Personal Cause Time

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about an issue that touched me greatly at the time. The post was about a human trafficking as a sex slavery ring was broken up in Minneapolis.

"The women came mostly from Mexico and Central America.
When they arrived in Minnesota, the women had their passports and other identifying documents taken away and they were forced into a world of prostitution. In one night, two women serviced more than 80 men in a south Minneapolis house." (emphasis mine)

Well starting today, you actually can do something to help children who are forced into sex slavery. Stephen Baldwin (of the Baldwin acting family) is taking part in this year's "I'm A Celebrity - GET ME OUT OF HERE". Baldwin is competing for the charity Love146. The charity announced the support here.

So why am I telling you about a reality show? Because Stephen Baldwin is playing for Love146! That's pretty exciting. The other exciting thing is that it seems America actually gets to decide who stays or leaves. Did you ever think that you could further abolition by watching a reality TV show? Me neither but hey I'm willing to try.

In other Baldwin news (I'm a little weirded out that I just wrote that.) Alec Baldwin has been talking about meeting with Rob Morris and his support of Love146.

News like this is exciting but it takes a movement to abolish slavery. So, to Stephen, Alec, Liz T, Sally R, Spike J and everyone else who raises their voice and joins the movement - Keep going.

One of the ways you can help (besides watching the show and voting to keep Stevie B) on the show is to text the word "Give" to 20222. Your text will donate $5.00 to Love146 to help them bring children out of sex slavery and put them on the road to recovery from the abuse.

If you would rather make a traditional donation (online or via snail mail) or if you want to learn more about Love146, you can find that information here. A link to the Donation page at Love146's website will be on my side bar for the month of June.

Please help these children who are being exploited! Give to Love146 and please vote for Stephen Baldwin on "I'm A Celebrity - GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!"

Your Home Is Not Your Own UPDATE

An update on this post that I put up the other day. San Diego County representatives are saying that the visit stemmed from a parking complaint.

The county official said Jones has got it all wrong and tried to explain the curious line of questioning the county had for the pastor.
Jones said he has been hosting weekly Bible studies in his Bonita home for the past five years, but it wasn't until last month that someone complained about the sessions and county code enforcement went out to investigate.
Every Tuesday night about 15 people drive to Jones’ Bonita home to eat dinner and discuss the Bible. They usually park on Jones' property, he said, but sometimes that parking spills out into the cul-de-sac.
Last month, someone filed a complaint about the number of cars.

OK - I can understand the concern about parking and road access - especially as it may impact emergency access to the neighborhood - however, one has to wonder why the complaining neighbor didn't just come over and talk to the pastor and his wife about his/her concerns.....

10News asked the county official about the officer's line of questioning.
"Did the officer actually do that? Is that part of the requirements to ask those questions?" Reporter Joe Little asked.
"Obviously, I wasn't there, so I can't tell you exactly what was said. However, what our officer was trying to do is establish what the use is so that we know what regulations to actually utilize," explained Chandra Wallar of the county's land use and environment group.
Wallar said it's the officer’s job to determine what kind of event is hosted at Jones’ house to decide what part of county code the event falls under.
"The Bible studies are one that's probably in a very gray area," Waller said.

Gray area???? Here is a hot tip for EVERYONE involved....apply a little common sense here. First off if the Bible study draws 15 people one must assume that at least a few of the visitors are (like the pastor and his wife) married couples driving together! That drops the number of cars by (and I'll be generous here) a third - say 5 cars. Now the pastor and his wife don't drive so that is a 6th car. Based on the picture attached to the story, it looks as if you could fit 3 possibly 4 cars in the driveway. That means we are looking at 5, maybe 6 cars parked in the street. Any of us who lives in a neighborhood with people who have folks over know that 5 or 6 cars is really not a whole lot. Yes it can be an inconvenience at times, but it is usually never a public safety hazard. Now from the other side of the coin, if parking at the pastor's neighborhood is at a premium - why not ride share????? There is a common sense issue that does not involve calling the police OR the county zoning office! All one needs to do is talk to your neighbor - tell the pastor of your concerns. Is that not a logical solution to the "problem"?

Either way, this county employee over-reacted calling a home Bible study a zoning violation. That IS a gross over-reach and another example of out of control government.

Targeting Cancer

Yet more unheralded non-embryonic stem cell treatments to tell you about today!

Genetically engineered stem cells from bone marrow showed promise as a potential new way to deliver a cancer-killing protein to tumors, British researchers said on Tuesday.

Experiments in cell cultures and in mice showed the adult stem cells — a type known as mesenchymal stem cells — could home in on cancer cells and deliver a lethal protein that attacked only the cancer while sparing normal healthy tissue.

“We’ve developed cells which specifically target cancer through the body and deliver an anti-cancer protein to where it is needed in a seek-and-destroy approach,” said Dr. Michael Loebinger of University College London, who presented his findings at the American Thoracic Society conference in San Diego.

Then there is this new treatment for blocked arteries!

Injecting bone marrow cells into the heart's muscular wall restored blood flow to hearts with blocked arteries for which conventional treatments had proven ineffective, Dutch physicians have reported.

"I think this is very good news for patients who are at the end of the line and have no options left," said Dr. Douwe E. Atsma, an interventional cardiologist at Leiden University Medical Center and an author of the study, which appears in the May 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The 50 people in the study, 43 of them men, were experiencing angina, or severe chest pain, because of blockages in their heart arteries. All had undergone several artery-opening procedures, such as angioplasty or bypass surgery, to restore blood flow, but such measures would no longer help them, Atsma said.

Half of the participants received injections of cells taken from their own bone marrow, and the others received inactive cell injections. After three months, the responses were varied, with some participants reporting complete relief and others with partial benefits.

"The most important thing is that the amount of ischemia [artery blockage] was halved" in those given the marrow cells, Atsma said. "The amount of tissue with ischemia was reduced, heart function improved significantly in a small way and their grades of quality of life were higher."

Emphasis mine. This is a huge discovery for people that are unable to undergo heart surgery for whatever reason.

I am going to keep beating this drum because someone needs to. Adult stem cells are producing cures while embryonic stem cells are producing cancers! Isn't it time to end this debate once and for all. HESC needs to be defunded - it's not producing the cures. When will the left acknowledge that simple fact?

More Adult Stem Cell Cures

The Texas Alliance for Life has a series of YouTube interviews up of Texas citizens who utilized existing adult stem cell cures for injuries and diseases that they are suffering from. The interview that struck me the most was this couple whose son's Sickle Cell Disease was cured thanks to adult stem cells.....




This boy had a disease that 30 years ago would have killed him in his teens is now cured! That can not be emphasized enough....this boy was cured using adult stem cells. Meanwhile we are still hearing about the "potential" of embryonic stem cells. Why are we wasting time and money on embryonic stem cells "potential" when cures are here and NOW with adult stem cells? All I can say is follow the money.....

