The Twin City’s North Chamber is hosting its monthly Legislative Breakfast tomorrow. Topic: Transportation. We will have someone there who believes this kind of poppycock.

What is the future of transit in MN?

Panelists
Annette Meeks, Freedom Foundation
Dave Van Hattum, Transit for Livable Communities

I encourage everyone to engage in their local chambers even if they aren’t owners as the lobbyists leeches from the Capital have begun infesting local Chambers as low hanging fruit. Its also the farm team for Capital leeches who invite their left wing nanny state friends to come shill for Socialism. After all anyone who can honestly defend the nanny state one size fits all Government that Dayton & Obama are pushing while repeating the talking points that with Government so big there is no way to keep track of every little detail….

You get the idea. Lunacrats are on the march!

FInd your local chamber and make sure you don’t let the left wing and advocates for hire high jack your community!

(Yes a leech is what you call someone who wants to do something really expensive and force people who will never use their thing to pay for it)

UPDATE:

To clarify, Twin Cities North is not one of the one’s being entirely overrun by lobbyists and left wing non-profit types. Twin West, Metro North and other PAC Chambers have a tendency to resemble the MN Chamber who will…. meddle for their own special pet projects.

That being said, we have a few people and groups from outside our geographic area who have pushed very controversial or selfish agendas at teh Capital who show their faces….

Flood your Chambers with limited Government conservatives and prevent bleeding hearts from highjacking a business group to push their non-profit feel good stuff…..

Well the House DFL is leaving little to the imagination of what it looks like inside the mind of a utopian. That is, what does the agenda look like from someone who has no basis of using practical real world cause and effect and instead relies entirely on feelings to govern.

Its always a good indicator that a policy is flawed when, in order to get enough support to pass legislation, you have to insert exclusions for special interests who would be harmed upon implementation…. (emphasis mine)

The Minnesota House and Senate have agreed to an energy bill that includes a 1.5 percent solar energy standard for investor-owned utilities.

[...]

The conference committee working out differences between the two bills decided on a 1.5 percent solar energy standard that will take effect sooner. Investor-owned utilities, such as Xcel Energy, must meet the standard by the end of 2020. Iron mining facilities and paper mills are exempt, as are electricity co-ops and municipal utilities.

Here’s a response from House Republicans on the issue.

St. Paul- Reps. Tim O’Driscoll (R-Sartell) and Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) issued the following statements upon passage of the conference committee report for the Jobs, Commerce, Housing, and Energy Omnibus bill. HF 729 passed by a vote of 73-59 and the conference committee report now heads to the Senate for final passage.

“I was disappointed to find excessive wasteful spending for inefficient government programs in this bill which is inaccurately titled a ‘jobs’ bill. HF 729 is a hodgepodge of state programs and initiatives that will spend millions in taxpayer dollars and only kill jobs or drive them elsewhere through higher taxes, fees and energy rates. The special interests that benefit from this bill will result in others losing out, including a special group of employees that will receive much higher unemployment benefits than the average Minnesotan,” said Rep. O’Driscoll.

“Democrats passed energy mandates tonight that will result in higher energy costs for hardworking Minnesotans. Democrats are forcing consumers to use energy that nobody wants, everyone will pay for, and no one can afford,” added Rep. Garofalo.

Meanwhile, on the real energy crisis that affects Minnesotans TODAY….

Prices around the metro and across Minnesota jumped well above $4 a gallon Wednesday. Prices at some stations around the metro were listed at $4.19 a gallon, while other stations were reported to be slightly higher.

According to AAA, the highest average price on record for the state is $3.98, that was in 2008. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan, Illinois and the West Coast are holding the highest gas prices in the country right now.

AAA says higher crude oil prices are partly to blame for the price hike, but refinery maintenance both planned and unplanned in the Midwest and West Coast caused those prices to go up.

AAA says we might not get relief at the pump until July 4.

This is not on the list of things the DFL is worried about. In fact, they are proposing a gas tax increase as well as driving related fee increases to pad their special interest slush funds and bailout packages.

Is this what you voted for Minnesota?

Democrats have unveiled another laundry list of taxes at the State Capital. This one is relates to transportation. Two words: Job killer. 

Its Rep. Erhardt’s bill HF931 (pdf) Emphasis mine)

• authorizing and appropriating $800.8 million in trunk highway bonds, provided at $100 million per year over fiscal years 2014-17;
• raising registration taxes by increasing the rate (from 1.25 percent to 1.375 percent of depreciated base value) as well as the flat fee (from $10 to $20);
• establishing a late payment penalty for some registration taxes;
• increasing taxes on motor fuels by a total of 9.5 cents per gallon for gasoline and diesel with proportional increases for other fuel types, which is phased in over fiscal years 2014-17;
• allocating all revenue from motor vehicle lease sales tax to transportation purposes;
• expanding the general sales tax to include motor vehicle repairs and service, with revenues allocated to transportation purposes;
• amending exemptions to the general sales tax to include purchases made with constitutionally dedicated transportation funds;
• eliminating some exemptions from the motor vehicle sales tax;
• raising the flat tax, from $90 to $150, imposed on sales of collector vehicles in lieu of the motor vehicle sales tax;
• modifying the county wheelage tax, to expand the authority to all counties and eliminate a $5 cap;
• raising the rate, from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, for the metropolitan area transportation sales tax and requiring allocation of a one-third of revenues to county highways;
• eliminating a referendum requirement on the local option transportation sales tax for counties in Greater Minnesota; and
• authorizing cities to establish municipal street improvement districts.

