Pawlenty vetoed the baby DNA gathering bill. 

A bill that would have altered procedures around newborn genetic testing and blood-sample storage in Minnesota ran into a veto Tuesday.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said while he supports the testing done at birth for medical disorders, he wasn’t convinced the bill gave parents enough power to keep a child’s samples from being used in long-term research.

An estimated 73,000 newborns are tested each year, and approximately 140 are found to have a confirmed medical disorder. Early diagnosis can help bring about earlier intervention.

Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said the veto undermines the program and defies a promise he said he obtained from Pawlenty two weeks ago that he would sign the bill if certain changes were made and if it got significant support in the House. It passed with 103 votes.

“The veto is yet another example of your breach of a personal commitment to legislators,” Thissen wrote in a letter to Pawlenty.

Thissen added: “Your veto ignores the advice of the experts in your own Department of Health. The legislation was supported by the Commissioner of Health that you appointed last fall.”

Pawlenty said in his own letter accompanying the veto that the bill would have made some improvements related to collection of genetic information. But he said he wanted a requirement that the Department of Health obtain written consent if a sample is kept for future research.

“Government handling and storage of genetic information is a serious matter,” he wrote. “Removing the requirement for express authorization from parents regarding the long-term storage and potential future uses of genetic samples, especially when such storage and use is not related to newborn screening, is concerning.”

Well said Guv. 

Can someone running for the US Senate or their attack dogs please tell me why I should vote for you or your guy? 

Supporters of DFLer Al Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman swapped barbs over the sources of campaign donations.

Minnesota Republicans are scolding DFL Senate candidate Al Franken for a campaign fundraiser hosted Monday by Playboy CEO Christie Hef- ner at her Chicago-area home — and taking him to task for a sexually explicit satire he wrote for that magazine eight years ago.

Meanwhile, DFLers are calling on Republican incumbent Norm Coleman to divest his reelection campaign of nearly $10,000 received from the political-action committee and employees of a lobbying firm that represented Myanmar’s military regime.

With endorsing conventions for the U.S. Senate race rapidly approaching, the leading candidates are under attack by political opponents for taking contributions from controversial donors.

In theory, if voters really care about this who gave to who - gotcha crap, someone could walk up and run as a third party candidate with the platform of I won’t take donations from anyone, and they would win. 

Why should Minnesotans vote FOR you? 

From FOX’s Kentucky primary round up. 

REPUBLICANS

Precincts Reporting: 100%

winner: John McCain

 

Candidate	# of votes	% of total	# of delegates
John McCain	142,855	72.30%	42
Mike Huckabee	16,239	8.22%	0
Ron Paul	13,439	6.80%	0
Mitt Romney	9,151	4.63%	0
Rudy Giuliani	3,126	1.58%

How’s that going for the independent voter thing working out? Will it make up for the voter you lose from your own base?

I’m getting tired of the blame for the 2006 elections and the liberal policies becoming law under Democratic Rule falling on conservatives. Yes, Republicans got their butt kicked in 2006. Sure maybe some conservatives stayed home, but I find it incredibly hard to believe they were the only ones. 

Turn out was down, WAY down. In Minnesota we had 57% which was the lowest since 1994. Those who did show up overwhelmingly chose Democrat candidates over Republicans by a 60/40 split for the most part. Republicans lost many seats to Democrats masquerading as conservatives. 

Now there are a bunch of the usual types who seem to take pleasure in blaming us conservatives for staying home and teaching Republicans a lesson, for the power Democrats have. But they need look no further than the mirror. Republican lost power because they abused it while they had it. 

I don’t believe that the 20 point margin was just conservatives, if it was it would bode well for conservatives and Republican party leaders laying out plans for retaking the gavels both nationally and here in Minnesota. 

The problem is that they didn’t learn anything. They took the 2006 election as a rebuke of conservatism, when it was really a rebuking of Republicans saying one thing and doing another. Republicans were thrown from power because, frankly, they acted like Democrats. Greed, corruption, and scandal tainted the party brand up and down the ballot, right or wrong, it did. 

Voters noticed.

As much as some RINOs & moderate Republicans would have you to believe, I don’t think it was conservatives who handed the Republicans the shocking losses at the ballot box. The swing voters who usually chose the Republicans showed up but chose Democrats because they couldn’t trust us anymore. They didn’t vote against Republicans because we were too conservative, but rather because we weren’t as conservative as we were supposed to or said we’d be at the last election. 

Let’s assume everyone who voted Democrat in 06 is a real Democrat and the margin was really conservatives who stayed home. That’s the angle some want to use to guilt us into blind party loyalty. That means there are 20% of conservative votes out there looking for a reason to show up and vote. (typical MN turnout is high 70’s to low 80%)

What has the Republican party done to get those missing conservative voters out to pull the lever? Shame them? Lecture them? Guilt them? Sorry, but it ain’t their job after election day to enact what they said they would. 

