The day before this past election, I linked to a piece of video of a man – Monty Jensen, a Brainerd resident, disabled Army veteran, and government worker – who claimed to have witnessed what appeared at the very least to have  been some odd behavior – and at most appeared to be voter fraud.

The original video is here.   The story brought this blog among the biggest surges of traffic it has ever had.

The story seems to have stalled, for the moment – partly because it’s been on a lot of peoples’ back burners, and partly because…

…well, we’ll get back to that.

As noted in this space back in November, Monty Jensen filed an affadavit – sworn under oath to be truthful, under penalty of a potential charge of perjury – with Crow Wing County attorney Donald F. Ryan, on November 1 – the day before election day.  His affadavit recited what he’d seen, pretty much as he related the story to me – which is as concise a summary of what Jensen alleges as there is.  Go and read it and refresh your memory.

And for the next six weeks, not a whole lot happened.  The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s office did an investigation;  in due course, County Attorney Ryan said that there was no evidence of voter fraud.

And that was pretty much that.

Well, at least as far as official channels in Crow Wing County were concerned, so far.

But that’s not the entire story.

On December 17 – after the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office investigation had wrapped – the Minnesota Freedom Council sent a letter to then-representative Dan Severson, long-time Minnesota House rep for the area and recently defeated in a bid to replace Mark Ritchie as Secretary of State.

The crux of the letter was a list of 13 questions (any typos are my fault):

Questions that remain unanswered:

1. Were all parties interviewed for testimony?  Clearly this is not the case since no-one approached the other eyewitness (Mr. Jensen’s girlfriend).  How can this be a “complete” investigation?

2. Was the party or parties involved with the possible voter fraud positively identified by the two eyewitnesses?  If not, how can anyone be sure that the Crow Wing County Sheriff investigators are talking to the same suspect?  We have two conflicting testimonies; one says she was simply “filling in ovals where there were dots” on the ballot.  The other said the disabled voter didn’t say in the voting booth but a “few seconds” and never had a pencil or pen in hand and didn’t have time to talk to their assistant about their voting preferences.  Maybe there are two different people.  How do we know?

3. Why was there no official report that has been put forth stating the reasons for dismissal with the findings of fact that can be confirmed or contested?

4. Of the statements that were taken, were affidavits filed for each of those statement under penalty of perjury?

5. Was a list compiled of all the individuals who voted under this complaint, and were they identified as being eligible to vote?  (ie. did any of them have their voting rights revoked under court order ruling them “vulnerable adults”, and were they registered to vote in the district?)

6. Since this was four days prior to election day and Minnesota does not have early voting for elections, what statute was used to allow this early voting, and were any of the individuals that voted vouched for by any resident managers?  Many may have residency outside their group home (this is only acceptable on election day (MN statute 201.061 Subd 3)

7. Was it determined how may voters were helped by this group home workers?  Minnesota statute 204C.15 Assistance to Vot3rs states that “no person who assists another voter as provided in the preceding sentence shall mark the ballots of more than three voters at one election”.

8. Were there election judges present at the Crow Wing County Auditor Office?  Voters who need assistance may request aid from two election judges who are members of different major political parties.  All voters who need assistance should have this option availble.

9. Why hasn’t Mr. Jensen been asked to identify the Crow Wing County Auditor employee who stated “you don’t know the half of it, this was the fourth group today”.

10. When we asked (county auditor) Deb Erickson if she know if there were any disabled people or residents from group homes voting late on Friday October 29th, she said she didn’t know.  Why then did Deb Erickson contact Jared Peterson, on Monday November 1 after [Monty Jensen’s] affidavit was filed?  (According to KSAX article).  Seeing that the Auditor is not an “investigator”, this opens up a question of conspiracy.

11. Why were there two investigators assigned to the case interviewing Mr. Jensen’s estranged father?  Were they investigating Montgomery Jensen?  They had time to send investigators to interview someone who has no relationship to the case, but not the other eyewitness?

12 Under MN Statute 201.175, a grand jury must be called to present the evidence and let the grand jury determine whether ot proceed [with indictments].  Why wasn’t one called?  Did the Crow Wing County Attonrey usurp the power of the grand jury by ruling on his own?  Or did the Crow Wing County Attorney purposely avoid gathering enough evidence (including interviewing the other eyewitness) to force the calling of a grand jury?

13. There conflicting testimony by the eyewitnesses.  Crow Wing County Attorney said there is “no evidence” of voter fraud.  If two credible eyewitnesses can not convict someone guilty of voter fraud then how could anyone ever be convicted without an outright confession?  You cannot bring cameras or recording equipment and there is no one there at the county monitoring for abnormalities.

It is our opinion that this investigation brought forth even more questions than it answered in trying to resolve legitimate concerns in the voter fraud case involving the disabled.

If the worker was identified as stated by the County Attorney as the person in teh complaint, was that person compelled to submit an affidavit?   If she did and the statements are of conflicting facts (ie. “the person walked away and was pulled back to the booth only to wander away again at which time the worker filled out the ballot and put it into his hand” vs. “they told me the answers to the questions and I filled in the oval for them”. ) then the issue is to be forwarded to a Grand Jury for investigation.  If she did complete an affidavit then th issue should be forwarded to the Grand Jury to complete the in depth investigation by evenly weighted statements of fact.  It is not the County Attorney’s prerogative to simply dismiss the issue as not having merit.  Arbitration of issues of this importance are determined by a group of peer,s not that of an elected [official].

In short, the matters in question have not been adequately addressed, nor has a written report been forthcoming.  The gravity of the charges would dictate that not only is further investigation required nd should be forwarded to a Grand Jury, but that the State Attorney General’s Office should be advised in the matter and an opinion sought on whether Crow Wing County Attorney Mr. Ryan has violated statute by “refusing or intentionally failing to faithfully perform” his duties as County Attorney.v>Your immediate action is requested.

The questions raised in the letter make a useful framework for addressing the rest of this story.   I’ll be addressing one or two of these questions a week for the next couple of weeks.

At least one other Twin Cities reporter is working on this story.  It’s going to be an interesting week or two.

Sheila Kihne at The Activist Next Door is tired of seeing conservatives doing the media’s work for them.

She assails Chris Christie for throwing Sarah Palin under the bus on the Sunday Methane Circuit over the weekend:

Here’s what [Governor Christie’s] answer should have been to any questions about Sarah Palin:

“There is nobody more hated by the media than Governor Palin. How exactly is she supposed to act when the media tried to lay the blame for a mass-murder on her? Look, you’re trying to get me to distance myself from a fellow conservative and I won’t do it. People are mad at you– they’re more mad at you than they are President Obama or Governor Palin. They’re mad at you because you’re incapable of doing your job as the free press and reporting the news to the American people without your constant spin. Perhaps you guys should buy some steno pads with the words ‘Who, what, when, where, how, how much?’ imprinted at the top of the page.’ Maybe that would help.”

That’s the “Palin answer” men of the GOP. Why is it that the ONLY Republicans with high name-recognition who demonstrate valor, strength, and courage are women? Sarah Palin is more of a man than any of these guys.

Well, to be fair, Palin’s never had to face down the Jersey unions.

And isn’t it sad that we now have to look to the wilds of Alaska for some ruggedness and true grit? To quote a great 80’s tune: “Where have all the good men gone?”

