I think it is pretty safe to say that Patty Wetterling has destroyed any and all respect or credibility she had in politics, and in record breaking time, under a month.

She ran a issue-less campaign for Congress in 2004 and with the help of the media, was never exposed for her complete lack of knowledge of the issues. She lost that race by 9%.

Then in 2005 she started running for the US Senate, following a similar campaign model as she used in 2004. (Keep your mouth shut until you see a poll showing public support for something, then say that or Find out what your Big Money PACs and Groups want to hear, and say that. Oh and let everyone else do the talking.) She was once again trying to keep quiet enough so that no one would notice she was in over her head. The perfect storm of her past allies like Emily’s list, MoveOn, EdMN, etc. rallied behind her opponent (Klobuchar) and the money followed, leaving Wetterling no option but to save face and withdraw.

Then the speculations grew. What would Patty do?

She had already promised not to run for Congress again. She had made the decision to run for the Senate and not Congress, based on some polling she did had done in early 2005 and went so far as to admit that she can’t win in the 6th. But with a rather conservative Democrat (Tinklenberg) as the only candidate in the Congressional race,the one she had lost in before and promised not to run in, the grassroots of the DFL seemingly drafted Wetterling back to the 6th, almost against her will. In an almost satirical-seeming press conference Wetterling just shrugged her shoulders and pronounced her return to the 6th. Promise broken, but hey, it is politics, promises expire with the election cycles.

So Wetterling is back where she was 2 years ago, running again for Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District. Surely she’d be well suited to this move since she would already have the experience in the District, a grasp of the issues (snicker), and residual support from the 44% that voted for her just 2 years ago. Many thought her liberal views would quickly put the conservative Democrat on the defensive, and he’d be shoved aside by the DFLers in the 6th clearing the way for Wetterling Round 2 for the 6th. (I was one of those people)

But right when Wetterling should have cannon-balled into the 6th in way that would have tossed Tinklenberg out of the 6th District pool, she mysteriously entered the waters with out making a splash. It wasn’t done in the form of Olympic 30 meter divers, ripping through the water with such precision, but rather by wading into the shallow end of the pool like she had never seen the water before or like she was afraid of drowning.

I think it is safe to say that people like me who have been saying candidate Wetterling in nothing more than a name, are correct. She cannot answer tough questions. She gets flustered when people do push her to shed some light on where she stands on the issues. Her campaign was badly managed in the Senate Race, but hey you can’t slap a saddle on a poodle and expect it to take the Belmont. I don’t think even the most skillful manager could have saved Wetterling.

So here we are in the 6th CD. Four Republicans are trying to battle it out over who is the most Republican. The race has been getting hotter and hotter, now that we are just weeks from the endorsing convention. But on the other side of the political isle, the 2 candidate battle for the DFL nod is no where to be found. Instead of a battle over Democratic credentials and issues, Tinklenberg is having a cake walk to the endorsement and doing so moving more and more to the mushy moderate middle.

Wetterling is once again, no where to be found in a major election. The DFL’s endorsing convention for the 6th District is on May 13th. That is just 12 weeks away, and Wetterling has her campaign in reverse. Check out her newly revamped Congressional Campaign website. Or click on the image below, it is a screen shot of the entire site.

One link, (ONE!) for donations. She didn’t just dust her 04 campaign. She didn’t morf her US Senate Campaign. (tip, same issues there) She decided to start from scratch, like she had never done this before. (Or maybe to reformulate herself into a moderate candidate)

If she wants to be apart of the deliberative body of the United States, she’s going to have to at least try to run a campaign. For crying out loud, you’ve done this before. Every day that her campaign is silent is one more day that Tinklenberg gets farther ahead of her, and inevitably the DFL endorsement for the 6th. He’s got the support of a lot of people in the 6th, not so much for shared political values, but instead through time spent.

He’s been running for a year now. He’s so far ahead, that the only way Wetterling has a chance to knock him off is if she starts making noise, lots of it, and making it now! Tinklenberg is Pro-life, Pro-Gun, and Pro-War. The DFL is not. Wetterling is DFL. (It ain’t that hard to prove this, why isn’t she at the least sending out press releases or making TV appearances?)
I almost have to wonder if Wetterling is planning on a primary battle. She obviously is not aware of the terminality of the pending 6th District Endorsing Convention. Maybe she is aiming for the more distant Primary in September. That is all that makes sense from watching her flip around like a fish out of water in the hull of a boat, hang motionlessly like a mounted brook trout on the wall at Timberlodge Steakhouse.

