Archive for March, 2007
« Previous EntriesMDE ON THE RADIO: SHOWTIME!
Saturday, March 31st, 2007I'll be on the radio for a two-hour program from 3-5 p.m. with King Banaian of SCSU Scholars on AM 1280 The Patriot.
Before you listen to King and me, make sure you listen to the first four hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. you can hear Power Line's John [...]
MN GOP: TAXAPALOOZA ON STEROIDS: SENATE DEMOCRATS PROPOSE HIGHEST-IN-THE-NATION INCOME TAX BRACKET
Friday, March 30th, 2007The State Of Minnesota Has A $2.163 Billion Projected Surplus:
Star Tribune: "State financial prognosticators now expect a surplus of slightly more than $1 billion when the fiscal period ends June 30, down $25 million from the November forecast. But the 2008-09 projection got rosier [...]
THE BIG QUESTION/STAR TRIBUNE: “WHAT’S A NEWSPAPER TO DO WHEN A POLITICIAN’S WORDS AREN’T ‘FIT TO PRINT’?”
Friday, March 30th, 2007Doug Tice at the Star Tribune writes:
"Eric’s recent post and newspaper story about Al Franken's history of foul-mouthed flippancies continued our efforts on this blog and in the Star Tribune to give this issue a thorough airing.
But the task presents unique difficulties. The fact is that the Star Tribune is not prepared to publish [...]
MN GOP: “WASHINGTON WALZ” VOTES FOR BLUEPRINT FOR THE LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Friday, March 30th, 2007"Tim Walz's vote for the blueprint for the largest tax increase in American history demonstrates just how of touch he is with taxpayers back home. While 'Washington Walz' serves as a rubber stamp for liberals like Nancy Pelosi, First District residents will get soaked if Walz and his hard-left allies allow these critical tax cuts [...]
STAR TRIBUNE: SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES $500 MILLION TAX INCREASE, ELIMINATES PAWLENTY’S JOBZ PROGRAM
Thursday, March 29th, 2007"A tax bill with more than $300 million of homeowner property tax relief and nearly $500 million of business tax increases was passed by the Senate Taxes Committee on Thursday.
The bill would boost state aid to cities, counties and townships, offer property tax refunds and help reduce school levies.
It also takes dead aim at eliminating [...]
HOUSE DEMOCRATS IN D.C. PASS $2.9 TRILLION BUDGET; REPUBLICANS CALL IT BLUEPRINT “FOR LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY”
Thursday, March 29th, 2007"WASHINGTON – The House today narrowly passed a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget blueprint predicting a big surplus in five years but relying on the expiration of tax cuts to do so.
The 216-210 vote sets up negotiations with the Senate, which last week passed a budget blueprint with similarly large spending increases for education, defense, homeland [...]
CAN DFL’S “COMPETENCY” BE QUESTIONED WITH SECOND COMPUTER THEFT IN TWO WEEKS?
Thursday, March 29th, 2007The Minnesota DFL has now had two laptops stolen from their office in the last two week:
"Someone broke into the Minnesota DFL headquarters in St. Paul Tuesday night or this morning, marking the second burglary in two weeks, a party spokesman said today.
A window in the party's executive director's office was pried out of [...]
PRESS RELEASE: SENATE AND HOUSE REPUBLICANS CALL FOR ACTION
Thursday, March 29th, 2007SAINT PAUL – (March 29, 2007) – Minnesota Senate and House Republicans today stood united in calling for an end to the tax and spending spree that has dominated the 2007 legislative session.
"It's time to get real with the voters of Minnesota, who expect us to live up to the promises we've made," said Senate [...]
SENATE DEMOCRATS WORKING ON ALMOST $1 BILLION TAX INCREASE; MCCLUNG: “THIS STATE IS NOT GOING TO HAVE THE HIGHEST TAX RATE IN THE COUNTRY”
Thursday, March 29th, 2007"Senate DFLers are working on a nearly $1 billion income tax increase proposal that could wind up boosting most Minnesotans' income taxes to pay primarily for education spending.
Senate Taxes Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said Wednesday that the caucus was 'about evenly split' between two income tax plans and was supposed to make a choice today, [...]
AL FRANKEN ON LETTERMAN
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007I'm staying up way past my bedtime to watch Al Franken on David Letterman's show. Check back later tonight for my thoughts on Franken's appearance.
