And more $$'s won't help

OK kids, here’s quick little quiz: How would the NEA (National Education Association, aka , THE teachers union) respond to this headline in Prairie Pravda:
“New poll shows that Americans know little about the U.S.”
1.YIKES! That’s awful! We obviously have been directing education down the wrong path! Please, allow us to get out of the way and become a partner to success rather the reason for failure in education.
2.School choice.Now more than ever, the only obvious way to get education back on track.

3.Obviously the schools need much, much more money and we need to reduce class sizes.

Yah, that would have been my guess too.

Oh, and a little help for Zogby, as his organization ran this poll : There are ten Congressmen from Minnesota. Eight members of the House of Representatives and two Senators. As so many people ALWAYS get this wrong, and it seems so did Zogby, the Congress of the United States consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate.All Senators are also Congressmen.
And a P.S.: Doug Grow said the poll should knock the smug out of politicians. Partly right Doug. It should knock the smug out of left wing politicians and their fellow travelers in the teachers’ unions who have been behind this failure for decades. And this is only a new poll that shows the same old failures. There really is nothing new here Doug. Nothing new at all.

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Well now, I almost missed this.

I was reading this story in the local Prior Lake MN (which is next door to Savage) paper this weekend.

“Veterans Field at Memorial Park would more than quadruple in seat capacity by 2008 under a proposal to bring a Northwoods League baseball team to Prior Lake.
The plan calls for expanded seating and other renovations at both Veterans Field, where the league’s new club team would play, and Ryan Park, where some local teams would move.”

Well, this sounds familiar – build us a ball park in order to attract or keep a ball club. However, this was the part that was missed in the local story.

“Prior Lake, on the other hand, is finalizing details on an agreement with former Star Tribune executive editor and publisher Joel Kramer, who contacted Mayor Jack Haugen in early July.”

Joel Kramer….that name sounds familiar…former Star Tribune editor and publisher Joel Kramer…..OH HIM!!!!!

” Several well-off Minnesotans who believe more tax money should be pumped into public initiatives said the state can start with them. More than 200 wealthy Minnesotans signed a full-page ad appearing Thursday in the Star Tribune asking the state to raise $2 billion for various initiatives by increasing the state’s tax burden for high-salary earners. “We need to invest more in our future,” said Joel Kramer, former publisher of the Star Tribune and founder of the think tank Growth and Justice, which organized the “Invest for Real Prosperity” fiscal strategy.

Co-chair of “Works for Minnesota” the group of leftists that decided that “we can afford to pay more state taxes!”, founder of a leftist think tank which wants to take money from the middle class under the guise that the money is really coming from “the rich”. Now he wants to force the citizens of the City of Prior Lake to build him a baseball stadium for his semi-pro team? I hope that the people of Prior Lake realize what is being foisted on them by someone who can afford to build his own stadium.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic

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Minnesota's version of "Where are they now?"

While perusing the headlines of the online version of Prairie Pravda, I came across the wrenching story of Kathleen Soliah (aka Sara Jane Olson) complete with a picture of her appearing before a magistrate in 2002, and of course the obligatory “weeping” picture of her at her 1999 trial. The story, of course, is supposed to be a tear jerker and a hope to give us a sympathetic look at this poor suffering woman as she just hopes to endure prison and hope to never become ill because “in the prison healthcare organization that experts say claims one life a week through malpractice or neglect.” Oh, and she feels badly that she has nothing meaningful to do, such as possibly killing little girls with concrete nails as shrapnel in a pipe bomb. Or mudering church secretaries as they make a cash deposit in a bank. You know,meaningful things like that.
Front Page Magazine has a great article about Sara Jane’s false tears, empty apologies and the sheer and utter hypocrisy of the left. And by association the pukes at Prairie Pravda as they attempt to manipulate the readers to have any compassion for this disgusting human being. James Lileks also had a column that excoriated Olson and her reprehensible apologists.
The Front Page column takes no prisoners and offers no apologies in the Sara Jane Olson saga (an excerpt):

This Leftist charade has been discredited long ago. The history of the 20th Century has taught a profound lesson: the moment anyone starts talking about “eliminating” poverty and inequality, we must immediately recognize that person to be as dangerous and evil as a Nazi that talks about the importance of a “Final Solution.”

