tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71510212024-03-09T20:46:03.641-06:00Minnesota PoliticsA blog about politics in Minnesota.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.comBlogger1238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-33117309331681590092012-02-29T21:40:00.000-06:002012-02-29T21:42:22.367-06:00De temps en tempsYou know, if anybody still reads this blog, please feel free to comment. That would increase the likelihood that I keep posting, or at the very least, share what has been going on lately.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-5475069744453531582012-02-14T21:35:00.001-06:002012-02-14T21:35:26.098-06:00EngageWell, I can't believe this thing is still on!MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-47157150728619007422007-02-24T20:16:00.000-06:002007-02-24T20:26:10.168-06:00EndingsObservant people may have noticed that there haven't been any new posts for a while. I'm not dead, nor have I been hired by any presidential campaigns and then forced to resign. Instead, life has happened. New opportunities have arisen and all that. The result, however, is that I will soon be leaving Minnesota. It's hard to know what is going on in a state politically if you are not there. Hence, this blog is going to no longer exist.<br /><br />I started this more than two years ago for one reason: I was bored. And technology allowed me to be bored at people instead of just mumbling to myself. I don't particularly think that this blog was of even average quality: I did very litle original digging, instead just commenting on whatever came along.<br /><br />There are a lot more Minnesota blogs out there today than there used to be, and lots of them are good. Not MDE, of course, but many of them are. So go read them.<br /><br />Thanks for the comments and memories!MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1169768997595779402007-01-25T17:49:00.000-06:002007-01-25T17:49:57.656-06:00Told you so!A helpful comments points out that I made <a href="http://minnpolitics.blogspot.com/2006/11/predictions.html" target="_blank">this</a> prediction before the election:<br /><br />"Bachmann wins and humiliates herself immediately nationally."<br /><br />Yes, I would say that I nailed that one.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1169682866049136852007-01-24T17:52:00.000-06:002007-01-24T17:54:26.113-06:00Sweet Bachmann-Bush lovin'You've already seen <a href="http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S26304.shtml?cat=1" target="_blank">this</a> by now, but that doesn't make it less creepy.<br /><br />She. Is. Nuts. Something tells me that in the back of her head, there's this nagging thought that she and Bush could "hook up" and bring about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, if you know what I mean.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1169512735869418462007-01-22T18:34:00.000-06:002007-01-22T18:38:55.930-06:00Pawlenty's budgetI don't think Pawlenty has the triangulating thing down. His <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/01/22/midday2/" target="_blank">budget</a> is only impressive in the way that it manages to piss off both sides.<br /><br />First, this is by no means a conservative budget. A 9% increase in spending? How is that "smaller government"? A tiny fraction of the surplus spent on tax relief? Lots of borrowing for transportation? I can't see how conservative Republicans can support this budget at all.<br /><br />But it doesn't go far enough for Democrats either. No promise to provide health care coverage to all kids. No all-day kindergarten. No new transportation money. A somewhat convoluted school "rewards" system that will only serve to reward the schools that don't need the help.<br /><br />All in all, there is very little leadership in this budget. Pawlenty says that the "status quo" isn't good enough, but he maintains the status quo in plenty of areas. Has he given up? Is he tired? Or is there some other explanation for the lack of inspiration in this budget?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1169088123941731312007-01-17T20:27:00.000-06:002007-01-17T20:42:13.596-06:00State of the StateGovernor Pawlenty gave his State of the State <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/01/17/midday1/" target="_blank">address</a> today, and it was mainly focused on education. To be honest, I was not terribly impressed by the details of his plans, nor by the rhetoric.<br /><br />I am not a huge fan of our current school system. In fact, I think it stinks in many ways. But Pawlenty's digs at schools seemed pretty sad. If you are going to bash schools, go all the way; don't talk about how students are "coasting" with backpacks full of papers. That is insulting to both teachers and students. Say that students are slackers because they aren't fluent in a language other than English by the time they graduate, or that they haven't taken mandatory AP classes, or that they got out of high school without four years of math, four years of science, four years of literature, and four years of social studies. Those are the standards you want to set.