Hey, that’s it, she must have just eaten. Gotta wait 45 minutes before swimming.

MN Law on Caucuses - Straw Polls

Subd. 2a.    Preference ballot.  Prior to the opening of nominations for the election of permanent offices and delegates,  a ballot must be distributed to permit caucus participants to indicate their preference for the offices of president of the United States or governor.  The results of preference voting must be reported to the secretary of state immediately upon conclusion of the voting, in the manner provided by the secretary of state.  The secretary of state shall provide the appropriate forms to the party for reporting the results.

Governor & President only!

Amid all the blame for Katrina (which was a bleeping hurricane that hit a city below sea level what did you expect?) there were people doing exactly what they were supposed to and then some.

Yesterday, the White House issued its history of Katrina, but some of the most interesting findings in the 228-page report are in Appendix B — “What Went Right.”

It’s on Page 129 that we learn that Coast Guard Petty Officer Jessica Guidroz returned to work after the hurricane passed through New Orleans. Guidroz led “a squadron of eight boats and crews in the evacuation of approximately 2,000 people from the campus of the University of New Orleans. Like many of the [Coast Guard] station crew, she lived nearby and lost all her personal possessions to the storm, yet put her duty first,” the White House report says.

Petty Officer Moises Rivera-Carrion served as a rescue swimmer on Coast Guard helicopters. He was on duty for three days and confronted such hazards as downed power lines and contaminated floodwaters. “Rivera-Carrion tested the limits of his skill and endurance while rescuing 269 survivors trapped on rooftops and balconies throughout New Orleans and southwest Louisiana,” the report says.

Much of the Coast Guard rescue effort hinged on the skills of Petty Officer Rodney L. Gordon . According to the report, he landed in the first aircraft to return to New Orleans, even though strong winds were tossing debris across the Coast Guard station.

Gordon “immediately began a series of complex electrical and mechanical repairs vital to sustaining what quickly grew into the largest air rescue operation in Coast Guard history,” the report says. He cannibalized broken machinery to repair emergency generators and power lines, including lines to the Naval Air Station control tower that dispatched rescue sorties. Gordon “single-handedly performed a complex rewiring” of emergency generators at the base’s aviation fuel distribution plant, a feat that permitted “hundreds of aircraft to continue lifesaving missions,” the report says.

Overall, the White House report says, nearly 6,000 Coast Guard personnel played roles in the Katrina search and rescue missions. They retrieved more than 33,000 people along the Gulf Coast, including more than 12,000 by air.

What should be teh lesson of Katrina? That government cannot be everywhere all the time. And if and when we need government, we need the most effective part of government to be in charge of what they do best. The Department of Homeland Security is the largest, and now we’ve seen, slowest moving part of Government. Why the heck did we expect something with hundreds of thousands of people in it, to react in a split second manner?

Had everyone who works for DHS personally saved 1 rescued 1 person in New Orleans, there’d have been no tragedy. But we all know that is impossible. Instead we need to have the specialized groups do what they know how to do. You want to know what worked flawlessly during Katrina, it was our defense orientated organizations like teh Coast Guard and teh Military. They were the ones who stepped in and saved the people after they were left out to dry (sorry for pun) when their local leaders decided to let them go down with the busses.

Few people know that the State of Minnesota has set up rules dictating the minimum price gas can be sold at. Which of course would be lovely for people to know when they are cringing at the sight of 3 digit fill ups. But thanks to the big government over regulating state bureaucrats in MN, business owners can’t dare give consumers a break and sell gas at a loss, with out fear of huge fine from the state.

The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state’s legal minimum price.

The fine against Midwest Oil of Minnesota is twice as large as any imposed on a company since 2001, when the state established a formula based on wholesale prices, fees and taxes to determine a daily floor for gas prices.

The price law was intended to prevent large oil companies from driving smaller competitors out of business, but some critics argue it fails to protect consumers.

Protectionism’s failures on display yet again. When you take free market consumer controls out of the equation, you remove any chance that consumer demand will dictate prices. Putting up walls around smaller, weaker businesses, just so that a bigger one can’t move in to an area, hurts the consumers.

So the next tim your watching those digits spin out of control, and you have it in your mind to go tear the clerk a new one, remember it was the state of Minnesota that set that price. As is becoming standard practice by government today, they try to fix a problem that would take care of itself, by taking away the ability to give consumers a break.
It is time for people to be given the freedom to buy or sell gas at the prices the markets demand, not what the legislature decries from on high.

