Liberal in the Land of Conservative

Dr. Maureen Reed, candidate for both the DFL and Independence Party endorsements for Congress in the 6th District, will not say whether she will abide by the endorsement process, says that on abortion it would be inaccurate to characterize her as either pro-life or pro-choice, and is unwilling to express a preference among the various ways to get to universal health care.

Reed says Clark's electoral success is limited to one of the most liberal pockets of the district. Clark won her St. Cloud Senate seat in a 2005 special election. She won re-election in 2006, and is currently the assistant Senate majority leader.

1. On ethnic riots in Paris (November 2005): On the face of it, Bachmann observed, “multicultural diversity … sounds wonderful. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal. And ... those who are coming into France, which had a beautiful culture, the French culture is actually diminished, it’s going away.” Watch

2. On evolution (October 2006): Bachmann provoked viewers by claiming that a significant portion of the scientific community rejects the theory of evolution: “There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.” Watch

3. On Terry Schiavo (October 2006): Bachmann provoked ridicule by describing Terry Shiavo, who lived in a permanent vegetative state, as “a woman who was healthy. There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.” Watch

4. On anti-Americans in Congress (October 2008): “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?” Watch

5. On the threat of a ‘global currency’ (March 2009): “I’m very concerned about the international moves they’re making, particularly … moving the United States off the dollar and onto a global currency, like Russia and China are calling for.” Watch

6. On the effects of greenhouse gases (April 2009): “Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” Watch

7. On Democratic presidents and swine flu crises (April 2009): “I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.” Watch

8. On the threat posed by the U.S. census (June 2009): “I think there is a point where you say enough is enough to government intrusion.… Does the federal government really need to know our phone numbers?” Watch

9. On the government bailout of GM (June 2009): The congresswoman famously called the Obama administration a “gangster government.” Watch

10. On health-care reform’s potential to dupe parents (October 2009): “Does that mean that someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have [her] abortion, be back and go home on the school bus? That night, mom and dad are never the wiser.” Watch

The event starts at 8 a.m. Attendees are encouraged to gather at the Kelly Inn parking lot.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, DFL-Minn., and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., will attend with other local officials.

The DeSoto Bridge closed March 20, 2008, after the discovery of bends in the gusset plates. Construction of the Granite City Crossing bridge that replaces it is near completion.

Riverview Community Bank, an Otsego firm that attracted national media attention several years ago for espousing prayer in the workplace, has been shut down by state regulators.

The six-year-old bank, which has $108 million in assets and branches in Otsego and Anoka, was an aggressive real estate lender, once boasting the fourth-highest concentration of real estate loans-to-capital among community banks in the state. The bank was hard hit by the wave of foreclosures that began hitting Wright County in mid-2007.

Brian Lancaster at Jumping in Pools reported on Obama’s college thesis, written when he was at Columbia.  The paper was called “Aristocracy Reborn,” and in the first ten pages (which were all that reporter Joe Klein–who wrote about it for Time–was permitted to see), the young Obama wrote:

“… the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy.”

Yep, this arrogant asshole thiknks he is smarter than Thomas Jefferson. His historical ignorance is astonding in it's depth and ignorance. Blacks were still slaves and he though the re-distribution of wealth should have been included.

You need no further proof that Obama is a far left moron.

I deciding to spend a little time chasing it, hunting it down. In fifteen minutes of browsing, I found that conservatives in Minnesota did indeed show interest in the topic. Take, for instance, blogger and Senate District 15 GOP Secretary Leo Pusateri.

There are other examples in the state. Read about Mr. Pusateri's interest in the controversy and that of other two other conservative Minnesotans below the fold.

Mr. Pusateri  currently blogs at Psycmeister's Ice Palace and Freedom Dogs, as well as cross-posting at True North.

He's brought up questions about Obama's birth certificate a number of times. Here's one such post, from his personal blog in  July 2008begins:

It appears that Obama's alleged birth certificate has been deemed a forgery, calling to question whether Obama was born in the United States, which would be a Constitutional prerequisite for his ability to legally run for President.

In a February post at Freedom Dogs, he wrote:

A cultural and spiritual awakening...is this why the agenda media were willing to overlook and/or gave short shrift to many of the Obama scandals, from his friendships with Tony Rezko, Rev. Wright and William Ayers, to the flak over his birth certificate?

That should give readers a flavor of his take on the matter.

