October 17-19, 2008
Oct 17 04:02 Murtha's Haditha Problems Continue Oct 17 10:04 Taking the Times To Task Oct 17 18:32 Rasmussen Reports Ohio Gain For McCain Oct 17 19:29 Hope Express Visits St. Cloud Oct 19 01:16 Obama's Ruthlessness Oct 19 03:33 Tarryl's Got Some Explaining To Do Oct 19 12:12 Mark Olson Won't Let Go Of His Delusion
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Murtha's Haditha Problems Continue
John Murtha won't stop lying about what happened in Haditha. Wednesday, he sat down with for an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. After their interview, they posted a video. Here's a partial transcript of that interview:
Murtha: I was in Haditha in August. This incident happened in November and for months, nobody knew anything about it. Time Magazine had an article about it so I asked the Marine Corps about it and they said that nothing happened. I said you can't do this. This hurts our troops when something like this happens. The Iraqis turn against us when this sort of thing happens. You hurt our troops. I brought the commandant in and he went out to all the FFM forces and said that you can't do this anymore. And he tried to be as careful as he could be but he said that the rules of engagement are clear. So anyway, the rules have changed.Later, they asked Rep. Murtha about the Haditha investigation. Here's a partial transcript of what he said about the investigation:
Murtha: I felt like nothing was happening. I felt like I had to do something so I felt like I had to speak out...Twenty-four people were killed. Kids. People in a wheelchair. No worms were found. No nothing. And the investigation by NCIS...The commandant put a two star general in charge of the investigation and he came to the same conclusion that I came to. So it's hard to...Listen. They've gone through hell. And I've said this at a press conference. Let me tell you what happens. I know how what happens. This kid gets blown up outside. I understand how that happens. I know the pressure on these guys. I get PTSD just going to the hospital visiting these guys. It breaks my heart seeing these kids like this.Murtha's saying that "nobody knew anything about" the investigation is insulting. The officers directing the firefight put together a detailed PowerPoint presentation on that day's events. They sent it up the chain of command. It's difficult to argue against that since then-Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore testified under oath to that at an Article 32 hearing. Capt. Dinsmore was later promoted.
Murtha still hasn't admitted what's part of the official record: that 8 of the 'victims' were identified as known insurgents. It's long past time for Rep. Murtha to come clean on this. It's time that Murtha admitted that he made these accusations in an attempt to become the House Majority Leader.
It's time Rep. Murtha made things right with the Haditha Marines and their families.
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 4:04 AM
No comments.
Taking the Times To Task
This week, the St. Cloud Times endorsed Steve Gottwalt. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't resist throwing in this cheapshot which wasn't justified:
As a longtime St. Cloud City Council member and during his 2006 legislative campaign, Gottwalt worked and talked in ways that showed he could and would accomplish his goals without partisan attacks.That isn't what Bob Collins said about Rep. Gottwalt:
However, he too easily ignored those pledges in his first term.
I have been impressed with Rep. Steve Gottwalt. He may be, I think, the most articulate speaker in the House. He makes extremely lucid arguments that make you reconsider your position if you disagreed with him in the first place. Seems to be well-liked,I didn't hear a personal slam from him all session. Good addition to the House." - Bob Collins, Minnesota Public RadioRather than remaining silent, Rep. Gottwalt sent this email to Randy Krebs:
Randy:I wish all Republicans went on the offensive like this. We need principled conservatives like Steve who won't take the media's assaults lying down. We need more principled conservatives who make great arguments while maintaining their perspective on the issues that they're debating. I wish more Republicans stood up to the media without getting antagonistic. Steve knows how to do that. Steve's fought the good fight because he won't abandon his conservative principles. Last week, Steve signed the 'Live Within Our Mean' pledge, meaning he's prepared to put government on a diet rather than forcing taxpayers to go on another diet.
While I appreciate today's endorsement, I'm getting awfully tired of the "partisan" slam. It just doesn't stick. I have certainly stuck-up for conservative principles, the same principles I articulated in my 2006 campaign. Frankly, in the minority, you have to stick-up for your perspectives even more strongly. I did that respectfully, and managed to build sound working relationships on both sides of the aisle that will
benefit our area.
