ScaifeNet because we can't let Soros have all the fun...

Last but not least, if you are Dayton’s choice for Budget Commissioner, good luck solving the deficit with this plan, especially when the last line in the document is: “That leaves me $635.4 million to go.” Now, bear in mind that 635 million is roughly 1.5 times larger than the immense tax hike the Dems [...]

The paragraph in Dayton’s budget plan is a subtle one: 3. Eliminate tax loopholes, such as the one allowing “Snowbirds” to live outside Minnesota for six months and one day of the year, and pay no personal income taxes in this state. I would ensure that anyone who spends a significant amount of time in Minnesota pays [...]

Did you pull your kids out of the public school system and put ‘em in a charter program?  Like I did? Start looking for a new school.  If Mark Dayton gets elected and pushes his “budget plan” through, you’ll need to start looking for a new program for your kids. That’s right – Dayton plans to kill [...]

Not only has James Lileks' name been appearing on the prestigious back page of National Review of late, he's now been added to the roster for the National Review Post-Election Cruise: One would think that the enthusiasm for any event peaks and then declines. Not so with the National Review 2010 Post-Election Caribbean Cruise. Last week 13 more cabins were booked. The pace does not abate. You canChadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

If you own or are employed by one of the 305 small businesses being helped by the JOBZ program right now, you’ll be out of luck. Dayton’s plan reneges on your agreement and eliminates funding for JOBZ. Of course, during the Almanac debate a few weeks back, Dayton agreed with… Tom Emmer that it’d be wrong for [...]

If you are benefitting from a professional or technical contract with the state, your funding could be cut. Dayton says we can cut half of the $850 million we spend every two years on state contracts. He may or may not have a point.  But you’ll never know it from his budget plan. State contracts are used [...]

Larry e-mails to submit the following SAB: British woman decrying the horrors of Blair and......British comic singing the glories of Spam. Chadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

If you are a potential commissioner in the Dayton administration, prepare to do a lot of work by yourself. Dayton proposes to adopt the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees(MAPE) proposal to eliminate what they call political patronage jobs in the Pawlenty Administration. The MAPE proposal targets Metropolitan Council appointments (does Dayton want them elected?), Deputy Commissioners and [...]

If you are a K-12 student, you will see a $230 million cut in funding for your schools because Dayton plans to eliminate testing. Now, I personally am ambivalent about testing as a goal, an end in and of itself, as happens all too often in our current educational system. But like it or not, the Fed [...]

If you are one of the 200,000 Minnesotans with a license from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, prepare for a huge fee increase. Dayton proposes funding the Commerce Department entirely by fees exacted from those “industries.” Are you a real estate agent? Reeling from the collapse of the houseing market are you?  Tough rocks, Audrey; your license [...]

I’ll be on Rob Port’s “Say Anything Morning Show” at 6:35, on AM1100 The Flag. We’ll be talking Minnesota politics, naturally – and there’s a lot to talk about!http://wzfg-am.fimc.net/goout.asp?u=http://www.sayanythingblog.com

If you’re a teacher who happens to get sick in the first year of the Dayton/ Education Minnesota Health Insurance Pool, good luck making a claim. The new Health Insurance Pool that Dayton wants to start for Education Minnesota’s health insurance is, curiously, exempt from the startup balance requirements that affect every other insurance plan that [...]

If you want to understand what this election is about, all you have to do is look at the proposals we received yesterday from two very different politicians, Barack Obama and Tom Emmer.

Obama offers a $50 billion plan to build infrastructure:

"Today, I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America's roads, and rails and runways for the long term," said Obama, who spoke on Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- a state with competitive gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

"We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again," he said to loud cheers from a crowd of union workers.

The proposal envisions -- over a six year period -- rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail and 150 miles of airport runways. It also would include modernizing the nation's air traffic control system in an effort to reduce delays and travel time.

Hmmm. I thought we had done all that already -- given the number of signs I've seen in my travels this summer, touting the traffic jams caused by construction sites that almost invariably had no one working on them at the time, one could draw that assumption. But hey, what's another $50 billion, right?

