March 18-19, 2011
Mar 18 06:36 Dayton: Hutch Tech Jobs Lost to Global Competition Mar 18 12:01 Obama Administration's 'Double Trouble' Mar 18 13:55 The No Solutions Party Mar 18 15:34 Wisconsin Speedbump Mar 18 17:25 URGENT!!! Let's Get This Done!!! Mar 19 18:04 SD-15 March Townhall Meeting Notes
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Dayton: Hutch Tech Jobs Lost to Global Competition
To hear Gov. Dayton explain it, you'd swear that losing the Hutch Tech jobs to Thailand was inevitable :
Afterward, Dayton said global market conditions are responsible for the lost jobs, says the Hutchinson Leader.
'It is through no fault of the workers in Hutchinson that they are losing their jobs," Dayton said. "Unfortunately, in Thailand, they are willing to work for a fraction of what people are willing to work for here. The fact that [the company] still exists in Hutchinson is a credit to workers here, the company's management and the city."
Attaboy, Gov. Dayton. Throw your hands up in the air, say that there's nothing we could do and tell the rest of the world we can't compete. That's a helluva message to send.
A month ago, Gov. Dayton talked about higher taxes and how Minnesotans were "better than that", that they'd pay those higher taxes for the greater good. I guess Hutch Tech isn't better than that. I'll stipulate that Hutch Tech didn't say they left for Thailand because of taxes. Hutch Tech left because Minnesota manufacturers can't compete because Minnesota's business model stinks.
Saying that things should work because they worked in the 70s and 80s is meaningless. It isn't the 70s and 80s. Minnesota, especially the DFL and Gov. Dayton, needs to stop living in the past. They need to adjust to global competition.
Minnesota has never had an isolationist mindset. That isn't the problem. The problem is that we haven't adjusted to the more competitive global business conditions.
A generation ago, Minnesota competed globally because this competition didn't exist, at least to the extent that it does now. The DFL stuck its head in the sand and pretended the world wasn't changing. Now their chickens have come home to roost.
The GOP legislature is working to change those dynamics. They passed HF1, the bill to radically change Minnesota's business permitting process. HF2 will transform Minnesota's budgeting process so taxpayers aren't paying for things we don't need. HF8 will lower the cost of government health care by hundreds of millions of dollars by using real free market forces.
You won't read that this legislation created jobs the way Gov. Dayton's proposed bonding bill will supposedly create 28,000 jobs. Instead, GOP legislation will quietly make Minnesota's business climate friendly again. The new jobs created will come quietly but they will come.
Most importantly, these jobs won't need annual stimulus from capital improvement bills. These jobs will be created because of increased entrepreneurial activity.
These bills will make Minnesota more competitive for the long-term. The GOP's plan will have far more long-term impact than the DFL's capital investment bills ever had.
When the cost of Minnesota's government stabilizes, then the Hutch Techs will stay in or possibly expand in Minnesota. The DFL can argue that all they want but it's the truth.
Posted Friday, March 18, 2011 6:36 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Quigley at 18-Mar-11 09:32 AM
So moving jobs to Wisconsin is because of global competition? This man is an idiot. It will be interesting to see how many other businesses move out of state during his time in office due to "global competition".
Obama Administration's 'Double Trouble'
Sen. David Vitter's op-ed shines the light on the Obama administration's 'double trouble' with regard to energy. Here's where their troubles start:
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee two weeks ago that the administration has received only 47 shallow-water permit applications during the past nine months, and that only seven deepwater permit applications are pending.
Here's where the Obama administration's predicament gets worse:
But this is completely inconsistent with the Department of Justice's motion filed last week in federal court for a stay of Judge Martin Feldman's rulings. On page 11 of that filing, the Justice Department notes that there is potential harm in the 're-prioritization that results from the court's orders' to issue seven permits in Feldman's February and March orders. The department explains that this is because there are 270 shallow-water permit applications pending, and 52 deepwater permit applications pending.
I think the technical term for the Obama administration's difficulties is LYING. It isn't fudging. It isn't them being duplicitous. Those terms are applicable in polite society. It's time to eliminate these politically correct euphemisms. It's time we called them what they really are: LIES.
The DOJ didn't just get these statistics out of thin air. It's likely that they got them from Salazar Interior Department. Sec. Salazar isn't in trouble because Senate Democrats and AG Holder will protect him. Still, it's stunning that the Interior Department secretary would get caught saying something this provably false.