Too bad the local news rags don’t have this type of journalistic standards (ahem cahones). We have to get factual accounts of a local scandal involving the Democrats of Minnesota calling Iraq war veterans un-American from the Washington Times.

A conservative group recently started an advertising campaign in Minnesota showing veterans and families of slain troops expressing their support for the Iraq war, only to have the head of the state Democratic Party condemn the ads as “un-American, untruthful and a lie.” He furthermore demands that Minnesota television stations pull the ads “and send a message that we will not tolerate this kind of ’swiftboating’ anymore.” At least one station so far has complied with the request, which is reason enough for outrage.
But there’s been precious little of that. Aside from a handful of bloggers covering the issue and an appearance of one of the veterans on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes,” the media has ignored the issue completely, essentially proving one of the ad campaign’s main points. The current media meme, at least as it concerns the homefront, is that most returning veterans have turned against the war and those still in field are demoralized and jaded. Meanwhile, parents of slain troops like Cindy Sheehan continue to rack up air time and column inches. The ad campaign seeks to correct this blatant misrepresentation.
Which is exactly why Democrats are trying to stop it with accusations that the ads are somehow “untruthful.” The claim is absurd on its face, but their list of so-called lies is so slim that a brief analysis is warranted. The veterans in the first ad say that “our enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda — the same terrorists who killed three thousand Americans on 9/11.” To liberal ears, this is apparently the equivalent of claiming Iraq was behind September 11. But that’s not what the veterans said. In any case, last we checked Abu Musab Zarqawi, who has publicly sworn loyalty to Osama bin Laden, is the leader of “Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Democrats have also taken issue with the ad’s statement that U.S. troops “overwhelmingly” support the mission — a fact clearly upheld by record-setting retention rates in the military branches. The retention rate in the Army, for instance, is the highest it’s been in five years, especially in combat units currently serving in Iraq. And that about covers the “lies.”
The more disturbing issue here is that Democrats are trying to silence a contrary point of view, and are doing so by calling soldiers and military families “un-American.” Whenever Republicans attempt to counter antiwar sentiment, be it from the Cindy Sheehans or Paul Hacketts, Democrats shed crocodile tears over the “crushing of dissent.” But this is what crushing dissenters actually looks like — a smear campaign designed explicitly to keep the public from hearing the other side.
Fortunately, readers can see the ads for themselves at www.midwestheroes.com and decide what’s so “un-American” about soldiers and families supporting the war.

But then again, the DFL stepped in a big pile of steaming you know what when they attacked these veterans and called them un-American. No wonder the DFLs’ allies in the local media have buried this one.

Thanks to the WaTimes for doing a service to those who have served us.
Gog Bless our troops and their mission!

Update: Katherine Kersten has a Commentary piece that does a nice job putting a local face to the names that the DFL smeared.

Sarah Janecek has somehow become a well respected political commentator. I say somehow, because I can see no reason except the fact that she claims to speak from the right side of the political spectrum. But every time she does creep into the public’s consciousness, it is when she is attacking Republicans. Case and point. A new insult to toss at female candidates Her editorial is another fine example of how she is making a living at be the goto ‘republican’ commentator by attacking Republicans.

In a letter from AFSCME Local 2938 president James Appleby to the union’s state board asking the group not to endorse Hennepin County Attorney and likely DFL U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar, Appleby wrote, “Qualified personnel from her own and other public offices have been rejected because her priority has been to choose candidates who support her ambitions.”

That’s shocking, simply shocking. Think about Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Norm Coleman or Klobuchar’s likely GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy. Certainly they haven’t committed the supposed sin of hiring people who support their ambitions.

She is writing in response to the kerfuffle over the weekend when the local AFSCME union that works in Amy Klobuchar’s office requested the State wide union not endorse her candidacy for US Senate. Their request fell on the usual deaf ears of union management, and now this story has taken the usual ’smear the attackers’ direction. Janecek is alleging we’re the next generation in the long line of GOP anti-feminists.

And for women running for U.S. Senate, there’s a new rule: Don’t be too ambitious.