Founders Evening Quotes

"It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression ... that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; ... working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821

About That Global "Warming" I Have Heard So Much About

Remember the much vaunted IPCC report - the one that swore that global warming was man made and that we had to make drastic changes to our lifestyles because "the planet has a fever". So does Mark Hendrickson - he remembered what was reported so much that he decided to read the report for himself and what he found didn't always resemble what the media reported (shocking I know....)

The IPCC’s Feb. 2007 report stated: It is “very likely” that human activity is causing global warming. Why then, just two months later, did the Vice Chair of the IPCC, Yuri Izrael, write, “the panic over global warming is totally unjustified;” “there is no serious threat to the climate;” and humanity is “hypothetically … more threatened by cold than by global warming?”

IPCC press releases have warned about increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, yet Dr. Vincent Gray, a member of the IPCC’s expert reviewers’ panel asserts, “There is no relationship between warming and [the] level of gases in the atmosphere.”

A 2001 IPCC report presented 245 potential scenarios. The media publicity that followed focused on the most extreme scenario, prompting the report’s lead author, atmospheric scientist Dr. John Christy, to rebuke media sensationalism and affirm, “The world is in much better shape than this doomsday scenario paints … the worst-case scenario [is] not going to happen.”

Hmmmmm.....maybe that is why the "consensus" keeps getting smaller every day....

For years as a broadcast meteorologist, I kept silent about the issue of “global warming.” Declaring skepticism labeled you (and still does) as an anti-environmentalist. After former VP Gore’s movie hit the big screen, I could remain silent no more. “An Inconvenient Truth” was filled with so many gross distortions and outright scientific misrepresentations; I felt it was my obligation to speak out….

CO2 is not a pollutant and it’s not a problem. The problem is rent-seeking corporations looking to cash in on cap and trade and low-output, high-cost alternative energy. As your Michigan House colleague Congressman Dingell says “cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a great big one.” This is not the time to raise energy prices, which is what this bill will surely do. I believe the majority of your constituents will suffer adversely if this legislation is passed.

Even better, the data is starting to show that the climate is not only cooling but it has been doing so for some time now!

There is now irrefutable scientific evidence that far from global warming the earth has now entered a period of global cooling which will last at least for the next two decades.

Evidence for this comes from the NASA Microwave Sounding Unit and the Hadley Climate Research Unit while evidence that CO2 levels are continuing to increase comes from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

Professor Don Easterbrook one of the principle speakers at the recent World Conference on climate change held in New York in March this year attended by 800 leading climatologists, has documented a consistent cycle of warm and cool periods each with a 27 year cycle. Indeed the warm period from 1976 to 1998 exactly fits the pattern of climate changes for the past several centuries long before there were any CO2 emissions. Greenland Ice core temperature measurements for the past 500 years show this 27 year cycle of alternating warm and cool periods. Recently the global temperature increased from 1918 to 1940, decreased from 1940 to 1976, increased again from 1976 to 1998 and has been decreasing ever since.

STOP RIGHT THERE and read the section that I emphasized...SCIENCE is showing that climate change is cyclical and has been going on for longer than there has been CO2 outputs! Mankind is not "causing" climate change - it is a regular cyclical thing. Just like all the "deniers" have been saying all along!

Many have been saying for a long time now that the hysteria over "global warming" was simply a scam - that it was not based in sound science. Well now science is proving that out. I wonder what the global warming acolytes will have to say about this....no there is no need to wonder I know already that we will be called deniers of science. But given what we are seeing now we KNOW who the real science deniers are.....

Your House Is Not Your Own...

I preface this by saying that I have not been able to find any mention of this outside of WND and whole bunch of blogs, but if there is any modicum of truth to this story anyone who holds regular meetings in their homes (be it 4H, the Sierra Club or a church) should be concerned.

A San Diego pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home.

The couple, whose names are being withheld until a demand letter can be filed on their behalf, told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a litany of questions about their Tuesday night Bible studies, which are attended by approximately 15 people.

As I was working on this, I got another email on this story. Fox News reported on the story as well so it has been confirmed. According to the interview, the Pastor and his wife, who have weekly Bible studies with friends, were told by a county employee that it was a "zoning" violation to have more than 10-15 people in your house at one time!

Again, this should trouble anyone who has every had a Tupperware party or a Mary Kay Party of a weekly book club meeting in their home. Big government can dictate to you how many people you can have come visit you in your home!

Well isn't that special.....

Founders Morning Quote

"The eyes of the world being thus on our Country, it is put the more on its good behavior, and under the greater obligation also, to do justice to the Tree of Liberty by an exhibition of the fine fruits we gather from it."

--James Madison, letter to James Monroe, December 16, 1824

The Bullet Minnesota Dodged

The Wall Street Journal tells the story of what could have been in Minnesota.

Here's a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

Wow does THAT sound familiar?????? Minnesota's Legislature couldn't balance the budget either. I don't care what the Speaker of the House says, when you are spending $34 billion dollars and you are only bringing in $31.6 you are spending MORE than you bring in and that is NOT the definition of a balanced budget! Anyone who says that is needs to go back to 3rd grade math class! Oh and then there was the unaddressed $6+ billion in the current deficit that they never addressed.....

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

No doubt the majority of that loss in millionaire filings results from the recession. However, this is one reason that depending on the rich to finance government is so ill-advised: Progressive tax rates create mountains of cash during good times that vanish during recessions. For evidence, consult California, New York and New Jersey (see here).

The Maryland state revenue office says it's "way too early" to tell how many millionaires moved out of the state when the tax rates rose. But no one disputes that some rich filers did leave. It's easier than the redistributionists think. Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, notes: "Marylanders with high incomes typically own second homes in tax friendlier states like Florida, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia. So it's easy for them to change their residency."

....like Tom Golisano did?????

All of this means that the burden of paying for bloated government in Annapolis will fall on the middle class. Thanks to the futility of soaking the rich, these working families will now pay Mr. O'Malley's "fair share."

In Minnesota's case, it's not just the Middle Class that the DFL wanted to soak. With new taxes on cigarettes and liquor (in Minnesota) and junk food, fast food and soft drinks (on the national levvel) this new generation of Democrats are proposing some of the most (dare I say it) regressive taxes we have EVER seen!

As I said the other day - these are not your grandparents Democrats. These Democrats don't care WHO they soak as long as they can get their special interest spending projects passed. Thankfully (for Minnesota) we had a Governor who was willing to do what the DFL led Legislature refused to do - balance the budget.

Thank you Governor Pawlenty for doing your job.

Submitted Without Comment

Founders Morning Quote

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

~Benjamin Franklin

Fueling The Myth

I want to dedicate this post to three people back in Minnesota - my dear friend Andy Aplicowski (AAA from Residual Forces), my former state Representative Mike Beard and Governor Pawlenty. To two of these people, the information attached, while not new, confirms what they already knew - to the other hopefully a revelation!

More than one major transportation-based industry in America besides Detroit is on the ropes. For the fourth time in our history the ethanol industry has come undone and is quickly failing nationally. Of course it's one thing when Detroit collapsed with the economy; after all, that is a truly free-market enterprise and the economy hasn't been good. But the fact that the ethanol industry is going bankrupt, when the only reason we use this additive is a massive government mandate, is outrageous at best....
the primary job of the Environmental Protection Agency is, dare it be said, to protect our environment. Yet using ethanol actually creates more smog than using regular gas, and the EPA's own attorneys had to admit that fact in front of the justices presiding over the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1995 (API v. EPA).