They’re all over the place – but Sheila makes a great point – and you need to read her entire piece for it, but I’ll synopsize it here:  conservatives need to quit playing along with the Democrat and Media (pardon the redundancy) effort to turn the vocabulary of our language itself into a liberal tool to be used against us.

We conservatives (as opposed to Republicans) are going to little in the way of dispassionate balance, to say nothing of help, from the media; we have to do it for ourselves.

Sheila does “the Palin Answer” pretty well.  I’m going to suggest a few more areas where conservatives, locally and nationally, need to stick together in the face of the left and media’s (ptr) chanting points:

• We Have A $6.2 Billion Deficit:  Correct response: “No, we don’t.  We have a forecast that is $6.2B larger than the last revenue projections.  It is not a budget.  It can – and must – be trimmed, and the “autopilot” assumptions that keep leading to these absurd numbers need to be abolished”.
• The GOP Budget Attacks Education: Correct response: “There is precisely zero link between education spending and achievement.  Minnesota, North Dakota, the District of Columbia and South Carolina spent, respectively, $10.1K, 9.3K, 16K and 9K per student in 2008; while picking “objective” measures of achievement are difficult, by most standards (SAT scores, to pick an arbitrary one) North Dakota and Minnesota are statisatically identically high in achievement; the D of C and South Carolina are both at the bottom of the heap.  No, indeed, since 80% of what we spend on education goes into faculty and staff salaries and pensions (!), all “education spending” really measures is the excellence…of the Teachers’ Union’s clout.”
• “We Can’t Balance The Budget On The Backs Of The Poor!”:  Correct response: “The GOP proposals would make harder to expand the pool of people who can get entitlements from the state.  The “forecast” proposal would increase Health and Human Services spending by 37% – that’s thirty seven freaking percent – in the coming budget.  That’s not just ridiculous, not just absurd; it’s obscene.  The DFL goal of expanding the subsidies of poverty (and, especially, of the HHS bureaucracy) beyond what’s needed to prevent hunger and other abject poverty must not be done on the backs of the taxpayers!”

Sheila’s on to something.

More?

The Minnesota GOP yesterday put the Minnesota budget – for the current bienniium  – up on the hoist and start working:

Minnesota House and Senate Republicans today introduced an early action budget bill that takes immediate steps to reduce the budget deficit by $1 billion. The bill reduces spending for state agencies by $200 million in the current budget while making other one-time spending cuts permanent, reducing the long-term deficit by another $840 million. The early budget bill represents the first phase of the Minnesota Legislature’s budget balancing plan for the next two years.

The bulk of the changes involve making Governor Pawlenty’s unallotments permanent, and starting to tackle the issue of the absurd “autopilot” increases that have the less-curious in the media and most of the leftysphere chattering about “$6.2 billion deficits”:

“We need to prevent automatic spending increases that are included in the state government budget, and passing this budget bill will keep some of state government’s expenditures at current levels,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chair Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville. “For the most part, the budget bill includes spending levels that were approved by the DFL-controlled Legislature and Republicans at the end of the 2010 legislative session,” said Holberg.

More on this budget – and the response from the DFL and media (pardon the redundncy) – tomorrow.

Via Politico, a great piece on  Michele Bachmann’s future, and what she may need to do to get there.

She could go waaaaay up – or stay pretty well put, at least in terms of national GOP politics.

Her style certainly makes waves:

Bachmann came under fire in 2007 after she had claimed, in an interview with a local newspaper, to “know of an Iranian plan for the partition of Iraq in which Iran would control half the country and set it up as ‘a terrorist safe haven zone’ and a staging area for attacks around the Middle East and on the United States.”

Some Republican lawmakers said Bachmann has worked hard on other committees and proved herself sufficiently to win the prized intelligence slot. Despite her vocal reputation, that could help her rebrand herself as more lawmaker than showstopper and boost her credentials for a run at higher office, such as the White House or, more likely, the Senate.

“That ultimately would be in the view of the voters, but certainly it would help,” said a Bachmann aide of the committee assignment. “We feel like that would be a good thing, to bring a different dimension in; she’s a tax lawyer, so she’s usually weighing in on economic issues … this adds a layer to her experience.”

Worth a read.

As I pointed out this morning, the notion of the “Budget Deficit” is at best a bit of manipulative spin; at worst, it’s an outright fraud on Minnesota voters and taxpayers.  Especially taxpayers.

We walked back a couple of the more toxic myths about the Minnesota budget this morning, including the thing all Real Minnesota Taxpayers have to keep trying to hammer home with your friends, relatives and neighbors; the “deficit” is a fraud.

And yet that’s only scratching the surface of the myths in this deeply abusive media meme.

“Were Balancing The Budget On The Backs Of The Poor”: On the one hand, Minnesota pays among the most-generous welfare benefits in the country – “good” enough to draw people to Minnesota to cash in. It’s seem we have some room to pare things back without really hurting anyone. But the statement itself is yet another fraud.

And on the other hand, if hard times call for shared sacrifice, then why are “the poor” exempt from…keeping their funding the same, or at the very most to an inflation-adjusted increase, as well as a trimming of the most gratuitous fat?

And by that, I mean as opposed to having “Health And Human Services funding  jacked up by, ahem, 37% – which is what the DFL-dominated Legislature “forecast” for the 2012-2013 biennium two years ago (see page 4 of this PDF file).

Is the DFL planning for 37% more poor  people?  Or are we going to subsidize the poverty we have 37% more?

“Holding The K-12 Budget SteadyWill Gut Education”:  Except that the DFL’s budget “forecast” planned to increase K-12 funding by 7.6% – with almost all of it going to increasing Teachers’ Union salaries and headcount.  It’s yet another case of the DFL trying not only to insulate its biggest constituency – government and its employees – from  the economy the rest of us have to live with.

Budget cuts will “force” property tax hikes: Yet another bit of fraud. Cuts to “Local Government Aid” will make local governments responsible for (more of) their own spending, which is currently taken care of by state taxpayers.  Local Government Aid was intended to help smaller, poorer cities afford some of the amenities they couldn’t afford – luxuries like water treatment, sewers, actual roads and the like.  It has become a subsidy of DFL-controlled city governments.

Indeed, the budget is chock-full of little deficit-building subsidies for one DFL favored class or another.  The legislature is going to be addressing quite a number of them – in the interest of controlling the deficit – soon.

Stay tuned.

I’ve been fiddling about with trying to find more oblique, writer-y ways to say it – but sometimes the direct approach is best.

Talk of a $6.2 Billion deficit is a fraud.  People who refer to is are mistaken at best, lying at worst.

What we have is not a $6.2 billion deficit.  It’s a little more like this:

Imagine you take your kids to McDonald’s once a week.  Your son, a budding DFLer, demands that you add a weekly trip to Murray’s for the family once a week.  You refuse.   Your idiot child goes to the media and tells them that you are “cutting the budget by $300 a week“.

What do you do?

Give the kids the trip to Murray’s and quit complaining?

You must be a DFLer.

The Budget Deficit Is Based On A Wish List: The “deficit” that the DFL and media – and even a few Republicans – are talking about is exactly the same thing. It’s assessed against the “2012-2013   Budget Forecast“.

Which, you may note, is a forecast.  Not a “budget”; a forecast.  The “budget” is something the legislature hashes out on odd-numbered years for the following even-and-odd-numbered pair of years (called a “biennium”); in 2009, the Legislature passted the budget for 2010 and 2011.