And the realization that Minnesota, even its vast hinterland, wasn’t as safe as it used to be helped erode support for the DFL’s traditional “catch and release” policies, and built support for reform of Minnesota’s paternalistic, racist handgun permit laws over the following decade. [emphasis mine]

Grace hits the military derangement trifecta, showing ignorance of the military (the uniforms worn are clearly wrong), ignorance of a thing called Google, which shows that the 'new' photos have been floating around the internet for several years, and ignorance of basic standards of journalism by repeating a story that was debunked as false more than 5 years ago.

On behalf of the US military, I will be waiting for a retraction and apology from MN Progressive Project and Grace Kelly. I wont hold my breath.

I’ll clear up Tarryl’s supposed indecision surrounding the public option. I attended a health care forum that Tarryl called at St. Cloud’s Whitney Senior Center. Tarryl’s special guest that night was Sen. John Marty, the most outspoken and consistent advocate for single-payer health care.

From the outset of the event, the focus of the conversation was almost exclusively about Canadacare and single-payer health care.

From the outset of the event, the focus of the conversation was almost exclusively about Canadacare and single-payer health care. Loretta Linus spoke enthusiastically, though a bit combatively, about CanadaCare:

“The doctors are wonderful. You get good care. And it just makes me mad when they talk about how they have to come over here to get good care & that’s not true. Now they say that Canadians have to come over here for good treatment. Well don’t you believe it. Don’t you believe it one bit. That government is so good to all its people. I don’t care if you’re rich or poor. They take care of you. And so many of the people come & they talk crap about how awful their system is. Well, don’t you believe it. Single payer is wonderful if it’s run right.”

She wasn’t the only single-payer advocate to speak that night.

The St. Cloud-based grocery chain in September asked its employees in a letter to contact their congressional representatives to oppose two pieces of legislation — one of them a House version of health care reform legislation.

...

Steve Gottwalt, spokesman for the company, said someone — not an employee — asked whether the letter was a threat. He said it is not at all a threat and employees are free to take any stance on the legislation without risk of retaliation.

In the discussion of the pending health care in Congress, we have heard the vast rumors of death panels to pull the plug on Grandma, increased abortions and others so silly they are not worth the ink to include them.

I recently received a copy of a letter sent to Coborn’s employees stating that if passed, the health care bill would among other things “result in layoffs.” The letter, reported in Sunday’s Times, went on to say that it would be a “destructive government takeover of health care.”

The letter also informed the employee that the pending “unionization bill” was not good for the company, saying it would bring a “loss of benefits.”

We don’t see a head of a company ever looking out for issues that might help the employees, do we?

I find the letter sent out by Coborn’s President Christopher Coborn very troubling by putting pressure on its employees to take political sides on issues that affect them today and in their future.

Putting employees in fear of loosing benefits and even their jobs so that critical legislation is not completed is over the top. I hope that each Coborn’s employee can think on their own what is best for them.

Send them a message they simply cannot ignore. Make a contribution today to the woman that drives the Left CRAZY. Please give what you can to show Washington that Michele Bachmann stands for the Constitution and she stands for the People! Help her stand strong against the Left’s march toward socialism!

I was speaking in a different corner of the Range yesterday but heard this morning that the straw poll yielded an interesting result:

Matt Entenza won. Iron Range legislators Tom Rukavina and Tom Bakk finished second and third, respectively. Other candidates there included Susan Gaertner, Steve Kelley, Mark Dayton and Paul Thissen (though I don't know how the rest finished in the poll).

Now this result is fascinating to me, but should also include an asterisk. The candidates who weren't there: Margaret Anderson Kelliher, John Marty and R.T. Rybak are all people I predict will carry some level of support in Itasca County and greater Minnesota in general (particularly Kelliher, with her farm roots, and Marty, with his support from progressive groups). Their absence affected the outcome.

Severson ponders secretary of state bid

SAUK RAPIDS — Rep. Dan Severson of Sauk Rapids has filed the paperwork to explore a run for secretary of state.

Severson would be seeking the Republican nomination to challenge DFLer Mark Ritchie, who was elected in 2006.

According to Gross, we need to send a message to Washington that old-style politics must end. They are patronizing and condescending, he said, and it is wrong to think the average citizen cannot understand what transpires in Washington.

Pusateri agrees. “The direction of this country since January of 2009 has been a veritable sprint toward ever-encroaching governmental influence and control over many aspects of our lives, and an accompanying erosion of individual choice and liberties. I have spoken with Republicans, Independents and even some Democrats who are alarmed not only at the size and scope of the growth of government, but also its breathtaking rate of growth.”