If you look at how I worked at the Legislature and what I accomplished, it would have to be characterized as bi-partisan, and certainly not overly partisan. How else would I have won the support of the DFL chairs of House and Senate health care committees, or won appointment by DFL leadership to the Health Care Access Commission (who then appointed me co-chair of the Public Health Working Group, the only freshman from either party given such a role)? How else would I have passed Justin's Bill? How else would I have been able to work across party lines to co-author legislation with Rep. Larry Haws, Sen. Tarryl Clark, Rep. Larry Hosch, Rep. Kim Norton, the Freedom To Breathe Act with Rep. Tom Huntley, and more?
Bob Collins of MPR noticed it when he observed, "Seems to be well liked...Haven't heard a personal slam from him all session. Good addition to the House." So please stop banging the partisan gong. It's ringing hollow.
-Steve
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 10:06 AM
No comments.
Rasmussen Reports Ohio Gain For McCain
Earlier this week, Rasmussen polling showed Sen. Obama with a 2 point lead in Ohio. This morning, they're showing a tied race in Ohio at 49-49. That's the good news. The bad news is that the Supreme Court essentially ruled that there will be massive, pro-Democrat voter fraud in Ohio:
The Supreme Court is siding with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations. The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.Ms. Brunner's actions are only slightly more disheartening than the Supreme Court's actions. It isn't a stretch to say that an Obama administration will drift further towards SCOTUS-sanctioned voter fraud now that this decision has been handed down.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.
Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.
It's now time for today's good news :
Barack Obama and John McCain are now all tied up at 49% each in the battleground state of Ohio, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey. A Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone poll conducted a few days earlier showed Obama leading McCain 49% to 47% in Ohio.Despite the best efforts of the Obama campaign and their allies in the swooning media, this race isn't over, especially now that the swooning media has declared open season on Joe the Plumber. They're going after him with unprecedented ferocity. The swooning media was indifferent to Sen. Obama's ties with Tony Rezko, ACORN and Bill Ayers. Contrast that with their total dissection of Joe the Plumber's life within 24 hours.
This points to two things: (a) that the swooning media's hatred for capitalism is as intense as Sen. Obama's hatred is and (b) the swooning media's selective indifference to Sen. Obama's ties to organized corruption has helped him escape serious scrutiny.
It's time that we stopped the false hope and change express. Sen. Obama has made clear that he's a proponent of the Fairness Doctrine, which silences our voices. We know that the swooning media hates capitalism because of their hateful actions towards Joe the Plumber. Based on Team Barry's criticism of Joe , it's pretty obvious that they aren't pro-capitalist either:
"But, Joe the Plumber...I know you got a lot of plumbers out here making over 250,000 grand," he said to supporters. "Raise your hands, please."Here's how Team McCain responded:
At that point, a young man raised his hand, which appeared to be in jest. "There's a man," said Biden. "Go borrow money from him, the guy in the green shirt. He makes more than two-fifty. He looks like he's only 18 years old,which means he earned it the hard way. He inherited it."
McCain spokesperson Ben Porritt fired off an email to press members at the comments, saying "Joe the Senator continued his angry campaign today fresh from his performance attacking Joe the Plumber on national television last night."
"While Barack Obama attacks small town Americans for 'clinging' to guns and religion, his running mate is busy attacking hardworking Americans who oppose the socialist tax policies of Barack Obama. If anyone is paying attention to Barack Obama's running mate they will see a serial exaggerator whose only job is to conceal Barack Obama's profound lack of experience, record, and judgment," wrote Porritt, who titled his email "Biden Irrelevance Tour Continues".
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 6:32 PM
Comment 1 by Walter hanson at 18-Oct-08 10:12 PM
Wow won't it be nice if the media spent one week doing it's job.
I mean they can do lots of stories about ACORN and holding people accountable.
They can do stories about how the media has lied (remember that reporter who said some yelled kill Obama during the rally where's the followup once the secret service said it didn't happen)
They can do stories about how Obama was a member of the New Party (after all didn't they do a story that Pallin was a member of the Indepence in Alaska.)
Sean Hannity is right this is the year the main stream media died.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Don at 23-Oct-08 06:02 PM
Oh media bias that must mean the focus is on Fox "News" the reigning Republican propaganda machine. Fox & Friends has become a comedy show both in terms of their collective intellect (no wonder they like Palin) and absurd attempts to attack Obama under the guise of covering key news stories. The corporate ownership and extreme bias in the news represented by Fox News is our biggest threat to democracy.
