Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R MN6) is urging people to visit Minnesota Majority and sign their petition to get Democrat SOTH Pelosi to stop the energy blockade. 

Here’s what I sent in. 

Stop The Domestic Energy Blockade

 

I am amazed that some politicians in this country are so bound to special interests that they would put them before the struggling American citizens. Decades of inaction, or rather, action by Congress has literally put a blockade around America’s Domestic Energy sources and forced us to be dependent on countries that hate America to get the energy we need.  

 

Now that the public has basically taken to the gas pumps with pitchforks and demanded that Congress get the heck out of the way of increased Domestic supplies and cut the red tape that allows fringe special interest groups block any and every new energy project.

 

Get back to work and get us some energy!

 

I drive as efficient a vehicle as I can, but I do need a big truck. I bought it last year. I need a big truck. I bought one of the new clean diesels. I bit the bullet and bought new diesel when I could have saved THOUSANDS and gotten an older design that still spews out the soot.

 

Thanks to the new Federal emissions mandate, my new truck gets about 20% less miles per gallon than the older “dirtier” version. Well, now that Congress and our Government have forced us to be dependent on dark and unstable corners of the world, the price of diesel is killing me financially. That’s another thing YOU (and by you I mean Government) has done that is forcing me to hand over more money for fuel.

 

And I am not alone in my plea for cheaper diesel. Our economy’s consumer goods all rely on diesel. Just about every single thing bought or sold in America at one point or another gets transported in a truck that burns diesel fuel.

 

If you don’t get back to work and free up American Domestic oil supplies so we can lower the price of diesel drastically and immediately, YOU will be solely responsible for putting our economy into a real recession. Truckers are going under everyday because they can’t absorb the high fuel costs and stores aren’t sticking the shelves as much, because American shoppers don’t have disposable income to spend on extra goods. If that cycle keeps up you will see unemployment like never before.

 

Times are tough right now when we’re just pumping gas and diesel. My fear is the forecasters are correct and home heating fuels are going to double or possible even quadruple. When that happens people will be forced to spend all of their money on just energy and stop spending money in the economy.

 

Get back to work and get Americans what they deserve. Reliable, cheap, domestic Energy.

 

If you don’t YOU will put America in an economic tailspin. 

Remember, you work for us!

Andy Aplikowski

Congressman John Kline (R MN2) has a great Opinion piece in the Strib today about the plague that is Congressional earmarks. 

John Kline: Earmarks waste your hard-earned tax dollars

By JOHN KLINE

August 19, 2008

The system by which Washington spends your money is broken and needs to be reformed.

In Washington today, Congress decides how to spend many of your hard-earned tax dollars through an “earmark” system that is both broken and corrupt. Any member of Congress can request funding for a project — no matter how outlandish it may be. And you would be shocked at how Congress decides which of these earmarks will receive funding.

Most Minnesotans who manage their own family budgets would expect Washington to base projects on their merits. But rather than using an orderly, reasoned system for setting priorities on how taxpayer money is spent on earmarks, decisions in Washington are based on a member’s seniority, committee assignment or party affiliation. This is wrong. And what is worse: There is no accountability. Members of Congress are not even required to disclose to taxpayers what projects they have requested funding for.

In an effort to make sure your tax dollars are spent wisely and to reform a broken system abused by both Democrats and Republicans, a growing number of members of Congress are not requesting earmarks. More than 30,000 requests were made last year for pork-barrel projects ranging from teapot museums to lighting for the posh L.A. Fashion District. Minnesotans should not be asked to spend their hard-earned money on lighting for an upscale shopping mall for Hollywood’s elite when there are much-needed projects here at home. Federal spending priorities should be based on a project’s merit rather than having Washington’s politicians award money based on an entirely arbitrary system.

Last year, Congress spent more than $15 billion on earmarks. Supporters of this broken system argue that earmarks account for just 2 percent of total spending appropriated by Congress. Attempts to minimize Washington’s annual spending spree by belittling $15 billion — an amount equivalent to the entire annual budget for the state of Minnesota — are insulting to Minnesota taxpayers who are tightening their budgets to pay for the soaring cost of gas and other everyday household items.

