August 19-22, 2012
Aug 19 10:24 Stephanie Cutter can't help herself Aug 19 11:20 Gary Hart: Obama-Biden are foreign policy experts Aug 19 16:33 Photo ID: LWV-MN's fairy tales vs. Minnesota Majority's verifiable facts Aug 20 01:02 Dayton's health care stunt Aug 20 11:15 Gov. Dayton thinks union contract will be defeated Aug 21 04:20 Is the EPA trying to crucify the iron mining industry? Aug 21 06:31 President Obama's ill-advised press conference Aug 22 15:09 Is MnSCU antiquated? Aug 22 15:37 Obama misspells Oiho LOL
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Stephanie Cutter can't help herself
Minutes ago, discredited liar Stephanie was asked about the Joe Soptic episode by ABC's Jake Tapper.
TAPPER: Stephanie, when the pro-Obama superPAC Priorities USA suggested that Mitt Romney was responsible in some way for the death of a steelworker's wife, you said quote "I don't know the facts about when this individual's wife got sick or the facts about this person's health insurance." But, in actuality, you were on a conference call where the worker told his story. Can you explain why you said you didn't know the facts of the story?
CUTTER: Because I didn't know the facts of the story. I didn't know the facts of when Mr. Soptic's wife got sick and I only learned the facts after all of the hysteria of that ad.
Ms. Cutter, how could you sit through that conference call and not hear anything that Mr. Soptic said? Is it that you didn't pay attention to Mr. Soptic? Or is it that you're just lying again? Is it your habit of hosting conference calls that feature people you don't know anything about? It's shameful that a president's campaign hired a person like Stephanie Cutter, a person with a predisposition for not telling the truth.
Earlier in the segment, she said that President Obama trusted the private sector and that he was on their side. Really? The facts don't support that. President Obama's NLRB was the first government agency that told a major employer that they couldn't build a plant in a state of the company's choosing. Is that President Obama's way of trusting and supporting the private sector?
President Obama's EPA unilaterally put in place regulations that are shutting down coal-fired power plants in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Is that President Obama's way of supporting the private sector?
If these are examples of President Obama's supporting the private sector, then it's imperative that he stop 'supporting' the private sector.
The final analysis is simple. Stephanie Cutter enunciates smooth-sounding lies beautifully. Unfortunately, she isn't proficient at telling the truth.
Tags: President Obama , Stephanie Cutter , Priorities USA , Joe Soptic , GST Steel , EPA , NLRB , Regulations , Coal-Fired Power Plants , Private Sector , Democrats , Election 2012
Posted Sunday, August 19, 2012 10:24 AM
No comments.
Gary Hart: Obama-Biden are foreign policy experts
Gary Hart is known, at least amongst 50-somethings, as the guy that taunted the media, then got caught partying with model Donna Rice aboard a yacht. The yacht was appropriately named Monkey Business.
Following his getting exposed as just another corruptocrat, Hart set out to establish a reputation as a foreign policy expert. To a certain extent, he's succeeded, at least prior to writing this op-ed for the Huffington Post. If you heard my laughter in Eden Prairie, it's because I couldn't help myself when I read this:
On this scale, Obama-Biden beats Romney-Ryan hands down. President Obama, as the "birthers" dementedly remind us, had an African father and was schooled for a time in Indonesia. Yet he is an American, born in America. Vice-President Biden made foreign policy his focus in the Senate. Like the president, he is comfortable in the widest variety of international arenas. They both know how to relate to and communicate with foreign leaders and peoples.
It's true that Vice President Biden focused on foreign policy during his time in the Senate. That doesn't mean he got many things right. It's just proof that he focused on foreign policy.
It's impossible to take him seriously when his plan for Iraq was to essentially hand control of it over to Iran by splitting the country into 3 parts: one part for Sunnis, one part for the Kurds, the other part for the Shi'ites.
In the Senate, Obama talked frequently about "getting out of Iraq responsibly." He didn't talk about winning the peace. He didn't talk about stabilizing the country so it would be America's ally for a generation or more.
This is Sen. Hart's opinion of Romney-Ryan:
Their opponents, on the other hand, have only the scantest experience in today's world. Mr. Romney served in a Mormon mission in France in his youth. Mr. Ryan has yet to share his international experience and outlook, quite possibly because he has spent his public life trying to calculate how to lower taxes and balance the budget without both shredding the social safety net and destroying all the discretionary spending that keeps our food, environment and streets safe, our workers trained and healthy, and virtually every other public service necessary to a civilized society.
It isn't surprising that he'd criticize Romney-Ryan. What's disappointing is that he didn't bother getting his facts straight. It isn't that Mr. Romney didn't serve as a Mormon missionary in France in his youth. It's that that isn't his only foreign policy experience.
This year, GOP presidential candidates engaged in close to 2 dozen debates, including a CBS debate dubbed the "Commander-in-Chief Debate." During those debates, the leading candidates were asked questions about trade policy, national security, Israel policy, the Middle East, North Korea and nuclear weapons, among other things.