Second, truly independent studies on ethanol, such as those written by Tad Patzek of Berkeley and David Pimentel of Cornell, show that ethanol is a net energy loser. Other studies suggest there is a small net energy gain from it.

Third, all fuels laced with ethanol reduce the vehicle's fuel efficiency, and the E85 blend drops gas mileage between 30% and 40%, depending on whether you use the EPA's fuel mileage standards (fueleconomy.gov) or those of the Dept. of Energy.

OK - those of you who have read these pages or the pages of RF already know who is who in this little contretemps. Andy and I have long been railing against mandates promoting corn ethanol over all other alternative fuels and Rep. Beard, being the ranking Republican on most House Public Utilities committees and all around Public Utilities and energy policy wonk, has been a strong advocate for allowing the market to find alternatives that work. Governor Pawlenty, on the other hand.....

Fourth, forget what biofuels have done to the price of foodstuffs worldwide over the past three years; the science seems to suggest that using ethanol increases global warming emissions over the use of straight gasoline. Just these issues should have kept ethanol from being brought back for its fourth run in American history.

But, but, but....wait.....

The author's last point is one that has been pooh-poohed by corn ethanol proponents but the facts say that they are dead wrong.....

Last July was bad enough for motorists on a budget—gasoline prices had shot up to more than $4 a gallon. But for some the pain in the pocketbook was about to get worse. At City Garage in Euless, Tex., for example, the first of numerous future customers brought in an automobile whose fuel pump was shot. A quick diagnosis determined that that particular car had close to 18% ethanol in the fuel. For that unlucky owner, the repairs came to nearly $900. The ethanol fun was just beginning.

City Garage manager Eric Greathouse has found that adding ethanol to the nation's gasoline supply may be a foolish government mandate, but it has an upside he'd rather not deal with. It's supplying his shop with a slow but steady stream of customers whose plastic fuel intakes have been dissolved by the blending of ethanol into our gasoline, or their fuel pumps destroyed. The average cost of repairs is just shy of $1,000.

But wait - it gets BETTER!!!!!!

On Jan. 16 of this year, Lexus ordered a massive recall of certain 2006 to 2008 models, including the GS Series, IS and LS sedans. According to the recall notice, the problem is that "Ethanol fuels with low moisture content will corrode the internal surface of the fuel rails." In layman's terms, ethanol causes pinpoint leaks in the fuel system; when leaking fuel catches your engine on fire, that's an exciting way to have your insurance company buy your Lexus. Using ethanol will cost Toyota (TM) untold millions.

Finally the last piece of ethanol justification is skewered.....

But until this massive economic slowdown, as Gusher of Lies (PublicAffairs, 2008) author Robert Bryce pointed out, even while the ethanol mandate was being ramped up we were increasing our imports of foreign oil.

Translation: The entire politically stated purpose of using ethanol had already been proven to be a false one before the program even got fully under way.

No surprise there. The premise that ethanol could give America the freedom to one day stop importing oil has always been fraudulent. Another fun fact: If we outlawed gasoline and diesel, thereby removing every last car, truck and SUV from our highways—no vehicles anywhere on any road in the country—America would still have to import oil because we would still use more crude than domestic production can supply.

Why is that? Crude oil is also used to make fertilizers, aviation fuel, home heating oil, and many other products. Not to mention polyester suits for car salesmen.

So in summation, ethanol pollutes more, reduces fuel efficiency, ruins the fuel system in your car to the point of being dangerous, takes tillable acreage away from food production and does not reduce our foreign dependence on oil one iota?????

Can someone please tell me again why government should be mandating that we use this stuff?

Founders Morning Quote

A special quote for a special day.....

"Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives."

--John Adams, letter to Benjamin Rush, April 18, 1808

Today is for remembering those who gave it all for our freedoms. May we never take their sacrifices for granted.

Courage!

This should not surprise anyone given the nature of this Presidency.

Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can't manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.

After all, President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the military detention center on Cuba for suspected terrorists. And Democratic control of the government would suggest that any gun legislation leads to tighter controls on weapons, not expanded use.

After all - a President who voted "present" more than he vote either "aye" or "nay" is bound to not be able to take a firm stand on the issue.

Even as they grouse, however, liberal lawmakers acknowledge that no one factor explains last week's disappointing back-to-back votes in Congress.

The Obama administration is focused on other priorities, they say. Party leaders don't want to endanger Democratic lawmakers from conservative districts by stressing divisive issues such as gun control.

We'll come back to that last sentence in just a brief moment....

On Guantanamo, many say, Obama and his allies were caught napping as Republicans stirred public fears about relocating suspected terrorists.

Yep - those darned Republicans like Max Bacchus, Ben Nelson, Mark Warner, Diane Feinstein and Jim Webb all stopped President Obama's plans to close Gitmo....I mean for crying out loud, the vote in the Senate alone was 90-6. There are NOT 90 Republicans in the Senate.

But the excuse that I found to be most enlightening was the excuse offered up by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) on why the national parks gun bill (which allows legal permit holders the ability to take their firearms into national parks) sailed through the House and Senate and will be signed by the President.

"We'll probably end up passing more gun bills" that expand owners' rights "than we did during the Republican administration," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. "That is what surprises me."

She placed less blame on the White House than on ordinary Americans and advocacy groups that are consistently outflanked by gun owners' groups, especially the National Rifle Association.

"Until the American people say enough is enough, and get active in it," Democratic control of Congress and the White House will not be enough to turn the tide, said McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a gunman in 1993.

Emphasis mine. Never mind the fact that they have overwhelming majorities in both Houses, the Democrat know that they do not dare vote in too many gun controls out of fear of losing power. While for many that is some cold comfort, it should show everyone (especially their liberal supporters) that these Democrats ONLY care about getting an maintaining power. Principles don't matter if those principles could end up costing you the election. (Granted a vast majority of the current crop of Republicans in DC are also bitten with that bug - but that is another post for another day....)

Or not....I am reminded of a time, back during the Clinton Administration. I, along with many other Minnesotans, had written to our then Senator Paul Wellstone about a particular vote he was about to take. The Senator's answer is one that I will never forget. He said that while he understood our disagreement with him on this particular issue, he could not IN GOOD CONSCIENCE set his principles aside in order to make the "popular" vote. Obviously this generation of "Democratic" legislators do not share the late Senator's courage.

Are there ANY in this current crop of politicians( from either party) that share the late Senator's courage? I think that there may be a couple of promising lights out there, but they are all so new to DC. DC has changed more than a few who went there on their "principles". Even Senator Wellstone had his principles changed in the end - he campaigned on the principle of term limits - saying he would only serve two terms and then he would term limit himself out and yet when the time came he ran for that third term - a campaign that in the end, proved to be his physical demise. Would he still be alive today if he hadn't run that third campaign? Who knows...even if he had not run, he could have been on that plane in that storm to go up to that debate as an advisor to his successor...we will never know for sure. But one thing that we do know is abandoning your principles - principles that you campaigned on - for political gain will in the end lose any political advantage that you may gained. Is it really worth it?