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 23-Oct-08 06:09 PM
Chill out, Don.
Liberals automatically assume that conservatives get their marching orders from FNC. It's time they stopped believing their campaign mantras.
Hope Express Visits St. Cloud
This afternoon, Sen. Coleman's Hope Express tour visited the St. Cloud Paneira. Approximately 50 people attended the event. After Sen. Coleman led the group in singing Happy Birthday to Hannah Frank, Sen. Coleman made a compelling argument for his vote on the bill aimed at reducing the credit crunch.
CORRECTION: I just spoke with the Coleman campaign. They actually had someone take the attendance. According to my contact inside the campaign, 65 people attended Sen. Coleman's visit to Paneira.
What Sen. Coleman said was that the people that profited illegally from the Fannie/Freddie meltdown will be prosecuted. Then Sen. Coleman said that he voted for the bill because he'd heard from small businesses who worked hard and played by the rules. One small businessman, a car dealer, told him that his business was down by almost a third because of the lending crunch. He even said that doing nothing would force him into deciding whether he'd have to lay off his own son. Sen. Coleman said that businesses need credit to replenish inventories, too.
Sen. Coleman praised Teresa Bohnen, president of the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, saying that he gets lots of "great advice" from the St. Cloud Chamber.
Another main theme of Sen. Coleman's speech was his passion for bringing about true energy independence, saying that "if someone tells you that they're for nuclear power as soon as" they figure out where to store the nuclear waste, "then they really aren't for nuclear power." Sen. Coleman said that it takes about 10 years to build a nuclear pwoer plant. He then suggested that we "start building now and I'll flip the switch off if we can't figure out where to store" the spent fuel rods.
Also attending today's event were Rep. Steve Gottwalt and his predecessor, former State Rep. Jim Knoblach and candidate Josh Behling, who is the GOP-endorsed candidate for HD-15B.
During my brief interview with Ron Carey, Chairman Carey told me that he committed to being in town for a ceremony honoring longtime GOP activist Midge Dean when he heard that "Norm would be in town." Chairman Carey was in listening mode while he talked with the activists. Carey said that the race is close here in Minnesota, noting that "the McCain campaign wouldn't be spending money in places where they don't have a chance of winning."
One of the loudest responses came when Sen. Coleman said that Michael Moore called the next decare "the decade of Al Franken." To say that that didn't get a positive response is understatement.
Outside, a DFL activist paraded back and forth. The activist was wearing a George Bush mask. During his speech, Sen. Coleman said he was surprised by such figures because "I didn't know I was running for president."
Sen. Coleman said that he'd return to St. Cloud again before the election, though he wouldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be "at some ungodly hour."
The mood at the event was at times enthusiastic, at times somber. The most poignant moment happened when Sen. Coleman gave the floor to a woman who told about Sen. Coleman's call after she had surgery to remove the cancer from her body. The lady said that Sen. Coleman always asks her about her health whenever she attends a GOP event.
It's clear to me that Sen. Coleman picked up where Sen. Wellstone left off in terms of constituent services. Despite Mr. Franken's claims to want to follow his friend Sen. Wellstone, it's difficult to picture Mr. Franken having the compassion or temperament required to excel in that important service.
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 10:14 PM
No comments.
Obama's Ruthlessness
Eighteen or more months ago, conservatives thought Hillary Clinton was the prohibitive favorite to win the Democrats' presidential nomination. In that context, Rudy Giuliani seemed like the perfect GOP opponent. The reason why conservatives thought that was because many thought that Rudy was the only Republican able to slay Hillary in the debates, on the campaign trail and eventually in Electoral College.
Fast forward to today and I'm forced to admit that I think Barack Obama is more ruthless than Bill or Hillary Clinton. Here's why I think that:
1) When Kathleen Willey threatened to go public with accusations that President Clinton sexually harassed her, when Paula Jones filed a lawsuit against President Clinton,when Jennifer Flowers went public with the fact that she'd had an affair with Bill Clinton, the Clintons' response was simple. Bill Clinton and the now-infamous Clintonistas attacked with a relentless ruthlessness. James Carville called Paula Jones trailer trash. PI's were hired to dig up dirt on Kathleen Willey and allegedly intimidate her. Hillary talked about non-existent vast right wing conspiracies.
