Well, that just about makes this the last straw.

The Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota have filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in an attempt to recover about $2.8 million in Social Security money, covering about 2,000 medical residents at the two institutions.

Why should anyone be excluded from paying into the system? If I have to watch my money go get frittered away, then EVERYONE should.

The suits allege that a regulation issued by the secretary of the Treasury, which went into effect last year, is arbitrary and unreasonable. It requires that medical residents who work at least 40 hours per week and their employers pay Social Security taxes.

That sounds incredibly reasonable to me. They are going to collect social security (snicker) someday, why shouldn’t they pay in?
That way these liberals in training can have the full effect of what it is like in the real world. Seems like an awfully great ‘teachable moment’ to me. But then again, I don’t think the U wants to let their little liberals in training to hate paying taxes, or else the U will see lower funding for all those big fancy new buildings and bloated salaries for people who don’t have anything to do with educating the students.

Maybe taking that drubbing in the 2006 elections wasn’t all that bad.

ST. CLOUD — Outgoing House Speaker Steve Sviggum says he’ll propose a one-time property tax reduction when the Legislature convenes next week.

Keyword, ‘outgoing’. What good is a one time fix for something broken so badly? All bailing out Counties who have been fiscally raping their citizens one time will do is let them know they have someone to bail them out next time. I’d say property taxes may be the reason DFLers took so many suburban seats. Republicans never bothered to fight the battle, hence, the DFL claim of it being Republican’s fault rang true at the polls. (For those that disagree, remember, Counties were raising their taxes, not the State. Oh, and before you spew forth with the talking points, LGA is civic welfare.)

Sviggum tells KNSIAM in St. Cloud that he’ll introduce a bill that would allow for a 15-percent reduction in state property taxes for 2007.

Swiggum says his bill would send a one-time check to county auditors in Minnesota to pay for the reduction in property taxes on every piece of property. He says it gives the county the option to accept the money or not.

What is the point of a one time fix? Why let them decide if they will keep it? Why not send the money to the income earners and businesses who were over taxed in the first place (surplus forecast is due to income and business tax revenues) and let them decide whether or not they pay their increased County property taxes or not?

The bill excludes renters.

Which is good, because they already get a 19% kickback from the Counties on the backs of their landlords.

Money for the property tax cut would come from the projected surplus for this year’s budget.

Again, income and businesses are responsible for the surplus. I sure hope another Republican comes up with a better idea of what to do with this money.

And I can’t wait for someone to remember the rhetoric from when the LGA cuts were made. Local control; hold the Commissioners accountable.

And then there is the fact that LGA is merely a municipal welfare program. No people don’t want to admit it, why? Because every one hates a mooch.

Is it just me, or is this guy, just a bit too ‘partisan’ to be lobbing ‘partisan’ accussations?

Now how could any self respecting ‘progressive’ not have Hatch on their worst political people of 2006 top 10 list? Honestly, had he not blown it, you’d have won the Guv’s Mansion for the first time, in what, like 20 years?

More fun with headlines:
He’ll have a negative MNPACT on bipartisanship;
MNPACT, just to the right of Marx;
MNPACT, Making the ChiComms look sane;
MNPACT, never met a Republican we weren’t convinced was the Devil;
MNPACT: Minnesota Nuttiness Political Action Communist Team;
MNPACT Willing to make YOU pay for a better Minnesota;
MNPACT, Hey, we won’t get taxed for it;
I never had a nanny growing, thank god I live in Minnesota today;
MNPACTing you bottom line through the nanny state since 2003;
It has to be someone else’s fault, let’s tax someone

I had a great post on this one from Polipundit eaten by WiFi just now. I will not attempt to recreate as I insulted the baby boom generation.

As for the politics, Republicans might take note that AARP, the liberal senior lobby, is already calling a tax increase essential to a “balanced plan” for Social Security. And in a perverse way they’re right: Such a plan would raise taxes on moderate-income Republican voters in return for cutting the benefits on those same Republicans. No wonder Democrats like the idea.

A tax increase of any kind with GOP fingerprints would remove the one big political brand advantage that Republicans still have over Democrats.

