Liberal in the Land of Conservative

We recently returned from a trip to the Middle East along with people from 16 other states. Several well-informed people asked me if I lived in the area that Michele Bachmann supposedly represents in Congress.

Then they said she is a “laughing stock” in the nation and must be and embarrassment to me! They said she talks but doesn’t seem to know the facts and that her sponsors must want people to be confused and not pay attention to the facts.

My answer was the 6th District and Stearns County conservatives don’t care what the rest of the country thinks of them and their representative! They really did vote that woman into office twice.

How embarrassing! Is she stupid? No, she is just singing the song her sponsors want her to do. Voters need to understand she does not stand for us, the people. Her sponsors are big business and coal and gas interests.

... Don’t hold your breath thinking she will support the North Star commuter rail project, affordable health insurance or cutting emissions.

They are reduced to hurling insults and flinging mud at those of us who are standing tall and saying: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

In what may need to be a regular column titled “Gross Inaccuracies” in this or another publication, my favorite conservative foil and the mouthpiece of the Republican Party in St. Cloud, Gary Gross, provided a rather fact-challenged Your Turn on the recent legislative session. (“DFL leadership clearly to blame for the poor legislative session,” May 31.)

For the sake of rebuttal let us use his handy dandy format:

1. Given that Gross would like to use stamp allowances to balance a $6.4 billion deficit, I would direct his attention to Senate Resolution 66 authored by Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. The resolution cut the maximum stamp allowance for senators in half for the next two years. It passed and is expected to save about $50,000 in the next two years. Gross touted a figure of $350,000 yet the entire Senate stamp budget for the previous two years was $125,000.

2. The Per Diem Boogeyman rears its ugly head in the Gross reinterpretation of the data without so much as a mention of the fact that legislators are free to forego these payments. One might assume from his writing that it is only the DFL who takes these payments. If the Republican Party was so committed to this line of budget balancing, one wonders why they didn’t unilaterally give back their portion.

In reality, 24 percent of DFL senators (including Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark) and 19 percent of Republican senators voluntarily reduce their per diem payments.

3. At the start of session the Senate took the following steps to cut $1.5 million from their budget: banned out of state travel, held open 24 positions, ended job promotions and froze wages. At the end of session the Senate passed and the governor signed a bill that includes additional cuts for the next two years.

Minnesota did not have a $2.2 billion surplus. It was an illusion created by the governor by counting one-time money as ongoing and by ignoring inflation. After 16 months we continue to play these budgetary games rather than fix the structural imbalance of our state budget.

This governor realizes that to cut our way out of this problem is a road he cannot travel without serious political consequences, so watch as he shifts as much of the problems into the future as he can.

I would have much preferred more aggressive negotiations from both sides of the aisle and have expressed as much in different venues but what is clear is that Gross and his Republican colleagues refuse to acknowledge that after the first veto of a tax bill that was much lower than originally proposed this governor decided to take his ball and go home.

Thus, a second tax bill was produced that accepted the governor’s shifts in education funding as a show of compromise and in hopes it would bring some returned compromise from the governor. Obviously, that did not happen.

Rather than deride the listening sessions held by legislators across the state, Gross and his Republican friends in state government would have done well to actually listen, as they would have heard of the shared sacrifice that Minnesotans were willing to make to finally fix our state budget.

Instead, the sacrifice will be shouldered by the middle and lower income brackets as state obligations are pushed off to property taxpayers and the next generation.

Yes, the Tea Party was about confiscatory taxes and spending, but it was so much more than that.More so, the April 15 Tea Parties held across the nation were a collective “mad-as-hell-and-we’re-not gonna-take-it-anymore” reaction to the abuses of individual liberty that have taken this nation by storm within the past two decades.

Confiscatory taxes and regressive tax codes used to fuel unbridled spending have by default placed restrictions on behavior, and are thus instrumental in stealing one’s individual economic, and by extension personal freedoms.

On September 25th, the President issued a proclamation declaring that he would not allow "a small portion of the United States [to] dictate to the whole union," and called on all persons "not to abet, aid, or comfort the Insurgents."