<br /><br />I don't think I agree with his proposal to give schools with high ratings extra money. That just rewards the schools with the most resources to begin with. I would much rather see a system that rewards schools for the size of their improvement. A crappy school that drastically improves itself over a few years deserves much more support than a suburban school that starts out fantastic and doesn't improve much. I know that may not be popular, and I know it's very hard to come up with the right incentive program to reward and punish the right people, but basing it on raw scores is not a good idea. So the "three stars" plan is not a good one.<br /><br />All day kindergarten? Yes, so why wasn't he supporting it? Why isn't he supporting investments in our transportation infrastructure? Or giving all kids health care? Because he's Pawlenty, I guess.<br /><br />A property tax cap is a non-starter to me too. Look, Republicans: you can't have it both ways. Either you support a bottom-up government, in which case local governments can do whatever they want with property taxes, or you support a top-down government, where the feds and the states dictate what is acceptable and what isn't. Make up your mind. Personally, I support the bottom-up approach, and once upon a time Republicans at least paid lip service at least to that thought.<br /><br />Other than that, there wasn't much interesting. Pawlenty sounds less Republican these days, but I still wouldn't turn my back on him.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168910106148000462007-01-15T19:13:00.000-06:002007-01-15T19:15:06.206-06:00Farm BillHere's an idea for the new <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/936339.html" target="_blank">farm bill</a>: how about no farm bill at all? No subsidies. No price supports. No programs. No corporate giveaways (let's expand that to all businesses).<br /><br />Why should we have governmental control of agriculture through quotas and price controls?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168711778271761882007-01-13T12:07:00.000-06:002007-01-13T12:09:38.396-06:00The Star Tribune's big wet sloppy kiss<a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/934338.html" target="_blank">Read this</a> and vomit. I sure hope Norm bought the Star Tribune dinner first before this shameless example. A political life "marked by nimbleness"? More like a life marked by flip-flopping and saying whatever it takes to sleaze his way to the top.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168480970552373312007-01-10T19:56:00.000-06:002007-01-10T20:02:50.556-06:00Today in the SenateToday in the Minnesota Senate, they voted to <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/927968.html" target="_blank">increase their per-diems</a> and housing allowances by 45% and 25% respectively. I am not a fan of the per-diem increases. Salaries are too low for legislators, so raise the salaries, not the "extras".<br /><br />They also revealed a convoluted plan to cover all people with health insurance by 2010. The plan would cap insurance rate increases and increase eligibility for MinnesotaCare. I think this is a stupid way to go about covering people, and I find the arbitrary insurance rate increase cap particularly divorced from reality. You want to cover everybody? It's called single-payer. No arbitrary caps, no mandates, no stupid tricks. Expanding health care coverage is a good idea, but doing it in crazy ways doesn't help. The faster we get to the system we will eventually have, a single-payer system, the better. No point in taking the scenic route.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168480586855297662007-01-10T19:48:00.000-06:002007-01-10T19:56:26.946-06:00Dumb and dumbererIf <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/927679.html" target="_blank">these</a> are the kinds of ideas that House Republicans are going to be putting forward, they should get used to being in the minority, because they will be there for a long time.<br /><br />It's not really surprising. The new Minority Leader, Marty Seifert, has always enjoyed stupid gimmicks much more than rational policy. After all, he was the person behind such brilliant proposals as banning dessert in prisons, <a href="http://minnpolitics.blogspot.com/2004/12/fine-welfare-smokers.html" target="_blank">fining welfare recipients who smoke</a>, requiring the Pledge of Allegiance to be spoken <a href="http://minnpolitics.blogspot.com/2006/05/important-issues-facing-state.html" target="_blank">only in English</a>, and English-only drivers license exams.<br /><br />His new proposals are requirements that Minneapolis and St. Paul (and only those two cities) spend 100% of their LGA funding on public safety, and a ban on the use of taxpayer money for buyouts of coaches' contracts at the U of M (despite the fact that taxpayer money isn't used at all). Yes, that's the way to capture the imagination of the public.