Founders Morning Quote

"We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

James Madison

(HT to Morgan Philpot)

More RNC Stupidity

The 'net is abuzz over the latest RNC web ad. You can view it here for yourself....




Now some of the reaction has been a bit hyperbolic, but that still does not excuse the abject stupidity of the ad. I mean does anyone under the age of 50 know who "Pussy Galore" is? However, Utah's newest Congressional representative put it about right when he said...

"I thought it was reprehensible, irresponsible and unpersuasive. If we're going to regain the credibility of the American people, we're going to have to stop with silly antics like that. It may get a snide chuckle inside the Beltway, but it offends most people. We have to get away from the politics of personal destruction," he said of the video.

I say he has it about right because I think calling the ad "reprehensible" is a little over the top. However he is spot on about the ad being irresponsible and completely and totally unpersuasive! I argued loud and long with the MNGOP during the last election cycle over their continued attacks on Al Franken - arguing that if the GOP did not talk about substantive issues that they would lose the election AND THEY DID!

Rather than worthless resolutions trying to rebrand the opposition or trying to connect to the popular culture of 30 years ago, the RNC needs to be focusing on issues that are facing the country today! It's really that simple.

I don't know who the idiots responsible for these kinds of ads are, but the RNC could do much better if they would just fire them and concentrate on issues instead of personalities!

Out For The Weekend

We're taking advantage of a weekend where we don't have work around the house to do to play and explore our "new" home. Posting will be light!

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

Question.....

What ever happened to the so-called "separation" of church and state?

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A bill that would have made New Hampshire the sixth state in the United States to authorize gay marriage stalled unexpectedly Wednesday over concessions to religious groups opposed to such unions.

The state's House of Representatives objected to language in the bill that would have allowed religious groups to decline to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies or to offer gay couples other services.

OK - this is exactly the kind of thing that the 1st Amendment expressly prohibits. A refresher....

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Emphasis mine. Michael Kinsley (that's liberal Michael Kinsley from Crossfire) reminds us that...

...But Miss California's views on gay marriage have nothing to do with her qualifications for the job and shouldn't disqualify her for it.
This is really Liberalism 101, and it's amazing that so many liberals don't get it. Yes, yes, the Bill of Rights protects individuals against oppression by the government, not by other private individuals or organizations. But the values and logic behind our constitutional rights don't disappear when the oppressor is in the private sector. They may not have the force of law in that situation, but they ought to have the force of understanding and of habit. The logic behind freedom of speech is that "bad" speech does not need to be suppressed as long as "good" speech is free to counter it. Or at least that letting the good and bad do battle is more likely to allow the good speech to triumph than giving anyone the power to choose between them.

It really is Liberalism 101, which is one reason why today's Democrats are not your father's classic liberal - they ARE socialists. A classic JFK or Hubert Humphrey liberal would never engage in the kind of thuggish behavior that today's Democrats engage in. They understood that to win the battle of ideas you had to have good ideas and beat the other sides ideas in the court of public opinion - as opposed to just shouting them down. Something that both sides need to remember..... Meanwhile we have a big probelm - we have an out of control government that has no qualms about interfering in religion if it suits them - but religous people are supposed to just sit back and take it....What ever happened to the so-called "separation" of church and state? It's only there if it suits the state apparently.....

Founders Morning Quote

For all of my more Libertarian friends...

"There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.... In fact it is only reestablishing under another name and a more specious form, force as the measure of right...."

--James Madison, letter to James Monroe, October 5, 1786

Let Gthe Spin Begin

I had to do a double take when I saw this headline on my LATimes daily email the other day.

Reporting from Washington -- In the debate over his top environmental goals, President Obama is backing away from "cap and trade."

Not the policy. It's the phrase itself, deemed confusing by Democratic pollsters, that has all but disappeared from the president's vocabulary of late.

Now to be fair to the President both parties are playing buzzword bait and switch of late. But to see one of the President's most vocal campaign cheerleaders actually admitting that the White House is engaging in verbal jujitsu will take most moderates aback - and throw many conservatives into a dead faint!

Control the language, politicians know, and you stand a better chance of controlling the debate. So the Obama administration, in its push to enact sweeping energy and healthcare policies, has begun refining the phrases it uses in an effort to shape public opinion.

Words that have been vetted in focus groups and polls are seeping into the White House lexicon, while others considered too scary or confounding are falling away.

Today, aides in Obama's Council on Environmental Quality will meet with a research and marketing group that is promoting an alternative to the phrase "global warming," which some pollsters say fails to capture the idea of greenhouse gases threatening the environment.

They are doing this in large part because right now the global warming alarmists are losing the debate. Scientist after scientist is proving that there is no consensus - contrary to what the alarmists will tell you. Many real scientists will even tell you that (gasp) the AGW theory has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese!

While both sides are engaging in the verbal jujitsu the Democrats have put their money where their "mouth" is on this - investing almost $90,000 on focus groups so far this year!

Which goes back to one of my long standing political beliefs. Don't ever believe what they SAY - do the research and see what they DO. While the flowery rhetoric plays well on the tube, it is how they vote when the cameras are not on them that tell you all you need to know about an elected officials character. Look at the candidates voting record. It will tell you more about the way the person will govern than any speech will ever do.

Batten Down The Hatches!

There is a storm a brewing......

In an abrupt shift, Senate Democratic leaders said they would not provide the $80 million that President Obama requested to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The move escalates pressure on the president, who on Thursday is scheduled to outline his plans for the 240 terrorism suspects still held there.

The House had already voted against the funding...Meanwhile a Federal Judge ruled that indefinite detentions were A-OK. All of this is a continuation of Bush regime policies that the Democrats PROMISED they would overturn once they got their guy in the White House. What's even worse is that now the White House is saying that they may have been "hasty" in signing the Executive Order on Day 1! Of course, no Republicans had ever said that it would be hasty to close Gitmo - Noooooooo


I wonder if we will see Code Pink and World Can't Wait attacking this administrations officials and calling them "war criminals"...or is that a privilege that they only give to Republicans?????

Legislative Heroes of the 2009 Session Rep. Rod Hamilton

Another speech from the House floor that really impressed me came for Rep. Abeler's "Over-Ride 6" mate, Rep. Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake (starting at the 55:10 mark here). He starts off acknowledging the GAMC recipients in the gallery, thanking them for their courage in sharing their stories. He then turned to those guests in the gallery and said...

...you should be absolutely outraged. I hope you realize that we are passing bills off of this House floor when we have a $6.4 billion budget deficit to address invasive earthworms over you. We are passing bills to bail out the XCel Energy Center - the debt that they have - over your needs. We are "investing" in indigenous earth keepers over your needs. We are willing to build hockey arenas, bike trails and dog parks over your needs. We are willing to purchase more land for the DNR when they can't even care for the land that they have - over your needs. And we are also able to fund additionally able bodied adults over your needs...

