Savage Republican

Here we are, Savage Republican and your humble fighting patriot Amendment X, blogging live from the MN State Republican Party from the lovely Convention Center in overtaxed Minneapolis. (And I miss the old Minneapolis Auditorium, Shrine Circus and all).

We’ll have more comments from the floor, your representatives and party officals.
And thanks to Savage Republican for the picture of your trooper for liberty.

10:10- Chairman Ron Carey, surviving on 3.1 hours of sleep and massive amounts of caffein, has given the opening speech of the day, reminding us that a single vote is always important. He believes that in 2008, Minnesota may be the Ohio of 2004, be a serious swing state (remembering that a recent Prairie Pravda poll shows that Minnesota now considers itself Republican rather than those other people).

While I was at the convention this past weekend, one of my discussion groups had an interesting series of exchanges (all paraphrased and no names used to protect the innocent)…

Writer A: We must contact our legislators about the upcoming vote on the marriage amendment.

Writer B: Well we must not let up on them on immigration….

Writer C: Radical Islam needs to be our immediate concern…

Writer D: No we must be on top of the degradation of the culture…..

In Minnesota, we have been having our own version of these conversations. Some feel that the stadium issue should be the defining issue of the Minnesota election, others feel the cigarette fee/tax should be “it”, others marriage…you see where this is going right?

One of the great strengths of the Republican Party is it’s activists and we ALL (yes I include myself in this generalization) have our pet issues that we are most passionate about. What we need to do, instead of letting these issues divide us this election season, is to use these differences to help the party succeed! If we all take our individual areas of passion and expertise and combine them, we will have a stronger party, a stronger messege and a much stronger chance of gaining seats, both in St Paul and in DC come November! Let’s make sure that all ideas that mesh with the platform are given a fair hearing in the arena of ideas this campaign season!

During the convention yesterday, a Presidential Preference Straw Poll for 2008 was held. The results were as follows:

Newt Gingrich 40.7% (220 votes)
George Allen 14.6% (79 votes)
John McCain 10.1% (55 votes)
Jeb Bush 5.9% (32 votes)
Mitt Romney 5.3% (29 votes)
Condi Rice 5.2% (28 votes)
Rudy Giuliani 3.5% (19 votes)
Tom Tancredo 2.4% (13 votes)
Sam Brownback 1.7% (9 votes)
Others with less than 1% a piece 10.3% (56 votes)

Now I was not around for the straw poll – I had family obligations, but I was quite interested in seeing how this turned out. There was a “Draft Newt” group that apparently did it’s job. However, I was glad to see that Senator Allen finished in second place in a state that has (according to people I know) no clue as to who he is. The fact that Senator McCain finished a very distant third in a very purple state was even more encouraging!

On a side note, in the final hour of the Northern Alliance Radio Program today, they did their own straw poll and Senator Allen won going away, with our own Amendment X garnering one vote!

As much as I loathe correcting Prairie Pravda, seems that they have difficulty distinguishing between the public sector and the private (though I’m not surprised).
In their article about another failed alternative energy program, they state that “the public” paid for idling these ghastly looking wind generators. Well, no they didn’t. At least as far as the article is concerned. The headline for the article is “Public paid for idled wind farms” and then state in the first sentence in the article “Xcel Energy electricity customers have paid millions of dollars for wind energy that was never produced, according to documents filed with state regulators.” Well kids, customers of a private corporation are not “the public”. They are private customers. They pay for the failures of the private corporation, though one heavily regulated. Now, when the government FORCES you to pay for say, pork or corn or wheat or barley NOT produced by farm set asides or subsidies, that’s the PUBLIC paying for something not produced.
The Twins stadium is the PUBLIC being forced to pay for something they don’t consume. Now, if the Twins don’t produce a World Series Championship, well then, the PUBLIC is being forced to pay for something not produced. If the consumers of the Twins, namely the fans, paid for the stadium, then they, the consumers of the Twins pay for it all.
Wait a minute, isn’t that kind of a definition for liberty and freedom? Those that use it pay for it? Those who don’t use it aren’t forced to pay for it?
Yah. It is.
Now, go to MN Tea Party and do something for liberty.