I was critical of Mitt Romney about a bunch of things but I consistently gave him high marks for his national security/foreign policy answers. What's more is that pundits like Charles Krauthammer, George Will and others gave him high marks.
Then-Sen. Obama picked Biden after his disastrous foreign trip during the summer of 2008. He'd planned on picking then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, (D-KS), prior to that trip. He picked Biden because of his foreign policy reputation, not because he got things right.
During his administration, President Obama has floated ideas like talking with the supposedly more moderate parts of the Taliban. He sat silent while students and citizens protested the rigged elections in Iran, missing a fantastic opportunity to topple the mullahs.
He's stabbed our allies in Great Britain, Poland and Israel in the back while coddling Iran and Syria.
If that's what foreign policy experience buys us, then we've gotten ripped off.
Tags: National Security , Foreign Policy , President Obama , Joe Biden , Iraq , Iran , Israel , Poland , Protests , Taliban , Gary Hart , Democrats , Mitt Romney , Paul Ryan , Trade Policy , Allies , GOP , Election 2012
Posted Sunday, August 19, 2012 11:20 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 20-Aug-12 07:33 AM
Gary Hart is known as the author, along with Warren Rudman, of the studies that led to the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security fiasco. Gary Hart, in essence, is a neocon. Little different from the Bush family or the Clintons. And Ryan has been clear, he is not going to pull the subsidy rug out from under the Pentagon, the brass heavy military, the defense profiteering industry, or anything that Ron Paul at least has the decency to question as stupid and wasteful. In short, Romney-Ryan will be no different from Obama-Biden who are no different from Bush-Cheney and Clinton-Gore. This is a tempest in a teapot, as to anything that would differ between Romney-Ryan and Obama-Biden as to foreign policy. The only Republican who can be trusted saying, "I'd be different" is Ron Paul. The only difference I see is that unlike Clinton keeping Cohen as Defense Secretary, and Obama keeping Gates, Romney-Ryan would not keep Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. So, who would they choose? Chuck Hagel? Glen Beck? Rush? Bring Warren Rudman out of obscure retirement? Another dance with Colin Powell? Patreus?
Photo ID: LWV-MN's fairy tales vs. Minnesota Majority's verifiable facts
The League of Women Voters has had a sterling public reputation for a generation or more, a reputation it doesn't deserve :
According to their website, Common Cause Minnesota, the League of Women Voters Minnesota, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and TakeAction Minnesota are 'partners' with Draw the Line Minnesota. That's proof positive that this organization isn't nonpartisan.
TakeAction Minnesota is one of the umbrella organizations that ran the filthiest smear campaign in Minnesota gubernatorial history. Partnering with them on any public policy project disqualifies the LWV-MN from being called nonpartisan. Hyperpartisan is the right adjective.
Nancy Gundersen, the co-chair of the LWV-St. Cloud wrote this troubling LTE . The first noticeable thing about the LTE was the partisan shots she took:
The Aug. 7 column by Jay Esmay of the Times Writers Group lambasted Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Esmay used numbers from the conservative Minnesota Majority. He said in the 2008 Minnesota election there were 'up to 260,000 duplicate registrations, more than 63,000 voters registered with addresses listed as 'undeliverable'...'
These numbers have been discredited by the Secretary of State's office and by Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota and Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance.
First, Mark Ritchie is too corrupt to discredit anyone on the issue of election integrity. Ritchie should be impeached, not praised. He's a political hack making political visits to political meetings. I know because I attended one of those meetings.
The Secretary of State's office is a constitutional office . It isn't a political office. What I heard from Ritchie during his visit to a meeting of the Stearns County commissioners didn't have anything to do with dispensing information on the ballot question. It didn't have anything to do with voting statistics.
Mr. Ritchie's presentation was filled with sniping editorial comments about his policy preferences.
Secondly, the Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota is a hard left progressive organization. They've frequently criticized the ballot question because it requires government-issued photographic identification instead of government-approved photographic identification.
Their criticism makes it sound like this is a fatal flaw which requires the defeat of the ballot question. At no point do they prove that this is an insurmountable hurdle. In fact, they don't prove that it's an unreasonable hurdle.
They say Minnesota Majority lumped together statistics from several years into one year. Also, 'duplicate' registrations may have been people who moved, thus needing to re-register. Possibly others had registered and forgot.
I've referenced Minnesota Majority's page on election integrity frequently. Here's the key portion of the page:
RETURNED POSTAL VERIFICATION CARDS: In addition, the state's primary registration verification tool is the Postal Verification Card (PVC). These post cards are mailed to newly registered voters. If the PVC is successfully delivered to the stated address, the voter is assumed to be legitimate. If the card is returned as undeliverable mail, the voter's identity is in question and they are supposed to be challenged for proof of identity and residence at the polls in the next election. Over 46,000 of these postal verification cards have been returned to the county auditors as non-deliverable since 2004. About 38,000 of them were from 2008 and 23,000 stemmed from Election Day Registrations (EDRs). After accounting for legitimate reasons for undeliverable PVCs, over 6,000 unexplained, undeliverable PVCs resulting in challenged voter status remain outstanding from the 2008 election, and over 1,200 from 2010. See our full report on Unverifiable Voters in Minnesota's Elections.