So when the DFL, in their jettings around the state, talk about how much the Governor is hurting people I want you to remember that instead of funding GAMC, the Democrats CHOSE to spend $2.4 MILLION on invasive earthworm research! How many GAMC recepients could have been helped with that kind of money? I wonder.....

Legislative Heroes of the 2009 Session Rep. Jim Abeler

Last year two of this years legislators took an awful lot of grief from their own party, mostly over 1 vote. Those two legislators were (of course) Representatives Jim Abeler(Anoka) and Rod Hamilton. During the waning days of this years session, however, these two were real heroes for the people of Minnesota. A great case in point can be found in Sunday nights session (video footage found at the House website). First was Rep Abeler - speaking on the over-ride of the Governor's line item veto of the General Assistance Medical Care portion of the HHS bill. I have transcribed a portion of it here, but you need to listen to the entire thing (starting at the 31:50 mark).....

I didn't know we were going to be working on this veto today Madame Speaker....I don't have a prepared bunch of speech so I have a couple of thoughts I will offer you...we have had...we are in probably one of the most challenging times our state has seen certainly in my lifetime and I turn 55 tomorrow (Monday - Happy belated Birthday Rep. Abler)...we have struggled this session to come to grips with that...General Assistance is a very important program and the thought of not having it gives a lot of us pause - I suspect that everyone in the House is concerned about that. It's a very sober day as we consider this. And none of us take this matter lightly I assure you. I do have a disappointment however - that the same diligence that we were able to put forward for 14 consecutive days of working on that topic...has come to a stop. I knew - we all knew whatever the disposition of that bill that we'd be short 100, 200, 300 or more million dollars to get out of here under anybodies plan and the billion dollars that has been brought forward as the answer to the funding leaves the targets that we pulled off of the floor light by half a billion dollars. And so nobody should be surprise that there was an action by the chief manager of the state to do something! It is not the choice I would have picked...but that's what got picked...So what do we do now? We still have 29 - no excuse me 31 hours left to get out of here and so if we should over-ride this veto and re-instate the $381 million into the budget - what you have now is the need to find a way to find $381 million other dollars and I can't tell you the frustration that I have had...as I have been thinking about this kind of day since November...the people have come to my office and said 'don't cut me' and I said 'I'm with ya...but help me manage - how do we a bunch of money...that we can reframe and soft land everybody' and they mostly said 'don't cut ME'...I commend Rep. Bly he was one of the first people to forward with a plan to reduce something that was 'valuable' and then and then save another program that was valuable which was later picked up by Rep Hamilton...I commend both of you for setting the spark for making HARD choices...that is what bipartisan work - that is what work is about!..Now I don't know you can pass a bill that would have 2, 300, 400 million dollars in cuts off of this floor - that is not my problem - my problem is to think of good ideas that can manager our way out of this that will cause the least amount of harm to the least amount of people in the worst economic crisis we have seen since ANY OF US have been around...people are challenged but we still have momentum and we can still make some wise leadership decisions on the state level...if this gets held up - I've met some of you up there - I treat them in my office (for my Utah readers Rep. Abeler is a chiropracter - ed) and I know the challenges that they have...so let's say we spare this group - if we adopt the billion dollar target that was set by the bill that was proposed (the bill I thought we would be talking about now) - the public safety target WOULD HAVE TO BE SLASHED and the target for transportation would be slashed and there might not be transit anymore...and so we have to make some choices - we have to lead - we have to govern - how do we do that - with all respect to the way it's been going - it's not by having us wait in the hallway for the meeting to be called to get to work...we're all here to do the best we can and if we vote to uphold this veto today I will tell you SOMEBODY ELSE WILL BE CUT because there is no plan to back fill 381 million dollars. So at risk are these great people who need the help - THEY NEED THE HELP - but which disabled group is then going to take the hit, which hospital not on this list...will be unalloted! Which group of people who have a need in education...the courts or in some other program would be unalloted...I have done my best - I will keep doing my best - I will stay up all night if it takes but members - if we do this we are going to go home and leave even more programs vulnerable through our inability to choose. WE MUST CHOOSE! And so vote how you like on this - this is your choice you vote your conscience if you think this is the best way to leave all the other topics unanswered - well then that's your choice. But for me - with the most compassion that I can muster - for the people up in the audience who I serve with my career and who I love to help and serve even when they can't make their co-pays even if they can't afford anything this is not the right vote for today....

Bold my emphasis - capitals Rep Abeler's emphasis. Rep. Abeler made many fine points about the need for leadership - the leadership that even august political publications like PIM have said was missing from the Democrats this session. Is it any wonder why the Governor has chosen to "go it alone"? Decisions needed to be made. The state of Minnesota is already facing a $6.4 billion deficit and the Democrats in the Legislature proposed spending that would put the state $3 billion more in debt (and they have a constitutionally mandate to balance the budget). The DFL led legislature made decisions (more on some of them in the Rod Hamilton post) to spend money on things like earthworm research OVER the people who need GAMC. It is a decision that they need to live with!

Meanwhile - this critic (from last year) of Rep. Jim Abeler must stand up and commend HIM for making the hard decisions and having the courage to stand by them (as he did last year I know...) and for giving such an empassioned plea for leadership. Your common sense and your ability to see that the Minnesota taxpayers are seriously over burdened are a welcome breath of fresh air.

Defending A Rigid Theology

Well the Governor did it. He went and used his line item veto power to do what the DFL has refused to do all session - balance the state budget as is constitutionally prescribed. If you had listened to the hyperbole that ensued from folks like DFL Chairman Brian Melendez...

We may as well not have held an election in 2008. First, former senator Norm Coleman has deprived Minnesotans of their full representation in the United States Senate, refusing to concede that Al Franken got more votes and is entitled to the seat. Now, Coleman’s crony Governor Tim Pawlenty has threatened to dispense with the elected Legislature, and run the state’s finances in the middle of a historic economic and fiscal crisis using only his executive powers of line-item veto and unallotment. Next week, after the Legislature adjourns its regular session, Minnesotans may wake up in the closest thing that America has had to a monarchy in 233 years.

...to the Speaker of the House...

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced his intention to go it alone on balancing the state budget if an agreement satisfactory to him cannot be reached by Monday. He will unallot $3 billion in state funding for areas such as health care, schools, public safety and local government aid. He indicated these cuts will be similar to his first budget proposal; if this is true, Minnesota will lose thousands of jobs in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and public safety. The health care of our families and seniors will be diminished, and the education of our children will be compromised.

...you would think that the best efforts of the Legislature were by-passed by a power crazed mad-man. However their best protestations are (as usual) about as far from the truth as the east is from the west. Britt Robinson, from PIM, laid out a laundry list of DFL missteps that (in his analysis) were precursors of the events that we saw today.

