July 24, 2012
Jul 24 00:38 Thoughtful Minnesotans, Chip Cravaack vs. Environmentalists Jul 24 04:36 These pinheads don't get it Jul 24 05:10 Top-10 failures of the DFL legislature Jul 24 05:32 Top-10 success stories of GOP legislature Jul 24 05:58 That's what recoveries look like? Jul 24 06:51 Trouble in Panderdise? Jul 24 08:24 More bad news for Team Obama Jul 24 11:01 White House amateur hour
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Thoughtful Minnesotans, Chip Cravaack vs. Environmentalists
When Chip Cravaack introduced H.R. 5544, it touched off a fight with radical environmentalists. Rep. Cravaack used this op-ed to explain how schools would benefit from his bill.
Unfortunately, that didn't prevent special interest organizations like the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness from attempting to shortchange Minnesota's students. Despite the bipartisan support for a state enabling bill, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness tried cutting a deal away from the legislative process:
At the recent Congressional hearing on H.R. 5544, environmentalists were opposed to an equal, acre-for-acre exchange, stating how they would have preferred a deal they tried to work out behind closed doors with the USFS that would have required the federal government to make a one-time buyout of Minnesota school trust lands. Fortunately for Minnesota students, their efforts never came to fruition.
The environmentalists' goal is simple. They want as much mining land tied up as possible. That's because their stated goal is to stop mining:
'Conservation Minnesota, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy are targeting the proposed PolyMet mine near Hoyt Lakes and the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely.
This isn't conspiracy theory stuff. It's trusting the things you've read on the activists' websites. That paragraph is from Conservation Minnesota's website. They'd certainly know what their agenda is.
Chip's land swap legislation is a no-brainer in terms of policy. The question that hasn't gotten asked is why Jim Oberstar didn't propose it years ago. The simple answer is that Chip Cravaack has different priorities than Jim Oberstar.
It's readily apparent that Chip's priorities are best suited for Minnesota and the Eighth District. Chip's constituents have learned that during Chip's brief, productive time in office.
Tags: Chip Cravaack , School Trust Lands , Bipartisanship , K-12 Education , Logging , Mining , John Carlson , MNGOP , Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness , Conservation Minnesota , DFL , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 12:38 AM
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These pinheads don't get it
This interview shows how pinheaded the East Coast media is:
While Mssrs. O'Reilly and Goldberg ripped ABC's Brian Ross for mentioning the Jim Holmes/TEA Party angle hours after the Aurora theater shooting, they both exposed themselves as not getting why Ross was wrong in introducing the TEA Party angle into the story.
Goldberg at least said it shouldn't have been part of the story because it isn't relevant. He's right. It isn't anymore than it would've been a big deal had the gunman been part of MoveOn.org.
The biggest reason why Ross should get fired for this is because he engaged in unverified gossip . The last thing that's needed in that situation is gossip.
In the past, media critics have talked about the pressure of the 24-hour news cycle, the need to fill airtime or the competition between networks. That's all rationalizing for shoddy reporting practices.
What's wrong with Ross's 'reporting' is that he pitched his professionalism to the side over an irrelevant bit of gossip. If that's the standard he holds himself to, then he needs to get fired.
Inserting gossip into the reporting during a crisis situation can't be justified.
Tags: ABC News , Brian Ross , Gossip , Media Critics , Bill O'Reilly , Bernie Goldberg , TEA Party
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:36 AM
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Top-10 failures of the DFL legislature
10. Fighting for antiquated state government.
9. Not putting a budget together.
8. Holding meetings with ABM's Carrie Lucking on their shutdown strategy.
7. Fighting against health care reform that's saving taxpayers 10's of millions of dollars.
6. Fighting against the Photo ID legislation.
5. Spending $188,000 to not produce redistricting maps.
4. Fighting against Iron Range jobs.
3. Voting against job-creating reforms.
2. Proposing job-killing tax increases.
1. Shutting state government down as a political ploy.
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:10 AM
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Top-10 success stories of GOP legislature