First, any honest person must admit that Minnesota Majority broke this down by election cycle. Second, it's clear that Minnesota Majority broke this down into sufficient detail to identify how many of the PVC's that the USPS returned were from people who used EDR.
This is Ms. Gundersen's feeble response to this information:
Also, returned postcards are not proof of illegal voting. There are a number of explanations beside a false address. Perhaps the person moved soon after registering. Maybe the person never did vote.
I can't believe this. The LWV's opposition to Photo ID is based on maybe and perhaps? What's stunning is that that's the strongest argument they can make. They can't say these people didn't vote illegally. Their best argument is essentially 'we think they're honest because Minnesota has a sterling reputation'.
Minnesota's election system shouldn't be based on the honor system. It must be based on systems that can't be compromised.
There aren't any serious arguments that Minnesota's current system can't be compromised. I know because the DFL admitted that voter fraud is possible at their state convention:
Mr. Varko then spoke on behalf of his motion. Here's part of what he said:
'I'm against this section for three reasons. One, I don't believe that the Central Committee can come up with any mechanism that will genuinely prevent somebody from printing out a stack of absentee ballots, submitting them and getting them improper votes for a candidate.
Then Chuck Repke spoke:
I agree with the person who made the amendment. You're setting yourself up for absolute insanity at the caucus level. The potential exists for someone from the Citizens United type to pack our caucuses with bought and paid for ballots. Absolutely guarantee the destruction of the precinct caucus process. There is no way to protect against that, folks, because we allow anyone to attend the caucus. We would therefore also have to let any absentee ballot to attend our precinct caucuses, regardless of which Koch Brother paid for it.
Delegates to the DFL State Convention voted to protect ballot integrity. There's no better proof that voter fraud is possible than that.
Tags: League of Women Voters , Citizens for Election Integrity , TakeAction Minnesota , State Convention , Progressives , Voter Fraud , Partisanship , DFL , Minnesota Majority , Election Integrity , PVC , SVRS , Photo ID , Elections
Posted Sunday, August 19, 2012 4:33 PM
Comment 1 by eric z at 20-Aug-12 07:23 AM
I hear incessant drumming, but only when I log onto this blog ...
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 20-Aug-12 09:09 AM
Don't believe me if you don't want. I'd just suggest that you didn't refute anything I said. I'd suggest that that's because you can't because my facts are irrefutable & totally verifiable.
Whine all you want about me telling the truth but facts are stubborn things. Deal with it!
Comment 3 by Chad Sawyer at 20-Aug-12 09:23 AM
Look at the percentage without government-issued ID on LWV's website. They claim that 15% of voters making less than $35k, 18% of elderly citizens, 18% of 18-24 year olds, and 25% of African Americans lack gov-issued IDs. When those demographics are tallied up, that means LWV is claiming 247,000 people lack government-issued ID.
Even the Secretary of State's office only claims that 84,000 people lack a state ID or drivers license. That means LWV, without citing any sources or identifying any research, has concluded that the SoS's office is low-balling the no ID number by 300%
Response 3.1 by Gary Gross at 20-Aug-12 09:49 AM
Chad, Thanks for that interesting demographic information. The LWV-MN has a sterling reputation. It just isn't deserved anymore. They're nothing more than part of the DFL's coalition of corrupt organizations.
Comment 4 by walter hanson at 20-Aug-12 04:21 PM
Eric:
I see incessant drumming, but only when you make a post.
How about we have that nice discussion of where you have said since you care about the national debt being run up you're going to vote for Mitt Romney.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Dayton's health care stunt
Gov. Dayton recently published this post about health care exchanges on the Governor's blog. It isn't really about health care exchanges. It's really trolling for votes:
Minnesota's health insurance exchange will give farmers affordable health care coverage choices for their families and their employees. Farmers can select low cost health insurance for their families from the consumer exchange, or purchase coverage for themselves and their employees from the small business exchange. Whatever the choice, farmers will see savings between 7.5 and 20 percent after federal tax credits.
Gov. Dayton can't make that guarantee with a straight face. According to this article , the Dayton administration hired MIT economist Jonathan Gruber as a consultant on the health insurance exchange. Here's what he found:
In Wisconsin, Gruber reported that people purchasing insurance for themselves on the individual market would see, on average, premium increases of 30 percent by 2016, relative to what would have happened in the absence of Obamacare. In Minnesota, the law would increase premiums by 29 percent over the same period. Colorado was the least worst off, with premiums under the law rising by only 19 percent.
How can Gov. Dayton maintain a straight face while saying farmers would save between 7.5% and 20% on insurance premiums when his consultant he hired said insurance premiums would increase by 29%?
