Shot in the Dark

Tag: Shutdownpocalypse 2011

  • Media Lip Prints on Mark Dayton’s Butt, Part III

    Yesterday and Monday, we went over the chronology of the last-minute negotiations and back-and-forth leading up to the State Government shutdown, which started seventeen months ago last night.  The abbreviated time-line: On June 29, the GOP made an offer.  It traded giving some ground on revenue for some movement on social issues. On the morning…

  • Media Lip-Prints On Mark Dayton’s Butt, Part I

    The DFL – and, more accurately, its’ big-money PR operation “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” – have been trying to repeat a couple of Big Lies often enough that, over the course of the next two years, a plurality of Minnesotans agree with them. Again. One of them is the myth of the “do-nothing legislature”.…

  • The Republican Surplus

    Minnesota Management and Budget announced today that, notwithstanding original reports that today’s budget forecast was going to be a billion dollars light, today it was announced that the state is 876 million in the black. Let’s be clear about something; we have this surplus because the state’s economy grew.  And it grew because Mark Dayton’s…

  • Showy, Shallow, Shrill: Your 2011 DFL Caucus!

    As little as governmetn at any level does that’s of any worth, there is a certain amount of responsibility involved. When it became apparent that there’s a chance the Fed might shut down (or at least cut back its non-debt spending), both Denise Cardinal “Governor Dayton” and Rep. Keith Downey made moves, via their various…

  • As The Gun Belches Smoke

    Governor Dayton engineered the shutdown, specifically to cause as much pain as possible, under the command of his various union benefactors. Andy Post ad MDE has the smoking gun: New communications obtained by Minnesota Democrats Exposed today offer further proof the longest and largest state government shutdown in history was plotted out between Gov. Dayton and…

  • The Settlement

    The Legislature and the Governor passed a budget last night. Downsides The K12 Budget Shift:  The budget “borrows”  money from the next year’s K12 budget.  It’s just plain bad policy – but such was the price of “compromise”.   Naturally, the GOP’s good faith is met by DFL perfidy; though they and the governor demanded,…

  • “The Way We Used To Do Things In Minnesota”

    The Twin Cities media have largely been dutiful stenographers during the shutdown, carrying the DFL’s message pretty much verbatim while gundecking the GOP pretty consistently. Let’s let all that slide for the moment.  We’ll come back to it, naturally. But let’s talk for a moment about the “Old” Twin Cities media’s moldiest meme; that there…

  • And They’re Back

    At around 11ish, Governor Dayton launched the special session to bang out a new state budget. The good news;  while the MNGOP, and conservatives, are unhappy with the fact that we’re “borrowing” $1.4 Billion more than the state has in revenues (from the next biennium’s revenues), the compromise seems likely to include some things that…

  • Swag

    Joe Doakes of Como Park writes about the bonding bill that is one of Mark Dayton’s demands to end his shutdown. It’s infuriating. Naturally, the Star Trib editors praise the bonding bill, saying “Not all government borrowing is created equal.” They’re exactly correct, of course. Sometimes government borrows money to build unnecessary buildings that benefit…

  • Mark Yer Scorecards

    As we kick off the special session sometime this week, probably, Gary Gross at LFR tallies up winners and losers from the regular session. Business?  They get a draw: Minnesota businesses still pay too high an income tax but at least it isn’t getting worse. With this settled for at least another 2 years, businesses…

  • Shutdownapacalypse: Lessons Learned

    The budget deal’s not done yet; it remains to see if the July 14 compromise will get through the special session that, we are told, is upcoming. But I’ll suggest that we can learn the following lessons so far: You Can Never “Compromise” With The DFL: Remember three days ago?  When the leftybloggers and the…

  • I Give It A 75

    I sorta spiked the ball in the endzone yesterday with the news that Gov. Dayton had, more or less, accepted the GOP’s budget deal. Was I premature?  Of course.  But as I noted yesterday, even if they call the play back,  spiking the ball is fun.  And what the heck – I was happy, and…

  • So Here’s A Question For All You Regulatory Types Out There

    As part of its passive-aggressive, “let the peasants feel the pain” approach to the shutdown, the Dayton Administration shut down all of the state’s publicly-visible databases. Including that of the Campaign Finance Board.  I know this, because whenever the Strib tries to pass some businessman or private citizen off as a “non-partisan” commentator on politics,…

  • MNGOP WIN!