This is just more proof that this administration a) is corrupt and b) has an extremist agenda. No other administration in U.S. history would try crippling the U.S. economy by limiting domestic oil production. No other administration ignored the American people in passing an unconstitutional takeover of the health care system.
Tons of articles have been written about President Obama's re-election chances. I've said all along that he's facing an uphill fight. Dick Morris went further, saying that it's over . Tammy Bruce spent this morning filling in for Laura Ingraham talking about how 2012 will be President Obama's personal shellacking.
Yes, the unions are fired up, which changes things somewhat. Still, it won't matter because independents are staying away in droves. They're staying away because they're sick of this administration's corruption. They're sick of this administration's looking the other way when Big Labor unleashes its thugs. They're sick of $4/gallon gas.
Conservatives are tired of the out of control spending. We're tired of President Obama's ignoring of the Constitution. We're tired of this administration trying to avoid the legislative process by issuing regulations to do the things they couldn't pass through Congress.
Secretary Salazar's lies are indicative of this administration's corrupt nature. They're also tiny in scale compared with this administration's biggest shortcomings.
That's why the American people will flush this administration into history's ash heap the first Tuesday in November, 2012.
Posted Friday, March 18, 2011 12:01 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 18-Mar-11 01:04 PM
technical question gary:
could the number DOJ gave is the total pending not including the last nine months? In that case they hadn't acted on 223 shallow water applications made more than nine months ago along with 45 deepwater applications
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 18-Mar-11 01:25 PM
Currently pending is currently pending, Walter. I don't see the need to differentiate.
Comment 2 by walter hanson at 18-Mar-11 05:51 PM
Gary:
The point is in the quote by Salazar he said they had only received and then you listed numbers.
In terms of committing perjury if Salazar can prove that they received the numbers listed that quote isn't perjury or reason to be in trouble of.
What you should be arguing is that they have sat on 223 shallow water and 45 deep water applications for at least nine months which they haven't acted on!
Guilty of lying I don't know. They are definately guilty of not acting on applications which the oil industry wanted. furthermore what was the price of oil nine months ago. Maybe some of these could've been producing oil already lowering the price of oil. I point you were ignoring by trying to call out the so call lying.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
The No Solutions Party
If you can tell me that the Democratic Party is the party of solutions after reading this article , then I'll question your opinion. There's alot of process, granted. But there's no solutions to the underlying problem.
Members of the Democratic Party are committed to offensively taking on the soaring price of gas. Sen. Sherrod Brown believes the State Department should put pressure on oil-producing nations to raise their levels of production, Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take immediate action to curb extreme price speculation in the oil markets, and Sen. Herb Kohl would like the Justice Department to be granted the power to prosecute OPEC member nations who conspire to raise the cost of oil.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Senator David Vitter sent a harsh letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Michael Bromwich charging them with misleading the public regarding the number of pending offshore drilling permits. Vitter cites a Department of Justice filing last week that states there are more permits pending than Salazar and Bromwich have indicated.
Sen. Kohl is an idiot for even mentioning this. Sovereign nations are beyond U.S. law. I suspect he knows that. I further suspect that this is his attempt to look like he's doing something. What Wisconsin proved in 2010 is that they're looking for solutions, not people looking busy.
My senator, Sen. Klobuchar, likewise, is looking busy rather than solving the underlying problem. She's co-sponsored the SAFEST Act, which is essentially an extension of the Democrats' failed green energy-only policy.
Until we let companies increase domestic production, whether it's oil, natural gas or coal, we're playing into the speculators' hands by creating an artificial production crisis.
The Democratic Party, as currently configured, isn't a party of solutions. They're the party of ideology-driven policies. It wouldn't be accurate to call them the do-nothing congress. It's accurate, though, to call them the NO SOLUTIONS PARTY.
For too long, they've been judged by how reasonable their ideas sound, not by how effective their policies were. That's changed since the TEA Party exploded onto the U.S. scene.
Democrats will surely still get re-elected. Still, their influence is dimishing and will continue to shrink until they start competing in the arena of solutions.
Posted Friday, March 18, 2011 1:55 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 19-Mar-11 09:06 AM
Gary:
The problem is as we know passing a law doesn't make it so. If Kohl for example sponsored a law that said the NFL had to give a ticket to every Packer who wanted to be at the Super Bowl it couldn't work because the stadium wasn't big enough. Yet he and other democrats don't understand you need real capacity which is what they're destroying in energy or health care is being destroyed not built up.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Wisconsin Speedbump
If anything fit the definition of a speedbump, it's this ruling . It's so without merit that the Weekly Standard's John McCormack has already demolished the judge's ruling . First, the ruling:
Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of Gov. Scott Walker's law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.