Instead, she consistently invokes extremism, typically by flitting around today’s 24/7 media culture ad nauseam. She stops just long enough to drop her political bombs, yet never gives a serious thought to how to shape viable solutions in the partisan environment she knowingly inflames.

...

Two straight years of her consistently spewing misleading snippets about important issues yet never stepping beyond those statements to find realistic solutions make it clear she is all about extremism and cares nothing about crafting viable public policy.

That being said, study after study shows there is no direct correlation between education spending and test results.

So when the Times asks my District 14A Rep. Dan Severson what his top priorities are for the current legislative session, how does he respond?

In a Sunday Times news report, he said we need to politicize the judiciary more by letting judges campaign freely, and then allow their impeachment when we don’t like how they judge.

Oh, and we need to curb the obvious epidemic of voter fraud (who knew?) by requiring state-issued picture IDs at the polls.

This is like Custer fretting at the Little Big Horn that he lost his comb in all the ruckus. Or the Titanic captain, as the last lifeboat is lowered, worrying whether there is enough caviar for the rest of the voyage.

I beseech Severson to instead focus his attention on solutions for the actual (as opposed to the imaginary) problems facing our state and his constituents.

People’s lives are being devastated daily by this economic crisis.

He is in a position of leadership. Please lead.

Sean Hannity on his radio show Tuesday played a tape from Nov. 23 in which Axelrod told Fox News Chicago that Obama had in fact been in contact with Blagojevich about filling the seat. Axelrod stated “A whole range of names had surfaced during their discussion.”

Axelrod is no stranger to Blagojevich. In fact Axelrod directed one of the governor’s early campaigns. After meeting late Tuesday with Obama, Axelrod said he had misspoken on Nov. 23.

Sounds like the Obama camp is clearly beginning to do damage control.

And, as Hannity noted, Obama is named 44 times in the affidavit. We need to know the truth behind his actions and what he really knows.

I was very pleasantly surprised with what I and some others believe we heard from Sen. Tarryl Clark, the assistant Democrat Senate leader, and Rep. Larry Hosch, House Democrat assistant leader. They indicated raising taxes in these tough economic times would not be good.

The Nov. 12 Times news report on "Students' votes made difference for levy" should be an eye-opener for property owners.

We have now reached a point in society where the direct beneficiaries of a nonsocietal tax increase were responsible for its passing.

The unfortunate problem with this is that the vote was self-serving and passed by voters who have little or no stake in paying for it, i.e. students vs. property owners.

We are also reaching a point in tax collection and spending in general whereby it's estimated many people do not pay income taxes at all.

If they should join together, they could possibly vote themselves any kind of benefits they wanted, to be paid for by the people who do pay taxes.

Perhaps it's time to reconsider who can vote for these issues.

If the levy is against property, i.e. property taxes, maybe only those who own property should have a right to vote for it.

I don't know what to do about the rest of the self-serving benefits that are voted on, but I do think something should be considered.

Now that we have a president-elect who has spent his whole life registering voters (and has succeeded beyond all expectations), self-serving people have a model to work with.

Don't be surprised if you see more of this kind of action.

I think something has to change.

Opponents seem to want Michele in the district constantly. Was she elected to go to Washington to represent the district or simply stay in the district?

Opponents say she embarrasses them because she doesn't buy into the global warming. Have you heard or read that more than 32,000 scientists agree with her? Have you heard that global warming by humans cannot be proven, replicated scientifically?

Opponents are upset about Michele affectionately kissing President Bush at a State of the Union address. Were they upset when Monica Lewinsky was under Clinton's desk? I think not!

Opponents ridiculed Michele when she stated that drilling would drive down oil. If you uncover your eyes and ears you might notice oil prices going down. Speculation experts and economists familiar with the matter predicted that.

Opponents ridiculed Michele for not supporting the bailout. Well, again I ask opponents to uncover their eyes and ears. The market is still going down and the underlying problems have not been corrected.

She, along with other Republicans and Democrats voted against the bailout because the adopted measure simply had not been thought through and contain real fixes to underlying problems. She, along with some Republicans and Democrats who opposed the measure, would vote for a good fix.