<br /><br />Not only are these proposals plain stupid, but what happened to Republican values? What happened to local control? I remember how, in the wake of the Contract with America, Republicans abolished the strings attached to federal money and instead gave it to the states in block grants to use as they saw fit (see: welfare). Republicans supposedly believed at the time that the closer you got to the people, the better the decisions would be, and that mandates from higher up were bad. They are bad, except for when they aren't.<br /><br />I expect to see lots of funny proposals from Rep. Seifert in the next couple of years. Should be fun if you aren't a Republican hoping to win back the majority.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168303256630681502007-01-08T18:38:00.000-06:002007-01-08T18:40:56.633-06:00AbsurditySomebody asked why I don't do Katherine Kersten's Korner anymore. Aside from the positive benefits to my sanity that accompanies not reading that garbage, it's just a waste of time. She seems to have three major themes: today's was Those Darn Kids Today, joining Those Dang Democrats and Watch Out For Teh Gay as covering the kolumns that aren't focused on feel-good local stories. Do I really need to comment on the increasingly irrelevant musings of a curmudgeon?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168302976381607892007-01-08T18:30:00.000-06:002007-01-08T18:36:16.453-06:00A pander too farI think that we should do a lot of things for veterans. Tuition help, health care, mental health support, even housing assistance is all fine with me. But <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/923362.html" target="_blank">exempting them from state income taxes</a>? That's a bit much.<br /><br />Being a tax policy purist, I think there generally needs to be a very good reason for exempting anything from taxation. I don't see any good reason here other than trying to win votes and allow people to feel good about themselves. Stretch our National Guard to the limit, don't give troops the equipment they need, but if they make it home they won't pay taxes!<br /><br />Sorry, but I'm not that cynical or easily bought off. Besides, something tells me that this proposal isn't going to do much to help the roughly 50% of homeless people who are veterans.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1168207760942428942007-01-07T16:03:00.000-06:002007-01-07T16:09:21.003-06:00Roads aren't built for freeNobody likes paying more in taxes. But I don't know of many people who enjoy sitting on the Crosstown mired in traffic either. Our state's highway system is in sad shape, and it's going to cost money to fix it. I think the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/920004.html" target="_blank">transportation plan</a> being put forward is a good idea.<br /><br />We wouldn't need to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon right now had we been responsible and increased it sometime during the past 18 years or so, but we didn't so this is what we face. The reductions in license tab fees we got in the late 90s were fun, but times have changed. A regional sales tax has proven to work wonders in Denver and other metropolitan areas in terms of jump-starting transit. These aren't pie-in-the-sky, untested ideas. These are solutions to a very real problem.<br /><br />I sure am not going to relish paying more in taxes. But I am sick of hearing how the Crosstown reconstruction is delayed or we don't know when we will finish the 610 or the new 212 or turning highway 52 into a freeway between St. Paul and Rochester. Public infrastructure is one of the core duties of government. It's time to act like adults and fix things.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1167875959735523972007-01-03T19:58:00.000-06:002007-01-03T19:59:19.740-06:00Legislature reconvenesThe first day of session was <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/913253.html" target="_blank">rather low-key</a>. What happens now doesn't mean much. Let's wait to see what happens when the major decisions are made.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1167875810049319452007-01-03T19:53:00.000-06:002007-01-03T19:56:50.110-06:00Fine with meThe airport wants to <a href="http://www.startribune.com/535/story/913549.html" target="_blank">crack down</a> on taxi drivers refusing to give rides to passengers carrying alcohol or service dogs. That's fine with me. The only question I have is how the proposed punishments (30-day suspension for the first offense, two years second offense) compare to other offenses; for example, what's the punishment for refusing to carry a passgenger based on race?<br /><br />No matter what religion you are, there is no excuse for refusing service. Whether you are a Muslim taxi driver who doesn't like alcohol or a Christian pharmacist who doesn't like birth control, suck it up and do your job, or find another line of work.