10. Alternative teacher licensure.
9. Keeping no new taxes promise to constituents.
8. Downsizing government, Part I Keith Downey's 15 X 15 legislation.
7. Downsizing government, Part II King Banaian's Sunset Advisory Commission.
6. Balancing budget without increasing taxes.
5. Creating surplus without raising taxes.
4. Passing real health care reform.
3. Passing budget reform.
2. Passing permitting reforms.
1. Creating jobs with the right policies and right priorities.
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:32 AM
Comment 1 by Terry Stone at 24-Jul-12 11:54 AM
Nominees:
• Providing stable policy intent that promotes employment
• Offering a public vote on election integrity at the heart of our political process
• Bringing a halt to the trend in state government growth that exceeds inflation plus population growth by 600% since 1960
• Restoring the paradigm that individual responsibility, individual decisions, individual integrity and individual achievement are the foundation of Minnesota execptionalism.
Comment 2 by IndyJones at 25-Jul-12 03:57 PM
And there will be more accountability with people like King Banian being elected. We need many more like him.
That's what recoveries look like?
RCP's Tom Bevan just posted this article to 'highlight' the reality of President Obama's 'recovery:
Cisco Systems is preparing to lay off about 1,300 workers just a few months after the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment warned that growing economic uncertainty is making it tougher to close sales with its customers.
The cuts announced Monday represent about 2 percent of Cisco System Inc.'s payroll of 65,000 workers.
The upcoming layoffs represent the company's latest austerity measure. Last year, Cisco shed about 10,000 jobs as part of a program aimed at saving about $1 billion annually.
One thing's for certain. Cisco's decisions didn't create the uncertainty that's crippling the U.S. economy. Cisco didn't write the regulations that've crippled the U.S. economy, either.
Ed captured the spirit of the U.S. economy best in this post :
During this three-year recovery, we have not added enough jobs to keep pace with population growth. We add somewhere between 125,000 to 150,000 working-age adults on average each month, but we have only added 65,200 jobs on average each month since June 2009, the start of the recovery. That means that we have gone backwards in terms of population growth by more than 2.2 million jobs that we needed just to keep pace. Thanks to the depressed job market, wages remain low because of the huge numbers of people who seek work, and the huge numbers of people who have given up out of despair.
Until this recovery, the aggregation of solid earnings after a recovery preceded expansion and job growth. In this recovery, the massive amount of regulation, and especially the ambiguities of regulation in ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, along with tax-policy signals has forced companies to shield earnings and capital rather than invest in expansion. Until those policies change, our economy won't expand, won't add new jobs at a rate needed to keep up with a growing population (which should produce growing demand that businesses would love to be able to meet), and poverty will increase rather than decrease.
Are we heading into another recession? For more and more Americans, the last one never ended.
The sad truth is that President Obama's policies have crippled the U.S. economy. At best, we've been treading water.
Until we fire this entire administration and replace it with a pro-growth administration, we'll continue treading water or sinking.
Tags: President Obama , Unemployment , Regulations , Recession , Democrats , Cisco , Layoffs , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:58 AM
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Trouble in Panderdise?
Anytime unions host a big event, it's guaranteed that DFL politicians will be there pandering for votes and contributions. This event didn't disappoint in that respect:
Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, a former member of the Carpenters Union, cautioned delegates about the risks of backing Republican candidates on the ballot this fall. Operating Engineers Local 49, one of the state's largest Building Trades unions, announced July 12 it will support Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack in the 8th Congressional District, a seat targeted by Democrats this election cycle.
'I'm concerned about some of the endorsements I see coming down: It confuses our membership,' Bakk said. '( Republicans) don't share the same values about improving the standard of living of working class people .'
I'd love hearing Sen. Bakk explain why Alida Messinger and other prominent DFL activists hate union workers on the Iron Range. Ms. Messinger controls the DFL and ABM/ABL. She sits on Conservation Minnesota's Board of Directors . They want to stop mining :
Conservation Minnesota, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy are targeting the proposed PolyMet mine near Hoyt Lakes and the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely.
