On vacation

I will be taking some time off for a much-needed vacation and will return to regular blogging next week.

Circle your lovely world.

Proof that the news isn’t all bad: two more MN cities to vote on domestic partnership registries.

Fly like the Falcon to new Heights! (Photo: City of Falcon Heights)

So far, there are eleven cities and towns in Minnesota that have approved domestic partnership registries–Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Duluth, Robbinsdale, Golden Valley, Maplewood, Richfield, Edina, St. Louis Park and Red Wing (shame on you, Moorhead, for being the only MN city to vote down domestic partnership registries!).  With any luck, that number will be thirteen soon!  The Twin Cities suburbs of Crystal and Falcon Heights will hold public first readings of proposed domestic partnership registries bills next week.

No H8, Minnesota! (Photo: cafepress.com)

For those of you who don’t know what domestic registries are, they are a way for local governments to recognize domestic partnerships and same-sex relationships.  Furthermore, in localities with domestic partnership registries, same-sex couples will not be locked out of some normal things that others take for granted, like “family” visitation at hospitals among other things.  Truth be told, cities have little control over the definition of marriage (the definition of marriage is defined at the state level), but domestic partnership registries are a way for cities to be more welcoming of same-sex couples and families.  Furthermore, they are a political statement–and important political statement against the backdrop of the state’s marriage amendment.  I am hopeful that the people of Minnesota will vote down the marriage amendment and continue to make Minnesota a welcoming place for all people.

Please join me in supporting the efforts of our friends in the cities of Crystal and Falcon Heights!  They are helping to make Minnesota a better place.

Linda Berglin to leave MN Senate

The Minnesota Senate is losing one of its longest-serving Senators.  Senator Linda Berglin (DFL-Minneapolis) is leaving after 40 years of dedicated service to the state.

Thanks for all you have done for Minnesota over the years, Linda! We are really going to miss you. (Photo: MPR)

Countless Minnesotans have benefited from the many legislative initiatives pushed forward by Senator Berglin, such as MinnesotaCare, not to mention countless other pieces of legislation dealing with women’s issues, urban affairs and health and human services.

When asked why she was leaving the Senate, she cited several of the GOP initiatives and the diminished funding for health and human services saying: “As I see so much of what I have worked on over the years being chipped away or repealed entirely, I worry that our state is moving away from the community spirit that has made us such a great place.”

After the special election, someone else will be taking Senator Berglin’s seat, but I doubt that anyone could fill her shoes.  Thanks, Senator Berglin, for your many years of service to Minnesota.  You will be greatly missed.

In Michelle Bachmann’s warped universe, up is down and false is true.

Okay, so I’ve been looking into what some of the independent fact-checkers are saying about some of Michelle Bachmann’s Statements.  Let’s explore:

1) Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler’s rating of Michelle Bachmann’s ‘bombshell’ on a ‘hidden’ $105 billion in the Health Care Law: Four Pinocchios (translation: whopping lies).

 

 

2) Factcheck.org evaluated several of Michelle Bachmann’s statements:

- She said that the Obama administration had issued only one new oil drilling permit since the president took office–the real number was 276.  She was off by 275.

- She said the “government bailout”, or Troubled Asset Relief Program had cost taxpayers $700 billion.  The real cost?  $19 billion.  She was only off by a paltry $681 billion.

- She made the claim the federal government is “taking over ownership or control of 51% of the American economy.”  In reality, recent figures show that government spending accounts for only 20.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  So she’s off by 30.4%, which is an exaggeration that is over 2 times the actual percentage.

Michelle Bachmann scrutinizing the "facts".

- She also made the following absurd accusation: “Speaker Pelosi, who has been busy sticking the taxpayer for a $100,000 bar tab for alcohol on the military jets that she is flying.”  In actuality, the $100,000 Bachmann is referring to is used for baggage fees; meeting room rentals and refreshments; gifts for foreign diplomats; and meals, ground transportation and lodging in U.S. territory.  Nancy Pelosi herself (and her staff) have said that she doesn’t drink, not to mention that this $100,000 is spread out across nine flights that had between 11 and 85 official participants each.