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1167361648878113042006-12-28T21:05:00.000-06:002006-12-28T21:07:28.950-06:00Transportation: delays, delays, delaysIf you aren't sick of delays in transportation projects yet, here's <a href="http://www.startribune.com/462/story/903045.html" target="_blank">another one</a>. The Wakota bridge will be delayed another year while the state finds a new contractor. Originally scheduled to open next year, it will now be completed in 2009 at the earliest.<br /><br />It may be the engineering firm's fault that designed the bridge incorrectly, but that is little consolation to drivers.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1167274963458676582006-12-27T21:02:00.000-06:002006-12-27T21:02:43.536-06:00SilenceFor various reasons, thinking about politics right now is unpleasant. Maybe this will change soon, but no guarantees.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1166578795528494922006-12-19T19:39:00.000-06:002006-12-19T19:44:53.443-06:00Can they get any dumber?When you talk of politicians in high office, are there more plain idiotic Democrats or Republicans? I tend to think the latter. There may be some crazy Democrats out there, but no Democrats would say something as stupid as implying that <a href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002189.php" target="_blank">Muslims will overrun the country</a> if Keith Ellison doesn't use a Bible at his swearing-in photo-op.<br /><br />This whole Keith Ellison swearing-in issue has been hilarious if for no other reason than it has exposed the reptile brains of many Republicans. Plus, for the more intelligent out there, you can't help but laugh at the fact that these people insist on using the Bible because it is "the word of God"...but only if you use the Bible that was commissioned by some English king several hundred years ago. I wonder how many of them even realize there is more than one Bible out there?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1166399812805406052006-12-17T17:49:00.000-06:002006-12-17T17:56:52.810-06:00What do we need?Yes, the retirement of the boomers means that Minnesota and every other state are going to be <a href="http://www.startribune.com/314/story/878846.html" target="_blank">facing problems</a> attracting new workers. What do we need to succeed?<br /><br />The way I see it, we need several things: education, diversity, tolerance, and an entrepreneurial work ethic. The Lori Sturdevant column talks about education, which is a good and necessary first step, but it's not all. We are getting more and more diversity, as long as we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by treating newcomers like crap. Minnesota has also been pretty good historically on the tolerance issue, although it seems we need to be more vigilant these days against Michelle Bachmann clones and their stupid ideas.<br /><br />entrepreneurial spirit is probably the hardest to describe, but may be the most important. It needs to be easy to start new businesses and take risks here. Universal health care would be one thing that would do this, since it would both allow small employers to recruit good workers without worrying about how their health benefits stack up against larger companies, and it would also let employees move between jobs more freely and therefore take more risks. Reducing whatever unnecessary regulatory barriers to new business creation is another thing that I have long advocated for, along with tax code simplification.<br /><br />Minnesota is far better at some of these things than other states, but that is no excuse to stop innovating.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1166398749037446452006-12-17T17:30:00.000-06:002006-12-17T17:39:09.100-06:00Yet Another WarFrom the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/462/story/879696.html" target="_blank">looks of things</a>, it appears that the U.S. is going to be using the same tactics in the War on Illegal Immigrants as they use in the War on Drugs. If so, the results are going to be similar: destruction of families and communities, overwhelmed judicial systems, and no progress made against the root cause of the problem.<br /><br />It doesn't appear that the government is taking any action against Swift for employing illegal immigrants. No huge fines for every illegal immigrant they find. Instead, the government is going after the immigrants themselves, destroying families and homes. But Swift will simply replace the workers hauled away with fresh illegal immigrants, and nothing will change.<br /><br />Swift is providing the demand for illegal immigration, like addicts provide the demand for drugs. From time to time, the government goes after the suppliers (dealers and illegal immigrants), but after engaging in some token enforcement against them, more supplies come in to fill the gap created by the demand. In the end, all that really changes is that jails get more crowded and we spend more time and money locking up people who are trying to make a living fulfilling that demand.<br /><br />But I wouldn't expect anything else from the current administration. It is despicable, heartless, and par for the course.