Indeed, the moment a Leftist begins to imply that humans can be their own redeemers, and that the perfectibility of human institutions and of the human race is possible, it must be recognized that another re-enactment of Pol Pot’’s killing fields is in its starting stages. That’’s why I have a dream that one day the verbal articulation of class hatred will be criminalized –- just as racist hate speech is criminalized now. But in that context we have a long way to go, since the Left clearly controls our society’’s political language.

Oh yes, I forgot: Soliah has articulated some real tear-jerking apologies. But if you deconstruct her “apologies” carefully, you will find that they are directed at her family members for the “pain” she has caused them. Nowhere has she yet to utter one mea culpa for the murderous ideology that she upheld –- which, when imposed by her ruthless comrades, snuffed out the lives of people who wanted to live and who wanted to see their children grow up. Never has she apologized for perpetuating ideas that are complicit in the mass genocide that has been practiced throughout the 20th Century.

This is no surprise, of course, because being a Leftist means never having to say you’’re sorry.

Read all the articles. Sara Jane “The Recipe Queen” Olson is right where she belongs.

And, BTW, don’t forget that these examples of sewer food also repeatedly raped an innocent 19 year old woman over many days to break her spirit. Her name is Patty Hearst.

And Jennifer Warren at the LA Times (and the Prairie Pravda Pukes as they published the story) wants us to feel sorry for Olson.

Well, I do feel sorry for this situation. I feel sorry that Olson will be getting out of prison as soon as 2009.

And when will Myrna Opsahl and Dr. Marcus Foster be getting out of their prison cells called a coffin?

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You sir are a……

Weenie????? I read this story and two thoughts crossed my mind. First was “this deserves news print?” and second was “Look whose talking!”

“Pawlenty to Mark Kennedy: ‘You’re a Weenie,’ ” runs the headline on a news release Tuesday from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).”

OK, OK – that’s not really what he said…he said that Republican candidates who “run” away from the President were weenies….saying it was “bailing out on a friend just because they havi a tough go”. Fair statement…can’t argue much with the governor there.

Using that logic though (Mr. Governor) can we speak about politicians who run away from their base????? I know that there are more than a few in the base that would like to talk to you about that…..

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RINOs versus the base

My friend Amendment X took his friend Captain Ed to task the other day for a post in which Ed made a case for looking beyond the here and now to the possibilities of what could happen should the reins of power be returned to the Democrats this fall. Knowing full well that Ed certainly does not need little old me to defend him, I would like to take a moment to respond to Amendment X.

Amendment X says “These people, Republicans, who have had between 2 to 12 years to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, reduce regulations, restore liberty and get government out of way have done just the opposite.”

He is absolutely correct. The Republicans have had 2-12 years (depending on if you are talking about MN or Federal) and they haven’t done the job. The problem is that the guys (and gals) that are trying to reduce spending and taxes etc are running into roadblocks named John McCain and Chuck Hagel and Arlen Specter! When you have your own party leadership working against you, you have problems. What we Republican activists need to do is to take a page out of the Kos play book and TARGET the RINO’s like Kos has targeted Senator Lieberman. Those of us who have decent representation need to help our Republican friends in the states (that are represented by these RINOs) to find good qualified candidates who will help the folks like Mike Pence and John Kline and Tom Tancredo to put forward a true Conservative agenda. Staying away from our elections will do nothing more than punish those who are fighting the good fight for us.

They will change, promise that they will do what they promised to do before and that we will and should trust them.”