That, and only that, is the “budget”.

The “forecast”, on the other hand, is what the budget will be in the following biennium, assuming that the budget increases according to current assumptions, legal mandates, and legislative wishes.

So the forecast comes partly from “baseline budgeting” – starting with the current budget for a deparment and guesstimating how much more of that department’s “services” will be “needed”.  In some cases, there are legal mandates involved, And in most of them, there’s the DFL’s urge to leave  a huge budgetary turd the GOP’ doorstep.  Because whatever the cause, the DFL legislature that just got sent packing “forecast” the budget jumping from $30.266 billion to $38.591 billion – a 27.51% jump.

Did you increase your family budget 27.51%?

No.  And either did the government – yet.  Because the budget process – the one that leads us to the actual budget – just started, really, last week.

The “Structural Deficit” Is A Cop-Out: It is true that there are legal mandates to increase parts of the budget. The answer is deceptively simple; if you have a structural problem, the best – albeit not necessarily easiest – way to fix it is to fix the structure.  Put another way,   these mandates need to be reassessed, and most likely abolished. House File 2, sponsored by Rep. Banaian, will be a good start; it’ll start to chip away at the current practice of increasing spending for programs on autopilot; every government department will have to justify its spending and, in its most gratifyingly Scandinavian feature, sic the Legislative Auditor on state agencies with an aim toward sunsetting them when their usefulness has passed.

The most important thing to remember, though – and tell your co-workers and family members and neighbors, if the topic comes up – is, once again, this:

The “Budget Deficit” is a fraud.

On December 1, I published an excerpt from an email from a GOP recount observer.

Quoting myself:

This email, from a GOP election recount-watcher, has been making the rounds of local conservative activists.  I’m keeping the writer’s name off the record for now.

Emphasis is added by me:

Well, it’s been a good (better) day today here at Hennepin County for the recount. Lots of notable errors in judgment…

For instance, we found one precinct with ALL Dayton ballots challenged (103 total) that appeared to be a “mass” group of blank ballots run thru without a judge’s signature – all in a row. Shows how easily certain folks of a party’s persuasion can cheat so easily – and have it counted?

Let’s repeat that for those of you who glaze over:  103 votes, run through in a group, without a judge’s signature, apparently consecutively.

I asked the source of this email earlier this week what the resolution of this issue was.  The source wasn’t entirely clear on how things turned out: she or he sent me this message:

I think it was 102-103 ballots in Hennepin County (some precinct) that looked suspicious, and were run through the machine and counted in the total. What was believed was it happened after the polls (and machines) were closed and counted w/ a tape already generated…. Hence, the difference in the counts from registered voters vs. the machine counts…I was told the sequence and appearance of these ballots looked suspicious and forged, and now that I think about it, I remember one of the primary reasons they weren’t allowed was they were not properly signed off by the appropriate parties – yet, counted. If my memory serves me right, they were taken out of the totals once discovered.

Now, I’ve been getting regular, frequent emails for the past six weeks from a regular reader who is also a supporter of our current election system and, I’d suspect, of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.   According to this person, it would be impossible for this scenario to have happened; that that’s just not how canvassing and recounts work.

That, of course, is one of the problems of blogging; when one is an actual, full-time, employed journalist, one has time to learn enough about the subject about which one is writing to comment on it with more literacy than when one has other things going on in life.

So OK, fair enough.  I’m way too buried with personal and day-job business to really dig into it all that much at the moment.  I guess, at least as regards this particular episode, the iron-clad integrity of the Henco elections staff, of Mark Ritchie, and of everyone involved is unimpeachable.  Until a better explanation drops into my lap. at any rate.

Which it’ll have to do, because – and this is an admission against interest – I have a hard time concentrating on that sort of anal-retentive, pointillistic, nit-picky, left-brain sort of thing.  God bless those who can – but I can’t.  Call it a learning disability, and a politically-imprudent one at that, but my brain just tunes out the finer points of the mechanics of recounts.  There’s a reason I’m not an actuary, an accountant, or a wedding planner.

And that’s that, I guess.

(more…)

For years, South Dakota’s been pilfing  jobs from high-tax Minnesota for years, in a campaign that features radio ads and billboards around the Twin Cities comparing the states’ various, very different tax philosophies.

It looks like we’ll be seeing more of these campaigns.  John Edwards was right – there are Two Americas.  One of them is the states that’ll deal with budget deficits by cutting their spending.  The other will do it by raising taxes.

Wisconsin is in the first America. Illinois – which just passed a series of tax hikes that have Genghis Khan’s ghost coming back from the great beyond to tell the Illinois legislature “look, subjects can only pay so much tribute…”

Kim Strassel notes the contrast:

Illinois this week earned the honor of becoming the first state in 2011 to sock it to taxpayers, passing a tax hike the size of Lake Michigan. Citizens cried out, legislators deflected, but the most interesting response came from neighboring Wisconsin, where newly elected GOP Gov. Scott Walker had three words for Illinois businesses: “Escape to Wisconsin.”

Across the country, dozens of new governors are taking office, fine-tuning state-of-the-state addresses, polishing budgets. With each event we are seeing a growing national divide.

On one side are wide swathes of the country that this past midterm elected reformers intent on slashing spending and reviving growth. On the other are the holdout pockets—Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut—drifting further into the abyss of tax and spend. The chasm has huge implications, not just for local and regional politics but for Washington.

Mr. Walker is painting that gulf as big as the Grand Canyon, this week blitzing the Chicago media markets to let suffering Illinois businesses know that while their governor, Pat Quinn, levies a 50% increase in corporate income taxes, Wisconsin is working to enact the total elimination of corporate income taxes for two years for firms that migrate. The “Escape to Wisconsin” line comes from an old tourism campaign, but Mr. Walker thinks it sums up the business choice perfectly. “We’re going to send out that line to every employer in the state of Illinois,” he tells me

Speaking of which – Governor Dayton announced he’ll have a budget ready by February 15.  Remember – the Governor has told the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce that business in the state is “undertaxed”.  If his “team” does the same job it did over the summer, it’s going to be a long winter for the Administration.

(Perhaps he’ll call his critics “anti-gay”, like he did during the campaign…)

Forbes says F the Twin Cities are the number four Job Market in the US:

“The Twin Cities, and Minnesota in general, has a much more diverse economy than many other parts of the nation,” said Vang. “While our heart goes out to all those individuals who are unemployed right now, our economy tends not to be as hurt as bad as nationally because we are never dependent on one sector. We didn’t extend ourselves as far out during the home mortgage crisis as other cities did so that gave us more breathing room for our economy to return.”

Hmmmm.

Of course, the market isn’t great for everyone:

One of the thousands hoping for an economic recovery is Riordan Frost, 22, of St. Paul. Eight months after college graduation, Frost is still looking for…

For what?

…a public policy job.

“Left college with high hopes, thinking ‘here I am world,’ and it turn out that way, sadly,” he said.

Maybe young Mr. Frost will take the opportunity to find a career someplace other than trying to run society.  At age twenty freaking two.

Frost tried plan B, which was looking for retail jobs and a job at movie theatres — all without luck. He is now working as an unpaid intern at the MN 2020 organization as a transportation policy associate.

Or maybe not.

Anyway – DAMN YOU, Governor Pawlenty.