Ann Coulter has another great column today talking about how GWB’s and the Senate’s illegal immigration program is really amnesty. Read her comments and see how the illegals get breaks on illegals’ actions that would put you and me in jail. There is one sentence that struck me: “…but illegal aliens don’t require their employers to comply with OSHA regulations, overtime and minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, disability laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, a slew of oppressive environmental regulations, and 4 million other ways the government has developed to make it extremely expensive to hire legal employees. Instead of creating a separate class of citizens who are immune from oppressive government rules, how about relieving all of us even us shiftless Americans from the cost of government? “
She reminds me of the quote I heard a few years back “The black market is the free market asserting itself.” So, here we have an example of employers voting with their money. With illegals they are freed from all that Ann talks about in that one paragraph. No OSHA, no EEOC, no FTC, no sexual harassment lawsuits, and on and on and on.No endless forms and worries about what regulation may be being broken and will result in a lengthy trial and/or fine or fines and/or jail time.
Now, do I support the hiring of illegals? Not at all. But so many people are looking at symptoms, not causes. Why do the illegals come here? Because there are jobs. Why are there jobs? Because employers are willing to take the risk to hire illegals because it’s cheaper to hire them. And not just the actual cost of wages, but the perceived total cost of employment including meeting all those 4,000,000 regulations that Ann talks about.
The same thought process is involved with the shift of jobs overseas. Why go overseas? Because it’s cheaper. Again, no OSHA, EEOC, sexual harassment… And my lefty buddy’s solution? Fine every employer who exports a job. The Republican’s idea? Some incentive or tax credit program for certain “government approved” activities.
Have you ever heard any Senator, any House member, any President (save Reagan) ever say “We need to get out of the way of business!” Nope. We have “The Competiveness Initiative” from GWB. As my friend Son of Liberty states over at MNTeaParty that the way it works best is when the government is out of the way, the way the Founding Fathers envisioneded America. That if fraud and/or force isn’t used (by either individuals OR the government-especially the government) the free market works really well.
So, instead of making easier to hire employees, Congress and GWB have another “program”.
How about the “Federal Register Reduction Program”? Or “Let’s Get Out of Their Way” Program? And strangely enough,we already have one.
It’s called the 10th Amendment. Or Amendment X.
All we need to have happen is to have all Congress and the President keep their oath of office.
Maybe I’m being over optimistic.

Well fellow Minnesotans, the Republican Party of Minnesota Endorsing Convention starts in a little under 23 hours. I have still not gotten a response to my multiple requests for information from the Shudlick Campaign. From the Shudlick website – here are the issues the candidate finds to be important.

“Shudlick for Senate ’06About the Issues

Issues to Embrace
• More freedom for American Citizens
• Lower taxes
• Safer Streets
• Protect American jobs
• Pursue energy independence
• Secure borders
• Less government
• When it comes to trade issues, protect state and national sovereignty
• Traditional American Values
• English as official U.S. Language
• Work to defeat Terrorist, Insurgents, and Islamo-facists
• Stronger Laws to reduce voter fraud and identity theft
• Protect farmers, laborers, and business
• Unfunded suggestions
• Better management of foreign interactions & aid
• Control Illegal Immigration/Asylum
• Support Affordable Healthcare”

Based on this, I sent the candidate the following questions:

Do you support President Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform or do you support a “wall” at the border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants?
Do you support the President’s so called “wiretapping” of suspected al Qaeda terrorists? If not, why?
Do you support a Canadian style “universal health care”? Why or why not? If not, what type of health care reform would you support?
Do you support making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent? Why or why not?
Given that the per gallon cost of gasoline is hovering right around $3.00 a gallon, what would you suggest the federal government do to help reduce the price? Would you support building more refineries? Drilling in ANWR? Repealing the ban on off-shore drilling? If not, why?

I didn’t even ask about Iran and I should have…

Given that these are just a few of the very pressing issues that the future Junior Senator from Minnesota will have to face in Washington DC, it is only fair that the people of Minnesota know what they are voting for. If Mr. Shudlick expects the delegates to vote for him, he has to give them more of a reason to vote for him than “sticking it to the party kingmakers”.

I got the attached email from a delegate to the State Convention this week.

” Dear 2006 Republican Friend,

You may have heard that a rogue candidate of a different political party will seek to use our convention as a platform to stage a publicity stunt to kick start her failing campaign for governor.
Like you, I hold our convention process in high regard and don’t wish to have any B-rate candidate, be it a Democrat, Green, or Libertarian, turn our party’s convention into a side show.