You see, those of us in the blogosphere who wish to see Mark Kennedy replace Sen. Dayton in November, are trying to point out how Mrs. Klobuchar has had a singular mission while serving as the Hennepin County Attorney. That mission is not to protect and serve the public, but rather to propel herself beyond the bounds of the lowly County Attorney’s office. She’s surrounded herself with cronies and political allies who share the common goal of Promoting Amy. Since Klobuchar has begun the official quest to be a US Senator last year, she’s been an absentee boss, but since she’s padded the staff at the County Attorney’s office, those doing the heavy lifting haven’t minded that Klobuchar is taking credit for their work from the campaign stops around the state. Most of the time, these Campaign stops just happen to coincide with the County Attorney’s office 9-5 workday, even though Klobuchar is out of her jurisdiction.

Janecek seems to be a mere puppet of the DFL now. Every-time questions are raised for the DFLers to answer, in this case Klobuchar, Janecek sweeps in to answer it for them before the DFL gets a chance. Usually her preemptive responses include smearing the question asker. Plus, more often than not, she’s given preferential treatment by her media drinking buddies and low and behold she gets valued editorial space to attack the Republican point of view.

Her latest argument is ‘thou shalt not question a woman’. Sorry Janecek, but when someone steps up to run for the US Senate, they deserve to face equal scrutiny, no matter the gender.

Quite frankly I think it is time for Janecek to be put on a GOP watch-list. Her motives as a Republican political commentator are now suspect, as her objectivity is clearly gone. She’s a close friend, er coworker, with Blois Olson who led the onslaught against Michael Brodkorb (aka MDE). And throughout that whole situation, Janecek sided with Olson over a Republican, with nary a convincing reason.

It is obvious Janecek is now hostile to the Kennedy Campaign, Gov. Pawlenty, Sen. Coleman, and the Republican point of view in general. Who knows what’s spawned the latest barrage from her. But I think it is time for people, namely the Republicans in MN and the media, to make Janecek earn the title Republican commentator and the privilege to speak on our behalf. In my opinion, she’s done enough over the last few months with her newsletter, TV appearances, and on her daily radio show to warrant an investigation into her motives.

She’s obviously not a team player. Well she sure as heck isn’t talking like she’s on my team or deserves to speak for me.

Yeah, your city councils and county boards should be working on your behalf. But since most of them are run by unelected staffers, forget about them being on your side. Then add to that a club where other like minded people from other city councils can gather, and you have one heck of a resource to figure out how to screw the citizen taxpayer. The League of Minnesota Cities is the lobbying group for Minnesota’s Cities, and they don’t want you to be able to keep your property.

Minnesota’s cities and counties struck back hard Wednesday in defense of eminent domain, describing proposed changes in the law as a “dangerous overreaction” and showing pictures of the civic cancers it can help to treat.

(Civic cancers? fear mongering? sexing up the intel?) How is making it very hard for a city to take away someone’s property and give it to someone else dangerous? Oh yeah, that makes it tough for the cities to give your land to the highest bidder. I had a huge back and forth with my Mother yesterday about this. You see, she was at that press conference, speaking on behalf of the LMC. She came back and said that the media had blown the whole KELO decision out of proportion from teh start, and there was no danger from that decision. Eminent Domian for economic developement was a good thing.
Now she had gotten me going. For the next hour, I grilled her on why taking away someon’s property and giving it to some else who is promising to pay more taxes to the city is just plain wrong and un-American. She contended that Kelo was not as bad as it was being made out to be, but everytime I asked her why, she just said t was blown out of proportion. She had obviously been given talking points by the LMC, which she noted she was given what she was to say at the pressie, and as she deviated slightly from it, she was glared at by the puppetmasters who are running the show down there.

Here’s my basic premise as to why Kelo and eminent Domian are so un-American and have got to be limited. Now that the SCOTUS has ruled that it is ok for a city to take land from person A and give it to person B, because person B is going to use the land in a more favorable way (ahem more tax dollars rolling in) to the cities staff, employees, and council members; there is legal president for other cities to do the same.

The LMC says that MN has always allowed for economic redeveloplement, but I offer the Best Buy situation. Wally McArthy didn’t want to go, but never the less, Richfield had a higher bidder for jis land, and damn the property rights, Wally was a goner. So now, thanks to Kelo, every one of us had better hope that someone with deeper pockets doesn’t have plans for our land.

The LMC’s point is that nothing new is allowed by Kelo, so no reform is needed. Which of course is what you’d expect from a group whose soul purpose is gobbling up more and more power and money for Cities around the state. (Limited government/tax cutting memebers are usually run out of the meetings or so disgusted by the liberal Big Government ‘we hate Pawlenty and GOPers’ rhetoric that is commonspeak there, that they never return) Don’t take the LMC for granted, they are a very powerful lobbying group, and they want more of your money, and they sure as hell don’t want to be limited from taking away your land.