Literally months before the start of the 2009 session, the challenging scenario confronting the DFL leadership was already clearly apparent: The state’s general fund would be billions of dollars in deficit, and a nationally ambitious governor would do anything possible not to raise taxes. But Tim Pawlenty was vulnerable on two fronts, both of them exacerbated by the deficit. First, basic services such as education and health care increasingly lack the funding necessary to ensure that Minnesota will retain its traditionally above-average quality of life, and regain its standing, lost during the Pawlenty Administration, as a robust regional economy. Second, for the past decade, the state budget has been put together with accounting gimmicks and baling wire, without the basic structural integrity necessary to guarantee that there will be revenue available to underwrite ongoing government services.

First off I do have to agree with Chairman Melendez on one thing. We might as well NOT have had an election in 2008 with the way that the Legislature handled the power vested in them by the voters of Minnesota. The DFL leadership knew when the session adjourned last summer that the state of Minnesota was facing a record budget deficit and they knew when they adjourned last summer that all budgets - from the state down to the taxpayers were facing ever tightening budgets. They could have (and should have) started working on a solution to the state's woes last summer (as the Governor did). Oh they will cry and tell you that they did not have access to the same resources that the governor had but that is total buncome! As a co-equal branch of the state government they have the right to the same resources that the governor has - all they need to do is go to the state agencies in question and ask!

Thus far this session, Pawlenty has predictably stuck with his simple but compelling message that Minnesotans should not be burdened with increased taxes at a time when many are struggling for solvency in this brutal recession. In response, DFLers could have chosen between two messages that are nearly as simple and equally compelling.

One would be a full-fledged “Invest In Minnesota” message that argues for a significant tax increase along with the usual accounting gimmickry so that the education and health care needs of Minnesotans are adequately funded. DFLers can rightfully argue that previously substantial investments in education were rewarded by decades in which our state economy outperformed the national averages, and that a major reason for the current spike in health care spending is the victimization of middle-class Minnesotans who have lost their jobs and/or health insurance in this recession.

Or the DFLers could have opted for a “Fiscal Integrity” message, pointing out that Pawlenty’s no-tax stance is literally unaccountable and irresponsible, hamstringing prudent planning and innovative flexibility by obliging future governors and Legislatures to patch over increasingly large structural deficits, even as services fall further and further short of keeping up with needs.

Instead, DFL legislators have half-heartedly commingled these messages and thus botched them both...

The self-inflicted legislative chaos allowed Governor Pawlenty to play the DFL like a finely tuned fiddle again and again. He saw that the House and the Senate were not talking and he offered compromises that he knew the Senate would partially accept but the House would reject out of hand. That showed the people of Minnesota how rigidly the DFL was sticking to ideology - as opposed to actually doing the people's business.

The DFL's biggest misstep though was coming into the Session unprepared or unwilling to tackle the budget right out of the gate. They held all the cards - a veto proof majority in the Senate and a near veto proof majority in the House. They knew going into the Session that this budget deficit was huge and a realist would understand that spending cuts and tax increases were inevitable. Instead of compromising, they held tightly to ideology. That allowed Governor Pawlenty to stick to HIS ideology - his no new taxes pledge.

In the end, the inflexibility that the DFL showed and their refusal to work together (much less working with the Governor) set the tone for the finish of the session. They could have taken advantage of their gains last November and used it to make even bigger gains in 2010. But instead, the DFL leadership sacrificed their Consititutional right to set the budget at the alter of ideology and in the end, that could (and should) spell the end of their large majorities in the Legislature. Well done Madame Speaker!

Update and Bump: Sarah Janecek said it best I think...

Hasn't this entire legislative session been about DFL indecision?

I think we can all agree that this was the case. They couldn't decide what to prioritize so they prioritized nothing. They were asked to make spending cuts, but they couldn't decide what to cut so they cut nothing...the list goes on and on!

Founders Morning Quote

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

--James Madison, speech in the Virginia constitutional convention, December 2, 1829

Regardless of which party is in power, these are words that ALL citizens must never forget.

From the "WTF Were They Thinking" Department....

...comes this brain cramp from the RNC.

A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebrandingDemocrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

Don't you people have anything more important to do? Something like say coming up with a coherent message???????

Or is putting up a useless resolution that is not going to be enforced the most pressing thing on the agenda this week...

When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”

Then again, maybe it is this is coming about because the RNC establishment, which is a vast part of the reason why the RNC has lost seats in the last 3 Congressional races, doesn't want to be forced to actually DO THEIR FREAKING JOBS which is to identify candidates for office and GET THEM ELECTED!!!!!

At least one person at the RNC has his head screwed on straight.....

Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. Steele said that while he believes Democrats “are indeed marching America toward European-style socialism,” he also said in a (rare) flash of insight that officially referring to them as the Democrat Socialist Party “will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”

The chairman is right, of course, but the RNC committeemen and women do not appear to share that same wisdom.

I understand that the RNC committeemen and women are opposed to the socialistic proposals coming out of the Democrats leadership, but rather than passing a meaningless resolution, why don't they actually take a stand to DEFEND their beliefs? This resolution that they are proposing does nothing but show how totally clueless the RNC committeemen and women are. Otherwise, why push this?

Founders Morning Quote

"Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, January 6, 1833

Throw Momma Under The Bus

Greg Hengler at Townhall.com posted video of Obama Health Care policy advisor Stuart Altman's testimony in the Senate.



Get that - the elderly are not cost effective. Are you willing to throw your momma under the wheels of the Hope and Change express just so you can have YOUR health care today? Will you sit quietly by when your children do the same thing TO YOU??? That is where we are headed people. Are you ready?

The Best Of Both Worlds

Yesterday, I put up a post defending spending on transit as a warning to my Utah neighbors not to develop "ridership" myopia when it comes to deciding whether or not to continue spending on FrontRunner. Today I would like to direct the discussion back toward my former Minneapolis neighbors and discuss why their "transit only" myopia of today is not good thinking. The lesson comes courtesy of Mr. Lane Beattie who is the President and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber (HT Utah Policy Daily).

You may have seen the TV commercial in which a motor oil company searches for the worst commute in America. It won’t surprise AJC readers that one of the featured commuters is trying to drive to Atlanta.

Had we not taken action a few years ago, it would have been equally appropriate to feature Salt Lake City.

By their nature, transportation and transit issues cannot be solved by an individual city or county government. The problems are too large and the scope of influence too wide. The cooperation of city, county and even state government is essential to creating a solution.

Emphasis mine. This is a lesson that my friends on the right AND the left must learn. The state Legislature can not dictate and the county can not say "keep your hands off". They need to be able to work on the solution that fits their regional needs best. If that best is commuter rail, then St. Paul you need to allow the discussion into commuter rail!

In Utah, a big part of our success stems from our ability to present a holistic solution including both roads and transit. Any time we found ourselves getting too far in one camp or the other, the going got rough. The best policy is to acknowledge and advocate the need for both modes.

Diversity of transit options was pretty much the gist of my post yesterday. Offering a diverse choice of transit options WORKS! See Europe, New York City, Chicago, Boston and a whole host of other cities.

I call a “roads-only” focus a “rear-view mirror mentality”; it misses the trends happening right before our eyes. The flip side is a “transit-only” focus, which I consider a “pie-in-the-sky mentality.” Get over it: Most people will never let go of the freedom, comfort and convenience of the automobile.

