Shot in the Dark

Tag: Shutdownpocalypse 2011

  • Do You Remember…

    …last winter?  After Congresswoman Giffords was shot, and the entire American Left was wetting its pants about the most oblique possible references to “violent rhetoric” and “the degredation in tone?” Ryan Lyk of the Minnesota College Republicans snapped this shot – of someone in a Minnesota Association of Professional Employees T-shirt – at the demonstrations…

  • We Can Learn A Lot From History

    As we face a new shutdown – our first in six years – it might be useful to go back in time and look at this account of life, and death, during the’05 shutdown. From the late, great “Kool Aid Report”, here it is.

  • The Capitol Steps

    I went down to the Capitol last night to see what was going on. I walked up John Ireland past the State Office Building, and saw people – many if not most of them wearing identical T-shirts from the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees – gathering in knots and clots around the Mall, many carrying…

  • To Make Things Easier

    To: State Employees (who find themselves on-camera with one of the local TV stations that are devoting slavering coverage to the (DFL side of the) shutdown. From: Mitch Berg, schnook taxpayer. Re: Priorities Dear state employees: Sorry about the whole shutdown situation. You do realize that Governor Dayton could end this whole thing at any…

  • Logical End Result

    Joe Doakes of Como Park writes: It’s actually getting comical, reading the breathless scare stories about the shut-down. As if there were no way to handle these calamities: No State Troopers! Oh, gee, that would suck. Those guys don’t do any real law enforcement anyway, Sheriff’s Deputies do. I recall a judge once aptly described…

  • Dayton: Rejected

    Ramco Judge Kathleen Gearin has ruled on “critical services” for a potential upcoming government shutdown: Ramsey County Judge Kathleen Gearin’s ruling came Wednesday, just two days before a state government shutdown would begin. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature would have to agree on a budget before Friday to avoid the scenario. Dayton…

  • A Pre-Shutdown Note To The GOP Legislative Majority

    I’ve said this to some of you before.  As Mark Dayton’s little game of chicken careens toward its intended denouement, I’ll say it again. Come back with your shield, or on it. You hold the high ground.  Use it.  We didn’t send you there to cave. And I don’t believe, in your collective heart of…

  • Elections Count, Part MCMCCLXXIII

    Joe Doakes of Como Park writes: When the state government shuts down, it won’t be spending tax money, right? So why should I pay state taxes for the portion of the government that’s shut down? I’m willing to pay for what I get, but fair is fair – if they’re not providing the service, I…

  • I Know It’s From The Lesser Conservative Station And All…

    …but this was pretty good. Good enough that the NARN’s going to have to find a way to raise the ante…

  • The Top Five Things You Need To Know About A Shutdown

    I didnt’ write it, but I wish I had: Top 5 Things Pass it along. There may be a Thing #6 to keep in mind as well; although “we” – or the 43% of our neighbors who really aren’t concerned enough about this state’s future to realize what an eternal road to Palookaville “progressivism” is…

  • Dayton: “Let’s Waste More Money”

    I got an email from a friend of mine who works in Information Technology: I was riding in a van last night with a state worker (going to our sons’ soccer game). He said that the state workers are being “laid off” this time rather than furloughed like in 2005. Furlough means that they basically…

  • The Imperial Court

    Joe Doakes from Como Park writes: The media is fond of trotting out Political Science teachers to opine on political topics. Here’s one I’d like to see them asked: In a system with three co-equal branches, what is the legal basis for the Court to run the state if the Legislature and Governor won’t? Where…

  • Dayton’s Mission Accomplished

    The Mission: Step 1: Induce a government shutdown specifically to cause pain among those dependent on government. Step 2:  Get a compliant media to fix blame on the legislature; Sylvia Hernandez Cruz holds her 5-year-old daughter on her lap and practices letters, as she sits on a couch in the small rambler she rents on…

  • I’m Confused…

    …by the latest round of “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” ads, the “state workers” castigating the legislature for the shutdown (being planned by and for Governor Dayton’s political benefit). Are road crews actually going to go out and remove all the guard rails from the highways before the shutdown happens? That seems just a little…bitchy?…

  • Behind The Kombucha Curtain

    I had a conversation last night with an acquaintance in the healthcare industry – someone who works in finance for a Twin Cities healthcare provider, and who has been attending “a ton of meetings” lately with officials from the State of Minnesota about the upcoming shutdown.  My source wants to remain anonymous for reasons that’ll…

  • The Duality Of Existence: Twin Cities Media Edition

    At its very, very best, watching the Twin Cities mainstream media covering inter-party politics between the DFL and MNGOP is a zen-like experience; you hope, in the best of all possible worlds, for some rudimentary balance. To wit: Bob Von Sternberg over at The DFL Casserole The Strib’s “Hot Dish Politics” blog tips his hand…

  • Preponderance Of Evidence

    Dayton planned the shutdown all along. As that great observer of Minnesota political nature Nick Coleman used to say (and say, and say, and say, and say…), “connect the dots, people”. The MNGOP will help you connect them. Evidence of Dayton Administration’s Efforts To “Create Chaos” & “Greatest Possible Pain” During Shutdown Spread the word.

  • Stalling

    As the Attorney General files to get the courts to determine what workers are “essential”…: In her petition, Swanson asked the court to fund a broad expanse of state services and appoint a “special master” — essentially a shutdown referee, to sort the details. …Governor Dayton goes back to his old dodge: Dayton offered a…

  • Dayton, Liar

    Mark Dayton, in a letter to state contractors, Governor Daytons…well, lies through his teeth: Dayton Administration Distributes False Information Dayton, of course, vetoed a perfectly fine balanced budget – several of them, in fact, many of them so close together that there can be no reason other than Dayton having planned for a shutdown at…

  • You Know Who You Are

    You depend on government. You are a government worker.  You’re looking at the budget negotiations, and noticing that at the Department of Transportation, even though the Governor and the Legislature were eight tenths of a percent apart on their budgets – something even the Hatfields could have negotiated with the McCoys – Dayton vetoed the…

  • Dayton’s Smoking Guns – Gun #2

    Yesterday, we discussed the email in the Department of Human Services that indicated that it’s common knowledge among higher ups in the DHS that Governor Dayton is actively promoting the government shutdown to cause all the misery it can, to try to turn it toward the Legislative majority. But that’s just the beginning. A highly-placed…

  • Dayton’s Smoking Guns – Gun #1

    This email – purportedly from a State Department of Human Services employee – surfaced over the weekend, and has been making the rounds of the conservative blogs in Minnesota: In other words, if the leak is accurate, Dayton has been inducing the government shutdown for the DFL’s political gain.  He’s sandbagged the budget process to try to…

  • Wanted: Horse Traders

    Setting a single, no-haggle price was a great publicity point for the late, great Saturn marque of cars. Of course, they are a late, great marque of cars. I’m not sure if no-haggle pricing was the issue; GM’s bad management had a lot more to do with it. But whatever no-haggle pricing had or had…

  • “Compromise”

    There are some in Minnesota – think the Independence Party and the wonky class who love tinkering with the machinery of government (pardon the redundancy) who believe in “compromise” because to them, the process of goverment is the goal of government.  Principle be damned – Process is the golden idol. There are others in Minnesota…

  • The Incredible Shrinking Governor: Through The Years

    Let’s go back in time: 2005: Confronted with a nonspecific threat of terrorism, then-Senator Mark Dayton shuts down his Senate office in DC, leaving the job of doing the nation’s business to the 534 other Congresspeople who, for whatever reason, didn’t. His idea of leadership – to lead the run away from doing his job.…