There is a flyer floating around Eagan this past week. It is prepared and paid for by the Republican Party of Minnesota as an “independent expenditure”. The one I got hold of is directed at Senator Jim Carlson….it says;<\/p>\n
DEBT<\/strong><\/p>\nIT FEELS LIKE A TEN TON<\/strong><\/p>\nGORILLA ON YOUR BACK<\/strong><\/p>\nSenator Jim Carlson is wasting your tax dollars on these items in the DEBT BILL?<\/strong><\/p>\n–$2 million for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n–$11 million for the Como Zoo Gorilla & Polar Bear Upgrade<\/strong><\/p>\n–$15 million for the St. Paul Ordway<\/strong><\/p>\n–$22 million for the Minneapolis Planetarium<\/strong><\/p>\nCall Senator Carlson today….It’s time to end Wasteful Government Spending!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0Now, we know that’ll act on Dave Mindemann – who, I think it’s fair to say, favors a “high tax, high spendign, high “Service”” model of goverhment – like a red cape in front of a bull.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, this is the Republican definition of waste? We apparently shouldn’t keep up the cultural and affordable family venue part of our economy? If we are not going to maintain the Como Zoo, then scrap it. I want the Republicans to go on the record. They want Como Zoo to be torn up and plowed under. Give the animals away. Sell the land and tell everyone that this free family venue is no longer worth the bother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Someone get the lad some smelling salts and tell him to get a grip.<\/p>\n
I live in Saint Paul. I’ve taken my kids to Como many, many times.\u00a0 It’s one of Saint Paul’s little hidden treasures – and it’s a freebie!\u00a0 It’s a freebie because of me, <\/em>the Saint Paul taxpayer!\u00a0 The walkways, the veterinarian, the food they throw to the seals – I pay for it!\u00a0 So I feel not the slightest compunction about taking my kids there; I did my part<\/em>.\u00a0 I agree to do my part of it, every time I pay my Saint Paul property tax bill, among many many others (including state and federal taxes).\u00a0<\/p>\nBut the appropriation in question isnt’ one to run the whole zoo; it’s to remodel the Gorilla and Polar Bear exhibits.\u00a0 Not <\/em>“run the zoo or tear it down”.\u00a0<\/p>\nTo call the issue “remodel the gorilla\/polar bear facilities or <\/em>tear down the zoo” is inflammatory, obtuse and, worse, dishonest.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd at a time when Minnesota and Saint Paul are hurting (largely due to the profligacy of the DFL-controlled legislature), would it kill the polar bears and gorillas to wait a year or two, in their utterly adequate <\/em>current facilities?<\/p>\nDitto with the other line items in the flyer.\u00a0 The Sculpture Garden and the Ordway are all built, paid for, and running just fine with what they have.\u00a0\u00a0 They could use <\/em>some upgrades, sure – what couldn’t?\u00a0 The Planetarium is a little different – it would replace a perfectly good planetarium torn down when Minneapolis built its boondoggle of a Central Library.\u00a0 But do they each need millions from the public coffers in mid-recession<\/em>?<\/p>\nMake the Ordway take care of itself. Let those ticket prices skyrocket out of reach for the average Minnesotan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One wonders if Mindemann has tried to take a family to the Ordway lately.\u00a0 Ticket prices are <\/em>out of reach for a helluvva lot of Minnesotans.<\/p>\nAnd as for the Minneapolis Planetarium? …Not surprising these days, but as a person very interested in astronomy, it is a shame that Minnesota can’t support an educational opportunity like this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A “person very interested in astromomy” might also note that the Twin Cities has several other planetaria – from the U of M to Como High School 0- \u00a0that should be able to bridge the gap until it’s make economic sense, <\/em>perhaps, to replace the old Minneapolis one.<\/p>\nAnd, again, the issue isn’t “appropriate the money now<\/em> or do without forever<\/em>“; it’s “maybe these are appropriations that can wait until we’re not in a freaking recession<\/em>.<\/p>\nYessir, we need to get that 10 ton gorilla out of the room all right, except it is not at Como. That gorilla is Republican hypocrisy and it resides quite visibly at the Capitol in St. Paul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0The only primate in the room is the howler monkey that’s shrieking “give us our money or tear everything down!”.<\/p>\n
Someone call animal control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m willing to go back and forth with people who favor the so-called “high-tax, high service” model of government. “Mighty big of ya, Berg!” Well, no – that’s how democracy works; we each go out and plug for our various positions, and at the end of the day some sort of compromise gets reached.\u00a0 One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,144,2],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-8602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats","category-governor","category-minnesota-politics","tag-pawlenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22558,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8602\/revisions\/22558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}