Focusing on one or the other is like asking which is more important, the gas pedal or the brake. You’ve got to have both.

This point can not be stressed enough! YOU HAVE TO HAVE BOTH!

Over the next 21 years the population of Utah is expected to increase by 56 percent, according to the Census Bureau. There is no time to relax or declare our problem solved. We’ve gotten ahead of the curve and must work to stay ahead.

This is where the Met Council really put the Minneapolis Metro area in the bind it is in today. Rather than focus on tranist issues when the metro was growing, it focused on maximizing green space, which while important was the sole myopic view of the Met Council to the exclusion of everything else and that IS bad.

Because we faced our transportation challenges head on, worked together and kept the big picture in mind, we avoided the oncoming catastrophe of crippling gridlock at the Crossroads of the West.

Alleviating traffic issues has increased efficiency for businesses, keeping many from downsizing during difficult times. Funding road and rail projects puts thousands of Utahans to work and stimulates our economy. It’s one reason Utah has fared far better than the rest of the nation during the current economic downturn.

And this (along with a well run state that does not tax it's businesses out of existence) is why Utah was one of the last states to enter the recession and it will be one of the first out! The "Happy to Pay For A Better Minnesota" can mewl all they want about the "quality of life" in Minnesota, but when people can not afford to live there because all the jobs are gone, you have no quality of life! Balance is the key and while not perfectly there, Utah has certainly tried to come close. It is a lesson that Minnesota lawmakers need to learn real fast if they want to turn the economy around and have a real "quality of life".

Fact Checking Is Vastly Over-Rated

Wikipedia....everyone has their stories about it....everyone knows that Wikipedia is a great tool as long as you make sure that you double check the "facts" that you pull from there. Well everyone it appears but those folks with the gatekeepers - the main stream media.

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's obituary-friendly quote -- which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 -- flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India. They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it.

A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets they'd swallowed his baloney whole.

"I was really shocked at the results from the experiment," Fitzgerald, 22, said Monday in an interview a week after one newspaper at fault, The Guardian of Britain, became the first to admit its obituarist lifted material straight from Wikipedia.

"I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up," he said. "It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact."

Well obviously, as soon as the hoax was pointed out the media gatekeepers corrected their mistake...right???????

So far, The Guardian is the only publication to make a public mea culpa, while others have eliminated or amended their online obituaries without any reference to the original version -- or in a few cases, still are citing Fitzgerald's florid prose weeks after he pointed out its true origin.

Which just goes to show how lazy and arrogant the so-called gatekeepers have gotten. Lazy because they could not be bothered to do their own research and arrogant because when it was pointed out to them that they had been "had" that by and large they could not even admit the error. Which is one reason why the newspapers are bleeding red ink as bad as they are.

Playing Political Chicken

/ˈkɒmprəˌmaɪz/ Show Spelled Pronunciation

compromise - [kom-pruh-mahyz] Show IPA noun, verb, -mised, -mis⋅ing.

–noun

1.	a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.

2.	the result of such a settlement.

3.	something intermediate between different things: The split-level is a compromise between a ranch house and a multistoried house.

4.	an endangering, esp. of reputation; exposure to danger, suspicion, etc.: a compromise of one's integrity.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to settle by a compromise.

6.	to expose or make vulnerable to danger, suspicion, scandal, etc.; jeopardize: a military oversight that compromised the nation's defenses.

7.	Obsolete. a. to bind by bargain or agreement. b. to bring to terms.

Yesterday, Governor Pawlenty offered an olive branch to the DFL leadership on the budget. In a letter addressed to the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, the Governor said that he would relent on his opposition to two of the three main sticking points between the the Legislature and the Governor's office and he would cut in half his request for bonding. In essense he was giving in to the DFL on 2 1/2 of the 3 main issues that the DFL had with the Governor's budget. The DFL's response was quick and predictable. Calling it a "false compromise" and a compromise in "word and not in deed" the DFL leadership of the House and the Senated doubled down on their intent to once again drive the state toward a shut-down (as they did in 2005).

So there you have it - in the idealistic world of Senator Pogemiller, Speaker Kelliher and Majority Leader Sertich the only acceptable compromise is for the governor to completely acquiesce to the DFL's demands. That is not compromise - that is blackmail! Thankfully the Governor showed the people of Minnesota exactly what the DFL leadership is up to and how willing they really are to compromise.

It is clear that the DFL leadership is not willing to do what is best for the PEOPLE of Minnesota. They are only willing to do what is best for the special interest groups that continue to fund their quest for power. Well played Governor - well played indeed!

A Conservative's Defense of Mass Transit

Fox 13 did an interesting little story about the falling ridership numbers of FrontRunner. For my Minnesota readers - FrontRunner is the local commuter rail line that runs from North of Ogden to Downtown Salt Lake City. Once downtown, a commuter can hook up with either the UTA Trax (lightrail) or the buses...but I digress. The gist of the Fox 13 story was the pros and cons of continuing to build additional lines when ridership of the North line is not what was projected. The money quote (for many) was when they quoted a local economist who said that it did not make sense to continue building rail lines at a time when the demand was not there for it. However, perhaps I can give you a couple of reasons why building now, in spite of low ridership, is preferable to waiting for 20-30 years (as the Minneapolis Metro area did) to build.

Take, for example, my old home town of Chicago. I won't go into a detailed history, but I will say that the rail corridors that Metra uses today (as well as the tracks for the "L") were built long before the city and the suburbs were where they are so that there was no need to condemn properties in order to make room for the trains. In fact - many of the suburbs around Chicago (like Wheaton and Glen Ellyn) were actually built up AROUND the Metra station! Ridership did drop in the 1960's and 1970's but it has gone back up and is back at a point (now that the Northern Illinois area has become a nightmare for drivers) where it is actually faster to commute into Chicago via train than it is to drive. Contrast that to the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Rather than incorporate the old trolley lines (as many metro areas did when they phased out trolleys) into a newer train system (the pre-cursor to light rail) they ripped the rails up. Now that the pendulum has swung back the other way - Minneapolis is looking at spending many times more the amount to build new rail lines now as they would have spent maintaining the old ones all this time.

Which brings us back to Utah. I know it seems counter intuitive to continue to build the rail lines at this point in time (with ridership below projected levels) but the cost of the land and ripping up streets and the other costs of construction are never going to be any lower than they are today! Utah has one of the best balanced transit systems I have seen in this country (it is very reminiscent of the type of systems I have seen and used in Europe). While a transit system will never replace cars entirely, the fact that we have a system that gets the commuter from where they are to where they want to go relatively easily (as opposed to ANYTHING that has been proposed in Minneapolis) is key. Which is why stopping now would be a foolish waste of money.

Where The Rubber Gloves Meet the Road

In the comments of my last post, Todd off handedly remarked that "The Logician needs to come out of the ideological world and move into reality.". Well I was going to reply in the comments, but I ran into so much "reality" that it evolved rather quickly into it's own post.