Remember that the exchanges don't have to be in place until 2014. That means Minnesotans' insurance premiums would jump by 29% in just 2 years. Let's remember, too, that farmers aren't the only people that will get those subsidies. Anyone in their income bracket will get those subsidies.
With trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, that subsidy can't last long, meaning Gov. Dayton's making a promise he can't plan on keeping much beyond the next election. Then what are farmers supposed to do?
That's the type of budgeting that the DFL used that got Minnesota into the biggest deficits in state history. The DFL's paradigm calls for spending now, then figuring out how to pay for them in the out years later.
That's reckless budgetary policy, something we can't afford, especially right now. This is another observation from Roy's article:
Some low-income individuals would benefit from Obamacare's subsidies; for those individuals, the impact of these premium increases would be blunted. But if premium costs go up at a rate faster than people expect, taxpayers will be on the hook for billions upon billions of extra subsidies.
In other words, Gov. Dayton and President Obama are advocating for reckless budgeting that's leading the federal government towards a financial cliff. Apparently, the goal of (not-so) universal health insurance is worth it to them, regardless of the consequences.
It's time for Minnesotans to call, email and pester Gov. Dayton into giving up on his fatally flawed health insurance exchange initiative. Simply put, Minnesota can't afford his recklessness.
It's time for Gov. Dayton to stop this plan in the hopes that a Romney administration and a GOP congress can repeal President Obama's signature failure before it bankrupts the federal government.
Tags: Mark Dayton , Health Care Exchange , Deficits , Inflation , ACA , Subsidies , National Debt , Premiums , President Obama , DFL , Legislature
Posted Monday, August 20, 2012 1:02 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 20-Aug-12 07:15 AM
Those trillion dollar deficits are because Republicans will not tax the rich. And for them to get away with it the 1% need fellow travelers. And lo and behold, they have them.
Comment 2 by eric z at 20-Aug-12 07:22 AM
The big factor is the ban on pre-existant condition exclusions from coverage. The "If you already are sick or cancer-stricken, you cannot get insurance" situation that folks like Helmsley at UnitedHealth loved - only insuring the healthy at outrageous rates is a better formula for making wads of cash than also - forbid the thought - insuring sick people too. If you want to be a bastard to your fellow humans, go with Helmsley, it is who he is; but if you have decency, go with Dayton.
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 20-Aug-12 09:06 AM
Those trillion dollar deficits are because Republicans will not tax the rich.That's BS. Taxing "the rich" would raise about $70,000,000,000 (That's $70 billion dollars) a year. Where does the other $1,130,000,000,000 (That's 1 trillion, 130 billion dollars) come from?
Eric, pull your head out of your ass & stop believing everything that the DNC tells you to believe. If you won't do that, at least pull out a calculator & do the math.
The PEC thing is another Democrat canard. Republicans have a better plan for guaranteeing people with PEC's (I'm in that group so I know a bit about that) access to health insurance.
Comment 4 by Jethro at 20-Aug-12 09:40 AM
Eric's "tax the rich" mantra is worse than Pavlov's dog response. I am still waiting to hear what this fair share means and why the rich are supposed to bend over and simply take it. Ohh...those evil selfish rich people.
Comment 5 by walter hanson at 20-Aug-12 04:28 PM
Eric:
Um I have pointed out to you that the tax increase will only fund the government for eight days.
Furthermore, the CBO has taken into account the Bush tax cuts are expiring in predicting the future deficts. Despite them going away the deficits are still over a trillion dollars a year for every year.
The reason they are going up is because spending is going up like that unfund Obamacare mandate of $2.80 trillion dollars.
So Eric once again since Obama is running up these deficits you hate and he doesn't want to cut spending to get the budget under control you're going to vote for those two adults who will do the job Romney and Ryan.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 6 by steve baker at 21-Aug-12 07:55 PM
Mark Dayton "keep a straight face"?
Haven't you ever seen a picture of Dayton? He can't even make a straight face!
Gov. Dayton thinks union contract will be defeated
Don Davis' post brings good news this morning:
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton said he expects Republican legislators to reject a state worker contract his administration negotiated.
'The political grandstanding from the top row of the bleaches will almost require that,' he said.
Republicans say raises in the contract are too large. The contract would give 2 percent raises, but require workers to pay more for health insurance.
Dayton said most Republicans voted for more generous contracts during GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty's tenure.
HINT to Gov. Dayton: The economy stinks. Revenues are tiny. We can't afford pay raises.
There aren't many people working in an office or a factory that've received a pay raise during the Obama administration. Why should public workers get a pay raise when the people that pay their salaries with their taxes haven't seen a raise in ages?
As for the past, that's the past. We now know that public pensions are badly underfunded . Pension reform is essential to avoid a financial catastrophe for taxpayers in 10 years.
The DFL will oppose any plans to reform public employee union pensions because the DFL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the PEUs. As Mitch Berg loves to say, if the unions say jump, the DFL asks "Off what"? (That saying applies to Alida Messinger and the environmentalists, too.)