I hold that Kelo has legalized eminent domain for economic developement, by putting a judical stamp of approval for  Cities’ stealing of land and selling it to the highest bidder. Think I’m overreacting? Show me the statute or legislation on the federal level where abortion was legalized. It was the Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion, not laws passed by congress and then signed by the president. Look at Massachusetts’ marriage flap, that was caused by a judge, and now there are same sex marriages.
Court rulings do make law, and that is what has happened here. It is now legal for your land to be stolen from you, and sold to someone else for more of the almighty tax dollars.

Dane Smith at the Strib may need a cold shower after writing this one. En route to state, Sen. John Kerry says Democrats should not be discouraged

The Democrats’ unsuccessful 2004 standard bearer is in Minnesota this week raising funds for DFLers and building goodwill for the future. In an interview with the Star Tribune, he continued to blast the Bush administration.

The story is little more than DFL talking points mixed in with Kerry’s pre- ‘08 message. Smith seems willing to print whatever is needed to keep the focus on Kerry’s visit as positive. Meanwhile when Bush comes, there is either a simple listing of where and when, or negative stories about Bush coming for suspicious reasons. We all know that the DFL always tries to spin association with Bush as bad, but why would Smith go out of his way to polish up John Kerry’s visit so much?

This from the UN’s answer to terrorism. A Counter Terrorism SubCommittee, with none other that Syria as a participant. Watch out, stern UN report ahead.

FAYSSAL MEKDAD ( Syria) said his Government condemned terrorism and that his country, which had been a victim of terrorist activity, stood with those calling for a broad and cooperative strategy to combat the scourge.  And while he supported the work of the Council’s terrorism committees, he would urge the CTC to undergo a thorough review of its Consolidated List with a view to addressing listing and delisting procedures, particularly concerning the repetition or misspelling of the names of individuals or entities.  And while he supported the work of the 1540 Committee, he stressed that that body should not supplant multilateral mechanisms working in the field.   Syria was developing its own national legislation to combat terrorism and, in that regard, welcomed the committees’ technical assistance efforts.

He called on the committees not to duplicate their work and he urged the Council not to interfere in matters that were clearly under the purview of the General Assembly.  He also urged the Council to avoid using double standards in its fight against terrorism.   Syria planned to participate actively in the upcoming discussions on elaborating a comprehensive international convention to combat terrorism.  In that context, he urged the Ad Hoc Committee to consider the legitimate right of peoples to fight against occupation and to liberate their lands.
The Arab region was suffering from terrorism every day — State terrorism in particular, as practised by Israel in the form of its ongoing terrorist occupation of Arab lands, continuous killing of countless Palestinians and construction of an illegal wall in parts of the West Bank.  Israel’s attempts to “market” what were in reality terrorist views from the Council’s rostrum today, as well as its attempts to cast doubt on other States, was in fact a dangerous cover.  Such actions had grave consequences, he said, adding that Israel had killed countless people in the past few days, and Syria was awaiting the Council’s condemnation of those actions.  He also expressed the hope that the Council would continue to ensure that the counter-terrorism committees continued to carry out their work in a fair and expeditious manner.

Oh yeah, that’ll work real well. Grant membership to all, regardless of merit. And in case anyone cares, the US was called a terrorist nation on more than one occassion in this report.
Think they’d have asked Germany to chair the committee charged to deal with the rise of Hitler?

Get us out of the UN today!

As the 2006 election nears, and the frenzy of 2008 gets closer and closer, I’ve been searching far and wide to find the ‘Perfect Republican’ to speak for me and what I stand for. I can’t seem to find someone who is out there saying what I want to hear, on a consistant basis. I’m not talking so much about who will be the 08 Presidential candidate, but rather who will be the conservative leader that people go to. (This also has state level implications for me too.)

I’m asking because I don’t really know who is in charge of things for the Republicans. ‘In charge’ isn’t right, maybe I mean what direction is our Party going? Both at the State and National level, I want to have someone start to say the things that I want to hear, because I believe that what I want to hear is actually the best for America. And I’m sure the Lefties feel the same way as I do.

So, I am asking you all, who speaks for you? Liberals, Conservatices, Moderates, whatever. Who is your favorite person when it comes to policies? (Answer in comments; All I ask is you be honest. No BS, answer for yourself, and if you can’t be serious, move on with out commenting.)

Who speaks for you?

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