Oops.  Sorry about the “rhetoric”.  Gotta watch me – I’m a loose cannon…

…DOH!  I mean, I’m a ticking time bomb…

AAAAAGH! I mean “I’m on Janet Napolitano’s Watch List because of  my beliefs”.  Whew.  OK.  Made it.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah.  The Minnesota Legislative session.

Back during the campaign, when I’d do appearances at campaign fundraisers and the like, I frequently signed off my brief talks with challenges to everyone there; to the voters, the challenge was “on November 3,  your work really begins; you’ll need to keep these candidates true to their promises”.  And to the candidates, it was an allusion to the legend of the Spartans, to told departing warriors “come back with your shield, or on it“…

DOH!  Sorry – another bit of inflammatory rhetoric!  Paul Krugman will be displeased!

Breathe.  Center.  OK.

The bit of rhetoric, in context, is generally understood to mean “fight the good fight, politically; don’t put your re-election ahead of the princples for which we’re sending you to Saint Paul”.

It’s good to see the GOP legislative majority is making its first moves this week.  We’ve got two bits of news to report.

More Nukes!:  With energy prices spiking just in time for the hardest winter in decades, it’s perhaps great timing for the GOP to push for the repeal of Minnesota’s dim-witted 17-year-old “moratorium” on nuclear power plants.

Bills to end the 17-year ban will be introduced today in the House and Senate, with a House committee scheduled to vote on the proposal Tuesday. The chief sponsors will be state Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo.

With new Republican majorities in both bodies, the legislation is expected to pass easily. Then its fate would be up to Gov. Mark Dayton, who has opposed the effort because there’s still no plan to deal with the highly radioactive nuclear waste generated at those plants.

And of course, that’s wrong; there is a plan.  It’s merely been gundecked – DOH, sorry, I mean it’s been sabotaged by generations of soggy-headed environmentalists who apparently prefer coal power, or energy-starved poverty, to nuclear power.  “Environmentalists”, inevitably, from the DFL and their farm team, the Greens.  “Environmentalist” like Paul Aasen, Dayton’s pick to head the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, a man who targets – AAAGH – job creation and economic growth as remorselessly as Sarah Palin targets a caribou.

Both parties agree it would take years for a new plant to be approved and built. But they differ on the impact of the legislation and the need.

Republicans contend the ban, put in place in 1994 as part of a package allowing dry-cask nuclear-waste storage, must be lifted to allow serious planning to begin. Many Democrats say utilities can do that now; they just can’t act on it.

I bolded that last bit there; doesn’t that sound like someone who looooves regulation, and has not the faintest sympathy for people who actually accomplish things?  Can’t you see them giggling about that at their after-session soiree?

Xcel Energy, which owns the Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear plants, has said it has no plans for another nuclear plant.

Which might have something to do with the moratorium currently in effect…

Republicans contend there’s a greater need for the added baseload electrical generation capacity than Democrats will concede.

Democrats also have argued that ratepayers should be protected from immediate construction costs and overruns.

“I’m really concerned about our energy needs in the future,” Peppin said.

Democrats said they’re surprised Republicans are putting such an emphasis on lifting the ban.

“I’m surprised that with the huge challenges that we are facing … that that is one of the priorities they are pursuing as one of their top issues,” said Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, the House minority leader.

I can see where it might surprise Thissen.

Someone who is actually concerned with real economic growth, on the other hand, might see where inexpensive domestic power might be important for companies that are contemplating doing business in a place that is, frankly, chilly.  Perhaps the DFL believes heat comes from the Heat Fairy; most of us know better.

Jobs Jobs Jobs:  At 2PM – two hours after this post appears – the GOP Caucuses will be announcing their legislative jobs plan.  No details are available as this is written.  Stay tuned.

Think you’ve seen the Best of BTO (So Far) when it comes to the media’s obsession with Michele Bachmann (and vice versa)?  You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Let’s not bury the lede – she isn’t going to run. 

In politics, the rumored presidential campaign for many office holders is a cry for attention about one step removed from binging on aspirin.  For near total unknowns like former Godfather’s CEO Herman Cain or heyday politicos like Rick Santorum, the seeking of the White House is game of trival pursuit.  Lacking resources and with few political options, candidates like these have nothing to lose and everything to gain with a quixotic bid that likely ends in the hometown of Iowa State sometime in early August. 

Bachmann doesn’t lack for attention nor resources, as her $13.4 million campaign haul demonstrated.  But she may lack options.  Hemmed in by Minnesota’ s statewide left tilt, likely ruling out any statewide bid, immediate or otherwise, and having lost out as Chair of the House Republican Conference to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Bachmann’s present trajectory would be to become the best known backbencher in the history of Congress.

A bid for the presidency likely wouldn’t change that – but a possible bid for president might.

Actually running for president involves far too many “make or break” moments for any candidate, let alone a three-term congresswoman who, despite her numerous media forays over the years, isn’t exactly a household name to the average Iowan or New Hampshirite.  An exploratory committee or even merely a rumored campaign allows Bachmann the best of both worlds.  She can raise copious sums for her Michele PAC, get mentioned in every discussion of the 2012 Republican Primary, dismiss any poll that shows her doing poorly (she isn’t even a candidate, of course) and conversely celebrate any poll that shows her non-campaign campaign gaining momentum.  It’s the Fred Thompson strategy – which worked as long as he wasn’t formally running.

6 or 7 months of presidential media footsie and Bachmann can raise her national name ID even further, stockpile cash, and thus potentially leverage her pull within the House GOP Caucus.  Bachmann hasn’t exactly been embraced by the new House leadership, and the feelings are probably mutual.  It’s hard to ignore the comments and demands of a media saavy politico.  It’s even harder to do so when that politico is seen as gunning for the nomination.

It’s a somewhat deft political move by Bachmann as the end result harms few politicians not named Tim Pawlenty – who suddenly runs the risk of spending the summer of 2011 being known as that other Minnesotan running for president.

Mark Dayton committed Minnesota – the most-insured state in the union, a state that already has comprehensive insurance assistance for the poor, and a state that is complaining of a “six billion dollar deficit” – to a third of a billion dollars in spending.

From a GOP caucus news release:

“There is legitimate cause for concern when actions are taken to add 95,000 people to any entitlement program. The policy in place removes all residency requirements and removes nearly all asset limits that were previously used to determine eligibility. This is a big step in the wrong direction,” said Senator Hann.

Early enrollment in to Medicaid has been estimated to cost $26.5 million from the General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2011, depending on the time that it could be implemented. Upon Governor Dayton’s Executive Order, a far larger number of enrollees will be transferred into the program, leaving the state with an estimated net cost of $384 million.

On top of our already-immense social spending.

Over the course seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, we Whiteys stole this state from the Native Americans.

As part of the only reparations that really mattered – the free market – the state granted the tribes an exclusive franchise to the gambling industry.

And now Mark Dayton wants to wipe all that out:

Gov. Mark Dayton says if Minnesota expands gambling, a state-owned casino would be the best way to go about it.

Horse track owners have long sought to add slot machines. But the new DFL governor says so-called racinos will not produce as much cash for the state at a time when it’s desperate for new revenue.

But every little bit counts, when your entire platform is built around shaking Minnesota down for every nickel you can find to keep the unions assuaged.

“I’m not a fan of gambling myself, but I recognize a lot of people want to do it,” said Dayton. “I propose one state-owned and operated casino at the Mall of America, or possibly at the airport or downtown Minneapolis. Somewhere where the state would derive maximum financial benefit.”