Taxpayers need to elect a GOP legislature again this year for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is to start working on pension reform. It's painfully obvious that DFL legislators enjoy that subject as little as the Duluth Police Department likes investigating Kelly Gauthier's sexploits.
Tags: Pensions , Unfunded Liabilities , Union Contracts , Mark Dayton , Negotiations , DFL , Reform , GOP , Election 2012
Posted Monday, August 20, 2012 11:15 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-Aug-12 04:23 PM
Gary:
Their idea of reform is higher taxes on the rich to pay for it or to get the employer (aka us) to pay extra to make them solvent.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 20-Aug-12 07:33 PM
Walter, Taxing "the rich" won't collect the revenues needed to cover what the DFL wants to spend paying off their political allies. The DFL whines about "the rich" not paying their fair share but they think it's perfectly fine spending that tax increase on bureaucrats that contribute next to nothing to the GDP.
It's disgusting that a penny of taxes gets raised on anyone to pay for the bureaucrats the DFL protects. If that isn't bad enough, then we have to listen to Javier Morillo-Alicea & Eliot Seide whining about the GOP's imaginary "war on working families."
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 20-Aug-12 09:31 PM
Real GOP leadership would have nipped this problem in the bud with right to work but alas, the GOP hid under their desks until the session was over in fear of the unions.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Aug-12 02:08 AM
Right to work would've been the right thing but it'd have nothing to do with existing unions & their contract negotiations.
Comment 3 by eric z at 21-Aug-12 01:35 PM
Dayton is standing on Pawlenty's shoulders. You are saying he should be harder on public employees than your own guy, Tea-Paw, and that simply makes no sense. If the Republicans in the legislature want to repudiate Tea-Paw, they have the numbers; but Tea-Paw put Dayton in a negotiation box with a large part of his support base. Are the Republicans in the state House going to pass a bill taxing churches? That would make as much sense as telling Dayton he is supposed to screw his supporters. You are being wholly unrealistic. If you think keeping the workers working in the interim under the terms of the expired Tea-Paw contract is being too generous to working folks, then tell Tea-Paw about your complaint, please.
And that union-busting right-to-work stuff, Dayton would veto it as legislation; and on yet another in a parade of amendment proposals it would be voted down by the public.
If your folks had not been so jacked up on waving around the gay marriage thing to throw red meat to the Jesus jockeys in your tent, you'd have had room for another, different amendment - but you want to grandstand for the evangelical fringe idiots instead. So you made your bed, now sleep in it.
Is the EPA trying to crucify the iron mining industry?
At the end of April, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson accepted Al Armendariz' resignation after he made this statement :
The controversy erupted last week when a video surfaced showing Armendariz saying in 2010 that his methods for dealing with non-compliant oil and gas companies were "like when the Romans conquered the villages in the Mediterranean. They'd go into little villages in Turkish towns and they'd find the first five guys they saw and crucify them."
The EPA apparently isn't satisfied with intimidating oil and gas companies. Now they're attempting to kill the iron mining industry:
'In the middle of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, the EPA's sheer and utter disregard for our industry, its workers, and their families shows how out of touch with reality Washington bureaucrats really are. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has already demonstrated effective regulation of our environmental laws, and these regulators know what is best for our state. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has Minnesota jobs in its crosshairs. We are witnessing this kind of administrative overreach at a time when we're supposed to be encouraging growth, not stifling it. I am very concerned about the impact this new overreach will have on Minnesota's Iron Range, and I will be contacting the EPA in response to its decision.'
The MPCA hasn't gone soft on companies lately. That's why the EPA's recent regulations are likely based on political agendas, not scientific reality.
The EPA's anti-mining agenda required that they ignore the MPCA's regulations :
While the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approved a so-called regional haze emissions plan for the six operating taconite plants in April, the EPA now is saying that plan didn't go far enough. The state plan generally said the taconite plants were already doing all they could to reduce haze pollution and didn't need to apply "best available retrofit technology."
Federal regulators disagreed, saying trial runs at the Minntac plant in Mountain Iron showed good results at lowering emissions using best available retrofit technology, or BART.
"Thus, because the Michigan and Minnesota (proposals) failed to adequately establish BART limits for its subject taconite ore processing facilities, we are required to promulgate a" federal implementation plan, the EPA said in the document.
This administration's EPA is the biggest job-killer other than the ACA. Their hostility towards industry is extensively documented.
The EPA's regulations on the coal industry will effectively kill the building of new coal-fired power plants :
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new rule to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants, which would effectively ban new coal power plants, as its emissions standards are too low to be met by conventional coal-fired facilities.
This stands in stark contrast with the President's supposed 'all of the above energy approach' and sends a strong signal that coal is not part of the President's energy vision for America. In combination with other EPA regulations that contribute to the premature shutdown of existing coal plants, the EPA's actions represent one of the greatest threats to the electric sector and America's energy supply.
