Liberal in the Land of Conservative

3. Under Speaker Margaret Kelliher’s leadership, the House collected $181,120 in out-of-session, tax-free per diem. Under DFL Leader Larry Pogemiller’s leadership, senators collected $143,500 in out-of-session, tax-free per diem.

1. While it’s technically true that the DFL-dominated Legislature sent Gov. Tim Pawlenty a balanced budget, it’s only because the DFL reconvened the conference committee on taxes at 10:30 on the last night. During that meeting, the DFL did a total rewrite, which was debated less than 15 minutes in the House and Senate combined.

No reform, misplaced priorities and tax increases. Even now, there is time to work out other solutions, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s invitation to the Democrats is open, as it was from the start of the session.

If the Democrats could interrupt their Tour of Blame long enough to really work with the governor, we might all appreciate the results. If they cannot or will not, rest assured, Pawlenty will balance the budget without more state spending and tax increases.

In the budget-setting toolbox, unallotment is the sledgehammer. It just pounds dents in one part of the state’s budget. It does not give a governor the ability to enact policy or to make changes that might result in increased quality, efficiency or service to taxpayers. Using unallotment as a main budget setting tool is a bad idea, and little more than bad results can be expected.

The state’s budget desperately needs an overhaul, but the mechanic who took over the job is flailing a hammer. That will not bode well for Minnesota’s taxpayers.

It was a fact-finding mission for Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Woodbury, on Thursday as she spent an hour at Birchwood Health Care Center in Forest Lake. Health care professionals from as far away as Waite Park were in Forest Lake to express their concerns to the congresswoman.

Upon graduating from the University's Medical School, she practiced general internal medicine in the Twin Cities for more than two decades, became the president of Aspen Medical Group, and later served as vice-president and medical director of HealthPartners health plan. Because of her deep concern about health care costs, coverage and quality, she ran for lieutenant governor in 2006 for the Independence Party and subsequently participated on Gov. Pawlenty's Health Care Transformation Task Force.

“Good government requires artful negotiation and compromise among elected leaders with differing views. The Founders of the nation and of our state understood the need for checks and balances so that no individual could impose his or her views on everyone else except through the democratic process. Yet Governor Pawlenty, with support from a narrow minority in the Minnesota House, is willing to ignore the constitutional process and nullify the last election if the Legislature won’t cave in to his demands.

“Governor Pawlenty is not acting like a leader in a constitutional democracy. The DFL-led Legislature is delivering on their campaign promise of fiscal accountability, and has delivered a budget that makes tough but fair choices in tough times. Legislative leaders held listening sessions across Minnesota and took the people’s views into account in fashioning that budget. But Governor Pawlenty has walled himself away, barely deigning to meet even with the people’s elected representatives, let alone hear the people themselves. Governor Pawlenty is acting more like a monarch than an elected leader.

We need your help to make sure that he receives a strong message in the coming days - he will not decide the future of this state by himself.

Instead of taking a balanced approach, Pawlenty borrows, shifts and cuts so deeply that it results in the loss of thousands of private-sector jobs, negatively affecting Minnesota's working families.

This weekend in neighborhoods throughout Minnesota, we'll be going door-to-door encouraging folks to call Governor Pawlenty. With so much at stake, we need as many Minnesotans as possible to call the governor and ask him to stop being so stubborn and come to the table.

We'll be handing out a flyer that encourages Minnesotans to call Governor Pawlenty to tell him that we want a balanced approach to a balanced budget. Click here to download a copy for yourself to distribute.

Here is a list of locations where DFLers will gather to talk to their neighbors to encourage them to call Governor Pawlenty. Please consider joining them at NOON on Sunday.