Fast forward to this week. Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, asked Sen. Obama about his tax plan. Then Joe told Sen. Obama that his plan sounded alot like socialism. Team Barry has publicly ridiculed him since that went public. The Agenda Media played Carville's role by digging into every part of Mr. Wurzelbacher's life. They parked TV trucks outside Mr. Wurzelbacher's home. The biggest appreciable difference is that Bill Clinton didn't go after Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey or Jennifer Flowers publicly like Sen. Obama AND Sen. Biden went after Mr. Wurzelbacher.
2) Sen. Obama tried silencing journalists Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso for digging into Sen. Obama's ties to Bill Ayers when they worked together at the Woods Foundation. The Obama campaign didn't just try to discredit these journalists. They simply tried silencing them outright. Whenever Sen. Obama has encountered a serious opponent, his initial instinct has been to eliminate that opponent by getting them thrown off the ballot.
Playing on a national stage was different. Because he couldn't run Hillary off the ballot, he instead showed his ruthlessness by making demeaning sexist statements that belittled her. Here's one example of Sen. Obama's sexist comments from the campaign trail:
"You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out," Obama said.That's a pretty sexist statement. NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Norah O'Donnell noticed Sen. Obama's sexist statement:
Norah O'Donnell: "He said, 'I understand when she's down, that she makes these kinds of attacks.' It's getting a little personal."Sen. Obama's ruthlessness is apparent to anyone who's interested in the truth. Sen. Obama's calm public demeanor hides his ruthlessness. If the swooning media didn't have an orgasmic view of Sen. Obama, they might've noticed his sexist statements.
Andrea Mitchell: "It's getting a little personal and, very frankly, you know how deeply we interpreted every comment to look for some sort of racial motivation before South Carolina. A lot of people said it was there. But, you know, when you start describing a female candidate as being 'down' and 'striking back,' I don't know, that's a little edgy, don't you think?"
Norah O'Donnell: "Yeah. And I think there's gonna be a lot more comments about that."*
The ladies of PUMA noticed. They finally said no more to Sen. Obama's sexism. Instead, they said that they weren't going to tolerate Sen. Obama's sexism. Party unity wasn't their primary concern; fighting Sen. Obama's sexism was.
Another sign of Sen. Obama's ruthlessness and lawlessness is his association with ACORN, the voter fraud specialists. Liberals reading this will likely say that Sen. Obama didn't pay them $800,000. Salena Zito notes in this post that there isn't much difference between CSI and ACORN:
Citizens Services Inc. is headquartered at the same address as ACORN's national headquarters in New Orleans. Citizens Services was established in December 2004 to "assist persons and organizations who advance the interests of low- and moderate-income people," according to paperwork filed in Louisiana. In a 2006 ACORN publication, Citizen Services Inc. is described as "ACORN's campaign services entity ."The same people that work for ACORN work for CSI, too. They're housed in the same building. This isn't unique amongst far left organizations. I wrote about a similar situation here :
In CAF's FAQ page, someone asked if they could contribute to their organization. The unsurprising response was "Yes!" They then linked to a secure website to contribute online. After that, they listed this address for people wanting to simply send a check via snail mail:Here's what Jeff Birnbaum wrote about the tenants at 1825 K Street:Campaign for America's FutureI didn't think that citizen activists maintained offices on K Street in Washington, DC. That's because K Street is known for housing major lobbying firms. That's why I've nicknamed K Street the Lobbyists' Lair. I'll stand by that nickname.
1825 K Street , NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006
Please make your check out to "Campaign for America's Future."
The convergence began in January of last year when USAction, a grass-roots organization with eager activists in two dozen states, was hunting for additional space and leased more square footage than it needed on the second floor of 1825. It ended up subletting to Americans United for Change, its rapid-response confederate in the successful fight in 2005 to defeat President Bush's plan to add private accounts to Social Security. (Woodhouse is president of that group.)Colaboration and cooperation are undoubtedly the motto that these far left organizations operate by. Bringing it back to my original point, why shouldn't we think that CSI and ACORN don't work hand-in-hand with each other, especially considering their admitted ties to each other?
Soon thereafter, Campaign for America's Future, which promotes liberal causes mostly on the economic and domestic fronts, was also seeking a new home and decided to alight on the fourth floor. It moved there in mid-February of this year and soon took on a tenant of its own, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a coalition directed by Thomas Matzzie, who is also the Washington director of MoveOn.org Political Action.