However if we concentrate on getting rid of those politicians that do that or (short of that) hold their feet to the fire with constant voice mail messages, email messages and faxes, they will come to understand that their constituents ARE paying attention to them and that they need to understand the consequences. That is my opinion….As Jason Lewis said last night (have I mentioned how glad I am to have him back in town?) “so you stay home and what do you get? MIKE HATCH!” Do you really think that Mike Hatch is going to reduce the size of Government? Do you really think Mike Hatch is going to reduce spending? Or will he increase it? What do you think adding a state Department of Energy(as AG Hatch proposed a couple of days ago) will add to the state budget? Do you think that the MN CCRN legislation will stand if the DFL gets control of the House, Senate and Governor’s Mansion? How long do you think it will take before the repulsive Profiles of Learning are brought back? At this point in the electoral process, we Republicans need to be a little pragmatic. We know that Democrats will not hold the line on spending…that they WILL raise taxes. It’s just a matter of how much! However, even some of the more spineless RINOs will think twice about siding with the DFL when his/her constituents are contacting him daily reminding them that they need to toe the line.

Well, they’ve got to think I’m stupid or hope I’m stupid.”

Not stupid…..we are just trying to point out is that there is a greater purpose that we need to be striving toward. We need to isolate those RINOs that we can and replace them (and the Dems) with people like Michelle Bachman and Diana Irey and Michael Steele! Just imagine what can be done if we have a Representative Irey or Senator Steele? Imagine what we can do if we just stand together and hold our Republican elected officials to their Republican roots.

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September 11, 2001

May we never forget!

The story of September 11

The morning of Tuesday Sept 11 was bright and crisp as thousands of people made their way to work in New York and Washington. Most people thought that a terrible accident had happened when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre just before 9am.

But within an hour, as thousands lay dead in the wreckage of the twin towers and the Pentagon, it was apparent that America had been the victim of a terrible terrorist attack. What follows is the story of the day that changed America forever.

At 7.58am United Airlines flight 175 takes off from Boston’s Logan airport bound for Los Angeles. Over the next 12 minutes another three flights take off from cities on America’s eastern seaboard, all heading to either Los Angeles or San Fransisco.

Among the 266 people on board the flights are 19 suicidal terrorists preparing to hijack the airliners with knives and razors.

At 8.40am, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues an alert that American Airlines flight 11, a Boeing 767 which took off from Boston at 8.02am, has been hijacked.

One of the pilots manages to switch on the intercom with air traffic controllers who hear the voice of one of the hijackers. He says: “Don’t do anything foolish. You are not going to get hurt. We have more planes. We have other planes.”

Two F16 fighter jets from Otis Air Force Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, are scrambled over New York.

Three minutes later, the FAA says that United Airlines flight 175 has also been taken over by terrorists. A female flight attendant manages to make an emergency call from a telephone at the rear of the aircraft, saying that her colleagues have been stabbed.

At 8.46am American Airlines flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan between the 93rd and 103th floors. The impact and resulting fireball kills all 92 people on board together and many more inside the building.

Emergency teams rush to the scene and an order is put out to evacuate both the north and south towers where an estimated 20,000 people are are working.

Fifteen minutes later a second airliner, United Airlines flight 175, slams into the 80th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Centre, killing all 65 people on board and hundreds more inside the building. It is now clear that the crashes are no accident and the world stops to watch the terror unfolding in New York.

The fires within the twin towers are fuelled by more than 20,000 gallons of aviation fuel and soon reach temperatures of more than 800C, cutting off the hundreds of people trapped in floors above the explosions. Thousands of people working in the towers and other buildings in the World Trade Centre complex try to flee downtown Manhattan.

Ten minutes later, an ashen-faced President George W Bush is informed about the attacks in New York while addressing schoolchildren at a primary school in Florida. Soon after, the FBI announces that other hijackings have been reported.

Just before 9.40am a Boeing 757 is seen approaching Washington from the south-west. The plane, American Airlines flight 77, had taken off from Dulles airport in Washington and headed off towards Los Angeles over an hour earlier before looping back towards the capital.