How about on the reservations?

Where we promised that they’d be?

To be benefit the people whose land we stole?

I have broken the Tenth Commandment.

Quotes from “the Governor”:

“Under our administration, state government will do only what is necessary – no more, no less,”

[in] his first day in office [the governor authorized his Attorney General] to join a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Democrats, who controlled state government until Monday, had prevented the…attorney general from doing that last year.

[the Governor] was interrupted 14 times by applause, the loudest and most sustained coming when he declared: “What is failing us is not our people or our places. What is failing us is the expanse of government. But we can do something about it right here, right now, today.”

[the Governor proposed legislators, in special session, move to] give tax breaks to business owners and income tax credits for contributions to health savings accounts; reduce business regulations; provide protections from lawsuits; give the governor more say in state rule making; turn the state Department of Commerce into a partly private entity to focus on job creation; and require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Legislature to approve any increases to the state sales, income and franchise taxes.

[the Governor] also promised to improve education, protect natural resources, honor the role of family and “right-size state government by ensuring government is providing only the essential services our citizens need and our taxpayers can afford.”

“Let me be clear on one thing: Increasing taxes is off the table – as it will counter our efforts to provide economic growth”

“[This State] is open for business.”

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Governor.

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave, Governor Dayton was heard to say

“Meow.”

The Strib Editorial Board and the other varieties of intellectual roadkill that make up Minnesota’s left-wing pundocracy are all firmly agreed; “Tim Pawlenty’s eight years were a disaster”.

And if that crowd believes it, you know it’s untrue.

Brian McClung, mirabile dictu, got an op-ed in the Strib to set the record straight, and so he does:

On the final Sunday of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s eight years in office, the Star Tribune Editorial Board dropped a burning pile on the doorstep of the Governor’s Mansion, rang the bell and ran off without looking at Pawlenty’s complete record. Let’s step back and take a different look.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary declared “austerity” the top word of 2010. While austerity isn’t sexy — and may not garner as much cocktail party praise as issues Strib editorial writers prefer — Minnesota state government needed it badly. What Gov. Pawlenty did over the past eight years was a near-miracle. During the four decades before he took office, Minnesota government spending had grown by an average of more than 20 percent every two years; on his watch it was less than 2 percent.

Read the whole thing.  Use it to gargle and spit out the aftertaste of the leftymedia’s bilge-y meme.

Sources at the State Capitol inform me that the Senate Sergeant at Arms office is denying press credentials to all partisan news outlets.

This most notably includes The Uptake, a left-leaning videoblog that, in the past session, had more press credentials than any other media outlet except the Pioneer Press.

UPDATE: The source reminds me that The Uptake – and any other news outlet – will have the same access to press conferences that they’ve always had, and will have the same access to one-time daily credentials they’ve always had.  They will, however, not have regular access to the Senate floor during the session.

UPDATE 2: If you recall, the Uptake’s tenure on the Capitol Press Corps has been a rocky one.

UPDATE 3:  MNPublius’ Jeff Rosenberg tweets:

Wow. The MNGOP is throwing organizations it doesn’t like out of the Capitol? That’s horrible. #stribpol

I’ll hasten to remind Jeff that all partisan news outlets have been denied credentials to the floor.

All of them.  Not just “organizations it doesn’t like”, although that’s the sort of conclusion most of us expect leftybloggers to leap to in coming days.

This is as opposed to the last (DFL-controlled) session, when The Uptake was granted credentials, but Dan Ochsner of St. Cloud conservative station KNSI was denied credentials, purely (say my sources) because of his ideology (and the fact that he’d run for Senate against Tarryl Clark).

More momentarily.

Governor Dayton, as his first “substantial” act as governor, is going to put the state on the hook for hundreds of millions in permanent entitlement spending in exchange for thirty pieces of silver a short-term federal subsidy.

Twila Brase of the Citizens Council for Health Freedom writes:

On Tuesday, January 4th Wednesday, Januaray 5th at 9:30 a.m. Governor Mark Dayton is holding a special Obamacare signing ceremony to implement the federal law’s Medicaid expansion program.

So why protest?

The Medicaid expansion program funded by $1.4 billion federal taxpayer dollars will cost the State (YOU) $188 million in state taxpayer dollars. Federal dollars eventually disappear leaving Minnesota on the hook for all the newly entitled. The program is expected to increase Minnesota’s Medicaid population by 21% (163,000 people)…Other states have sued to stop the Obamacare Medicaid expansion mandate…Governor Dayton plans to implement it.

If you listen to the media or the leftyblogs, they make it sound like the $1,4 Billion is going to answer a lot of long-term problems.  It’s not – and the DFL and Dayton want to turn the short-term windfall into another never-ending obligation.

Just like they did with every single “surplus” from 1990 to 2002.

The protest will be in the Rotunda Room 130 of the State Capitol, the governor’s Lobby.  Please try to meet in Room 123, right off the Rotunda, by 9:00AM.  .

OK.  You’ve been sworn in.

Now, let’s get down to business.

You and your supporters – the unions and your family – ran a shameful, slimy campaign.  And had you not outspent Tom Emmer and the GOP by about 3:1 – using family money, and money expropriated from union dues-payers – and had the media not (I firmly believe) exploited the “Bandwagon Effect” using polling that was either fatally but conveniently flawed or (part of me believes) rigged, you would have come up well more than 10,000 votes shy of where you ended up.

But OK, politics ain’t beanbag, and that’s truly life in politics.  And now you’re governor.

Let me tell you where I, a mere non-plutocrat schlemiel citizen, stand today.

I believe you are a perfectly fine human being – but I don’t like your platform (to the extent you had one; I pretty well eviscerated it during the campaign). I don’t like what your party stands for.  I don’t like what your supporters want to expropriate from me, and I don’t like how your willing sycophants in the media are going to try to snow-job Minnesotans into demanding the Legislature allow it.

And while I’m just a single guy, a schlemiel with a blog, I’m going to fight that snow job, and I’m going to fight your platform, and I’m going to fight everything you stand for – your tax policies, your healthcare policies, your regulatory policies, all of it.  I will do whatever I can to stymie you.  If any member of the GOP majority in both houses flags in his or her drive to beat your agenda back,  they will hear from me, and from anyone I can get into joining me – and as we saw last November, I’m hardly alone.

I will do whatever I can to make them stiffen their backbones.  We sent them to St. Paul.  We can send them home.

Because even though 42% of my neighbors fell for your odious campaign, we – The People – must not flag or fail. I – we – will fight you throughout your entire term, we’ll fight you on Capitol Hill, we’ll fight you in the shop floor and by the water cooler, we’ll fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the alternative media, we shall defend our lives and lifelihoods, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight you on all 10,000 lakes, we  shall fight you in the colleges, we shall fight you and your agenda in the City Council meetings and at the caucuses and in the streets and in the op-ed pages; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, you make it to the end of this term without turning power over to Lt. Governor Prettner Solon, then our silent, browbeaten majority, motivated and guided by the groundswell that will drive Obama from office in two years and nauseated by the arrogance of the DFL and its union and bureaucrat and media minions, will carry on the battle until,  in God’s good time, the Tea Party and all the other courses of conservative discontent, with all their silent but implacable power and might, step forth and get you voted out of office in 2014. [1]

My goal is not to negotiate or compromise with you, Governor Dayton.  My goal is to stop you.