Now every weekday is a rolling meeting with staffers from each of the organizations mixing with one another on such issues as lowering prescription drug prices and increasing funding for children's health programs.
3) Another bit of proof that Sen. Obama is ruthless is the fact that Sen. Obama didn't hesitate in accusing Bill Clinton of being a racist. That's pretty outrageous considering the fact that Toni Morrison once called Bill Clinton the first black president :
In her now-famous defense of a scandal-plagued Bill Clinton, Nobel prizewinner Toni Morrison, went so far as to call him "our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime." "Clinton," Morrison wrote in the 1998 New Yorker essay, "displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."That didn't matter to Sen. Obama. His hinting that Bill Clinton was a racist was simply the best strategy for winning the South Carolina primary. Sen. Obama didn't hesitate in suggesting that Geraldine Ferraro had made a racist remark when she said this:
"I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate," Ferraro said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "It had nothing to do with my qualification."Here's Sen. Obama's response to that non-controversy:
The controversy began Tuesday when the national media picked up on comments Ferraro made in an interview last week with the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."
"Part of what I think Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice and dice politics that's about race and about gender and about this and that, and that's what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way we can't solve problems," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.That's alot of nonsense coming from someone who didn't hesitate preemptively playing the race card.
It's time we exposed Sen. Obama for who he is: a ruthless man who won't think twice about silencing his critics, whether it's with the Fairness Doctrine or whether it's with his allies smearing his opponents. The First Amendment means nothing to Sen. Obama, especially if he's legitimately being attacked with facts and truth.
Posted Sunday, October 19, 2008 1:17 AM
No comments.
Tarryl's Got Some Explaining To Do
If MinnPost's Doug Grow quoted Tarryl Clark accurately in this post , always a big if, then Tarryl's got some explaining to do. Here's Grow's quote of Tarryl:
Tarryl Clark, a DFL Senate leader from St. Cloud, was among those in the crowd. After the debate was over, she stopped by a table where the media were seated.This is what Tarryl's Senate webpage says about her tenure in the Minnesota Senate:
"Now you know what we heard for six years," said Clark, referring to Bachmann's time in the Minnesota Senate before she won the 6th District House seat two years ago.
Elected: special election 2005, re-elected 2006In other words, she's been in the Senate for 3 sessions, which is a far cry from 6 years. That quote and that post tell us alot.
Term: 2nd
First, it shows that Doug Grow's writing isn't factchecked. If it was, they would've caught this error. Though I detest Tarryl's dishonest and while I'm unimpressed with Mr. Grow's quest for the truth, I'm thankful that this quote was posted. If they'd cleaned this up, voters in SD-15 wouldn't have gotten this insight into Tarryl Clark.
Secondly, and most importantly, it says that Tarryl throws words together that initially sound good but that are, to be kind, exaggerations. Coming to think of it, it might be wise to parse Tarryl's words. She didn't say that she'd heard Michele Bachmann for six years. She said that "we heard" Michele Bachmann for six years.
The fact that Tarryl would say something like that is troubling. Perhaps it's because Tarryl was a registered lobbyist :
Minn Community Action Partnership, Identification Number: 1328, Registration Date: 2/8/1999, Termination Date: 12/27/2005Let's not forget that Tarryl's animosity towards Michele Bachmann has been quite public:
State Sen. Tarryl Clark, who spoke on behalf of Patty Wetterling's endorsement, called Bachmann "a devil in a blue dress."Let's also remember what Tarryl said at a January, 2007 townhall meeting:
I asked Sen. Clark if adopting a zero-based budget was a possibility. Sen. Clark said that that's something they were looking into and that it might happen for the '08 legislative session but that there wasn't enough time to adopt it for the '07 session. Not willing to let it go at that, I asked if they would at least schedule oversight hearing that would identify the wasteful spending that's already there. I was assured that they would be holding vigorous oversight hearings. (I phrased the question specifically to establish the fact that waste existed & that it was just a matter of determining how big the amount was.)Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it's understatement to say that Sen. Clark hasn't exactly kept all her promises.
Pressing forward, I then asked Sen. Clark why six tax increase bills were introduced the first week . She said that "there were really only 2 tax bills, one to lower property taxes, the other to raise them." She assured us that the other bills weren't going anywhere and that they "were introduced by individual" legislators and "weren't part of the leadership's agenda."