3) PolitiFact.com scored numerous statements made by Michelle Bachmann.  I’m not going to go through them all because they are too numerous.  But of the 28 statements they rated, only one was rated as “True,” 12 of them were rated as “False” and 7 of them were rated “Pants on Fire” (the rest were half-truths of some variety).

Liar, liar, Michelle Bachmann, pants on fire! (Image: PolitiFact.com)

 

Minnesota state government shutdown ends.

So, the Minnesota state government shutdown is over.  Let’s analyze the situation as it now stands, shall we?

The last three weeks were not all hugs and joy. (Photo: MPR)

Who won:

- Republicans.  This budget was a GOP budget with no tax increases and significant spending cuts.  GOP legislators get to keep their campaign promise of “no new taxes.”

- The very wealthy.  No tax increases on top 2% of Minnesotans means that millionaires will get to keep more of their money.  Sigh.

Who lost:

- Public education.  Deferred payment to K-12 schools and large cuts to the University of Minnesota and MNSCU means that public education was the biggest loser in this budget.  The Deferred payments to K-12 schools is just a way for the state to take out a loan from schools–very bad public policy.

- Governor Dayton.  He has irritated fellow Democrats (they didn’t vote for this budget) and liberals who thought he should have stood up to the Republicans.  Instead, he showed Republicans that if they wait him out long enough, he will cave under the pressure.

- Democrats.  Their own Governor didn’t support them in the end.  They appeared powerless to do anything during this whole debacle.

- Minnesota.  All the national publicity about the government shutdown was not good for the state’s image.  It can no longer be claimed that “Minnesota has a government that works.”  Oh yes, and the state had its credit rating downgraded due in large part to the shutdown.

- State employees.  Yes, now they are going back to work, and they didn’t get the full brunt of the ax that the Republicans wanted to bring down on them, it looks like they aren’t going to get back-pay during the state shutdown–in fact it seemed like Governor Dayton was rather ambivalent about the issue of back-pay.  Still, a case can be made that it wasn’t state employees who caused the shutdown, so why should they be punished?

- The citizens of Minnesota.  We have endured all this drama and angst–and what for?  To have our state parks closed down during the busy tourism season?  To have our roads not getting fixed?  The list goes on and on…

- The children of Minnesota.  Deferred payments to K-12 schools mean that schools are going to have to make tough choices about how to make ends meet.  This will probably mean increased class sizes, fewer electives, and fewer extracurricular activities.

So, there you have it Minnesota.  Admittedly, it is not a complete list, but you get the idea.  I just hope we can deal with these nagging budget problems (through tax increases) sooner rather than later.

The heat is melting my computer.

Whew!  It is almost too hot to post anything today.  There are two big stories out there today: the heat and the Governor calling a special session.  I am going to go cool off.  If you want to read about either of these two stories, here are some links:

MPR Updraft blog story about the heatwave.

MPR story about the special session.

Now I’m going to go lie down with a pitcher of lemonade in the shade.

Here's what to do when the heat of the state budget crisis gets to you. (Photo: www.nlm.nih.gov)

Family values for GOP U.S. House member Chip Cravaack means moving his family 8 states away.

Minnesota U.S. House member Chip Cravaack (GOP-Lindstrom) announced that his wife and two children will be moving from Minnesota to New Hampshire while he will continue to live in Minnesota.  Why?  As reported by the Duluth News Tribune:

“The family’s decision to move to New Hampshire was made so that Cravaack and his wife, Traci, could spend more time with their two children.”

You would expect a former Navy officer like Chip Cravaack to be better at geography. By the way, New Hampshire is not anywhere near Minnesota, Chip! (Photo: MPR News/Derek Montgomery)

Cravaack said that he would be spending his Sunday off-days with his family in New Hampshire while spending the other 6 days of the week in Washington and Minnesota.

According to Cravaack: “Just because I’m in Congress, I’m still a father. And being a father comes first.”  Does being a father mean shipping your kids halfway across the country and then barely ever seeing them?

It will be interesting to see during the next election if Chip Cravaack attempts to run on “family values.”  If so, we can take it to mean that Republican party “family values” now means not living anywhere near your family and only seeing them at most one day a week.

Another weekend off.

It has been an eventful week. I am taking my usual weekend off from blogging. Have a nice weekend!

MN budget deal: Selling the farm to rent a cow.