Meanwhile, Tom Emmer, running for the office of governor in Minnesota, offers an idea to reduce the tax burden on the private sector. Mitch Berg provides a summary, with helpful explanations of the rationale behind Emmer's proposals:

Emmer is going to…:

Lower The Corporate Income Tax. This will enable new businesses to get profitable faster, and allow large companies to stay that way – forestalling layoffs, enabling job additions, and addressing business’ #1 complaint about doing business in Minnesota, our top-in-the-nation business and corporate tax rates.

Increase The “Angel” Investor Credit. “Angel” investors - people who are willing to take long shots on new companies that don’t yet have established sales, assets or revenues. They are what get new companies off the ground, and allow them to survive and make payroll until they turn a profit – are in many ways the lynchpin of the new economy. Of all “new economies”, really. Angel Investors were the underpinning of much of the high-tech revolution that transformed our economy, and our lives really, for the past fifty years. Currently, investors can deduct 25% of their investment (up to $125,000 from a $500,000 investment); Tom Emmer will increase that credit.

Accelerate The Refunds From The Sales Tax Exemption On Capital Purchases. Minnesota allows a refund of sales taxes on capital equipment – in
the tax cycle after the equipment is purchased. Emmer will front-load that – essentially lopping sales taxes off of capital equipment, making it easier – 7% easier – for companies to buy the equipment they need, when they need it to be easiser, when they buy the equipment; freeing up 7-and-change-percent of the company’s revenue to do more important things – like hire people.
The Obama approach keeps the power in the hands of the government. The Emmer approach frees private sector entities to take chances and build something new. We have a clear choice in this election.

As Tom Emmer was setting up at Permac Industries in Burnsville to announce the first part of its budget plan, the Minnesota DFL party’s Twitter account announced…: Spoiler Alert: Tom Emmer to Hold Press Conference at Company Saved by the Recovery Act Funding He Opposes http://ht.ly/2A8QT #goDFL This prompted other DFLers to crow that Permac had been [...]

As this is written, Tom Emmer has just finished announcing Part One of his budget plan – the one that the DFL and the Chanting Class has been wondering about for the past two months. To paraphrase James Carville, Part One is about the jobs, stupid. Emmer is going to…: Lower The Corporate Income Tax. This will enable [...]

Talk is cheap, but it can cost. Three takes on the matter, with apologies in advance for the somewhat rambling nature of what follows:

First, let's consider the observations of Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds, writing in the Washington Examiner, concerning the rantings of James Lee, the charming fellow who took hostages at the Discovery Channel's offices:

In contemporary America, no respectable person would advocate, say, the involuntary sterilization of blacks or Jews. Why, then, should it be any more respectable to advocate the involuntary sterilization of everyone? Or even of those who cause “social deterioration?”

Likewise, references to particular ethnic or religious groups as “viruses” or “cancers” in need of extirpation are socially unacceptable, triggering immediate thoughts of genocide and mass murder.

Why, then, should it be acceptable to refer to all humanity in this fashion? Does widening the circle of eliminationist rhetoric somehow make it better?

Meanwhile, John Hinderaker at Powerline ponders the deep thoughts of Karel de Gucht, the European Trade Commissioner, who had offered the following:


On Thursday, with the Middle East peace process in the news, Mr. De Gucht picked yet another fight. Jews, he told Belgian radio, have a "belief" that they are "always right." He described his frustration at debating the Middle East because "it is not easy even with a moderate Jew to have a conversation."

He continued: "Don't underestimate the power of the Jewish lobby in the capital. That is best organized lobby in the states. And they have an influence on politicians, Republicans and Democrats."

Very nice. As Hinderaker observes, this led to criticism, which lead to the usual non-apology apology from de Gucht:

"I gave an interview yesterday to the Flemish radio. I was also asked about the Middle East peace talks. I gave my personal point of view. I regret that the comments that I made have been interpreted in a sense that I did not intend. I did not mean in any possible way to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish Community. I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today's world and is fundamentally against our European values."
A hanging curveball, that statement. Hinderaker then smashes the hanging curve ball deep into the bleachers:

I suppose Jews can be excused for questioning whether history supports the claim that anti-Semitism is "fundamentally against...European values."
But then Hinderaker makes an observation that doesn't necessarily follow:

For whatever reason, we don't seem to see the same resurgence in the U.S. that is happening in Europe. I would say with considerably more confidence that anti-Semitism is fundamentally against American values.