Sumi's order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law, and allowing it to take effect, until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state's open meetings law in passing the measure, which Walker signed on Friday.
Sumi, who was appointed to the bench by former GOP Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.
"It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law)," she said.
This is a delaying tactic. PERIOD. This isn't a serious ruling from a serious jurist. McCormack cites Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant's explanation:
There was some discussion today about the notice provided for the legislature's conference committee. In special session, under Senate Rule 93, no advance notice is required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board. Despite this rule, it was decided to provide a 2 hour notice by posting on the bulletin board. My staff, as a courtesy, emailed a copy of the notice to all legisaltive offices at 4:10, which gave the impression that the notice may have been slightly less than 2 hours. Either way, the notice appears to have satisfied the requirements of the rules and statutes.
I thought you might find this information to be useful.
Thanks.
Rob
He then cites the statute:
19.87 Legislative meetings.
(2) No provision of this subchapter which conflicts with a rule of the senate or assembly or joint rule of the legislature shall apply to a meeting conducted in compliance with such rule.
Providing a further smackdown is Steven Jacobson's post:
If this report accurately reflects the ruling, then the ruling is profoundly weak. The standard for a TRO requires a showing of likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable harm, and that a balancing of the equities supports granting the injunction. Some courts also consider whether granting the TRO will harm the public interest, but where the state is the party, this test really is subsumed in the balancing of the equities test.
It is hard to see how there is a likelihood of success on the merits, particularly if the Judge found no clear violation of any law or Senate Rule, but merely some vague conception of "public policy." The Senate clerk already has stated that the procedures used complied with the Senate Rules, and Courts normally to not interfere in a legislative branch's interpretation of its own rules. And let's keep in mind, that no amount of notice would have made a difference, because every single Democratic Senator had fled to Illinois and was refusing to attend any votes.
GAME. SET. MATCH. All that's left is CHAMPIONSHIP and that's waiting in the bullpen.
UPDATE: Megyn Kelly just interviewed Doug La Follette, Wisconsin's SecState. She started by citing Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant's ruling. La Follette's reply was that Marchant isn't a judge adding that Marchant should leave the interpretation of the statute to judges.
Megyn then said that she'd read the statute during the break and she agreed with Marchant, citing the special session as why Statute 19.84 doesn't apply, why Statute 19.87 gives the legislature extra latitude.
UPDATE II: Bernard Whitman debated Jason Lewis on Megyn Kelly's show on this subject. Whitman said that Republicans are losing independents over this fight.
That's a nice ploy but it's BS. Independents won't vote for the party of uncontrolled union thugs who've made multiple threats, some being death threats, some just thuggish acts of intimidation.
It's true that Gov. Walker is taking a short-term hit because of this but it's just that: a short-term hit. When Wisconsin voters see how much this saves them in taxes, those numbers will reverse themselves.
I remain convinced that this judge's ruling a nothing but a speedbump, especially after reading Steven Jacobson's post and hearing Megyn Kelly's opinion of the statute.
Posted Friday, March 18, 2011 3:34 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Quigley at 18-Mar-11 05:32 PM
So a judge can say they can't publish the law to make it legal and the state is agreeing to it. Meanwhile at the federal level, a judge has declared Obamacare unconstitutional yet the administration just keeps thumbing its' nose at the courts and does what it wants. Our court system has become a joke.
URGENT!!! Let's Get This Done!!!
Thanks to Gov. Dayton naming Sen. Ellen Anderson to the Public Utilities Commission, there's a special election in SD-66. This is typically the bluest of blue districts.
This time, some interesting dynamics are at work. The Central Corridor light rail project is hurting businesses along University Ave. The likely DFL candidate, John Lesch, voted for the Central Corridor project & he's also been antagonistic towards the University Ave. businesses.
If Greg Copeland can raise enough money in small donations ($50 & less) over the weekend, he'll qualify for $8,5000 in state matching funds. Greg Copeland is a principled conservative who will fight for pro-growth policies in the Senate.
This is a great opportunity. Be part of the wave that sends Greg Copeland to the Capitol as re-inforcements by following this link to contribute to Greg's campaign.
Everyone has time to spread the word for Greg. Follow this link to help spread the word about Greg's pro-growth, common sense agenda.