As the plane drops lower over the city, it turns sharply towards the Pentagon before crashing into one side of the US military headquarters.

The resulting fireball destroys a large chunk of the five-storey building. Sixty-four people on the airliner are killed together with 188 inside the Pentagon. President Bush orders any other hijacked plane to be shot down as the White House and Capitol Hill are evacuated.

Meanwhile in New York, people can be seen jumping to their deaths from the twin-towers in order to escape the inferno inside.

By this time, the soaring temperatures of the fire in the south tower have destroyed the protective coating surrounding the building’s steel supports and people on the ground report large blobs of molten steel falling from the sky as the structure of the building begins to giveway.

At around 9.50am a surge of air followed by a loud crash can be heard as the floors directly affected by the explosion in the south tower collapse.

By the time of the Pentagon attack, United Airlines Flight 93 which took off from Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Fransisco at 8.01am, has been reported hijacked. It also heads out towards the west coast before doubling back and heading towards Washington.

However, the plane never reaches its target – possibly the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland – as several passengers tell their families on mobile phones that they are going to fight the hijackers.

Thomas Burnett called his wife to say: “I know we’re all going to die – there’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.”

It is later thought that the passengers were close to overpowering the terrorists when the plane crashed in field near the rural town of Shanksville, near Pittsburgh, at 10.03am. Forty-five people on board are killed in the crash.

Two minutes later the horror of the attacks in New York escalates as the south tower of the World Trade Centre collapses, sending a huge cloud of heavy, grey dust rolling through Manhattan. Thousands of people in the tower are crushed to death, including hundreds of firefighters and police officers who had rushed into the building to help.

Emergency workers in the north tower now try to escape the World Trade Centre complex, including New York’s Mayor Rudolph Guiliani who had rushed to the scene shortly after the first impact. For a short time it is feared that New York may have lost most of its senior officials with many fire and police chiefs among those crushed.

Twenty-four minutes later the north tower collapses. Like the south tower, thousands of workers, fire rescue workers, police officers and paramedics are trapped inside as hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete and steel falls to the ground. The catastrophe also causes massive damage to many buildings in Manhattan, and a 47-storey building in the World Trade Centre complex collapses several hours later.

By the time the north tower collapses, it is clear that the US is under attack in a way not seen since World War II and federal agencies start to close America to the outside world.
American forces in the US, the Gulf and Europe are put on the highest level of alert as five battleships and two aircraft carriers set sail from the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, to protect the cities on the eastern seaboard.

The border with Mexico is closed and restrictions are tightened along the Canadian frontier. Flights heading towards the US are told to either turn back or divert to Canada or the Caribbean and the FAA makes the unprecedented move of grounding all 4,000 civilian aircraft in the US.
Meanwhile, President Bush travels from Florida to Louisiana where he makes a television address vowing to hunt down the terrorists. “Make no mistake, we will show the world that we will pass this test,” the president says, before being bundled back on to Air Force One by the Secret Service and being flown to a bunker at Ormitt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
However, by mid-afternoon the panic of the morning has been replaced by anger. President Bush leaves Nebraska at 4.30pm and heads back to Washington.

Many leading politicians, including Colin Powell and Senator John McCain, call the attacks an act of war.

Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, says: “This is comparable to Pearl Habor and we must have the same response and the
people who did it must have the same end as the people who attacked Pearl Harbor.”

Similar sentiments are expressed by leaders across the world, including Tony Blair who pledges that Britain will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with America. The Prime Minister also calls a meeting of Cobra, the committee that meets only in times of national emergency, and bans flights over the centre of London.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany calls the attack a “declaration of war” and pledges his country’s support to the US.

President Bush, who returns to the White House in the early evening, tries to reassure his country that the government continued to function during the attacks despite the his flight to Nebraska.

He says in a television address: “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.”