An example of how Congress spends your money: In order to secure funding for a transportation project in my district — the intersection of County Rd. 5 and Hwy. 13 in Burnsville — I was forced to vote for a bloated $286 billion transportation authorization bill that included the infamous $223 million “Bridge to Nowhere.” Worthwhile initiatives should not be pitted against projects prioritized solely by seniority. That is why Congress needs to fix this broken system.

The only way for members to take on this battle for major reform and maintain any credibility is to come at it from the outside and not request any earmarks. Last year, I was practically alone in refusing to request earmarks and in calling for comprehensive reform. This year, the ranks are growing. Currently, nearly 50 House members — including California Democrat Henry Waxman — are sitting out of this round of the wasteful pork-barrel spending process and are working for much-needed change. Meanwhile, many colleagues in Congress continue to bring home the bacon as they reach deeper and deeper into taxpayers’ wallets for pork projects that range from lavish to laughable.

Earlier this year, House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for an immediate halt to earmarking. We also called for the establishment of a bipartisan committee to identify ways to bring fundamental change to the way Congress spends taxpayers’ dollars. Unfortunately, the majority leadership rejected our call for reform. The 2008 pork-barrel spending game is under way, and the race to the trough is on.

In this time of economic uncertainty, Minnesotans are naturally growing more concerned with how their tax dollars are being spent. In Washington, we can begin to earn back their trust by enacting comprehensive bipartisan earmark reform — and stopping the pork. As members of Congress, we should continue to work for Americans, not at the trough of broken principles, but by fighting to rid Washington of wasteful pork-barrel spending.

Absent from all the triumphalism over Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (Emily’s List MN) speaking engagements at the Democratic National Convention is outrage over the snubbing of the guy the same people want to join her in the US Senate. Oh and let’s not forget how just about every single local media outlet gave breaking news headline stories to Republican Senator Norm Coleman saying if the Republican convention wasn’t in the Twin Cities, he wouldn’t attend.

Well, not only is the hacktacular Democrat Al Franken being barred from the mic at the DNC, but he is rushing in, glad handing and begging for more big special interest and out of state money, then racing back to Minnesota. 

I sure hope that every one is as livid as I am that Al Franken isn’t being given a prime time speaking slot and national coverage at the DNC. 

Then again, Democrats are running scared of the Franken candidacy and the last thing they want to do is put the great satirical pornificator in front of a camera with a live mic where voters can actually see the disaster that is Al Franken, Democrat candidate for US Senate from Minnesota.(emphasis mine)

Barr said that the Franken campaign did not ask for a speaking slot and that while Franken would accept one if offered, “we don’t think it’s going to happen.“ 

Nope, not going to happen Al. Not next week and not in November. But by all means, please keep doing what you do. Lord knows that you’re dragging down the entire Democratic slate of candidates in Minnesota. Heck if you can raise a few more million, and keep running, Republicans will be shoe ins to take back the Minnesota House.

The folks doing the organizing for the RNC Convention operations sure seem to be top notch. I was asked to volunteer for something and have gotten a chance to see their work and am very impressed. I’m with holding the details of what I am doing, but will post on it when I think it would be safe. 

Republican Party of Minnesota has a new website. I happened to notice this a few weeks back and dropped the ball in posting on it. It is LIGHTYEARS ahead of the old site. Good job! Go check it out. 

Posting is going to be pretty sketchy for the next few weeks. Since I’ll be helping with the convention on and off over the next few weeks, blogging from the convention, busting my rear at work so I can get the time off, helping organize my area for the McCain camp, performing my BPOU duties (which includes masterminding a BBQ/picnic event this week, oh and trying to let my girlfriend know I am not ignoring her, well, I am really flapping busy. 

Anyways, there is a ton going on and I haven’t forgotten about blogging, I am just really flapping busy right now.

I forgot how dead St. Paul gets on the week nights. Plenty of parking. No wait for a burger and a soda.