Opponents have criticized her for her stance against earmarks. Earmarking has proved to be a corruptive practice, and opponents can't see that? Other legislators who agree surround Michele.

Opponents make ridiculous claims about Michele's voting record. Perhaps if opponents read the legislation along with poison pill amendments they just might just agree with her.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Letters To The Editor

To the Editor:

I became active again in the DFL following the caucuses this spring. The attendance at these events was unprecedented.

People realize that we need to change course and we cannot rely on our elected officials, or either political party, to accomplish this for us. Change will only happen when new people bring fresh approaches to an election process that has relied heavily on relentless negative advertising to destroy an opponent.

This new approach to campaigning has accounted for much of Barack Obama's appeal.

El Tinklenberg and Steve Andrews are two candidates vying for federal and state legislative positions who seem to get this. They are both moderate and respectful in their approaches.

El faces an extremely polarizing incumbent, Michelle Bachman whose radical agenda drew the attention of Karl Rove who anointed her to bring his scorched earth brand of politics to Central Minnesota. El is cool headed and respectful and unlikely to be baited by attacks.

Steve, whose opponents are somewhat less divisive in their approaches, is running an upbeat and issues based campaign as well. Both of these men are decent, thoughtful and moderate candidates in the best traditions of Minnesota politics and they deserve your careful consideration.

Ron Thiessen.

Becker, Mn

Fair and adequate funding, early childhood education opportunities, parental involvement, and teachers committed to students all contribute to our prominence in education. Unfunded mandates eat away at school budgets resulting in larger class sizes which have caused us to slip in national rankings. Now more than ever we need political leadership, not partisanship, to help educated students. I will work for Minnesota students to ensure that their educational needs are met so they can reach their potential.

Letter: Bachmann's vote goes against healthy economy
By Monique Sullivan Minnesota Field Organizer, Environment America Minneapolis

Published: March 04. 2008 12:30AM

I am disappointed that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann voted against crucial renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives this week by voting against the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008.

This bill will help to build a clean-energy economy for America by preventing the loss of 116,000 existing jobs in the renewable energy industry and creating thousands of new ones.

Bachmann's vote against extending these critical tax incentives was a vote against a healthy economy.

The renewable energy industry is growing by leaps and bounds in Minnesota and nationwide, and providing the new industry with reliable incentives is critical to maintaining that growth.

Now, I urge Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar to support the House in boosting our clean energy economy.

Both have repeatedly supported these forward-thinking policies in the past and I hope to see them continue to do so.

Extends: (1) the tax credit for production of electricity from renewable resources through 2011

(2) the energy tax credit for solar energy and fuel cell property through 2016 more...

Letter: Residents in 6th District deserve new leadership
By Pat Welter, Waite Park

Published: February 23. 2008 12:30AM - Last updated: February 23. 2008 2:05AM

The other day I received an automated call from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann inviting me to participate in her town hall meeting.

The word "participate" is used loosely. I could stay on the line and listen to Bachmann respond to prerecorded questions and I could prerecord a question of my own, which was then screened before it was used. The notion of give and take, of dialogue, of real discussion in a real meeting was totally absent. I came to the conclusion that Bachmann's town hall meetings are a showy sham.

I was reminded of this when I read Times Writers Group member Karen Cyson's Feb. 15 column, "Bachmann's mailer costs us."

Her point is similar. The glossy, full color mailing she received from Bachmann using taxpayer dollars was also a showy sham for Bachmann's own propaganda purposes.

I, too, received several such mailings from Bachmann. The focus was on affordable health care for families, Medicare and children's health care. With the glitzy photography, the glossy paper and the nice, flowery language, the mailings looked good until I found out that they were another sham.

According to Project Vote Smart, Bachmann voted against appropriations for the Departments of Health and Human Services three times, against the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the State Children's Health Insurance Program four times, and against the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act.

Her actions speak louder than her showy words. We in the 6th District deserve better. It's time for a change.

Times Writers Group: Bachmann's mailer cost us
By Karen Cyson

Published: February 15. 2008 12:30AM

Has the amount of mail you receive lessened since December?

Mine sure has. In December every day brought catalogs (free shipping for last-minute shoppers!), credit card applications (gift now, pay later), cards and letters, and the usual bills.