    Dayton has agreed to the GOP budget: Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday morning that he is willing to accept Republicans’ June 30 budget offer, which would close a $1.4 billion budget difference by delaying payment of school funds and borrowing against the state’s tobacco settlement. “This is the only viable option that’s potentially available,” Dayton…

  • Fending Off The Sock Puppet Army

    KSTP is running an online preference poll on the shutdown. Get in there and vote. Early and often.

  • When Passive-Aggression Collides With Alcoholism

    The local media – who have mostly been serving as stenographers for Governor Dayton so far in this shutdown – have finally found the human interest story they needed. There’s good news and bad news: The state shutdown means Miller-Coors will have to stop selling beer in Minnesota. State officials have told the company, it…

  • The Dayton Dustbowl: The Gucci Marionette

    People ask “why is Dayton squiggling so hard to avoid any form of negotiation with the GOP?  He’s clearly beaten; public opinion largely opposes his “all taxes” approach to the deficit, and the GOP isn’t getting browbeaten into submission anymore?” It makes no sense, if you assume that Mark Dayton is making any kind of…

  • The Media Informs Us…

    …that the current Minnesota government shutdown is the longest in US history. Most of the citizens of Minnesota responded by going to work today.

  • Chanting Points Memo: On Behalf Of All Conservatives…

    …let me answer the standard-issue DFL chanting point that you read on virtually ever tweet, ad and TV ad the DFL puts out: “The Republicans want to (do horrible things) to protect millionaires”. Let’s settle this. None of us gives a rat’s ass about millionaires.  Bupkes.  Zip.  Nada. It’s about reforming government. It’s about stopping…

  • The Big “L”

    In 1994, disgusted by the GOP’s cave-in to the Clinton Administration on the 1994 Crime Bill, I ditched the GOP and went over to the Libertarian Party. Michael Medved’s ridicule aside, it was a great experience.  I learned a lot about how politics does, and doesn’t, work.  Part of the learning was from being a…

  • The Shutdown…

    …was two pages away from being resolved. And Dayton is always two pages away from resolving it. And no matter what the “pain”, he’s going to stay two pages, and no less than two pages, away from resolving it. Array

  • I Shall Form…A Commission!

    I hereby announce the formation of a budget resolution commission.  We shall present recommendations to Governor Dayton and the Legislature to help resolve the budget crisis. I’d like to note that this commission is better than bi-partisan – it’s tri-partisan!   Beyond that, it actually contains a majority of DFLers. It includes representatives from the world…

  • Carlson And Mondale: Marinading In Hypocrisy

    I just finished watching former governor – as in, “not the governor anymore” – Arne Carlson on Channel 11’s morning show.  The former – as in, “hasn’t been elected in 17 years” – governor was promoting his “independent” budget commission. I didn’t hear much; I was too busy yelling at the TV.  Having that smug,…

  • Where This Is All Leading

    Joe Doakes from Como Park writes: Governor Dayton wants another $2 billion, supposedly paid for by the richest 2%. Nonsense, never happen. The rich are rich, they’re not stupid. They won’t voluntarily hand over an extra $2 billion – they’ll hire tax lawyers and CPAs to hide their money. Worst case, the rich will move…

  • The Dayton Dustbowl: The “Political Stunt”

    The Minnesota Legislative GOP, in the waning hours last Thursday before the shutdown, introduced a “lights-on” bill – a bill that would provide a couple of weeks of short-term funding to keep state services going to those who need them, and are genuinely dependent on the state. Governor Dayton dismissed the bill as a “stunt”.…