Together, we can make this happen!!! Now is the time for action!!! Let's get it done!!!
Posted Friday, March 18, 2011 5:26 PM
No comments.
SD-15 March Townhall Meeting Notes
1:03-- Rep. Gottwalt opening the meeting, introducing Rep. Banaian & Sen. Pederson. 'Earlier, there was a rally in here: We won't engage in character assassinations.'
1:04-- Sen. Pederson: We're here mostly to answer questions.
1:08-- Rep. Banaian describes the dimensions of his district.
1:09-- Mary Smith asks what the prospects of Photo ID on the ballot. Rep. Gottwalt says that the budget is their first priority but that Photo ID is important.
1:11-- Sen. Pederson says that there's a committee that's heard testimony on Sen. Limmer's bill. Sen. Pederson said that it might be passed as legislation, not as a constitutional amendment. Sen. Pederson voted for Sen. Limmer's bill.
1:13-- Rep. Banaian: It's my hope that we can hammer something out with Gov. Dayton on things they agree with. Emphasizes that the budget is Job 1, then talks about how this effects college students, gives them the ability to be citizens.
1:15-- Sen. Pederson tells people that citizens can sign up on state website that update people when action is taken on a bill.
1:22-- Rep. Gottwalt: 'If we don't have a health care system that incents people to do healthy things, then we're doomed.'
1:24-- Aviation student: Do you think it's right to have essential state programs like Aviation & nursing cut while other programs are cut? Rep. Gottwalt says that he's talked with Dr. Potter about the Aviation Program & he's hoping that Dr. Potter will simply use common sense in his decisionmaking.
1:33-- Rep. Banaian says that he's talked with deputy commissioners & assistant commissioners the past two weeks. He then says that there's a position called the legislative liaison & that the legislative liaison's job is to lobby the legislature for more money for their department. King says that he'd rather eliminate some of these positions rather than making more difficult for the Linda Pecks to participate in the Legacy Act's meetings.
1:41-- Sen. Pederson says that he doesn't believe in progressive taxation. He then says that he's dealt with scores of businesses that he's deal with that have filed bankruptcy. He cites the fact that his payroll used to be 115 employees, that it's 59.
1:44-- King's up next & says that the Minnesota tax incidence study doesn't include federal income tax. NO OTHER STATE measures things that way. He adds that if you include federal income tax, then we have a more progressive tax system. He says that, if measured that way, Minnesota's system is a very progressive system.
1:58-- Airports-- Rep. Gottwalt says that airports are an economic development tool, that if we get a regional carrier serving Atlanta, Chicago & Denver, businesses with good-paying jobs will locate here.
2:00-- King turns the mic to Mayor Kleis. Kleis opens by apologizing for the sound system 'but with LGA getting cut' there's only so much you can do. He then says that his goal is to get air service but that there needs to be a regional administration, not a city administration. 'The more that communities that have a financial stake in things, the more that they're committed to making it work.'
2:10-- Racinos: Rep. Gottwalt is against it if it's just for additional revenue to expand gov't. Reforms needed.
2:15-- Redistricting-- taking it out of the legislature's hands? Rep. Banaian said that this should've been done last year, citing the possibility of the redistricting bill being debated before a redistricting bill could be written. He then mentioned the fact that taking the redistricting out of the legislature's hands would require a constitutional amendment because it would significantly alter the way in which redistricting is done.
ADDITIONAL: The question was asked by a member of the League of Women Voters, one of the parties I cited in this post . I'd be interested in the language to a constitutional amendment. I'm totally disinterested in "Draw the Line Minnesota". That's isn't getting Joe Citizen involved in redistricting. That's giving trained activists the opportunity to influence redistricting without revealing their partisan leanings.
The meeting was well-attended, with approximately 100 attending the gathering. I'll post an analysis piece later this evening.
Posted Saturday, March 19, 2011 6:04 PM
Comment 1 by G Leisen at 20-Mar-11 11:03 PM
You are right about the League of Women Voters question regarding redistricting, and the chance of having a committee of retired judges, etc, draw up the new boundaries. This is a backhanded way of allowing invisible liberal forces to redraw the map in favor of their preferred liberal candidates. Strange, is is not, that this concept has gotten so much hype this time around since the GOP took over the MN House and Senate?
In other words, change the rules when the Democrats lose the election. Sounds alot like the Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate who flew the coop to avoid voting, and then tried to say they were trying to save the democratic process.