(more…)

We’ve established this for quite some time – DFL Minnesotans speak a very, very different language from Real Minnesotans.

Case in point – Dave Mindeman at mnpACT, doing his fifth annual “Ten Worst Political Persons In Minnesota of 2010” award (an awarad that lacks the cool, polished cachet of the Shooties, and which Mindeman admits is a riff on Olberman, which is sort of like admitting you’re copying diarrhea).  As a public service, I will use my patience, knowledge, and access to the DFL Dictionary to translate Mindeman’s piece from DFL into regular English.

You’re welcome:

There are some who don’t like the negative connotation…that’s why for the past couple of years I have also done a 10 Best list as well. But it does give me a chance to reflect on what I see in Minnesota politics…and believe me, a lot of it reflects the dark side.

Translation: “Dissent from my world view is evil.  But don’t call me McCarthyist!”.

Looking over the past lists, the range goes from that Lizard people guy to Katherine Kersten to the Star Tribune. Some people are consistently on the list so you will see some familiar names. Some are one shot wonders, but each year a crop of people always appear that affect political discourse in Minnesota.

Translation: “Unlike calling people I disagree with “the worst person”, which is just lovely for “discourse in Minnesota”.

Here is the “Worst” List for 2010:

10. Brad Brandon of the Berean Bible Baptist Church. (Note: he also wins the alliteration award). Brandon is a Hastings pastor who decided to defy the IRS and endorse an entire slate of candidates (mostly Republican with a sprinkling of Constitution) directly from his pulpit. He challenge anyone to file a complaint (and one has been), and proceeded to preach his sermon on the need to elect those God-fearing Republicans. You have to wonder what Erik Paulsen did to get on God’s bad side — he wasn’t endorsed.

Translation: “Dissent and civil disobedience were the supreme civic virtues – until January 20, 2009″.

9. Randy Brown (SD 56 GOP Webmaster). To the tune of “Who Let the Dogs Out”, Mr. Brown thought it would be funny to profile a video on his BPOU’s website that portrayed Democratic women in a less than flattering light…..while putting Republican women on display as the sex objects Mr. Brown seemed to be fantasizing about.

Translation: “Because goodness knows liberals would never, ever, ever act like a bunch of giggly schoolboys and catty cheerleaders. Darn obscure Republican webmasters , acting out that purely-GOP trait!”.

8. Zygi Wilf (Vikings Owner). Zygi was #6 on last year’s list and he is back again…for the same reason. The State of Minnesota is dealing with a monster deficit,

Translation: “If you damn teabaggers don’t cover every damn nickel of the Autopilot Budget, I will call you names!”

7. Minnesota Majority. This GOP sympathizer group seems to have made a mission out of discrediting a very good state election system.

Translation: “Do not question the Mighty Ritchie. Do not question the Mighty Ritchie. Do not question the Mighty Ritchie. Do not question the Mighty Ritchie. Do not question the Mighty Ritchie…”

6. Target Corp. In the “what were they thinking” department, Target Corp’s donations to the Tom Emmer campaign became a very public affair. And what’s worse, a carefully honed public image of a gay friendly corporation was nearly destroyed.

Translation: “And Target’s market cap went…er, wait, it kept pace and/or slightlty exceeded the retail sector since July, when the whole astroturf flap got started.  Never mind.”

Are corporate tax breaks really that important?

Translation: “And where did all those manufacturing and warehouse jobs with Target, 3M, Best Buy, Ecolab, Medtronic, Boston Sci, Minnesota Public Radio and every single other signficant manufacturere in Minnesota go, anyway?  Maybe we need a law to keep them from leaving!  Damn that Tim Pawlenty!”

Frankly, the idea that corporations could come close to making a “political” list like this is a little disturbing, but the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has changed all of that forever.

Translation: “Because Goddess forbid that the Teachers Union and the SEIU have any competition in the marketplace of paid-for-ideas!”

5. John Kline. Congressman Kline will soon take over the chairmanship of the Education and Labor Committee in the House. And along with that will be his total disregard for union rights and his big buck contributions from the for-profit education corporations. Along with the energy companies and the banking industry, etc, etc. He has nothing but disdain for health care reform as well as disdain for his own district.

Translation: “HEY!  ALL YOU TEABAGGING MORONS IN THE SECOND DISTRICT!  Don’t you know what’s GOOD for you?”

Roads and bridges in the 2nd get nothing from John Kline because he’s against earmarks. He’s saving us money… oh, wait, no he isn’t. Our money gets spent in other districts.

Translation: “The system is more important than its consequences.  Long live the system!”

4. Tony Sutton (Chair of the MN GOP). The provocative chairman of the MN GOP managed to open his mouth at every inopportune moment.

Translation: “My life would be so much nicer if Teabaggers just shut up and let me run everything”.

If his cohorts had worked as hard at real facts and figures as they did at distortions, they might have pulled out at least one of those statewide races.

Translation: “As opposed to the fact-chocked campaign that Alliance For A Better Minnesota ran!  I just get tingly thinking about it!”.

3. MN Chamber of Commerce. Outside of a few token Democratic endorsements, the MN Chamber was hell bent on reversing legislative power in Minnesota.

Translation: “Don’t those idiot wingnut teabaggers know what’s good for them?  Taxing business more makes it easier to do busienss!  Er – doesn’t it?”

2. Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty is on this list because he has flat out ruined Minnesota.

Translation: “Never mind the near-lowest in the nation unemployment – he RUINED us!  RUINED, I say!”

He has left us with an incredible deficit.

Translation: “And that fiscally-responsible DFL tried SO hard to control spending!  Really!

He presided over the biggest transfer of tax burden (state to local governement) in history.

Translation: “And then he forced all those cities to spend, spend, spend!  He’s a WITCH, I tell you!”

He watched a bridge fall down and then he vetoed transportation funding at every opportunity.

Translation: “Why, if we had finished the Central Corridor and built a network of ethanol stations, that bridge would still be standing!”

1. Michele Bachmann. Michele has topped this list for 3 years in a row

Translation: “I ran out of ideas”.

Glad to help.

Happy New Year, Dave!

As this post appears at 8:30AM, Mark Dayton will be sworn in as Minnesota’s 40th Governor (UPDATE:  Oops.  I got that off of a state website.  It was apparently wrong; the swearing in will apparently be held at noon.  Thanks, State of Minnesota!).

Time to give the guy his due.

He won the election, by whatever means.  He is now the governor.  Mine, as well as all of the people who voted for him.

So congratulations, Governor Dayton.  Enjoy the inauguration!  And while I oppose you, your agenda, and everything about you, I sincerely hope you do a good job.

As we wait for the new, GOP-controlled Legislature to take office, Kurt Zellers K sends a message via a Strib Op-Ed that the age of the obsequious RINO is over:

The path begins with private-sector job creation. High taxes, mandates, and excessive and redundant regulation are hobbling Minnesota’s business community.

Pro-growth policies that provide incentives for business development and job creation, relief from taxes and regulations, and a freeing of market resources to enhance Minnesota’s competitiveness are needed to jump-start the state’s economy.

Music to my ears.

(Hint, hint, Representative Abeler).

Regulatory reform, a necessity this legislative session, is a common-ground issue for Republicans and Democrats.

Of course, the two sides have different definitions of “reform” – but it’s good to seize the term first.

