The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys Hurts Bachmann

This new study just released....scientific proof from the Michele Bachmann's batcrap lab of excuses....that her high heel shoes are causing weekly incapacitating stress induced headaches...
The dog ate my...er...It's the shoes!

"If I gave you everything that I own
and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me, as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride
and strip me of everything, including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys"

MN GOP Compromises Everything For Millionaires!

 The Minnesota GOP traded away their social agenda items like voter ID, no abortion funding, no stem cell research, union busting, and school vouchers, along their belief in downsizing the state government and their stance against raising 500 million in bonds to successfully protected 7700 millionaires from being taxed their fair share over the well being of the rest of Minnesotans! BTW, of those 7700 millionaires only 3,800 even reside in Minnesota, the rest live out of state.

The only winner from the
Minnesota budget...one of the
7700 millionaires!

In fact it looks like the only winner in the Minnesota budget deal is the 7700 millionaires! Way to compromise MN GOP!

Rather than stand by their right-wing ideology issues, and rather than consider a tiny tax increase on the very wealthy .2% top income earners, and rather than shrink state government... the MN GOP traded it all for the rights to the mantra 'cut taxes for the wealthy'...that's it...move along, nothing more to defend or see here. Our job is done...we protected the wealthy and cut their taxes.

In exchange for protecting the Minnesota millionaires...the MN GOP is borrowing from public schools and increase the state debt burden on the wallet of the average Minnesotan (that would be the rest of us 99.8% of Minnesotans)...

- Got kids in school? Expect higher fees, more cuts, and less resources...but if you are one of the 7700 millionaires protected, your tax cuts this session should easily cover these increases.

- How about college? Significant increases in tuition (more than 5%) while hundreds of resources, wages, and positions are cut. Once again, the .2% richest Minnesotans protected will be able to easily afford these increases.

- On a fixed income? Look for your income to continue to shrink in the face of increase city, county, township fees. Whew...good thing the MN GOP was looking out for those 7700 wealthy people, they shouldn't suffer at all!

If you can name it, expect increases in fees and costs as a result of the ,'no-taxes on the rich' MN GOP policy...The 7700 Minnesota millionaires are the only winners in the MN budget...but I'm thinking the MN GOP are now going to need more than them to get re-elect next go around.

PS...Where are the jobs you promised during campaign season or was that also traded that to protect 7700 millionaires? -

Why The GOP Let Minnesota Shut Down

The Minnesota GOP controlled legislatures has shut down the state government by neglecting to pass a budget. They were intent on making this happen. There was no plan to compromise...but instead to enact an unacceptable social agenda filled with fringe ideology over sound budget planning and compromise.

While many marched in fourth of July parades, still enjoying their salaries, perdiem-mileage- lodging reimbursements... many more Minnesota state workers are wondering how now to meet their basic necessities. For the poor, disabled and elderly Minnesotans, the GOP shut down will leave them without resources to deal with daily needs. This is because the GOP rank and file go to a state shutdowns as a way of bullying their ideology on issues like stem cell, abortion, and voter id.

So let's take a look at a couple of the budget sticking points:

Governor Dayton: Raise taxes on the top 2% fairly.

"That is not Minnesota. That is not why the people of Minnesota elected me their Governor: so that millionaires could continue to avoid paying their fair share of taxes for the benefit of everyone else in our state"

Mark Dayton ran on, and it seems like perhaps the highest 2% could more readily afford to pay their fair amount of taxes similar to the rest of us Minnesotans. Seems simple enough... but the GOP says they ran on 'no new taxing' which means leaving the richest among us to their lower tax bracket...And for this loyalty to the wealthiest 2% of Minnesotans, the GOP decided to shut down the budget...but wait...there's more...which brings us to another example of a state shutdown sticking point in the budget...

The MN GOP: Enact Voter ID laws
While Minnesota is facing major 5.2 billion dollar budget shortfall, and significant cuts in education and other key public services….the GOP controlled legislatures are trying to enact new voter ID laws whose implementation will cost Minnesota millions of taxpayers dollars thus adding to the budget.

According to a new report released from electionline.org, a project of the Pew Center on States, the cost estimate for Minnesota is close to $10 million dollars. And that doesn't include the dozens of costs for the state and local officials, from updating forms, websites, to hiring and training staff to carry out the new procedures in inspecting IDs. There will be costs for voter education in informing voters of the new law(s) and the increase in demand for services that provide IDs. These costs will easily run in the millions!

So how does implementing a voter id law square with the no new tax mantra of the GOP? Obviously it doesn't. So is voter fraud a top problem in Minnesota in need of immediate resolution among all the other pressing state issues that lawmakers are struggling to fund? Should voter fraud trump over education or safety or transportation or even a government shut down? The answer is hell NO....

In 2006 there were six alleged cases of illegal aliens seeking to vote out of a total of 2,202,937 votes cast. This represents 0.000003 percent of all votes cast. So in Minnesota this isn't even a blip on the problem radar so why is it a GOP sticking point in the budget?

Gimme a break, the GOP is breaking their no new tax pledge, shutting down the state government over...sigh...a social agenda and partisan ideology that resolves a non-existent issue. Wow! Some kind of adult leadership there...

In case someone is now wondering what they missed with this burning non-issue, numerous surveys show blacks, Hispanics, the elderly and the young are less likely to possess a driver’s license, passport or other form of government-issued identification. Other than the elderly, they are also largely Democratic constituencies. So the rational behind wanting to spend millions of tax payers money enacting voter id laws is to hopefully disenfranchise voters....yeah certainly worthy of a government shut down,

This is not a game to further extreme ideology! People's livelihood, their children's well being rest on paychecks...This is leadership at it's worse...A state shutdown does not save money. In fact, it has already cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and caused extreme stress to thousands of employees.

The GOP need to face the same reality the rest of us do, and perhaps losing the next election cycle will give them a better perspective on what real life compromise looks like when you're staring down an unemployment line.

Happy belated fourth of July...if anyone noticed I'm not blogging as much with summer and also I'm working on a few other time sucking projects...will try for once a week...

Kids and I went to see the grateful dead movie (pic)...this one goes out for all of us wondering if the long strange trip in the US is now coming to an end.