It’s from a Wall Street Journal Op Ed, and I was making the point how the baby boomers are going to bankrupt America, and put and end to us, the same way we bankrupted the Soviet Union. Jeez, AARP is using the Reagan model for defeating communists to defeat capitalism.

OK, so I did insult them in this one too, but the last one was far worse.

The 2008 aspirants will have to deal AARP the first blow to their domination for me to be easily swayed to them. This senior lobby is no different any other lobby. They don’t give a rats ass what happens to the country, they just want theirs, and theirs is going to bankrupt our nation.

They want one thing, more unsustainable government hand outs.

Someone had to say it, now it is time to figure out how to deal with it. We conservative Republicans should not be afraid to take a stand, even if that means taking a risk. For me, the 08 Presidential race will come down to that. We’ve had 6 years of a President giving in willy nilly to all special interests along with most in the GOP run Congress. Now we will have two years of liberal special interest group domination of the Congressional agenda. For me, I see the 08 POTUS race being one of flipping ALL special interests the bird.

Lord knows if someone doesn’t ‘just say no’, and soon, we’re gonna be in serious trouble in this country. We cannot afford to pay for everything everyone wants. That’s what did in the USSR, and we are racing down this path. Medicare Part D is the largest boondoggle I have ever seen, and the problem with it, according to the liberals, is it is too complicated. Um, it will cost us trillions. No Child Left Behind, is only a problem to them, because it is unfunded.

Hello, these Democrats, and bipartisan RINOs are turning us into a nanny, some would say Communist state (that’s me). Communists states don’t work, well they don’t work if freedom has anything to do with it. Down with AARP and their willing rubberstamps in Congress and the White House.
And that my friends is how I ended up pissing off grandma this Christmas.

One of the rays of hope from the 2006 Election Debacle here in Minnesota is that some fresh new conservative voices are finally being heard. One of them is Rep. Tom Emmer (R-19B). (Source: St. Cloud Times)

I don’t smoke. I don’t like smoke. But my distaste for the habit doesn’t give me cause to have the state manage individual rights.

The new junta of Democratic legislative leaders has declared a statewide smoking ban as the top priority on their thin agenda for the upcoming legislative session.

That baffles me. How property taxes, education reform, health care reform and funding for roads and bridges do not top that list of priorities is, in a word, outrageous! Apparently promises made during recent campaigns can now be forgotten.

Funny, the Legislative session hasn’t yet started, and already the DFL agenda legislation is already taking place. Its too bad Republicans weren’t able to successfully define the DFLers as who they really were in the last election, but then again, each Republican had to spend too much time defending their own record and actions, since too many were allowed to stray from the conservative path through out the last legislative session.

A statewide smoking ban in Minnesota is a dangerous constitutional precedent. If the new regime wants the ban to pass, it very likely will pass. But we should at least call it what it is as we plummet further into the nanny-state formerly known as Minnesota.

And that my friends is exactly the kind of talk I think we should be hearing out of the Republican party. We need to call our misguided elected officials what they are, nannies, no matter their party allegiance on the ballot.

America was founded on principles of freedom and the right of the individual to self-determine. As a “free” society, the laws we enact must necessarily be directed toward protection of individual freedoms.

That’s the central problem with government nowadays, they think that they need to protect minorities, which inherently takes away individual rights.

A tension exists, however, between the right to self-determine and our predisposition to control. Simply stated, we all want to make decisions about our personal liberties, but some also want to make decisions for fellow citizens.

Why? Is it because we believe only the uneducated would disagree with our enlightened position?

That’s exactly what the smoking nazis want you to believe. Have you seen their latest TV commercial? Did you know that 49,000 people died from second hand smoke last year? I think the ad even implies that is just in Minnesota, but an astute common sense oriented person would say, gee that seems awfully high. That person would be correct, since second hand smoke has never appeared on a death certificate, and 49,000 people is higher than that of the total number of deaths in Minnesota in 2003, of just 37,000. ( Source: www.fedstats.gov). But then again, the smoking nazis are not known for giving you good facts.

We are all concerned with health. In fact, we are all responsible for making healthful choices. The first law on the DFL legislative agenda is a statewide smoking ban.

The real issue is much larger. The real issue is how far we are willing to let government rules erode our freedom.