This is why Pat Buchanan and Jesse Jackson never have any difficulty getting air time on CNN, of course. But I digress

Here's the thing. I'm guessing that Reynolds had his tongue somewhat in cheek when he wrote his piece for the Examiner. It's a goof on the notion that somehow conservative commenters are responsible for any violence that happens when a crazy person acts crazy. Both Lee and Ted Kaczynski, a/k/a the Unabomber, were fans of Al Gore. That doesn't make Al Gore responsible for what they did, though.

De Gucht is a different matter, because he wields actual power. As does John Holdren, the man Barack Obama appointed as his "science czar." As Reynolds notes:

[O]ne need only look to the writings of President Obama’s “science czar,” John Holdren to find something similar. Seeing humanity as destructive, Holdren wrote in favor of forced abortion and putting sterilizing agents in the drinking water, and in particular of sterilizing people who cause “social deterioration.”

And here is the serious point Reynolds wants to make. No one wants "social deterioration," of course. The key is looking back at what (or who) is asserted to cause "social deterioration." And equally important is asking hard questions. Why does John Holdren believe what he believes? And an even better question -- why would he have the President's ear?

Meanwhile, our good friend Gino wrote something very interesting on his blog:

In my last discussion, I intentionally self-Godwined.

Trying to compare an illegal alien dishwasher to a convicted murderer, and then using this comparison to justifying taking from his innocent children the only grace the roulette wheel of life may ever offer them, was just more than this two-fingered typist (and mediocre intellect) serving as your host was able to deal with while keeping his honor intact.

Rather than continue, I turned the knife and thrust backward.

You win.

A little background: Gino had an earlier post up about the plight of "anchor babies," children born in the United States of parents in the country illegally. Gino decries (rightly, in my view) the idea that a kid who has grown up in the United States could end up being deported to the country of his parent's origin, especially if the child knows nothing of that country. Gino also has a pretty contentious comments section and because he became so disgusted with some of the comments, he played the Hitler card, which of course pretty much ended the thread.

I understand why Gino did this -- reading through the comments on his post, I picture him pacing the floor like Popeye, saying "that's all I can stand, I can't stand no more." And therein lies the challenge we face. Those who would prefer to silence us, those who are motivated by hatred and anger, want us to give up. Facing the provocations every damned day wears on a person. It's unpleasant as hell.

If I could do it, I'd never write about politics. But as long as there are people like de Gucht and Holdren out there, you have to keep up the fight. Gino called off a fight on his blog because he wanted to fight another day. Whether we choose to engage or not, we are involved.

Today is Labor Day – the day when Union members pat themselves on the back for another year of doing their jobs and getting paid for it, and when the rest of us hit the picnic grounds and ponder buying weatherstripping. And this year, the time when the political season starts to reach out to people [...]

Last Friday, I returned from Chihuahua, Mexico after spending a week there on business. The American Airlines flight from Chihuahua to Dallas was delayed by about forty minutes because......the crew didn't arrive at the airport on time. This excuse didn't sit well with my fellow passengers because nearly every one of us was trying to make a connecting flight in Dallas. And it just seems like a Chadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

Charting and predicting the continuum of DFL chanting points. Last Week: “Where is Emmer’s plan?” This Afternoon: “OK, where is the rest of Emmer’s plan?” A Few Weeks From Now: “Where is the last little bit of Emmer’s plan?” Novenber 3: “Where’s Mark Dayton?”

It’s been about two months since the DFL started chanting “Where’s Emmer’s Plan?” As I quite correctly pointed out in June, it’d have been stupid of Tom Emmer to release a plan at a point in the campaign when only wonks, journos and political junkies care about it.  The average, non-aligned voter doesn’t care about politics [...]