Rochester

Olmstead DFL Office
401 16th Ave NW
Rochester, MN 55901

Contact: Jaime Tincher
jtincher@dfl.org
651-251-6310

Eagan

Dunn Bros Coffee
1012 Diffley Road
Eagan, MN 55123

Contact: Kent Berg
kberg@dfl.org
651-315-4809

Minnetonka

Minnetonka Community Center
14600 Minnetonka Blvd.
Minnetonka, MN 55345

Contact: Kent Berg
kberg@dfl.org
651-315-4809

St. Paul

***This event is on Saturday, May 17 at 9:30 am***

A Fine Grind Coffee Shop
2038 Marshall Ave
St. Paul, MN 55104

Contact: Beth Commers
bethcommers@donjek.com
651-227-3922

Woodbury

Woodbury City Hall
8301 Valley Creek Road
Woodbury, MN 55125

Contact: Warren Claflin
wclaflin@dfl.org
651-894-3146

If you'd like to organize a group to walk in your area, please contact Jaime Tincher, (651) 251-6310 or jtincher@dfl.org.

Regardless of if you can make it Saturday or Sunday, please consider taking the very important step of calling the Governor right now.

By making just one phone call in the coming days, you can help save 10,000 private sector jobs, keep 110,000 Minnesotans from losing health insurance and cut wasteful government spending. Will you do that?

Call Governor Pawlenty right now at (651) 296-3391 or 1-800-657-3717.

Tell him you want a balanced approach to a balanced budget.

Mr. Speaker, what else are these purveyors of confusion supposed to say?

They have had an opportunity to spread deregulation all over. They have declined the opportunity for many years to pass an antipredatory lending bill. They have promoted tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. And now that they have had the opportunity to have a House and a Senate in which their particular caucus was in the majority, they have had a full opportunity to manifest their economic ideas, and what those ideas have come to has been the largest foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of long overdue legislation to crack down on predatory mortgage lending. This week the House will consider legislation to curb abusive and predatory lending, a major factor in the Nation's highest home foreclosure rate in 25 years and the precursor to the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

“We are living through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with staggering numbers of people unemployed, health care out of the reach of many folks, and thousands of Minnesotans losing their businesses and homes,” said Dr. Reed. “While these problems are tough, I’m running for Congress because I know two things are true. First, Americans can solve tough problems. Second, a bright future is not accidental. We create a bright future when we put rhetoric aside, focus on the real problems, and work hard together. This is exactly what I’ve done all my life. The future I see is one of business expansion, job growth, home ownership and lower health care costs.”

1. The 1st thing the Dems have to do is quit blaming every loss on the Independent candidate. Bachmann‘s margin of victory was 3 points less than in 06 against a much better funded candidate in 06. Tink gained 2 plus points over the 2nd Wetterling race. Anderson gained 3 plus points over Binkowski. The only person who lost points to the IP candidate was Bachmann and trust me, most of those people will NEVER vote for a democrat. You would have to assume that 71% of the people who voted IP would have voted for Tink in order to be correct that the IP had something to do with the Bachman victory.

2. If you are going to ignore the central part of the district and settle for less than 40% of the vote in Wright, Sherburne and Benton counties then you are going to have to get Mpls type of numbers out of the rest of the district. You simply have to put more boots on the ground in these areas. If you are going to put offices in St. Cloud , Stillwater, Blaine then you also need headquarters in Buffalo, Big Lake, Ham Lake etc..

So here's an idea...perhaps even a bold one.

So instead of posting photo shopped pictures and edited You Tube videos putting orgy and government wads together, why don't we actually work in a grassroots effort to organize our communities.

Seriously, I'm I the only one who looked at the Bachmann tax day video and noticed that orgy/government wad portion of said video was spliced together like a 3 year old playing Operation?

Mocking Michele Bachmann gets us nowhere.

Running an "anyone but Bachmann campaign" gets us nowhere.

Attacking the "soccer mom" gets us nowhere.

It only gets us 2 more years of Bachmann.

Bachmann will continue to do damage to herself in the mainstream media.

While we should ensure that her insane comments are disseminated, we have no need to doctor them to make them even more "juicy". She does that well enough.

We should talk about Bachmann's voting record and how her values are not congruent with her rhetoric.