There’s a great piece on Real Clear Politics regarding Democrat SOTH Pelosi’s plan to solve the Energy Crisis. Here’s the ending. 

Forget logic. Forget realism. Demagoguery of the Pelosi-Democratic party sort is about acquiring political advantage through smearing an industry that potential Democratic voters can be persuaded to dislike and punish.

Denounce, denounce, denounce. Attack, smear and calumniate. Sure finds a lot of oil, doesn’t it? As for drill, drill, drill, the Democratic Party seems to have handed off that particular mission to your dentist.

It is a great piece, go read the whole thing!

PS: You may need a dictionary with a few words.

calumniate - make false and defamatory statements about 

Here’s a little to chew on about where Veterans will fit in to this election. Surprise, it is not what the Obama supporting “journalists” are saying. 

 

The presidential candidates’ visits to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando today and tomorrow raise the question of just what the “veteran vote” looks like – including to what extent being a veteran actually informs vote preferences.

Most voter groups exist via political or religious affinity or demographic characteristics – independents, blacks, Catholics, married women. With the exception of career officers, veterans seem to have less of a common denominator, aside from the fact of their service.

And for most, that service was long-ago. Among registered voters, veterans on average are 58 years old, 11 years older than non-veterans. Veterans are twice as likely to be senior citizens – 35 percent, compared with 17 percent of non-veterans. And just 2 percent of veterans are under 30, compared with 17 percent of non-vets.

Veterans, who account for 12 percent of registered voters overall, stand out in other ways. Ninety-one percent are men. Eighty-four percent are white (compared with 76 percent of non-veterans). Veterans are 12 points more likely than other adults to describe themselves as conservatives, 9 points less apt to be liberals, 5 points more likely to be Republicans and a substantial 13 points less apt to be Democrats.

If that sounds like a John McCain group, it is: Veterans favored McCain over Barack Obama in our last poll by 58-29 percent, one of McCain’s best groups.

Eighty-three percent of veterans also said McCain would be a good commander-in-chief (11 points more than among non-veterans), while just 38 percent said the same about Obama. And veterans trust McCain over Obama to handle the Iraq war by 59-30 percent.

I’ve met many veterans lately who are showing up for the first time to actively get involved in politics. They are showing up for John McCain.

I have been saying for what seems like almost two years now, that Tim Pawlenty is going to be McCain’s pick for Vice President. If you look at what all the “prospective” candidates Pawlenty is allegedly competing against, Pawlenty is one of the few who is spending a majority of their time traversing the Country on McCain’s behalf. 

The others tend to be focusing on regions or their home states. Pawlenty is the one who is, from my novice and limited observation in my free time, actually campaigning nationally for McCain on a nearly full time basis. He’s held more fundraisers around the country then he has here in Minnesota (again, as it appears to my limited glimpse at coverage). He’s raised millions for state parties and candidates all over the place. 

I’m sorry, I love to say I told you so, so I told you so. It will be McPlenty on the ticket. 

I think the others in the spotlight are not auditioning for VP, but rather cabinet positions. Remember, because of the media and left’s insistence that George Bush be removed from History, McCain is going to have to replace everyone when (if - for the Obamaniacs) he takes over the administration.

Just in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, Obama’s little ploy to text message his VP choice is nothing more than him expanding his database. You see, (as I understand it) cell phone numbers are not part of the lists candidates can buy or get their hands on. Telemarketers are not allowed to call them. 

But if you willingly hand over your number to him and say, sure, send me stuff. Well, you gave him permission. 

Don’t be surprised if you get calls and messages sent to you. Also, be prepared to be barraged on election day asking you to go vote for the big BO. 

You will be able to find out who it is instantly on the internet. No need to hand over you cell number.

Tolerance is not a river in China. Religious tolerance should be the goldstandard in the Republican party. Unfortunately, it is not. 

“I think Romney would be very acceptable to the foreign policy conservatives and the economic conservatives,” said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm. “But I think it’s fair to say that about 15 to 20 percent of evangelicals would have a difficult time voting for a Mormon on either side of the ticket.“

It is a sad day for the Republic, more so for the Republican party.