I'd love hearing Sen. Bakk explain why 15.1% of St. Louis County's population is in poverty . Let's hear Sen. Bakk explain why the median household income in St. Louis County is $44,941, which is $12,302 less than the median household income for Minnesota .
The DFL loves metro unions. Their actions prove that they don't give a damn about Iron Range unions. When's the last time Tom Anzelc, Tom Bakk or Tom Huntley fought for Iron Range unions? When was the last time they fought for good paying jobs on the Range that wasn't seasonal work?
Finally, I'd love hearing Sen. Bakk explain how his senate district benefits from the Vikings Stadium project.
This just proves one inescapable truth: What Alida wants, Alida gets.
Tags: Alida Messinger , Conservation Minnesota , Tom Bakk , Unions , Vikings Stadium , Twin Cities , Iron Range , Poverty , DFL
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 6:51 AM
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More bad news for Team Obama
President Obama spent tons of money trying to make Mitt toxic. That money is gone but Mitt's reputation, at best, is a little nicked. President Obama's $100,000,000 advertising campaign failed. According to this polling , Mitt hasn't really suffered at all from President Obama's attacks:
By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years.
The findings raise questions about Obama's strategy of targeting Bain's record in outsourcing jobs and hammering Romney for refusing to commit to releasing more than two years of his tax returns. Instead, Americans seem focused on the economy, where disappointment with the fragile recovery and the 8.2% unemployment rate are costing the president.
That's got to break Team Obama's spirit. They spent $100,000,000 trying to make Mitt an unacceptable choice to be president. That's clearly failed. In fact, if President Obama's campaign doesn't change momentum soon, this election might be over before the conventions.
If families keep struggling, which many will, they'll start looking for a different option. President Obama knew that months ago. That's why they tried making Mitt unacceptable. If people still think Mitt's acceptable a month from now, positions will harden quickly. At that point, the biggest mystery left in this election will be whether Republicans can capitalize on the situation and make big gains in the House and Senate.
Tags: President Obama , Ad Campaign , Negative Ads , Democrats , Mitt Romney , Economy , Polling , GOP , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:24 AM
Comment 1 by Bob J. at 24-Jul-12 09:29 AM
"They spent $100,000,000 trying to make Mitt an unacceptable choice to be president."
Mitt's done that by himself. But he's all we've got. :(
White House amateur hour
In 2008, President Obama's campaign ran like a finely tuned machine, hitting on all eight cylinders and creating all the right images. Four years later, the Obama campaign has morphed into 'the gang that couldn't shoot straight' or 'the Not Yet Ready for Prime Time Players'.
If you think that's bad, guess again. It gets worse. Now the imagery is hitting nothing but sour notes. This appears to be the new normal for the Obama campaign:
President Obama rubbed elbows Monday night with two men at the center of the Solyndra loan scandal at an exclusive fundraiser in California.
Steve Westly, a financier whose money-raising prowess helped to snag him a post on the administration's energy advisory board, and Matt Rogers, a former Energy Department senior adviser who helped to approve the Solyndra loan, were spotted by reporters at the $35,800-per-person fundraiser for the president's re-election campaign.
Mr. Westly sent warnings to the president not to attend an event at Solyndra's headquarters in the Bay area because of shaky finances at the solar energy company, which had received a fast-tracked $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2010 as part of the administration's economic stimulus program. Mr. Rogers was partly responsible for overseeing stimulus awards at the Energy Department.
Attending a fancy fundraiser in the shadow of the shuttered Solyndra building is foolish enough. Having two of the people most associated with that disaster attend the event is outright stupidity.
In terms of setting the right image, having Mssrs. Westly and Rogers attend a $35,800-per-plate fundraiser should be something that President Obama's senior staff should prevent.
The last thing they should want is having Steve Westly be the lead of a news story about an Obama fundraiser.
President Obama's team could do impressions of the Keystone Cops, couldn't they?
Tags: President Obama , Steve Westly , Solyndra , Scandal , Keystone Cops , Cronyism , Fundraiser , Democrats , Election 2012
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:44 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 24-Jul-12 06:03 PM
Gary:
I guess this shows how desperate Obama is to get his hands on $70,000.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