One thing I received that I wasn't expecting was a mailing from my congressional representative, 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann. I'm sure if you live in her district you received one also. It was a full-color, glossy cardstock, trifold brochure on Internet safety and, of course, featured a picture of her carefully coifed visage.

For the life of me I can't figure out why Bachmann felt it necessary to spend money on photography, production, printing and postage to send out information that is not needed by constituents who don't use the Internet and is easily found elsewhere by those who do.

I'm fairly sure disseminating information of this type does not fall under her list of responsibilities as our representative, and I'm quite certain it could have been done less expensively.

A postcard (white with black ink) with a Web site link, for example, would have sufficed. And I wondered: How much of our money was spent on this extravagant effort?

Looking for an answer

I called her local office and left a message asking that question. I left my name, address, phone number and e-mail address. I did this week after week after week. By mid-January, when I had yet to receive a reply, I attempted to elicit a response by contacting my representative via her Web site.

According to Bachmann's Web site, she only has time to respond to constituents of her district, and e-mails are screened by asking the writer for their ZIP code.

... Anyone can type in a local ZIP code and fool you. Duh.

Bachmann is proud of Minnesotans. According to her, we are the "workingest" (sic) state, some of us even "working two jobs" (to make ends meet, which apparently had not occurred to her). She, however, isn't working overtime answering inquiries from legitimate constituents.

For more than a month now (two months if we count the phone inquiries) I have yet to receive a reply.

Which scenario?

All of this begs the question: Does she not know how much she spent or does she not want us to know how much she spent?

Either scenario smacks of irresponsibility and a lack of accountability.

Our nation is already in a precarious financial mess.

When President Clinton left office, the national debt — the amount each one of us would have to cough up to make the country solvent — was $20,392. As I write this, the debt is $30,395, an increase of almost 50 percent on "Dubya's" watch. Once money is borrowed to send out our pseudo-rebates (you don't really think they have the money, do you?), each of us will OWE another $600.

Committee assignment

Bachmann's current committee assignment in the House is on the Financial Services Committee. It is to be hoped that one requirement to serve on this committee would be an understanding of finances. If Bachmann possesses such an understanding, it shouldn't be too terribly difficult for her to ascertain how much her own office is spending on propaganda and self-aggrandizing publicity.

I realize that members of Congress have the right to send mailings to the citizens they represent and that there are franking privileges to cover postage costs, but it boggles my mind that my representative would choose such a small issue and such a lavish presentation to ensure that, come December, her face would arrive in glossy full-color (like a Christmas card, perhaps? Hummm) in each household of her constituency.

I know to the penny how much I spent on my holiday cards and the postage it took to deliver them. So tell us, Rep. Bachmann, how much (of our money) did you spend on your December mailing?

This is the opinion of Karen Cyson, a child care provider in Stearns County and vice president of Minnesota Mensa. Her column is published the third Friday of the month.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Letters To The Editor

TO THE EDITOR:

Thank you for encouraging citizen involvement in Tuesday's precinct caucuses. Whether we are Democrat, Republican, Independent or none of the above, long standing reasons remain for our attendance. These reasons only begin with this process to guide and restrain government. Please consider these important additional thoughts.

As Thomas Jefferson once stated: "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." It is our duty as citizens to continue this faithful watch on government. There are so many issues facing our nation. Any failure to serve our country and protect our liberties is historically shown to have one result: Servitude to government, and liberty lost for all.

December 23, 1776 Thomas Paine stated that, "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of government they had given us at the close of the Constitutional Convention, he replied: "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Rep. Mark Olson
Big Lake, MN

And please, no more tax-breaks for the wealthy. Any suggestion that those irresponsible and, yes, bipartisan gifts to the very rich early in the Bush presidency have helped more than they have contributed to the slow but steady growth in our federal deficit is without merit.

Letter: Bachmann doesn't really understand Minnesotans
By Kristian Twombly, St. Cloud

Published: January 23. 2008 12:30AM

Recently, Rep. Michele Bachmann joined Virginia Republican Eric Cantor in support of the "Middle Class Job Protection Act." Rather than providing any relief for the middle class, this bill merely provides businesses with a 28 percent tax reduction.