Reality #1 - Doctors and health care professionals do not want this. Hugh Hewitt has run a series of letters from practicing physicians who have written to him about just how bad this is going to be for doctors and patients alike. For example we have this from Doctor M.

Hugh,

I am a pediatric neuroradiologist. I take care of children with severe neurological diseases, tumors, trauma, etc. I am an Associate Professor at the University of _________Medical School and practice at Children's Medical Center in ______. I am also a researcher using state of the art MRI. I can tell you that if we go to a single pay system, it will destroy the kind of healthcare and research which has allowed us to lead the world.Currently we have the best subspecialists in the world and free access and referral for state of the art care. As an example, I was on staff at another children's hospital in a large Midwestern city a couple of years ago and had a young boy with a large carotid artery aneurysm. We did not have the pediatric expertise in our city to treat him, but I have world class colleagues in another city who treat these things for a living, so I made some phone calls. The boy went to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, was treated and now faces a normal life. This kind of subspecialty referral care will end with rationing. This is unacceptable. Rationing would have forced that boy to "take the best available locally" or would not pay for the expensive interventional procedure which was life changing for this boy. Also, if they destroy medicine, what motivation will there be for the best and brightest to enter medicine.

From another doctor we have this...

Dear Mr. Hewitt, I am a physician (M.D.) practicing geriatric psychiatry in Texas for the last 16 years. I am a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org) and am so opposed to government intervention in medicine that, although all of my patients are Medicare recipients, I have "opted out" of Medicare which means that all of my patients must pay out-of-pocket to see me and I cannot bill Medicare for any services. I can work with individual patients so that they can afford my services, and I can treat some patients for free! Under Medicare I am not allowed to do that.

From a third we have this....

I am a 66 year old Pediatrician currently transitioning into retirement. I echo the comments made by the Sr. VP for medical affairs. My junior associate who is taking over has already informed me that she will no longer go to the hospital - too much work, too great a risk, too little return for the effort, etc. The 200 bed hospital I attend at has 0NE Pediatrician left on staff my age who just had surgery and walks with a brace. A new Pediatrician hired by the hospital is one month from joining him but has yet to get her state license - ipso facto cannot see patients. There are three other Pediatricians in the community. None have staff privileges except for a half-timer. The hospital has about 700 births a year and a drawing area of 250,000. God help them.

The hospital has critical shortages of all primary care specialties, i.e. Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and Ob-Gyn. Why ? Two reasons. (1)The government artificially distorts the market. 75% of my patients are Medicaid in the first year of life. Who the hell would buy insurance when the government picks up the tab? Many need it, but a lot don't. This is an industrial region, not a farming region, even if it looks rural. My parents work for large corporations. (2) Women doctors.75% of Pediatric residents and 52% of entering medical students are female. They won't move to small towns and rural zones. They won't work as many hours or as many years. It takes 3x as many women as 2 male doctors to do the work.

From a 4th....

I can hardly believe there are that many doctors who want a single payer system. IMO, the only doctors that would want this are either lazy, or do not have what it takes to make it in private practice.

A national health care system WILL BE a nightmare and complete disaster. It will be inefficient on a scale yet not even imaginable. Americans will also be shocked at how poor, rationed, and delayed their care will be. There will be many people who will be permanently injured or allowed to die because the government will establish some bul**hit evidence based criteria on allowing certain treatments.

Finally from a hospital exec....

I listen to your show on pod cast, so I was unable to comment last night. An issue which you did not mention, but is critical to the situation is the accelerating doctor shortage. I am a senior physician executive who spent 31 years in the Air Force and completed my career as commander at ______ Medical Center....I am currently Sr. VP for Medical Affairs at a small hospital system in ___.

The major problem with every effort to "fix" health care is that they focus on controlling the price that the consumer pays. No one ever takes into consideration the cost of producing that care. This will have a major and increasing impact on the way forward.

Currently, the US is short of physicians and is not producing them at a rate of replacement. Add to that the fact that a 30 year old physician is a completely different animal than a 50 year old physician. Most "old" physicians came into the profession at the time it was considered a calling. Yes, they were compensated (monetarily and otherwise) very well. But for that, they accepted 100 hour work weeks and being on call for months at a time. It was part of the social contract and they just accepted it as part of the life of a physician.

The current crop of physicians do not have the same work ethic. Similar to other members of their generation, these docs expect to "have a life." They are unwilling to work the same hours as their elders - at any price. Additionally, 50% of most medical school graduates are women who statistically have a much shorter career. You can see that every time one of the old guys retires, you need more than one new graduate to cover the load.

The proposed changes that are ahead will undoubtedly encourage many of the old docs that there is no point in working beyond the point that they can retire. Yes, the fact that many of them have been hurt badly in the crash will keep some at work. But not a day longer than they have to. Then it will be harder for all of us to find a physician to take care of us.

These doctors all work within the already broken health care system and all agree that the Administrations cure will make the patient terminal. THAT my friend is reality!

Here is a little MORE REALITY for you Todd. Meet Katie Brickell. Katie lives in the UK where they have "universal' insurance. At 19, Katie went to the doctor to get a PAP smear done. She was told she had to wait until she was 20...National Health Service (NH) guidelines. When she turned 20, she went back only to be told that the guidelines had changed and she had to wait until she turned 25 (the American Cancer Society recommends 21 years AT THE LATEST)! At 23, Katie was diagnosed with cervical cancer and she was told that she only had two years to live because the cancer was so advanced! IF she had been able to get at PAP smear done at 19 or 20, doctors could have detected it sooner and possibly stopped the cancer before it had gotten to the terminal stage (as most cancers are).

Now meet Dr. Brian Day - a Canadian physician. Dr. Day is advocating for more patient choice in Canada because the current system is actually KILLING PATIENTS due to the extremely long waits that terminal patients face in the Canadian system. Also meet Dr. Karol Sikora from the UK who is advocating the same in his country.

Meet Rick Baker. Mr. Baker is a Medical Broker in Vancouver. He helps Canadian citizens find life saving medical treatment in other countries that are denied to them in Canada. Listen to the story he tells about a client of his who was given ONE WEEK TO LIVE and was told by the bureaucrats that he had to wait indefinitely for the life saving surgery that he got in the US within 24 hours of contacting Mr. Baker.

Then there is Lindsay McCreith and Shonna Holmes, two people I wrote about earlier. These folks had to come to the US to get lifesaving surgeries that were denied to them under the "compassionate" Canadian Health Care system.

THESE are the realities of "free" government health care...not the utopian pipe dream that the redistributionists would have you believe. So now you tell me....how compassionate is it to tell someone that they have 1 week to live unless they get lifesaving surgery that the government says they can have in 6 months? Is it any more compassionate then telling someone that they can have the surgery for a sum that they can not afford? Personally I don't think either one is too horribly compassionate, but scrappinng the system we have now (where it can be had for a price) for a system where you can't get it when you need it is not the answer. A better answer is to get government out of the equation altogether so that the patient can chose the plan that fits them best and makes sure that the patient and the doctors are the ones in charge - not some bureaucrat in Washington DC.