Last but not least, leadership needs to get off its ass. I caught this wonderful quote earlier in the week.

The district is the most Republican in the state and will be an extremely difficult race for any Democrat. But Schumaker believes Tinklenberg would have won in 2008 if not for the presence of another (non-endorsed) IP candidate on the ballot, Bob Anderson, who garnered 10 percent of the vote. “For whatever reason the information was not put out there that El Tinklenberg was endorsed by both parties,” she says.

"For whatever reason..."

Really? WTF?

Tinklenberg was endorsed by the IP on June 22, 2009. You mean to tell me that neither Tinklenberg nor the 6th CD DFL took the time over the remaining 4 1/2 months from the IP endorsement to stress the endorsement.

"For whatever reason...?"

Maybe if...now this is a big maybe...they hadn't spent the waning weeks of the campaign still introducing Tinklenberg to voters, they would have known he was endorsed by BOTH the DFL and the IP.

Going back through the Blueman history of Tinklenberg campaign ads, none of the ads I found had any mention of Tinklenberg's cross endorsement of the DFL and IP.

So, stop blaming the IP for Tinklenberg losing in 2008.

We lost because we gambled and lost. We ran shitty campaigns in Wright and Sherburne Counties and could not capitalize on the cash cow caused by the pandemic known as the Bachmann 2008 virus.

That the North Star Chapter of The Sierra Club did not do fair, full, and open due diligence prior to publicly opposing Crown Hydro really isn't in dispute; State Director Margaret Levin admitted last Friday that although they now are officially opposing Crown Hydro, there was only one meeting with Crown Hydro and only one Club member attended - in November of 2007; 17 months ago (give or take a few days).

...

And how careful could the North Star Chapter be, about giving "careful consideration," if they only had one - ONE - person meet about the project, SEVENTEEN months ago, before stating their opposition to the project?

Nikki Carlson, who hasn't been Crown Hydro spokesperson for all that long, told me that she has repeatedly - starting before last year's elections - tried to schedule time with The Sierra Club to give a presentation of the project's merits, and answer any questions/concerns/objections the Club may have.

Sadly, The Sierra Club never accepted the offer, yet still finds the audacity to "oppose" the project, on the flimsiest of grounds: that a legal, valid, and binding lease isn't a "lease" - but a "sale"; and on the length of said lease, which - of course - is always negotiable between two parties acting in good faith.

Yes she announced officially.

I talked to her quite a bit and she is really a good 'people person', listener and has a good handle on health care, job creation and the mortgage crisis.

She calls herself a 'blue dog' which turned some off, but I'm willing to give her a chance.

She understands the need to gain both the DFL and Indepence party endorsements and understands that other IP candidates need to be out of the mix. However knows legally she can't really do anything about it. But she has been a big part of the IP party so her influence may mean something.

If we want to Dump Bachmann Democrats, IP members, independents and sane Republicans are going to need to join together. Dr. Reed would be well positioned to do just that. It will be interesting to see how her campaign plays out.

Given that Bachmann received less than 50% in the '08 election she is beatable. However, it can only happen when members of the DFL and Independence Parties work in unison. That means more than an empty cross endorsement. It means an all out diplomatic effort from the leadership in both parties to run a unity candidate. DFLers may need to realize that this unity candidate might mean stepping aside to allow this person to run as an Independence candidate. The reason I say this is because there remains a large enough group of people in this district who do not like Bachmann but will NEVER vote for a DFL candidate that it makes winning nearly impossible.

What is Biotinidase Deficiency?

A condition that causes the body to have trouble using biotin, an important vitamin the body needs. Biotin is found in many foods. However, a person with Biotinidase Deficiency needs more biotin than the amount eaten in the normal diet.

What problems can Biotinidase Deficiency cause?

Untreated Biotinidase Deficiency can cause seizures, low muscle tone, hearing loss, eye problems, hair loss, skin rashes, and possibly coma or death.