The message from the Minnesota Republican party has nothing to do with Republicans or conservatism and instead is all about mudslinging and gotcha opposition research. Sure Al Franken would be a dismal US Senator and I hope he loses, but can anyone at 525 Park St. tell me why Norm Coleman should be reelected? If you listen to his campaign, it is because he is willing to work across the isle to get things done. If you listen to the party it is because Angry Al doesn’t pay his taxes. What does that do for implementing conservative ideals?

Hello? McFly? Bueller?  

What about the conservative vote? Those people you think didn’t show up. Do you think this session of Congress and the State Legislature have taught conservatives to leave their principles at home and just shut up and show up? Wrong! If anything it has focused our core beliefs like a laser beam. Unlike those remianing in office and running the state and national party mechanisms, we found our true inner self, what makes us tick as conservatives, and found the resolve to stand for what we believe. 

So let’s just say that the low turn out was conservatives not voting in 2006. How has the Republican party and officials in charge of doing so, taken action to get their own base out? They haven’t. They are still fighting for the center voters, but with disastrous side affects. While running to stake claim of the middle of the road ideas, they left their principles and abandoned those who did get them there in the first place. 

Liberalism is not the key to getting out voters. 

Conservatism is the only alternative to what has become the debate over Government. Liberal nanny state, big government, interventionist, anti-freemarket, freedom squashing policies will be the down fall of our country. It is the opposite of what conservatism is. 

I can’t look back at the last one and a half years at what Republicans have done, or their message for the 2008 election and be proud. I’m sorry, but I can’t honestly say, yep, that’s why I am a Republican. Sure there are glimmers and bright spots, heck even some victories. But I am incredibly worried that Republicans learned nothing from the stinging defeats of 2006. 

Mechanically, ethically, morally, tactics-wise, and on the issues, I see nothing has changed from 2006 and may in fact be worse now. 

How would Republicans be different if they were in power? What is our message so voters show up and pull the lever for us? What is our vision for the future of the state and/or nation?  

Is it conservative anymore? Some Republicans are trying to redefine it into Democrat lite. (See: GOP Presidential candidate) Do you think that will bring out the voters for us, especially the conservative ones you claim stayed home? 

My contention all along is that conservatives didn’t “work” for Republicans as a whole. I think most of them voted, or at least comparable to the demographics. But they didn’t go out of their way to give more than 10 minutes to vote. They didn’t phone bank, ID neighbors, or help spread the message. That’s how elections are really won. The message. 

And why should they for a group that says one thing but does another. A group that claims to be for conservative principles, but aides liberal policies from becoming law. Who polls likely voters rather than listens to their own base?

If you look back at what happened in the Minnesota legislature in the last one and a half years, it is a conservative nightmare. It is nothing to be proud of, and it disturbs me incredibly that I’m being called a ‘gloomy gus’ by some very well connected people simply because I think the lipstick on this pig is a terrible shade of blue. 

Of course I am gloomy. Some Republicans are proud of aiding nanny state policies and the expansion of government. Heck, no one expected real cuts with the skeleton minorities Republicans had in both houses and a less than strict conservative Governor. But what would you have done differently? That was part of the contract for Minnesota, or what ever it was going to be called. Where did that go? 

I’m not alone. Jason Lewis was railing on this this evening as well. Are we supposed to be proud of taking liberal policy and cleaning it up? Is this what Republicans are for? Seriously, can you sit there and look at things and say, yeah, we kicked ass and owned them Democrats. 

Here’s how that translates to voters: Even Republicans agree with liberal polices, so why should I bother voting for them? Wait, was that the 2006 voter response, or the likely 2008 one? 

Try harder. That’s all I ask. 

Such good news it makes me forget the Legislative session ending budget balancing maneuver.

Longtime WCCO-TV meteorologist Mike Fairbourne says that the environmental movement is practicing “squishy science” when it ties human activity to global warming.

Fairbourne’s assessment Monday came on the same day that the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine appeared before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and announced that it has the signatures of more than 31,000 scientists — including Fairbourne’s — who agree that the human impact on global warming is overblown.

Remember Paul Douglas was the most gratuitous shill for global warming at WCCO up until “his contract wasn’t renewed” last month.

“We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto … and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

Now if only we could get Republican Presidential and US Senate candidates to step back from the altar of envirolunacy worship.

I’m not one of the Republicans or conservatives trying to spin this last session as some sort of brilliant victory. I see that we’re committed to long term and permanent spending that is going to be a constant burden. The amount of money every year that must be siphoned out of the economy is growing at alarming rates, and if we have anything less then 3+% growth in our economy, we’re going to be back trying to plug another budget hole and avoiding the dirty dark truth that no politician wants to talk about: spending reductions.