The new rule requires power plants to meet an output-based standard of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity produced. Other than natural gas-fired power plants built in recent years, most power plants, and especially coal-fired ones, would fail to meet that standard.
Simply put, Minnesota's senators should join Chip Cravaack in this fight against a renegade federal agency bent on destroying jobs. If Sen. Klobuchar doesn't join with Chip Cravaack in this fight, we'll know that she's in the pocket of the environmentalists. We'll know that she isn't working for better paying jobs on the Iron Range.
What's disgusting is that President Obama wants the EPA to destroy jobs. That's what he essentially said in this video:
That's who Chip is fighting against. That's what's at stake. The air and water have never been cleaner than they are now. That doesn't mean there aren't projects that deserve immediate attention. It just means that the EPA shouldn't pick fights based on their political ideology. They shouldn't pick fights with the hard-working men of the Iron Range.
Tags: President Obama , Lisa Jackson , Al Armendariz , EPA , Crucify , MPCA , Iron Range , Power Plants , War on Coal , Democrats , Chip Cravaack , Jobs , Unions , MNGOP , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2012 4:20 AM
No comments.
President Obama's ill-advised press conference
Monday, President Obama made a surprise visit during the White House Daily Briefing. It's amazing how many times a president can mislead the press in a 22-minute press conference. I won't attempt to highlight all of President Obama's misinformation. It'd take too much time. Let's start with this exchange with CBS's Nancy Cordes :
Q: Yes, Mr. President, thank you. As you know, your opponent recently accused you of waging a campaign filled with 'anger and hate.' And you told Entertainment Tonight that anyone who attends your rallies can see that they're not angry- or hate-filled affairs. But in recent weeks, your campaign has suggested repeatedly, without proof, that Mr. Romney might be hiding something in his tax returns. They have suggested that Mr. Romney might be a felon for the way that he handed over power of Bain Capital. And your campaign and the White House have declined to condemn an ad by one of your top supporters that links Mr. Romney to a woman's death from cancer. Are you comfortable with the tone that's being set by your campaign? Have you asked them to change their tone when it comes to defining Mr. Romney?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I'm not sure all those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate. For example, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon .
And I think that what is absolutely true is, if you watch me on the campaign trail, here's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how we put Americans back to work. And there are sharp differences between myself and Mr. Romney in terms of how we would do that. He thinks that if we roll back Wall Street reform, roll back the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known affectionately as Obamacare, that somehow people are going to be better off.
I think that if we are putting teachers back to work and rebuilding America and reducing our deficit in a balanced way, that's how you put people back to work. That is a substantive difference. That's what I talk about on the campaign.
Within minutes of President Obama saying that nobody had "accused Mr. Romney of being a felon", Drudge had this video posted showing Stephanie Cutter accusing Mitt Romney of either being a felon or being a liar:
President Obama was still answering questions when Drudge posted the video showing Stephanie Cutter, a discredited political hack, of doing what President Obama said she hadn't done.
Forget about saying things that stand the test of time. President Obama apparently has difficulty saying things that stand the test of 15 minutes.
Q Well, why not send a message to the top super PAC that's supporting you and say, I think an ad like that is out of bounds? We shouldn't be suggesting that --
THE PRESIDENT: So let's take that particular issue, as opposed to, because you lumped in a whole bunch of other stuff that I think was entirely legitimate. I don't think that Governor Romney is somehow responsible for the death of the woman that was portrayed in that ad. But keep in mind this is an ad that I didn't approve, I did not produce, and as far as I can tell, has barely run. I think it ran once.
Actually, Joe Soptic told essentially the same story for the official Obama campaign as he said in the Priorities USA ad. Here's that proof:
While President Obama didn't approve an ad of Joe Soptic accusing Mitt Romney killing his cancer-stricken wife, his campaign sponsored a conference call featuring Mr. Soptic accusing Mitt Romney of killing his wife.
It's worth noting that President Obama had a more than ample opportunity to criticize Bill Burton's ad but didn't. That says everything you need to know about what he's willing to do to win re-election.
This shows how willing he is to pander to cobble together enough votes to win re-election:
Number two, we have put forward an idea that I think a lot of Americans think makes sense, which is we've got historically low interest rates now, and the housing market is beginning to tick back up but it's still not at all where it needs to be. There are a lot of families out there whose homes are underwater. They owe more than the house is worth because housing values dropped so precipitously, and they're having trouble refinancing.
We're going to be pushing Congress to see if they can pass a refinancing bill that puts $3,000 into the pockets of the average family who hasn't yet refinanced their mortgage. That's a big deal. That $3,00 can be used to strengthen the equity in that person's home, which would raise home values. Alternatively, that's $3,000 in people's pockets that they can spend on a new computer for their kid going back to school, or new school clothes for their kids, and so that would strengthen the economy as well.
There's nothing in this spending to get the economy growing. Nothing. President Obama is an abject failure economically. He's the reason why the economy is in the shape it's in. The recession ended 3 months into his administration. Since then, real unemployment has been over 15%.