UPDATE: Al Franken spent almost five minutes of his appearance talking about how the Republicans in Minnesota were using his jokes against him. Franken specifically mentioned Chairman Ron Carey's press [...]
AP: INCOME TAX INCREASES BREWING IN SENATE
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007"In a one-two tax punch, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed a tax increase that would hit businesses and acknowledged serious discussions about ratcheting up income taxes — and maybe not just on the wealthy as House leaders suggest.
The income tax proposal hasn't made it into bill form yet, and Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk [...]
MN GOP: TOP TEN AL FRANKEN OVER-THE-TOP, NEGATIVE PERSONAL ATTACKS #2
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007Wow…this is bad:
#4: "Franken is a political satirist, former cast member and writer for Saturday Night Live and author, currently on a book tour for Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. After viciously attacking President Bush's foreign policy, Franken admitted that soldiers won't hear the [...]
MN GOP: TOP TEN AL FRANKEN OVER-THE-TOP, NEGATIVE PERSONAL ATTACKS
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007Al Franken will appear on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight on CBS (http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/). In honor of tonight’s appearance, the Republican Party of Minnesota is releasing the "Top Ten Al Franken Over-The-Top, Negative Personal Attacks."
#10: Derided Senator Norm Coleman as "butt boy"
#9: Quipped "most Republican politicians are real jerks"
#8: Mocked AG Janet Reno by [...]
THE BIG QUESTION/STAR TRIBUNE: “FRANKEN’S POTTY-MOUTH PAST MAKES THE DEAD TREES EDITION”
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007I found this dilemma over which remarks from Franken the Star Tribune could publish interesting:
"And, in the sidebar, a small compendium of some of the remarks. The editors agonized a bit about which were suitable for a family newspaper. the final ruling was that 'butt boy' was okay and Franken’s reference to Republican politicians as [...]
HASTINGS STAR-GAZETTE: PAWLENTY SHOCKS DEMOCRATS
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007"Minnesota Democratic legislative leaders thought relations with Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty were going well. Then he told a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce audience: 'You don't celebrate getting out of Weight Watchers by going over to the all-you-can-eat buffet. So our message to the Legislature is: 'Push away from the table. Put your fork down.'
Assistant Senate [...]
STAR TRIBUNE: “FRANKEN STILL A ‘STANDUP’ GUY?”
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007"Al Franken's Senate candidacy raises a rude question. If you go into politics from a career in comedy, how will the public treat the things you said and wrote while going for laughs, especially if the material includes rude, disrespectful remarks and foul language? Minnesota Republicans think there's political gold in those hills. They are [...]
MDE FROM THE ARCHIVES: FRANKEN ON ‘TODAY’ SHOW TELLS CONSERVATIVE GUEST: “SCREW YOU”
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007Al Franken is one angry guy:
"Michael Smerconish: 'Yeah, Al sounds a little exhausted to me this morning.'
AL Franken: 'It's 4:11AM! It's four in the morning here….Screw you! I got up at four in the morning.'" Source: Newsbusters, March 31, 2006
A MESSAGE TO LIBERAL BLOGGERS: PLEASE KEEP COMPARING RITCHIE TO KIFFMEYER
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007Do you think it’s smart for liberal bloggers to compare Secretary of State Ritchie to former Secretary of State Kiffmeyer? I think it’s one of the dumbest strategies liberal bloggers have used to defend Secretary of State Ritchie. To be honest, this post has taken longer to write than usual as I can’t stop laughing [...]
“NONPARTISAN” SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE TO APPEAR AT DFL FUNDRAISER WITH FRANKEN
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007"The fourth annual Senate District 21 DFL fundraiser starts at 5 p.m. Saturday at Jackpot Junction Casino in Morton.
The keynote speaker is former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, with featured guests Al Franken and Mike Ciresi. Others slated are Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, State Auditor Rebecca Otto and State DFL Chairman Brian Melendez." [...]
REALITY CHECK ON KLINE’S TOWN HALL MEETING #2
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007I've established that certain liberal bloggers have misrepresented the agenda of Congressman Kline's upcoming town hall meeting on April 3, 2007 at Lakeville South High School.
Contrary to inaccurate blog posts, Congressman John Kline is not having a town hall meeting on April 3 only "to discuss the Iraq War" like some liberal blogs have posted. [...]