live within its means and not just always run to the taxpayers for another whack at their wallets."When Gov. Pawlenty was first elected, he inherited a $4.5 billion deficit, which was the result of runaway spending increases. Bill Clinton's definition of insanity in the 1992 debates was doing the same thing over & over again but expecting different results. Fast forward to today. The DFL wants to return to its free-spending ways. It's just hoping another record deficit follows. Are there any sane people out there who think that the DFL can return to their spendaholic ways without returning to record deficits?
I don't believe that. I'm betting that most taxpayers would side with me once they're given that information.
Speaking of getting that information out, it's time that the readers & writers of the right blogosphere realized that we need to write letters to the editor (LTE's) to reach the people who don't read our blogs. We're perfectly equipped in terms of putting together the information in a coherent, understandable way. We're far more informed on the issues than the average voter. We're in position to influence voters both with our blogs & through the newspapers.
We shouldn't take an either/or approach to getting this information out. We should take an 'all of the above' approach instead. Let's make the most of it so we can retake the majority in 2008.
Posted Friday, March 30, 2007 1:34 PM
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The Ultimate Lib Ticket
My friend Cal just emailed me this link of a letter to the editor of the SF Chronicle. Look no further if you're in need of some Friday afternoon levity. Here's the LTE:
Here's the ticket -- Barack and Nancy!This LTE would be laughable if it weren't so wrongheaded. The writer says that we need to show the world that we aren't "a school of spineless jellyfish" on the day that the Senate voted to run like spineless wimps from Iraq. The writer says that "we have high ideals" but those ideals are either nonexistent or they're nearly impossible to detect. The writer also says that "we're not head-in-the-sand ideologues" but he can't say why Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha haven't admitted that our troops have started making serious progress in Iraq since implementing Gen. Petraeus' counterinsurgency plan.
Editor -- Let's cut short all the campaigning and political blather -- it's Barack and Nancy in '08! What a fabulous team -- the wise, legislatively experienced, culturally aware, politically astute House speaker, paired with the most charismatic, articulate American politician to appear on the landscape in decades -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama!
Both Nancy and Barack have integrity, a sound vision of the values this country should represent, are fair-minded and have few ties to the corporate corruption that is rampant in politics.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, for all her virtues, and she has many, has too much baggage; lost baggage at that. She's too spineless and will compromise too easily for her own political survival.
America needs to send a message to the rest of the world: We're not a school of spineless jellyfish, we have high ideals, but we're not head-in-the-sand ideologues, we're independent thinkers.
We're not incapable of changing direction when presented with the verifiable facts. We are a humane nation, capable of putting people before profit, responsive to the needs of the world and willing to sacrifice so that the world may benefit in the long run.
The truth is that Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Murtha won't admit the truth if it bit them in the backside. They can't because they're too spineless to stand up to the lunatic nut jobs of the far, far left.
As for a ticket of Obama and Pelosi, the only thing that I'd say about that is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE!!! That ticket would prove that there is a God in Heaven and that He's on our side.
Posted Friday, March 30, 2007 2:13 PM
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Prayers For Captain Ed's First Mate
Let me first say that I couldn't be happier to get Captain Ed's report that surgery for his beloved First Mate went well. Here's part of Ed's hospiblogging:
1:24 - Excellent news! The surgery is done, and the kidney is already producing urine. The doctors saw stones in her appendix and decided to do an appendectomy as long as they had her open, especially since stones precede appendicitis. She will be in recovery for two hours and then will return to her room. The donor has also gone to recovery, and except for a little bout of high blood pressure, did just fine. He'll be leaving the hospital perhaps as early as Sunday.Ed, That is excellent news!!! I couldn't be happier for you & your entire family. I can't imagine going through what you & your beloved First Mate & family have gone through. I'm just thankful that you've had the Admiral Emeritus to learn from and the 'Marriage Encounter prayer team' to comfort you. Ed, know that I'll keep all of you in my prayers. Know, too, that the 'St. Cloud Discovery Church prayer team' is keeping you in their prayers, too.
I had the pleasure of meeting Captain Ed & his First Mate at a Hugh Hewitt event that the Patriot radio station sponsored last October. Though I knew that Ed was one of the finest men in the blogosphere prior to that event, the conversation I had that night with him just confirmed that opinion.
Posted Friday, March 30, 2007 3:51 PM
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They Won't Listen, They Won't Learn
It's apparent that the Minnesota Senate DFL just won't take no for an answer on tax increases. Here's the details on their latest attempt to dramatically increase taxes:
Rather than raising income taxes on everyone, Senate Democrats plan to pass a tax bill Saturday that would give Minnesota the highest-in-the-nation top rate.This fits seamlessly into State Sen. Steve Murphy's quote, too:
The proposal to raise just shy of $1 billion in taxes over the next two years would be achieved by adding a fourth tier to Minnesota's current three-tier system. The new rate would be 9.7 percent. At least half of the proceeds would be used to offset higher education spending.
Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk said his Democratic colleagues rallied around the plan during a closed-door caucus Friday morning. They chose the approach over another one that would have raised income taxes across the board.
"I'm not trying to fool anybody," said Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, sponsor of the measure that would increase funding for roads and transit by $1.5 billion a year once it was fully implemented in the next decade. "There's a lot of taxes in this bill."The DFL continues to pass legislation that increases the tax burden on small businesses despite Gov. Pawlenty's promise to veto any tax increase passed by the DFL-dominated legislature. The DFL has wasted all their time passing bills that they know won't get signed into law. By doing this, they're needlessly subjecting us to a special session. Shame on them for that. They're more concerned, generally speaking, in showing Gov. Pawlenty that they're the boss than they are with doing what's right.
Another thing that the DFL should be ashamed of is the utter lack of bipartisanship on their behalf. I can literally count on one hand the number of amendments that the DFL has passed if it didn't have a DFL co-sponsor. They're trying to eliminate the JOBZ program that Gov. Pawlenty created. They've stripped out all of Gov. Pawlenty's education initiatives.
I understand that they have the chairmanships but to defeat almost all of the minority party's ideas is unheard of & unconscionable. That's why I called this DFL-dominated legislature " they're the worst Minnesota legislature in the state's history." These are just a smattering of the poor decisions that this DFL legislature has made.
The bad news is that this legislature refuses to work on behalf of the average Minnesotan. Instead, they're working to repay their special interest allies. In my opinion, that's the definition of irresponsibility.
Originally posted Friday, March 30, 2007, revised 01-Apr 12:53 AM
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Total Denial
I recently wrote that John Murtha thinks that al Qa'ida will disappear if we leave Iraq. Based on this article, it appears as though the Fever Swamp fever has afflicted another foreign policy disaster. Here's just one of the inflammatory things that Zbigniew Brzezinski said:
Brzezinski said there's no reason to think a bloodbath would necessarily follow a U.S. withdrawal. "We expected that the U.S. leaving Vietnam would result in massive killings and genocide and so forth, and collapse of the dominoes in Southeast Asia," he said. "It didn't happen. How certain are we of the horror scenarios that have been mentioned in what will take place in Iraq?"Listen to that idiot. He's saying that the genocide in Pol Pot's Cambodia didn't happen. He's saying that the Saigon massacre didn't happen. That Zbigniew Brzezinski would dispute Pol Pot's genocide is simply stunning. Pol Pot murdered over 1.5 million people so he could establish a communist Cambodia.
It should scare every sane American that Brzezinski is accorded any respect at all, especially in light of these comments and the significant role he played in the Iran Hostage Crisis disaster. As I said in the opening paragraph, he isn't the only scary Democrat.
Here's a John Murtha quote that's destined to live in infamy:
People tend to say, well, if we leave there's going to be chaos. I don't believe that. Seventy-eight percent of the Iraqis say that's not going to happen, 78 percent of the Iraqis say it'll be, we're the ones that are causing this and al Qaeda's going to be,al Qaeda's going to disappear.What type of denial is afflicting John Murtha? It must be something awful because nobody except the most fatally afflicted Fever Swamper could believe that. Here's another scary observation from Mr. Brzezinski:
As for Iraq, he argued that a "jointly set date of departure" for U.S. forces, agreed to by the American and Iraqi governments, would put pressure on Iraq's various factions to reach an accommodation. U.S. diplomats should also try to pull Iraq's neighbors into a discussion about that country's security, as they all would be harmed if the situation there explodes.How many more times do we have to hear the message that essentially says "It's in everyone's interest in the region to help stabilize Iraq"? If it's "in everybody's interest" to see a stabilized Iraq, why is al Qa'ida in Iraq teaming with the Iranian mullahs to destabilize Iraq?
Finally, there's this Brzezinski quote:
"Since 9/11, which killed 3,000 Americans, 200,000 Americans have died violently, in car accidents," Brzezinski said. "We accept that as a necessary aspect of our way of life. But I'm sad to say that perhaps terrorism may be a necessary aspect of our way for life for some time to come. It shouldn't affect the totality of the national culture."Shut the hell up, Mr. Brzezinski. The day that I accept terrorism as "a necessary aspect of our way for life" is the day I want someone to slap some sense into me. This is what happens when you live by pacifist rules. This explains the Carter approach to the Hostage Crisis that lasted 444 days, ending finally eight minutes after President Reagan was sworn into office. Americans don't accept defeatism. We prefer excellence.
Posted Saturday, March 31, 2007 1:50 AM
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