This interview is quite alarming. It is a Q & A with the State’s economist Tom Stinson & the Strib’s Lori Sturdevant. (I know, I know, but it is actually a pretty good one)

Here’s a taste of why it is such a big mistake to call this session a success.

How would you describe the state’s economic outlook?
A: Right now, we’re having a short, mild recession. The concern is, will we have a little bit of recovery, then go back down to zero growth? This one, partly because of the [federal] stimulus package, looks like it’s going to be a W — a peak this summer, followed by slow quarters thereafter.

Q: Why the backsliding?

A: It’s all the usual things. It’s credit, it’s housing, it’s oil.

We’re in kind of a fragile position, if oil prices stay high. Global Insights [the state's national economic consultant] now projects oil prices at $112/barrel in this quarter, and falling to $100/barrel by 2009. [Oil was at $127/barrel on Friday.] Every $10/barrel in oil prices knocks 0.2-0.3 percent off real GDP growth in the U.S. If $120/barrel oil is where we end up, that’s going to knock us back to zero in GDP growth later this year.

Every penny per gallon increase in gasoline prices costs consumers about $1 billion. When the stimulus package was passed, gasoline was roughly $3/gallon. Now, it’s roughly $3.65. That means higher gas prices have burned up half of the stimulus package.

Will they be doing a victory lap around the state next year if the economy is still slumping and they have yet another budget deficit?

I always hate to rain on people’s parades, but we need to look long term at the risks the politicians are putting the taxpayers in. We’re on an unsustainable course right now.

BTW: What is the opposite of limited? Oh yeah, expanded.

Expanded government, the opposite of limited government.

I just want to make sure that gets out there so no one tries to tell us limited government conservatives that the turd is shiny and we should be happy.

Here’s a glimpse of what our lives will look like if these people are allowed to impliment their agenda.

Fried shrimp on a bed of jasmine rice and a side of mango salad, all served on a styrofoam plate. Bottled water to wash it all down.

These trendy catering treats are unlikely to appear on the menu at parties sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Fried foods are forbidden at the committee’s 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both.

And caterers must provide foods in “at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white,” garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week.

No thanks. I don’t care for social engineering at all. I’ll take my food with a large helping of freedom.

A news crew was ‘attacked’ while trying to film at the Muslim public school that is at the center of some controversy here in Minnesota for possibly teaching a religion. 

They have the video of their news crew getting ‘attacked’ by the School’s executive director. 

HT: Captain Ed via True North

So one of the big things that people are trying to claim as a victory from the Session ending compromise (on the right) is the Property Tax cap of 3.9%. The problem is that it caps nothing. It left in provisions so that a City could go above and beyond the cap  for emergency purposes like Police.

Public safety: A good thing, I am sure we all agree. 

Public safety is after all one of the cornerstones of what Government has a duty to provide. The problem is that cities, counties, and even states usually wait until the end of the budgeting to get down to that line item. More often than not, they hold maintaining Police strength and fire departments over the heads of voters like a carrot on the end of a stick. 

Saying if we don’t get more…. you don’t get cops, or fire, or ambulances. 

You see they waste money right up to the breaking point of their budget, then they get down to the serious business. 

So even though the sound of a property tax cap as a victory for the fiscally conservatives out of this session sounds nice, it is not going to cap the tax increases at 3.9%. I’m willing to bet a ton of cities will spend to their hearts content up to the 3.9% increase, and of course that will exclude most public safety costs. Then they’ll go out to the cameras with those big bureaucratic puppy dog eyes and blame those darn Republicans for not being able to fund public safety. Of course they raised spending across the board on frivolous entitlements and social engineering, anti-market projects with the rest of the budget.  

Public SAFETY will be for the extra levy over and above the fake property tax cap of 3.9% that so many people seem to think is meaningful and real. It isn’t a property tax cap if they can get around it. And oh boy, the League of Minnesota Cities probably has teams of lawyers there to help the cities get around it. 

cap 1 |kap|noun : 3. an upper limit imposed on spending or other activities 

I hate to break it to everyone, but eventhough I am thankful my general operating levies from my city will be capped at 3.9%, it doesn’t stop them at 3.9%, and may in fact make it easier to take away more. And of course it didn’t mention schools did it? 

Did this cap the money grab school districts have been doing at the ballot box? Will school based property taxes also be capped to 3.9% increases too? 

I haven’t looked yet, but I kinda doubt it….. oh and did you notice how school funding got another $51 per child….. 

Oh and do you remember how the Legislature allowed the counties to raise sales taxes for future choo choos? Or how they raised the gas tax?  Taxes went up this year, and this phony property tax cap is another ploy for us all to think they aren’t robbing us blind. 

Oh and don’t forget the fees. They went up too. 

If only there was a delivery vehicle to explain what fiscal responsibility really looked like…….

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R MN6) has joined the blogosphere. She has a new blog up now at Townhall.com.

Go check it out.