I’m sitting here adding up all the added costs that would result from this bill. Not just me personally, but also our business. And that is just the stated increases, this bill would remove multiple layers of accountability by removing referendums and caps that would allow local cities and counties to tax at will.

Two other words come to mind after reading that summary: Term Limits. Its time for term limits in Minnesota.

If this passes, this is yet another shining example of why you should not consider opening a business in Minnesota if Democrats are in charge. And newsflash folks, not everyone works for the Government, so if you want a good paying job, you need people that will want to run a business here.

I don’t understand how one could so quickly switch teams.

Let the past stay past

In 2010, Brian McClung, a former Gov. Tim Pawlenty staffer, was leading Minnesota Forward, a group that spent $1.6 million largely to make sure that Dayton was not elected governor. And Chris Tiedeman was chair of Minnesota’s Future, which spent millions with the same aim. But now, McClung and Tiedeman are sending out releases on behalf of public relations clients offering Dayton some support for his budget. McClung, on behalf of three metro area chambers of commerce, shared his clients’ praise for Dayton’s focus on transit investment. And Tiedeman, on behalf of AARP, the SEIU health care union and the Long Term Care Imperative, sent out some praise for Dayton making senior care a “priority.” Asked about the switch both seemed to recognize the irony of the situation — and continued to pitch their clients’ stories.

Source

Today’s America is seemingly looking and feeling much more like the Colonies that were once ruled by a King.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Andy Aplikowski – January 16, 2013

According to Metro Transit, Northstar ridership is failing due to the suckiness of the Minnesota Twins.

Metro Transit officials attribute much of this year’s losses in passenger traffic to the dismal performance of the Minnesota Twins. Ridership to games at Target Field was down 16 percent from last year.

Hundreds of millions to run a train on existing tracks….

But good news, Mark Dayton bought the Legislature so we going to pay for more and more of this boondoggles so that we don’t accidentally upgrade our highway system to meet that demand….

Its insane to think choo choo trains will solve congestion in our vast metro area, then again, the inmates are running the asylum here. They use Europe as the model despite its laundry list of failures.

Whenever I see an Obama or Klobuchar sign as I am driving, rare btw, I say “Der Comerade” in a Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV kind of accent.

Well today Obama’s Comrades in Arms are going on the offensive by putting on their rose colored glasses and regurgitating the White House spin on the jobs report. Which of course doesn’t add up, but the loyal lapdogs in Congress like Senator Klobuchar and their left wing allies in the media are counting on Americans’ short attention spans and hoping they don’t bother to fact check the o-called Government watchdogs and truth meters in the media.

You see, everything these radical Communists… I’m sorry…. progressives…  have been fighting for for the last 50 years is on the line, can they drive the final nail in the coffin of what once was the greatest nation on the planet by killing its economy once and for all by sending Obama back for a second term to finish the job? Or as some Hollywood folks say….”In the second term, its on”

Obamacare isn’t the solution to Health Care, its the trojan horse that destroys private health systems and requires the Government to step in.

As is the case in most industries, free markets are overruled by the Government picking the winners.

According to Obama in his debate this week, its wrong to allow Exxon and oil companies to get a “subsidy” or tax break while still actually producing a product Americans need, but its ok to spend ten times that on green energy non-science (as opposed to non-sense) like Solyndra and the countless other Democrat donating green energy companies who took taxpayer money but are belly up and not producing a single watt of energy.

I could go on, the point is do not let the headlines get to you, they are being crafted by the enemy of America as we know it.

Friends don’t let friends listen to the MSM. Now more than ever we need to make sure Americans know the truth. We can’t afford four more years of Obama and Democrats in control.

I could go on, point is folks, its crunch time. If you care about America you can’t sit back and complain. You need to affect the change. You need to step forward and show Obama and Democrats that you don’t agree that Government is the solution. You need to help convince others how bad things really are.

Obama and Democrats have multi billion dollar media empires who get to broadcast his version of reality 24 hours a day…

UH OH….. The 6 Am to 10PM daily grind of a full time job and every other waking moment being volunteered to stop Obama is unleashing the AAARF in me…..

Is it something that we cannot overcome? Maybe, but does that mean we just lay down and let America die a slow death at the hands of socialists and nanny state bureaucrats and aristocrats?

No, stand up America and let your voices be heard, stand up and join together with others working to change the course of history. Stand up and make sure Obama is a one term President.

Join the fight, we can overcome all odds, but we need your help.