By now the finger of suspiscion has been firmly pointed at Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa’eda terror network based in Afghanistan. Few other terrorist groups could have planned such a co-ordinated attack, but the Taliban government attempts to distance itself and bin Laden from the acts of mass murder in New York and Washington.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, says: “Osama is only a person. He does not have the facilities to carry out such activities. We want to tell the American people that Afghanistan feels their pain.”

Meanwhile, it is still not known how many people have died in New York and Washington. Most of New York’s hospitals are put on alert, waiting to be overwhelmed by casualties. But the flood turns out to be a trickle as it emerges that people either managed to escape the twin-towers or died inside them.

Mayor Guiliani poignantly says that the number of dead “will be more than any of us can bare” and only five people are found alive in the rubble at “Ground Zero” in the 24-hours after the attacks.

Nevertheless, the estimated death toll drops over the subsequent weeks and months as people who managed to escape the collapsing towers report their survival to the authorities.

A year after the disaster, it was confirmed that 3,044 people died in the attacks in New York and Washington, 2,811 of whom were killed in the twin towers. In comparison, more than 2,400 US sailors died in the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

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Horse rescues….

While this is not about politics, it does speak to the mindset of my fellow Minnesotans.

“Rachel Blount’s Aug. 1 article about the three veterinarians from Canterbury Park and the horse rescue groups that save the lives of retired and injured racehorses was inspiring.
At the same time the article brought to light the tragic fate of horses like Ferdinand, who won the 1986 Kentucky Derby and died 16 years later in a Japanese slaughterhouse.
Are there really no alternatives for horses other than the killing factories? Or is the public just too uninterested in them to report abusive situations to animal control or to help the horse’s find decent new situations?
What we need is not more horse meat but more responsible owners. The element that Blount’s article lacked was great examples of racehorse owners being involved in saving the lives of the horses that served and entertained them and the public at racetracks. Instead, it’s the veterinarians and financially strapped rescue organizations that are bearing the brunt of giving these horses a second chance at life.
What if Canterbury Park published a newsletter that let people know what became of each racehorses after retirement? Perhaps owners could be shamed into doing the right thing for these magnificent creatures.

LA St Louis Park”

Emphasis added. Sigh…..I used to own horses…I had a “race track reject” a thoroughbred that couldn’t cut it on the track, but was perfect for what I did – jump fences. I agree that horses are most magnificent creatures….HOWEVER….LA – you want to do something for these “magnificent creatures”? Put your money where you mouth is! Buy one of these retirees – they’re cheap – maybe $4000 max. Then find a stable that will take care of your “magnificent creature”. That will cost you anywhere from $200.00 a month to $500 a month depending on what you are doing and the proximity to the cities. Then there is monthly shoeing ($50-$100 a visit if you need corrective shoeing and most ex-racehorses do) and vet care which can be really expensive if the horse is retired due to injury! If you don’t know what you are doing or what you are getting yourself into, you can be in over your head really quick!

Keeping horses is not as cheap as keeping a dog or a cat. They are exquisite creatures with equally exquisite needs. I applaud the vets who are rescuing these horses. They are doing it right! They have the expertise and the connections (and the ability to raise funds from other horse people like myself) to make sure that these horses get the best possible care in their retirement. People like L.A. need to go back to what they know best…..cheering on Junior’s soccer team. Leave the care of retired racehorses to those who know their needs best.

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When THEY want to be US…again

I don’t like to cross swords with my friend Captain Ed. But, he and I can and do have some honest but hard differences. Captain Ed tells us that we had better vote for Republicans or it will be worse. That John Conyers will be in charge of the House Judiciary Committee is supposed to scare me to come out and vote. And this from Real Clear Politics that basically tells Republicans that for them to win they need to stop acting like Democrats. That though the poll numbers are bad for Republicans that they can rescue themselves.
How? “
The Republicans may be behind, yet the race is far from over. Democrats have shown themselves more than able to blow a lead in the past.