There is no limit, save abortion, that DFLers and all too naive RINOs, are willing to let Government go to regulate our society’s behavior. There is no longer a free market for behavior, the good nanny state project of Minnesota is stepping in with its agenda. Have you ever listened to Met Council’s plan for the Twin Cities? It has nothing to do with suiting our needs, and everything to do with stemming our free will and free choices of what, where, when, and how we live. Our founding fathers are probably spinning in their graves over that government bureaucracy. Taxation with out representation, anyone?

What will stop the regulatory engineers from focusing their sights on the freedom to consume certain foods they consider unhealthful foods? What will stop them from outlawing certain expressions, like no one should be forced to sit in a public place next to someone spouting profanity or praying aloud? What will stop them from determining who can own and hold certain property like a farmer’s right to decide how and what to farm? What will stop them from legislating who we can associate with by restricting procreation based on genetics? What will stop them from legislating our religious freedoms?

And so on and so on. They have already butted in to so many individual choices and punished people for their decisions. Think I am wrong? Have you ever heard of sin taxes? How about the gas guzzler tax? What about the tax rebates for hybrids? Is that not government stepping into facilitate our decisions with a carrot and a stick? What is next? That is the question that should scare you.

I expect those who want to dictate our freedoms will cry out that the smoking ban is altogether different from the examples offered.

Of course they will argue its different. Everytime I have engaged with one of them, it has always boiled down to the same thing, they don’t like smoke. It always ends with, “I hate coming home from a bar and having to leave my clothes outside because they smell so bad”. Now what the heck does that have to do with health? Except for catching a cold from running in off the back steps in your skivvies.

Secondhand smoke obviously affects workers in bars and restaurants. Of course no one wants to suggest that employment is voluntary. Evidence of the negative health impact of secondhand smoke has been presented as indisputable.

If this is such an indisputable truth, then why does the federal government rate secondhand smoke below cell phones as a carcinogen?

Uh oh, hole in theory, what’s next lung ass Bob?  Well, I’m waiting. I’d also like to argue that there are people who have gotten cancer having never been exposed to smoke. And don’t they use a heck of a lot worse chemicals of farms? What about those workers? And dry cleaners? Print shops? (For some fun reading, go find out how humans are polluting the air in buildings, according to OSHA)

I realize this train may be out of the station and that it seems to be picking up steam. I only ask that before we set this course we consider the impact on not only the many businesses that will be hurt, but also the dangerous precedent we set for liberty.

Ah, yes, remember the days of prohibition? Funny thing, last night I was flipping round the channels and came across a show that was advocating for legalizing drug use. Now many of the same medical people arguing for smoking bans are also leading the charge for legalizing pot for medical purposes. Lets say Minnesota legalized pot for cancer patients and they were prescribed to smoke pot by their doctor. Where could they do it if they were in a hospital? In their room? Well, pot smoke is FAR worse than cigarette smoke for carcinogens, what about the second hand aspect? Would you want a nurse or doctor with a contact high? Or what poor candstriper would be forced to wheel that patient 50 feet off hospital grounds so they could have their prescribed pot? Wouldn’t that person be exposed to harmful and behavior altering drugs, while on the job?

On can only hope the Republicans in Minnesota can find some more liberty and freedom minded people soon, and that they can get through to the ‘false gods of freedom’ that reside in the DFL and other ‘higher’ offices of this state. It is not too late to call Minnesota home of the free, we just have to finally convince our mothers that we don’t need a babysitter anymore.

That’s what I’d call losing $700 million in 8 years.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - McClatchy Co. said Tuesday it will sell the Star Tribune newspaper to the private equity firm Avista Capital Partners for $530 million, a sharp drop from the $1.2 billion it paid to acquire the flagship property just eight years ago.

What’s funny is listening to some of the employee reactions on the morning news. “But I have 30 years in” “My pension” The usual Big Labor mentality. THEY ARE more important than the company staying profitable.

What is rather interesting is that it was just last week that the Editor quit too. Is it possible that he knew the sale was coming, and might know the future of the paper? An unbiased editorial board? Maybe, just maybe, this new comer to news, Avista, wants to give a balanced view of the news.

I suppose that would cause employees to freak out, after all, they have been doing what they do for decades.