Here’s the part I find interesting (emphasis added):

Incentives for economic recovery will require sacrifice. With a $6 billion budget deficit, some tough decisions will need to be made. Minnesota families have made changes in their spending habits to live within limited means. It is time for state government to do the same.

Each month Minnesota is spending $200 million more than it takes in. This is not a temporary problem.

Over the next two years, government spending is anticipated to continue to outpace available revenue by 14 percent.

That our DFL-choked government spent too much over this past four years is not a secret – but we know as well as Zellers does that the $6.2 Billion figure was an accounting extrapolation of the out-year budget’s hikes from the 2009 biennium.

So the only reason to use the figure is to…

…hoist the DFL by their own noxious petard.

Especially with a sendoff like this:

Republican leaders find this situation unacceptable and support a sustainable approach to government spending that looks beyond the two-year budget cycle and is grounded in living within our means.

Tax increases are not a viable solution for resolving the short-term budget deficit or stabilizing the structural need for reform.

Words to live by.

Our new GOP legislature starts up business today – and Mr. Dilettante has as good a look ahead as you will find anywhere in town today.

MDE’s Andy Post on Dayton’s appointment of Sue Haigh – former Ramco Commissioner and Registered Spending Offender – to head the Met Council:

Susan Haigh spent 10 years as a Ramsey Commissioner (1995-2005) and once proposed a 45% pay increase for herself and other board members.

Like Dayton, Haigh has also received disproportional amounts of campaign contributions from labor unions. Below is a part of her list of contributors from the 2002 re-elect campaign for Commissioner. Full report here.

2002 Haigh campaign contributors partial list, courtesy MDE

Dayton’s work on his cabinet contradicts what he told the Star Tribune in early December, where he stated he would likely appoint his Management and Budget commissioner and his Revenue commissioner given the tough budget work ahead.

Saying something and doing the opposite; as we learned during the extended back-and-forth over his budget proposals during the campaign, it’s something can get used to from Dayton.

Post also notes…:

Since that story was published, Dayton has appointed few commissioners, not including M&B or Revenue. However, he has had time to thoroughly plan his blue jeans inaugural ball, which has had wall to wall press coverage. Will the Governor-elect be prepared to lead Minnesota on January 3rd without a functioning cabinet?

Perhaps he thinks the SEIU and “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” will do all of the cabinetry for him.

More on Dayton cabinet appointments later today.

Jeff at MNPublius aims big.  After taking his de rigeur shot at departing Governor Pawlenty (trying to portray one of Minnesota’s most significant governors of the past 100 years as “nothing special)”, Rosenberg reviews a list the Governor released of his major accomplishments, and asks:

In eight years, what would we like a similar document from the Dayton administration to include?

If I were a DFLer, I’d be hoping for “at least four years of actual credible service before retiring to Vail rather than losing the 2014 election”, as opposed to a 2014 “Look back at Governor Prettner Solon’s Year In Office”.   The Vegas Over/Under on Dayton’s actual time in office is hanging around two years; bookies are betting on “alien invasion” as the trigger.

Rosenberg has a wish list:

Here are a few accomplishments I hope Mark Dayton will be able to spotlight:

* A fairer tax system in which the rich pay the same percentage of their income as the poor and middle class. [Notwithstanding the fact that “the rich” are both undefined and already overtaxed]

* A sustainable budget that’s in the black, with a significant budget reserve to cushion the blow in the next recession. [That’s one of the left’s most irritating memes; the idea that government should skim just a leeeeeeetle bit more out of the parts of our society that actuall produce wealth, to make sure that the part that doesnt’ – government – needn’t want for a thing when all of the useful people are suffering.  Kinda shows where their loyalties lie, if one needed any clarification]

* A thriving economy, with new business being created and established businesses making Minnesota a destination [Ah.  How would Jeff propose that “Governor Dayton” do that?  Perhaps by passing a law requiring business list Minnesota as a destination?  What sort of miracle does Mr. Rosenberg propose that “Governor Dayton” do to mandate this?  Will it be the “fair tax system”, or the “surplus”, that’ll make Minnesota a “destination?”  ]

* A fully-funded social safety net and educational system. [Both have all the funding they need, and always have.  Holding the “social safety net” – aka “subsidy of poverty” – above the rest of the economy merely creates a permanent class of government service consumers, removing any motivation to get off poverty.  And our education system needs reform, not more money to feed Tom Dooher’s addictions]

* Innovations in education that reverse Minnesota’s decline nationally and internationally during the Pawlenty years. [“Insert Miracle Here”.  Minnesota’s “declines” are almost universally expressed in terms of “how lavishly we fund government”.  To the extent that there have been declines, they’re the same ones shared by all statist societies in trying to compete with more  nimble, more  market-driven societies.  Minnesota’s “Golden Age” happened at a time when the world was still recovering from World War II; a fat, happy, unionized workforce and a big, dumb government were survivable errors in 1970, since there was no competition; today, if we don’t change the path that the DFL and Rosenberg would put us on, they’ll merely make us a Cold California]

* Equal marriage for all Minnesotans. [Ah.  So that’s what’s holding the economy back.]

What accomplishments do you hope the Dayton administration will produce? Leave your own additions in the comments.

I hope he accomplishes a graceful exit in 2014, turning office over to a good conservative governor.  The media would caterwaul that the new governor is an “extremist”, but they’re too busy wondering if the DFL will become a third party by 2020.

January 3: Session kicks off.  Mark Dayton throws a “blue jeans” inaugural.  Musical highlight: the “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” Choir singing “Look For The Union Label”.  For four solid hours.

January 4:  The Humphrey Institute releases a poll showing that 80% of Minnesotans want the Legislature to pass Mark Dayton’s budget immediately.  Bloggers point out that the poll included only respondents from Kenwood and Crocus Hill. MPR reports that it’s a nice day for a bowl of Cream of Rice.

January 5: The Star Tribune’s Joe Doyle starts a three part series on “obscene corporate profits” and how they benefit “the rich walking among us”.

January 6: Dayton releases his first budget, calling for $40 billion in spending. Delivering the announcement in blue jeans with the SEIU Singers humming “We Are The World” in the background, Dayton notes that he plans to increase revenues to $41 billion. “We’ll finally have a surplus!” he exclaims, as a crowd described by the Star/Tribune as “50,000 womenandchildren at risk” applauds in the Capitol rotunda.  The plan calls for big tax hikes on “obscene corporate profits” and “the rich walking among us”.

January 10: The last of Dayton’s Iron Range supporters are finally bailed out of the Ramsey County lockup after the inaugural.

January 12:  Speaker Zellers refers the Dayton budget to the House Very Special Boom Zoom Committee” – actually a group of legislators’ children wearing “Junior Representative” t-shirts.  Bill dies, and is colored on, and has juice spilled on it.

January 16:  Lori Sturdevant notes that “a seasoned group of bi-partisan policy wonks say that the GOP risks getting tossed out by an angry mob if they don’t raise taxes.  Conservative bloggers point out that “bi-partisan” in this case means DFL and Green Party members.  Presented with the allegations, WCCO TV reports that Brett Favre just loves Chipotle Big Bols.

January 19: Governor Dayton submits a budget bill involving $42 billion in spending and $ 45 billion in taxes.  “A three billion dollar surplus”, Dayton announces to a group of senior citizens (“at least 20,000”, according to the Strib’s Pat Doyle) at the Hockey Hall Of Fame in Eveleth.  “It’s like a billion hat tricks!”.  Keith Ellison solemnly proclaims that the only reason not to vote for the bill is “racism.  Racism from all you crackers.  Pay the **** up, crackers”.