Considering Tarryl's willingness to say anything, why would anyone think that she's got any credibility left? That's why I'll take her comments about Michele Bachmann with several pounds of salt.
Posted Sunday, October 19, 2008 3:33 AM
No comments.
Mark Olson Won't Let Go Of His Delusion
Based on this article , I'd say that Mark Olson won't let go of his delusion. I'd also say that Dave Wilson needs to read the Preamble of our Constitution. Here's what I'm refering to:
Delegates voted 61-18 on the first ballot to endorse Olson over Alison Krueger of Big Lake, who won the Sept. 9 primary and will be the Republican candidate on the ballot, said Dave Wilson, Senate District 16 Republican Party chairman.I checked the Secretary of State's election page. According to that page , Betsy Wergin won with 20,042 votes. There isn't a snowball's prayer in hell that Mark Olson will get close to 2,500 write-in votes.
"People on the Olson side are going to be pushing as hard as we can with limited financial means to get him elected," he said.
Most disturbing is this quote from SD-16 chairman Dave Wilson:
Wilson said he blamed Senate Republican leaders for ignoring the will of the local party and the media for harming Olson's election bid.Mr. Wilson needs to remind himself that the Preamble starts with We The People, not We The Local Party. The people of SD-16 voted in the Sept. 9th primary. According to the SecState's website , Alison Krueger won with 1,771 votes despite not campaigning. That surprassed Olson's total of 1,518. Mark Olson has zero shot at winning significant votes from independents, especially as a write-in.
I'd further suggest that it isn't "Senate Republican leaders" or "the media" that's "harming Olson's election bid." What's harming Mark Olson's re-election bid is his conviction of the charges of Domestic Assault-Misdemeanor-Commits Act With Intent to Cause Fear of Immediate Bodily Harm or Death. Mark Olson's political career ended the minute the jury returned a guilty verdict on August 16, 2007. Mark Olson simple refuses to admit that.
I've said before that the SD-16 BPOU isn't in touch with the people of the district. Three fourths of the delegates voted for Mark Olson. Fifty-four percent of the district's voters voted for Alison Krueger. That's a real disconnect. What's worse is that the BPOU re-endorsed Olson after he lost the primary.
What's most troubling to me is that Mr. Wilson has ignored the fact that Alison Krueger is a staunch fiscal and social conservative. It's also ignoring the fact that Ms. Krueger is running 3 successful small businesses with her husband Karl. They know what it's like to comply with high taxes, overregulation and health care issues. Mark Olson can't legitimately claim that.
By staging this write-in campaign, the SD-16 BPOU is taking the spotlight off of Lisa Fobbe's feeble list of 'accomplishments'. This article , written by the Princeton Union-Eagle's Joel Stottrup, says this:
The percentage of Princeton students passing state reading and math tests in April was below the state average.To be fair, it also says that scores are improving.
Close to 71 percent of Princeton 10th graders passed a reading test called the Graduation Required Assessment for Diploma (GRAD) exam, compared to the 75.1 percent passing it statewide, said Muckenhirn.These substandard results happened under Lisa Fobbe's watch. She's the chairlady of the Princeton School Board. Considering these results, why do people think that Lisa Fobbe's 'expertise' on education issues is worth a tinker's damn?
Muckenhirn says that tenth graders also took the MCA-II reading exam. The results were 65 percent of Princeton 10th graders passing it compared to 71 percent for the state.
I'd also argue that the biggest issues facing the state this session aren't with education. I'm not belittling the significance of education. Rather, I'm saying that economic issues are the biggest issues. Besides dealing with the deficit by living within our means, we need to start creating a pro-business environment in Minnesota. We also need to deal with health care issues. I know from talking with Alison that she's the best equipped to deal with these demanding issues.
If the people of SD-16 are wise enough to elect Alison Krueger, they'll be doing themselves and the state Senate a big favor. Electing Alison Krueger is stepping into the future. Voting for Lisa Fobbe is voting for substandard status quo. Voting for Mark Olson is a vote for corruption and cronyism.
It's time we voted for someone with expertise on small business issues, whose leadership will be evident from the minute that she's sworn in and who will set a high ethical standard.
If that's what's most important to the voters of SD-16, then Alison Krueger is the only option this November.
Posted Sunday, October 19, 2008 7:23 PM
No comments.