President Obama won't talk about why $2,000,000,000,000 isn't getting invested in the US economy. President Obama won't talk about how unnecessarily antagonistic his EPA is in going after the coal and iron mining industries and the oil industry.
That's because President Obama's EPA is driving up gas prices and electric bills. Those are things that hurt the working poor and the middle class more than these gimmicks will help them.
This line was utterly laughable:
Obviously, the biggest thing that Congress could do would be to come up with a sensible approach to reducing our deficit in ways that we had agreed to and talked about last year.
President Obama put together the Debt Commission, which was co-chaired by Erskine Bowles and Al Simpson. They put together a plan to cut the debt. President Obama wasn't interested in it because it included tax reform and reforming entitlements.
Additionally, President Obama is the only president in US history who's run up a $1,000,000,000,000 deficit. In fact, he's run up $1,000,000,000,000 deficits each of his years in office. He's done nothing to reduce the deficits. Instead, he's argued for more spending on top of his already outrageous spending levels.
Monday's press conference was a disaster for President Obama. He told some whoppers. His economic policies were repeatedly exposed as failures.
Tags: President Obama , Stephanie Cutter , Felon , Joe Soptic , Priorities USA , EPA , Deficits , Unemployment , Recession , Regulations , Democrats , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2012 6:31 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 21-Aug-12 01:23 PM
Jumping on Stephanie Cutter's improvident mouthings is hardly any excuse for the basic fact of Romeny's failure to put up or shut up on his "always 13% or higher taxes." And, that 13% number, how many loopholes does it take for a millionaire with million dollar incomes to hit the teens?
And will his 2008 return show insider trading during September 2008? And later, was he paying state tax in Massachusetts or in New Hampshire? It would be quaint if his returns showed New Hampshire taxes only while he was voting for Scott Brown in Boston.
His tax returns must each be thicker than the Affordable Care Act, large print.
There's a raging firestorm about those taxes; and you want to say look over there instead, I think there is smoke. Nice try. No buy.
Comment 2 by eric z at 21-Aug-12 01:26 PM
By the way, press conferences or otherwise, what has Romney said of substance? He seems platitude oriented in a big way, as if fearing gaffes. Is that "Presidential?" If so, let's elect a clam.
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 21-Aug-12 03:27 PM
First, President Obama in office hasn't spoken beyond platitudes & lies so don't even go there. President Obama's EPA is killing the economies in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio & Indiana, which are heavily reliant on inexpensive fossil fuels.
Also the ACA fills the air with uncertainty and great expense, leading to investors to not put their capital at risk, which leads to diminished job growth.
Simply put, President Obama's economic policies are the worst since FDR & possibly longer.
Comment 4 by eric z at 21-Aug-12 07:07 PM
You prefer W?
Response 4.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Aug-12 07:59 PM
W never ran trillion dollar deficits. Real unemployment was about half what it is today. Jobs were actually created, too.
Comment 5 by eric z at 21-Aug-12 07:08 PM
Any thoughts on Akin, his press conference performance?
Response 5.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Aug-12 07:59 PM
Akin is a political fool. Gauthier is a pervert who belongs in jail or worse.
Comment 6 by eric z at 22-Aug-12 06:46 AM
Gary, you are saying Gauthier belongs where the GOP put Mark Foley? Each side has that diversion from policy and decision making; give it up. Akin was endorsed by Michele Bachmann, and I have not seen her back away from that, and while we discuss political fools, even Sarah Palin is jumping up and down on Akin's beaten body.
That's a threesome of political foolery.
Response 6.1 by Gary Gross at 22-Aug-12 03:14 PM
Let's make this simple, Eric. What Gauthier did warrants time in prison. Foley talked filthy, which is disgusting. Gauthier had oral sex with a minor, which is worse.
Comment 7 by walter hanson at 22-Aug-12 03:46 PM
Eric:
Um you don't understand the tax code. After Romney earns money and is taxed at 40% or more he invests what is saved. Based on what he invests he sells the investments which only require tax on the capital gains rate.
So all those dollars you have complained about are actually being taxed at 50% not 13%.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 8 by walter hanson at 22-Aug-12 03:50 PM
Eric:
You might want to read about your history for the years 2000-2008. What caused the financial crisis in 2008 was that the housing market with federal guaranteed loans by Fannie Mac and Freddie Mae collapsed the economy.
President Bush made an effort to reform them and was blocked by people like:
* Maxine Waters who declared they were doing their job and in good health.
* Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who then wrote that nonreform bill.
* Oh and this senator from Illnois by the name of Barrack Obama.
So since you want to blame and not vote to be President the person who gave us this economic crisis once again I have shown you have to vote for Romney since if you vote for Obama you're in favor of maintaining policies that have destroyed the economy.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 9 by walter hanson at 22-Aug-12 03:52 PM
Eric:
Um Stephanie accused Romney of a felony. Obama said in 2007 that he won't do stuff like that. Furthermore since now it has been pointed out that he wasn't aware that a key member of the campaign accused Romney of committing a felony she should be fired.