Bachmann, in her infinite wisdom, had this to say about us: "I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We're the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs."

Cantor's plan, intended to create jobs, is supported by Bachmann even though she states that we work longer and have two jobs already. Clearly what we need is a third job, at least according to her logic!

The 6th District continues to be poorly served by Bachmann and it is past time for us to elect a representative who will actually help our district, who understands who Minnesotans really are.

Michele Bachmann, on the other hand, ignores a significant segment of the people living in her district. Bachmann was elected by capturing just over 50 percent of the votes. Yet she continues to carry forth her extreme conservative agenda and blithely disregards the views of nearly half of the people in her district. I think it would be great if Michele would give us a "pat on the back" every now and then with an honest attempt to represent all the people in her district and not just the those of her own party.

MARY CURRAN, MARINE ON ST CROIX

Letter: Olson is better choice to represent 6th District
By Michael P. Kaehler Local President,
St. Cloud Area Local No. 647 American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO

Published: January 03. 2008 12:30AM

I am a working person and one of the many disenfranchised by the actions of 6th District U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

I also have learned from paycheck to paycheck that members of the U.S. House and Senate of both parties have left millions of us out in the cold.

That's why I find it refreshing that we have a candidate like Bob Olson running for Congress in the 6th District.

Olson is not just another slick politician or professional lobbyist. He is an individual who, as a tax attorney and community banker, understands three of the major issues confronting working people:

A predatory corporate financial system.

An unjust tax system that favors the rich and corporations at our expense.

Our addiction to oil and its adverse social, economic, political and environmental consequences that fall on ordinary working people.

Olson has the knowledge, skills and ability to improve our quality of life.

He is an intelligent, honest, hardworking and plainspoken man whose core beliefs are grounded in social, economic and political fairness and justice for all residents of the district.

He is not afraid to tackle tough issues, to stand on principle, and he is not just another politician or lobbyist representing special interest groups or corporations.

... Bachmann's term in office has been a disaster for working people. Bob Olson is the best possible candidate to replace her.

Ordinary working people can make a difference through our active participation in the DFL Precinct Caucuses, as Bob Olson delegates to our DFL Senate District conventions and DFL 6th District Convention, and, ultimately, by voting for Bob Olson to be our congressman.

Bachmann is Part of the Problem

Will someone please remind Rep. Bachmann what her job is? I just read the transcript of the House weekly radio address delivered on Dec. 20, by Bachmann.

Just what was the point of her holiday season address? To attack the Democrats of course. Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you too, Michele.

In her address she says, “You see, their (Democrats) first year in control of Congress hasn’t exactly gone the way that they would have liked, and with record low approval ratings, a clear lack of accomplishments, and only bitter sound bites to offer, Democrats unfortunately don’t have many political accomplishments to count this holiday season.”

Bitter sound bites indeed...

What Michele conveniently neglects to mention is that it is Congress as a whole that has record low approval numbers. The last time I checked, Bachmann was a member of the same Congress she is criticizing. The inconvenient truth is that Democrats in Congress have higher approval numbers than their Republican colleagues.

It is Michele Bachmann and her Republican colleagues in Congress that are earning those record low approval numbers.

She is right about one thing. There is a clear lack of accomplishments in Congress. That’s because Republicans have set a record for the number of threatened filibusters and blocks that have been used to obstruct the passage of good legislation - 62 times in the first half of a two year session.

That’s on track to be twice the number of any previous Congress in history. It’s almost as if we have a group of railway station saboteurs complaining that the trains aren’t running on time.

And to think it was only a couple of years ago that Republicans in Congress were whining that Democrats were abusing the filibuster to block 10 of Bush’s 229 judicial nominees. The real message to Democrats in Congress appears to be, “do as we say, not as we did.”

Your job, Mrs. Bachmann, is to represent the 6th district in Congress. I doubt that means you should be participating in the obstruction of legislation and then sitting back, sniping at your colleagues and gloating over the fact that nothing gets done.

You are not part of the solution Rep. Bachmann, you’re part of the problem.

Daniel Dillon
Scandia