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1166062141845666662006-12-13T20:02:00.000-06:002006-12-13T20:09:01.920-06:00McCain-Pawlenty will not happenGive it up, people: McCain-Pawlenty will not happen. Not in a million years. There are two reasons for this.<br /><br />First, McCain is not trusted by the far-right base of the Republican Party. He is not trusted on abortion. He is not trusted on immigration. He is not trusted on taxes. There is no way that the base would put up with McCain, a person they do not trust, choosing another now-heretical former conservative as Vice President. A ticket that the base would see as consisting of two RINOs? Not gonna happen.<br /><br />Second, McCain will not be the Republican's candidate. It increasingly looks like Bush is going to call McCain's bluff of demainding 20,000 or however many more troops for Iraq. When that fails to make things better, as it will, McCain will be history. McCain has tied his fortune to Bush's ~30 percent approval rating and his even worse approval rating on Iraq. As TPM <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011523.php" target="_blank">points out</a>, the Iraq War is now less popular than gay marriage, legalizing pot, or banning handguns. McCain is toast.<br /><br />A conservative-Pawlenty ticket is much more probable than a McCain-Pawlenty ticket. So knock it off, media.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1165972300490467402006-12-12T19:09:00.000-06:002006-12-12T19:11:40.493-06:00More whiningLiquor sales should be <a href="http://www.startribune.com/142/story/867779.html" target="_blank">allowed in grocery stores</a>. They should be allowed seven days a week. They should be allowed 24 hours a day. And no government anywhere should run a liquor store.<br /><br />I don't care how much money it raises for cities. The government should not get into retail, period. That's not a function of government. Get the money somewhere else.MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1165972103958531152006-12-12T18:59:00.000-06:002006-12-12T19:08:23.963-06:00Random thoughtsSome random, comment-induced thoughts:<br /><br />I don't when anybody prays regardless of their race, as long as it isn't government-sanctioned. I simply don't care about the religious beliefs of the vast majority of people out there. I care when it moves into the political realm, true, but praying? Give me a break.<br /><br />Saying that we don't need a smoking ban to protect employees because "they know what they are getting into" has to be one of the most ridiculous arguments out there. That argument implies that any safety regulation that impacts business is unnecessary because people will figure it out on their own: the gilded libertarian dream. Sorry, but in the real world, people would rather work at an unhealthy job than starve and go homeless. If you took away every single mine safety regulation, do you honestly think that all the workers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and Kentucky would rather be unemployed than have unsafe jobs? People shouldn't have to risk their lives or their health to put food on the table. There is nothing wrong with government protecting worker safety. Who else is going to do it?<br /><br />I do have to admit that "the smoking ban decimated the 4th floor bars at the MOA" is something I hadn't heard before. What a crock. Did anybody think that maybe the reason that all those bars closed because <i>nobody in their right mind would go to a bar at the Mall of America</i>? Why would people drive out to a mall filled with teens for a night on the town? Did anybody bother to think of that angle?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7151021.post-1165971418179005762006-12-12T18:49:00.000-06:002006-12-12T18:56:58.263-06:00Posturing PawlentyThe liberalizing of Tim Pawlenty continues. This time, it is <a href="http://www.startribune.com/587/story/871385.html" target="_blank">calling for renewable energy</a>. He wants a quarter of all energy used in the state to come from renewable sources by 2025. He wants more E85, more money for research into producing ethanol from crops other than corn, and a reduction in fossil fuel use. He supports fining energy companies that don't comply, and tosses aside conservative concerns about regulation.<br /><br />Once again, these are all great ideas that I support (with the possible exception of ethanol). But isn't this a little freaky? Pawlenty is definitely changing his tune. An earlier version of the story online had Pawlenty sounding like a far-left liberal, saying "look at all of the tax credits and subsidies the oil industry gets" when questioned about just how conservative it is to subsidize renewables. Definitely not old-time Pawlenty-speak.<br /><br />What's his motivation? I have no idea. If it is higher office, this isn't the way to go about it: running as a Rockefeller Republican won't get you any Republican endorsements nationally in this day and age. So what can it be?MN Politics Guruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15878141962640172655noreply@blogger.com5