Akin saying something stupid if that is what makes you think he isn't qualified to be a Senator you have just proven that Obama doesn't deserve to be President.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Is MnSCU antiquated?
The first thing a management team does when taking over is assess whether the current team is meeting the needs of the company. In MnSCU's case, Chancellor Rosenstone's primary challenge is finding out what Minnesota employers need, both in terms of supplying companies with today's workers while giving students the skills they'll need to take advantage of tomorrow's opportunities.
As I see it as an outsider, Chancellor Rosenstone is in a difficult position because MnSCU isn't equipped to interact with communities and businesses to find out their needs or their opportunities.
In a way, we're asking MnSCU to be innovative and reliable while using a model that was outdated in 1995. It's unfair to them to expect them to move quickly while using the antiquated system that they have.
It's time for legislators and MnSCU administrators to ask if the current system should be scrapped and replaced with an entirely different system.
First, MnSCU has too many administrators at their St. Paul headquarters. Implementing a new innovation takes time with any big bureaucracy, whether we're talking about a government bureaucracy or a corporate bureaucracy.
Compare that with how nimble private, for profit colleges are. They're the educational equivalent of a small business. Because they can assess, then react, they can take advantage of opportunities quickly.
Another benefit of a smaller administration is that the CEO doesn't have to spend much time defending the bureaucracy because there isn't a bureaucracy to defend. Smaller bureaucracies include fewer cronies.
It also frees up time to focus on the students' needs, the communities' needs and business's needs. All three are vitally important in creating a 21st Century economy.
What's interest to me is that I've yet to find a legislator or faculty member to say 'MnSCU as it exists is irreplaceable. I wouldn't change a thing.' In fact, I've spoken with more than a dozen faculty members from 3 different campuses who've told me that MnSCU is broken.
These aren't disgruntled employees, either. It's an exaggeration to say that they aren't happy with their university.
A major shortcoming with MnSCU as it exists is that it isn't as accessible as it must be. One complaint I've heard is that MnSCU trustees don't meet regularly with community and business leaders. It's impossible for MnSCU to supply the workers of today when they aren't in regular contact with businesses.
It's imperative that MnSCU announced regularly scheduled meetings with businesses to stay in touch with communities' training and retraining needs to keep Minnesota's economy strong.
If MnSCU doesn't change its model to be responsive, then scrapping it will be imperative. We can't afford something that antiquated.
Tags: Higher Education , Steve Rosenstone , MnSCU , Small Businesses , Bureaucracy , Minnesota , Retraining , Prosperity
Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2012 3:09 PM
Comment 1 by Patrick at 22-Aug-12 04:16 PM
Here comes the "proverbial train down the tracks" - change is happening, we are seeing the Humpty Dumpty affect: little change happens unless you get pushed; then you can't stop it. (credit to Jack Jackson, Managing Change.) Cal State is the largest public university system in the United States. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/22/cal-state-rolls-out-next-stage-its-online-effort
One has to wonder why all the millions in new buildings when the future of higher education is not "brick and mortar". See Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCS) Are 'Here to Stay'
http://www.convergemag.com/policy/MOOCs-Here-to-Stay.html
Comment 2 by Jethro at 22-Aug-12 04:31 PM
Interesting article. Perhaps it's time to overhaul MnSCU to be a lean, mean, fighting machine for the taxpayer.
Comment 3 by Patrick at 23-Aug-12 07:41 AM
Humpty Dumpty effect (not affect)
Obama misspells Oiho LOL
During a campaign swing focusing on education, President Obama misspelled Oiho :
The photo, tweeted by Romney's Ohio communications director, Christopher Maloney, shows Obama and three students all a little confused about how to spell the state's name, with Obama holding his hands up in what seems to be an 'H' and as the third letter.
This type of stupid mistake isn't catastrophic by itself, though it's the type of mistake that steals the attention away from his speech.
Unfortunately for President Obama, misspelling Ohio isn't an isolated incident :
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - A police official says two hecklers were removed but not charged with a crime after President Barack Obama was briefly interrupted during a campaign rally at a Las Vegas-area high school.
Clark County School District Police Chief James Ketsaa said Wednesday the hecklers were escorted off school property and released during the president's campaign rally for about 2,000 people in North Las Vegas.
At least one of the hecklers drew the president's attention before authorities hustled him out of the school as the crowd chanted, 'Four more years.'
Obama said, 'That young man probably needed a good teacher,' as the shouting subsided.
Perhaps, President Obama should've sought the advice of a good teacher earlier in life.
Tags: President Obama , Education , Spelling , Ohio , Nevada , Las Vegas , Hecklers , Democrats , Election 2012
Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2012 3:37 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 22-Aug-12 03:42 PM
Gary:
Maybe this is one of the 57 states he talked about in 2008. Maybe those 7 states he's counting on their electoral votes to win the election.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Bob J. at 22-Aug-12 04:27 PM
I heard he spelled it "Ohioe".