A comeback is pretty easy to plot. The first realization Republicans need to make is that America is equally divided, and they can put themselves back in the middle of the race if they can activate their conservative base. If they are losing now, it is because their base is dispirited.

Why might core Republican voters be dispirited? The answer is obvious. Republicans promised voters a lean and efficient government, and they delivered the opposite. The size of the government has increased more since Bush took office than it did during Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. This Republican government has been among the most liberal with taxpayers’ dollars of any in history.

So, let me see if I have this right: These people, Republicans, who have had between 2 to 12 years to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, reduce regulations, restore liberty and get government out of way have done just the opposite. And that they will now really, really promise to really get it right in the next two months. They promise that they will do what they promised to do before (and just not quite get around to telling us why they are such miserable failures as Repubs up to this point) and that we really should trust them. Again, because they promise!

Well, they’ve got to think I’m stupid or hope I’m stupid.

Bad news for you kids: I ain’t neither.

Go fool someone else.

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As promised

Pictures from yesterday’s Lakefront Days Parade. Here we have the DFL unit stepping off.

Here you can see (off to the left dark blue shirt with child on shoulders) one of the Kennedy volunteers crossing “enemy lines”!

Speaking of crossing “enemy lines” care to guess the identity of the gentleman in the plaid shirt on the left

If you guessed this man, then you are correct!

The Congressman traded waves with the Klobuchar synchronized “sweep team”.

All in all it was great fun on Saturday afternoon. Everyone in the parade and along the route had a great time.

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A Kennedy to be proud of!

Summertime in Minnesota means one thing…..community festivals. I had the opportunity to walk in the Prior Lake Lakefront Days parade with Congresman Mark Kennedy. Congressman Kennedy is running for the soon to be vacated Senatorial seat held by Senator Mark Dayton. I wanted to post a couple of quick thoughts on the parade in general and Congressman Kennedy in particular.

The thing that struck me the most was the representation of the Republican candidates for office. Now Scott County is very red. As Savage Republican and Amendment X are wont to remark “there are no elected Democratic representatives in Scott County until you get to the US Senate (Mark Dayton)”. However every single Republican candidate that was running for office was at the parade today and (with the exception of the incumbent state house and senate holders) all had their own unit in the parade. The DFL, meanwhile, had one shared unit and none of the candidates bothered to show up for the parade (as far as I saw). I had the opportunity to speak with all the Republican candidates except Pat Anderson (incumbent state auditor). All were excited to be there and thankful that our triple digit heat from last week had finally broken. It was a beautiful day for a parade!

As far as Congressman Kennedy goes, for a brief 2 years, Congressman Kennedy represented Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District so this is familiar territory for him. Because this is parade season, the Congressman arrived to our location (it was his second appearance of the day) just a few minutes before our unit was set to step off and just in time to walk right in front of the DFL float as they stepped off. There was a little good natured kidding between the two as the Congressman cordially greeted the amassed DFLers.

Once we got going, the Congressman was a whirlwind of motion. He crossed back and forth across the street constantly, shaking hands with young and old alike. This is what he does best. The comments from the crowd were nothing but supportive (which surprised Mrs. Kennedy who confided in me that there had been times when the Klobuchar supporters were less than polite in their greetings of the Congressman). Comments ran the gamut…”we’re pulling for you!” to “we’ll win this”. This was, no doubt a friendly crowd, but that didn’t stop the Congressman from reaching out to those who were not shy about showing who had their vote (there were a few Klobuchar lawn signs and stickers in the crowd). When you say that he is “running” for office, you can take that literally. Even though the parade itself moved very slowly at times, you could not keep up with Congressman Kennedy.

All in all, it was a fun experience and one that I hope to get again.

Oh and for those of you who are looking for pictures – they are coming. I am a 35mm girl. I know this is the digital era, but I am more comfortable with my good old trusty Pentax camera. As soon as I get the prints back from the developer (tomorrow probably) I will post pictures of the parade.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic

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