The newspaper industry has long been fighting circulation declines. More recently, classified advertising - a pillar of the newspaper business model - has come under attack by cheap or free Internet ads for jobs, cars, and homes. The Star Tribune has been no exception.

No wonder they hate blogs so much, we may be cutting into the bottom line for them. After all, we do encourage people not to subscribe or advertise in that rag.

So was buying the Star Tribune in 1998 a mistake for McClatchy? Pruitt said it wasn’t. He said Avista paid an attractive price for the paper, and that the Star Tribune was the only paper it could sell at a loss to get a tax benefit at a time when McClatchy needs one. And he said McClatchy has collected more than $1 billion in cash flow from Star Tribune operations during those years.

New names for the MSM, Big Media. Big News.

“But there is no doubt we’re selling the paper for less than we bought it for,” he said. “The Star Tribune had several good years, where profits increased, and then in recent years it has lagged as revenues have underperformed.“

Gee, I wonder why?

McClatchy and Avista both said the Star Tribune’s union contracts would remain in place.

So much for trying to create a better business model. Merit based employment sure would make sense for a company performing so poorly.

Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow said workers were scrambling around the Internet trying to understand who Avista is.

“Everything we’ve heard from McClatchy recently is ‘Hey, we’re all in this together. We don’t do layoffs.’ Blah blah blah BS,” he said.

Ohhhhh, poor baby.

Newspaper industry analyst John Morton found the sale “inexplicable and disappointing.”

“The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a good reputation, has always had a good reputation. It is the kind of newspaper that you would have hoped a company like McClatchy would continue to own,” he said.

(coffee snorting out nose) No wonder the newspaper industry is dying, if this guy thinks this is the perfect paper for a company to own. Let me guess, he has LOTS of friends that wrk there, and he is trying to protect them by saying this was a mistake?

“Clearly what is happening to McClatchy is that they are much more concerned about their overall financial performance than they are about publishing newspapers, the way I read it,” Morton said.

Um, they have been just ‘publishing’ newspapers for 8 years. They have destroyed a profitable newspaper in doing so. It is a mere rag now.

No one is buying what they are selling, well, not everyone is that used to. This is a chance to try a different approach, that is provide content that is so dearly wanted by some in Minnesota. As it currently is, the Strib only offers content for some of Minnesota.

Follow this link, look at the picture, read the post. Nuff said.

Hey Keith Did You Beat Your Wife? Your Koran Says You Must

Keith Ellison (Dem. MN-CD5) was riling up his fellow Muslims over the weekend (of course in other states as he is the Muslim Congressman not Minnesota’s 5th District Rep, you didn’t really think he wouldn’t be running around in Minnesota anymore) over his determination to swear his oath of office on the Koran. IN Detroit, he urged his fellow Muslims to stay true to their religion and educate the Americans how to be ‘just’ just like them.

“You can’t back down. You can’t chicken out. You can’t be afraid. You got to have faith in Allah, and you’ve got to stand up and be a real Muslim,” Detroit native Keith Ellison said to loud applause.
Many in the crowd replied “Allahu akbar” — God is great.

Hey, isn’t that what the terrorists say before they blow up innocent civilians? And why did he have to move to Minnesota? Couldn’t he have just stayed in Detroit? What, you didn’t know Ellison isn’t a life long Minnesotan?

But Ellison, speaking at the annual convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, said that Muslims can help teach America about justice and equal protection.

And that is what gets me to the point where people need to properly educate Minnesotans and Americans about Ellison and his Koran. There are many different resources on the web about the Koran, some good some unreliable. I found this one that seems good. It goes through 10 disturbing things that are law if you you follow the Koran.

You see, part of what the Koran does is lay out Sharia law, or how people MUST live. Here’s a few quick takes from the analysis. Go read the whole article. Follow the links and do your research. Here’s the 10 points that you’ll find documented and examples of current practice are even provided.

10. Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.
9. Islam allows husbands to hit their wives even if the husbands merely fear highhandedness in their wives.
8. Islam allows an injured plaintiff to exact legal revenge—physical eye for physical eye.
7. Islam commands that a male and female thief must have a hand cut off.
6. Islam commands that highway robbers should be crucified or mutilated.
5. Islam commands that homosexuals must be executed.
4. Islam orders unmarried fornicators to be whipped and adulterers to be stoned to death.
3. Islam orders death for Muslim and possible death for non—Muslim critics of Muhammad and the Quran and even sharia itself.
2. Islam orders apostates to be killed.
1. Islam commands offensive and aggressive and unjust jihad.

Ellison and the CAIR folks are running around saying they are a ‘peaceful’ religion. Well, fine, define ‘peaceful’. Is beating your wife peaceful? How about cutting off people’s hands? Killing non muslims simply because they refuse to convert? Or banishing people from a region entirely on their religious choice?

The Quran says:
4:34 . . . If you fear highhandedness from your wives, remind them [of the teaching of God], then ignore them when you go to bed, then hit them. If they obey you, you have no right to act against them. God is most high and great. (MAS Abdel Haleem, the Qur’an, Oxford UP, 2004)

Well, does Ellison beat his wife, or did he beat his ex-wife? Does he see it as acceptable for a Muslim man to beat a woman?
You can chalk me up as one who will not convert. Only a mad man would allow a book like this drive their decision making process. Sharia law laid out in the Koran is barbaric. Some would say the Koran advocates torture, heck it recommends it for some violations of Sharia law.

So when Keith Ellison places his hand on that Koran next month, keep in mind, it has a whole other set of laws in it. Those laws smack our Constitution in the face. I would just tell you to compare the 10 points from the article to our Bill of Rights. If Ellison doesn’t believe ALL aspects of his religion and the book he wants to use in his swearing in, then he should publicly distance himself from those barbaric acts and take the lead in reforming his religion.

He should educate his fellow Muslims that beating women is a bad thing. That chopping off hands is not humane punishment, and that caning is not as well. The burden should be on Ellison to prove he is not what we think he is, a radical muslim. Remember, not all of them are blowing people up, but some of them are trying to make it so the ones who will, can walk freely among us with out any question.

The Senate is getting ready to freshen up their illegal immigration bill for the new Congress, and they are racing to make it even worse for Americans who believe our laws mean something.

The lawmakers are considering abandoning a requirement in the Senate bill that would compel several million illegal immigrants to leave the United States before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship.

The lawmakers are also considering denying financing for 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, a law championed by Republicans that passed with significant Democratic support.

Details of the bill, which would be introduced early next year, are being drafted. The lawmakers, who hope for bipartisan support, will almost certainly face pressure to compromise on the issues from some Republicans and conservative Democrats.

[...]

The major lawmakers drafting the legislation include Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, along with Representatives Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, and Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois. The four met this month, and their staffs have begun working on a bill.

What’s pathetic is the story goes on to say that the new members of Congress have decided that the elections meant that people wanted to make it even easier for illegal aliens to steal citizenship.

If this bill passes and John McCain’s name is on it again, this will be the end of his aspirations to be the Republican candidate in 08. He cannot win the endorsement of a party that opposes granting citizenship to illegal aliens. And last time I checked, most people in the Republican party, outside of elective office of course, oppose rewarding people that broke into our country with citizenship.

PS: “Earning it” would be doing it right and legally in the first place.

Instead they got a stocking full of idiocy.

The New York Times takes off on the Ellison is our savior mantra and tries to chastise Dennis Prager. But they blew it in their first sentence.

Besides Santa Claus, the Christmas season usually brings some reminder that the worst way to acknowledge the importance of religious faith in America is by demanding that the entire nation follow one particular theology

Um, Dennis Prager is a jewish person advocating the Bible be used. Hello!

we suspect Mr. Ellison’s constituents in Minnesota would like to see him using a book that best represents his religious beliefs.

Now that would be a nice poll to see the MSM perform.

As for Mr. Prager and Mr. Goode, we appreciate their help in demonstrating how very fast things can get both nutty and unpleasant once the founding fathers’ wise decision to avoid institutionalizing any religious faith gets breached.

But then again, it was those founding fathers who probably brought Ellison’s family over to the then Colonies on a slave ship to institutionally enslave them, until a Christian man named Lincoln freed them. But, hey, what good has the Christian God done anyways, right New York Times?