Okay, so I’ve been getting some responses on Twitter (@circlelovely) lately because I have been critical of Governor Dayton’s compromise (give-away) to Republicans.  That’s fine…everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am genuinely happy to see that state workers will be getting back to work soon and that many of the problems and hardships of the shutdown will be over soon.  All of that is a good thing and I am very happy for it.

Kurt Zellers and Amy Koch are already studying other opportunities to fleece Minnesota's working class. (Photo: scgaproperty.com)

However, my concern is the overall impact this deal is going to have on Minnesota.  Overall, I think this deal stinks and it appears that most DFLers in the legislature are not going to vote for it.  In fact, DFL Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk from Cook told MPR’s Midmorning straightaway: “I don’t plan on voting for a borrowing proposal.”  This sentiment was echoed by DFL House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Thissen of Minneapolis, who said he had serious concerns with it said that it “is truly a Republican proposal.”

So, let me lay out the case why I think this is a bad deal both for Minnesota, the DFL and Governor Dayton.

After hearing about GOP-butchers, 9 out of 10 cattle are against "cuts." (Photo: Glen Watson)

1) There are no new tax increases.  Governor Dayton campaigned on this point–that there would be new taxes on Minnesota’s top earners.  I can tell you that getting tax increases passed at the end of the next biennium is going to be that much more difficult–it is going to get more difficult to raise taxes as the election for the Governorship gets closer–this was the best chance Dayton had to get new tax increases.  The state desperately needs new revenue–we have had budget problems going all the way back to Jesse Ventura’s tax giveaways.  This is not something that is going to go away–and cuts alone aren’t going to get the job done.  Minnesotans come to rely on government services (the outcry against the shutdown is evidence of this) and having good services contributes greatly to what we consider a high quality of life here in Minnesota.

2) The budget gap gets fixed with more gimmicks.  This is the main reason why Fitch Ratings downgraded Minnesota’s bond rating from AAA to AA+.  For more on why this is a bad thing, see my previous post: http://circlelovely.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/minnesotas-bond-rating-lowered/.

3) From a political standpoint, the timing of the deal was terrible.  Dayton had just wrapped up a tour around the state to drum up support for his budget plan.  This should have been part of a strategy to keep pressure on the Republicans, eventually getting enough of the rank-and-file members to crack under the pressure so that he could get tax increases and fix the budget problem in a more permanent way.  So it is baffling why he then made this rather conciliatory offer to the GOP right after coming back from his trip around the state.  He had the initiative and was starting to gain the upper hand and then gave it up.

Mark Dayton has nothing left up his sleeve now that he's given it all away to Republicans. (Photo: examiner.com)

4) Dayton is going to get blamed for the shutdown.  I am worried that because Dayton blinked first (gave in), he will be held responsible for the shutdown by the voters and the Republicans will be able to exploit this in the next election.

Don’t get me wrong, I still like Mark Dayton, overall am happy that he is Governor (I can’t imagine the world of hurt we’d be in right now with Tom Emmer as Governor), and if he runs for reelection I will most likely still vote for him again.  I just think he handled this whole situation badly.  It was a squandered political opportunity and it was a squandered opportunity to get Minnesota on better financial footing.

However, I am happy that state workers will be going back to work soon and that Minnesota will be “open for business” once more.

Governor Dayton seems to have thrown in the towel!

I have supported Governor Mark Dayton in the state budget dispute to this point but I’ve got to disagree with his latest offer to the GOP.  He basically gives up the idea of taxing the über-wealthy or any kind of new tax increases (which are sooooooo badly needed) and instead agrees to more of the same accounting tricks and gimmicks.  I mean, come on!  Governor, you were winning the battle of public opinion!  You had Republican lawmakers holding press conferences agreeing that the state needs to generate more revenue!  This is exactly where you wanted them…the cracks in the GOP armor were showing!  You had the momentum and you’ve now thrown it all away with your latest offer!

Why let the GOP go when you've got them in a headlock? (Photo: mtv.com)

I would like to see an end to the state government shutdown too, but it is hard not to see this latest budget offer by the Governor as anything other than a win for the Republicans.

I am sorry, but I am not going to try to hide my disappointment.  I am actually hoping the Republicans reject this offer.