We are outnumbered in the GOTV trenches by the unions and special interests of the left but we stand on the right side of the battle, where liberty and freedom reside. If we all work together we can stop Obama and Democrats.

We truly need your help. We have 33 days to save America.

I beg of you to volunteer your time or donate to good groups like, say… CD6 where we are the tip of the spear going toe to toe with the people trying to destroy America.

We will keep working, with or with out you because America is too important to just lie down and do nothing because we are too busy or you don’t like to make calls or…..

This is it. Now or never. Come help us make calls, lit drop, door knock, donate, lawnsigns.

This is it. 33 days until the election. 33 days to see if we can save America from another mistake.

I need you, America needs you.

At 8PM on November 6th, I will know that I did everything with in my power to do something. Do you think I enjoy burning up my own fuel driving around the 6th District? No, but it needed to be done.

What are you doing?

Great news Twin City commuters. President Obama is cutting the red tape on gas and energy regulations…..

Ha ha, just kidding.

Maybe the applicants for Keystone pipeline need to just lie and say its a new mass transit rail line that will divert money from roads and bridges to build a billion dollar boondoggle where there is already a perfectly functioning private solution that is working just fine.

The President backs the stonewall approach of the EPA to help make us less dependent on MidEast oil, but expedites the anti-freedom social engineering approach of forcing us to take a train so we can’t drive our own cars.

He and Amy Klobuchar know what is best for us.

It worked, I accidently took some night time sinus/allergy meds last night and slept through the DNC speeches, but I’m still physically ill to know that some of my fellow Americans are working to erase what makes America America.

The desire and rewards for striving for and achieving success.

Being handed something isn’t what makes Americans do something. The sound bites, clips, and reactions I have been hearing this morning make me sick. Its what you would expect to hear coming out of the Soviet Union, Europe, or some other failed socialist part of the world.

Why is it that Democrats get to call people unpatriotic and unAmerican, but Republicans can’t?

Oh yeah, because the media are a bunch of sympathetic socialists themselves and are eating up this closet communism with a spork.

I expect class envy, demands for redistribution, and caps on the standard of living coming out of the Communist Party, but not from a once great party that also believed in freedom and liberty.

Its just sad to know that some people in the Democrat party who claim to be opposed to socialism, can’t bring themselves to realize that they don’t have to leave the Democrat party, the party has left them.

Full blown fringe left extremism is on display in Charlotte.

The Democratic vision for America under a second term of Obama is taking us further away from what made America great, where there are no longer rewards for success, risk, and entrepreneurship.

Predefined outcomes and unequal lifting. The United Communes of America is the goal for Democrats. Where the have nots no longer have to worry or try because the haves will have theirs taken away and redistributed.

From each according to the means to each according to their needs.

An early name  that was being considered for this blog was: For needs not wants.

Everyone wants to be fat and happy, figuratively. But what happens to a society when everyone that wants a Lamborgini gets one? Oh, here’s the dirty little secret, not everyone will live like Bill Gates, Barbara Streissand, & Tom Hanks under Obama’s vision of America. Not everyone will have to shop at the grocery store that Michelle Obama would approve of.

You see, in the Soviet Union while the huddled masses stood in lines for their rationed loaves of bread, the elite aristocracy of Communist power were relieving themselves in solid gold toilets. John Edwards was right on mark with his phrase of 2 Americas the only problem is that its “Progressives” who have that vision. One for the leaders and one for them.

Rich people shouldn’t be rich anymore in Obama’s America. They shouldn’t buy fancy cars, yachts, take trips to posh resorts, or eat and uber fancy restaurants. The very same things and places that Americans make  good money working at or making, nope, in Obama’s America that guy or gal who can afford to buy that 6 figure care or stay at that 5 star hotel penthouse should have that money taken away. CEOs should be punished and have their pay tied to that of the workers. Don’t base Executive pay by performance or success, but rather worker satisfaction.

Ugh, its sickening to think about what Democrats have planned for America. Oh and if you are a Democrat who thinks I am wrong, please point out how your President and Congressional leaders aren’t pushing full throated socialism.

They want to tell me what car to drive, where to live,m what to eat, what light bulb to use, what to watch, what to read, what to think, and who to like.

As promised, I snapped a couple of better pictures last night on the way home of the County Rd. E2 Bridge over 35W in New Brighton / Arden Hills.

I’m quite shocked this bridge is still open and they are allowing people to drive under it. (Mind you they shut down a highway because a bike path bridge was damaged but this one has crumbling concrete braced up by regular lumber and there’s not even a warning or weight restriction.

Folks big semis drive onto of this bridge supported by wood. There are a number of trucking companies, a post office distribution center, and telephone pole company that are located immediately off of this freeway bridge.

MNDOT Bridge / Cnty Rd. E2

MNDOT Bridge / Cnty Rd. E2

MNDOT Bridge / Cnty Rd. E2

It appears this is on the docket to replace in 2016. Question is, can we risk waiting this long?

We’ve spent billions on building trains, performing studies for future trains,  hybrid buses, bike paths, but for some reason we just don’t have any to replace dangerous bridges.