January 27: Speaker Zellers forwards the bill to the House Budget Committee.  The Mississippi House Budget Committee.  Which loses the bill.

February 3: The Humphrey Institute releases a poll showing that eleventy-teen percent of Minnesotans demand tax and spending hikes.  KARE 11 News finds eleventy-teen people on the street that agree.  Frank Newport of the Gallup Group points out that ‘Eleventy-teen” isn’t even a real number, but something Dennis the Menace used to say to show that he couldn’t count.  Rachel Stassen-Berger responded with a piece on “The Override Six, Two Years Later:  Profiles In Courage And Extremism”.

February 18:  Governor Dayton, speaking at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn Center, holds up James Blount, a three-year-old boy, in front of cameras; notes that “this boy is going to go hungry because of GOP extremism and intransigence tonight”.

February 19:  Conservative bloggers point out that the “boy”, Blount, was actually a schnauzer that had wandered over from a nearby housing development.  Eric Black of the MinnPost responded with a piece on how animal shelters are suffering under GOP rule.

February 27:  Dayton submits his third budget, a $39 Billion plan that is very similar to the budget he proposed during the campaign.  Conservative bloggers point out that it has exactly the same problems it had during the campaign; it assumes “the rich” (in this case, Minnesotans who are still employed) will pay the taxes rather than moving or getting Mark Dayton’s financial advisor, that the state can fire contractors whose jobs are both legally mandated and involve skills the state’s workforce doesn’t actually have, among many others.

February 28: The Star Tribune “Minnesota Poll” claims that Minnesotans want the Dayton budget passed, that the people want to carry Governor Dayton through the streets on their shoulders, and that violence is about to break out against the Minnesota GOP.  Bloggers point out that the survey was conducted entirely at one “Drinking Liberally” event in Minneapolis.  Informed of the allegations, KTCA’s “Almanac” embarks on a three-week special on the history of Danish cooking in Minnesota.

March 20:  Speaker Zellers assigns the budget to the House Government Operations and Finance Committee.

March 28:  Rep. Quam (GOP) of Byron demands that the DFL members of the committee play a game of Twister on the House floor if they want the budget to get out of committee.  The committee members comply.

April 8:  Nick Coleman, writing his new colum in the Wayzata Shopper, remembers when his father was running things.  “The wingnuts wanted to play Twister for a better Minnesota”.

April 12: The Dayton budget comes to a vote in the House.  It loses decisively, on state party lines.  To signify the defeat, Speaker Zellers ties the budget to a string hanging from the ceiling of the House chamber, and members of the House Republican Caucus whack at it like a piñata.

April 15: Speaker Zellers tells a cheering crowd of 10,000 at the Tea Party rally on the capitol grounds that the budget is dead on arrival.  Six pro-tax protesters stand across the street wanly chanting in favor of the Dayton budget.

April 16: The Strib editorial reports that a crowd of “dozens” at the Tea Party rally were evenly split, showing the deep partisan divide in Minnesota politics today.

May 1: , Governor Dayton start making contingency plans for a shutdown.  Bloggers point out that the Governor’s plans include evacuating the Governor’s office to Vail, and euthanizing animals in all state parks.  Told of the allegations, Keri Miller of MPR wonders on the air “whatever happened to bipartisanship?”

May 14: A day ahead of the deadline, the GOP Caucus introduces a $33 Billion budget that makes steep spending cuts and balances the budget with no new taxes.  It passes on a straight party line vote, is sent to the Senate, which also passes the budget by the end of the day.  The bill is sent to the Governor.

May 15  Mark Dayton appears at the Hockey Hall of Fame, dressed in a Minnesota Wild Uniform, with Minnesota hockey legend John Mayasich, to veto the GOP budget. “Minnesota demands that we do the responsible thing and pass my budget without all this debate and democracy and crap”, he says, as Mayasich looks on.   Bloggers point out that “Mayasich” is actually Alliance for a Better Minnesota chair Denise Cardinal in a bald wig.  Told of the allegations, KARE 11 news re-runs the January 4 Humphrey Poll.

May 16:  The Strib runs a piece by reporter Pat Doyle, an expose of the “Casualties of the Shutdown”.  Doyle, clearly gunning for a Pulitzer, writes a heartrending tale of Minnesotans standing in line at soup kitchens, of families (mostly “womenandchildren”) living in huge “Zellerville” on the Capitol Mall living on McDonalds coffee, and people lining up to throw themselves off the High Bridge.  Bloggers point out that government hasn’t actually shut down yet, that nothing Doyle wrote had actually happened, and that the piece was clearly pre-written weeks earlier and run by mistake.  Told of the allegations, MPR’s Keri Miller runs a two-hour broadcast on “How Blogs Provide A Chilling Effect On Free Speech”, featuring a bipartisan panel of Larry Jacobs and Nick Coleman.

May 17: Dayton demands the Legislature pass his budget.

May 18: Nobody at the legislature responds.

July 1: Minnesota’s state government shuts down.

July 2:  The Strib re-runs the Doyle piece.

July 22: The state budget office notes that business activity is increasing, and tax receipts are rising.

July 23: The Strib editorial board runs an extended interview with Elmer Anderson, who gruffly demands that Minnesota Republicans “think about what’s best for Minnesota” and adopt Dayton’s budget immediately without any of that “commie wingnut debating crap”.  Bloggers point out that Elmer Anderson died in 1998, and “Anderson’s” rhetoric read like Nick Coleman writing with a bag over his head.  Told of the allegations, MPR’s Mark Zdechlik embarked on a two-week series on “What we can learn about Democracy from the Iroquois”.  Salient observation: the Iroquois tradition of “Local Tribe Aid” was considered inviolate.

August 18: The State Budget Office notes that, with no government expenditures and business thriving, the state is in a surplus.

September 2: Katherine Kersten’s column, “Happy Days Are Here Again”, notes that Minnesota is in a much better state with the government shut down.  Lori Sturdevant muses in her column that in Wendy Anderson’s day, the governor would have told the State Patrol to arrest Kersten for “making terroristic threats”.  Bloggers point out that that is utterly absurd, there is no record of any such demand, anywhere.  There is no response to these allegations.

September 23: With no budget in place and government shut down for weeks, Mark Dayton, operating from his office in Vail, orders the National Guard called out to react to what Dayton’s press secretary Tinucci calls the “Terrorist Threats”.  Bloggers point out that the “threat” was the conclusion of Sturdevant’s slanderous column about Kersten.  The National Guard’s commandant says “the paperwork is in process, call back in July”.

September 24: Dayton exercises his unallotment power on the GOP’s budget.  Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch is left visibly speechless on hearing the news.

September 25: Finished with his line item vetoes, Governor Dayton signs a 27 billion dollar budget.  Alliance For A Better Minnesota’s Denise Cardinal notes that “Mark Dayton has always been the budget-cutting candidate”.  But Andrea Outrage-Guevara, president of Minnesota’s “Alliance of WomynAndChildryn”, speaking at a rally on the capitol grounds that drew “Millions” (according to the Strib), demands that all budget cuts be reinstate immediately or “Dayton will be ousted”.

October 15:  Dayton, relocated his office from Vail, sits on a whoopie cushion left in his office by Tony Sertich.