The non-Republican I am referring to is Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Sue Jeffers. There will be an effort later this week by her and her campaign to crash our convention, borrow our stage, and spew her platform. Before she plays her silly games, let me tell you a little more about this candidate from a competing political party.

Over the next few days, I will be communicating with delegates and alternates to our convention about Ms. Jeffers. But as prominent leaders of the Republican Party of Minnesota, I wanted to ensure you had an advance copy of my materials.

I have attached my letter and a handout detailing the differences between Ms. Jeffers’ Libertarian Party and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Finally, my apologies if you received this email more than once. “

The letter was sent by Michael Brodkorb of MDE fame. The delegate who sent the letter to me, said the following regarding Ms. Jeffers:

“While I don’t subcribe to alot of Ms. Jeffers opinions or stances on the issues I think she should be afforded a chance to speak at the convention. I feel Gov. Pawlenty has been in need of a serious butt-kicking for some time now. I hope he wins in November and will work for his reelection but I have been extremely displeased with most of the upper ranks of this party this last year and trying to out DFL the democrats is not a platform I want to support. I want these people nervous because the wake-up call is long over-due. So count me out of your business as usual style of politics. I think pretending that our guys are doing just swell is the road to major defeat in November and I will not support or condone that position.”

I happen to agree with the delegate in question when he states that our candidates are trying to “out DFL the Democrats”. They ARE. Whether it be rewarding law breakers (the President’s “Comprehensive Immigration Reform“) to blocking off shore oil drilling, to voting to reward illegal behavior, or adding stealth tax increases to fund stadiums for professional sports teams, our elected Republicans are acting more and more like Democrats every day. This is something that Amendment X has railed about here, here, here, here and here!

My advise to Ms. Jeffers…..if you can’t take the knock down drag out rumble that is partisan politics, stay home! Politics is a rough business and your personal life is dragged through the mud. You need to be able to ignore the push back, stand your ground and defend your issues. If you can do that, you don’t need to play the victim card…the “they won’t let me in to play” card.

The Star Tribune ran a pair of point, counter-point articles about “The Trouble with Boys”. The first article talks about the American “Boy Crisis” and the other takes the boy crisis “myth” to task.

First let’s take a look at a few basic statistics:

• Receive the majority of D and F grades, as high as 70 percent.
• Create 80 percent of classroom discipline problems.
• Account for 80 percent of high school dropouts.
• Represent 70 percent of children diagnosed with learning disabilities and 80 percent of those diagnosed with behavioral disorders.
• Are an average of a year to a year-and-a-half behind girls in reading and writing skills.
• Represent 80 percent of children on Ritalin or other meds used to treat ADHD.
• Make up less than 44 percent of America’s college population.
• Are diagnosed with a special education disability twice as much as girls; are suspended 2.5 times more than girls and are expelled at three times the rate of girls.

And yet according to the ladies who wrote the counter-point article, this is an “overblown backlash against the women’s movement”! As the mother of a son, I would like to take these ladies to task for their complete and utter ignorance of what a boy goes through in our public schools and the hoops that an engaged parent (such as myself) has to go through just to get some help for his/her son. My son IS the prototypical boy – interested in sports, video games and TV. More likely to play with role playing games or wrestle with his dog than to read a book (much to his mother’s chagrin – I love to read). We have gone from one teaching extreme (you are not allowed to leave your chair until your work is done) to another (as long as you get your work done before the end of the hour and don’t disturb the class you can get up) and nothing seems to make that much of a difference. When we ask the school to work with us to help develop a scheme to help him enjoy reading more we are met with blank stares. When we had issues with a school bully it took 3 years of meeting with the principal and a “I hate school I never want to go back” self evaluation to finally get the school to do something about the situation. Prior to the “I hate school I never want to go back” self evaluation, the school kept using the same “just ignore it and it will go away” platitude that eventually lead to the Columbine massacre in Colorado 6 years ago!

No ladies, this is not an “overblown backlash”. The women’s rights movement swung the pendulum past equal treatment and is now over to “superior” treatment for girls. It is well past time to bring the pendulum back to equal treatment and leave it there.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted here about my intent to send the Harold Shudlick campaign a list of questions for the candidate on where he stood on several important issues. To date, I have no answer and the State Convention starts the day after tomorrow! I am sending a follow up request today.

A friend sent this to me. It’s a wonderful speech from Ben Stein to those who are left behind when a hero goes to his rest.
I thought it was an appropriate way to end Memorial Day.