The mission of mnpACT! is to build a progressive community based upon the
core values of respect, dignity and opportunity, by educating people about
progressive ideas, advocating for progressive issues, and electing
progressive candidates to local, state and federal offices.
There is something a little disturbing about how the House Republican caucus is always attacking the health and human services budget. They seem to think that it is the only part of the Minnesota budget that incurs any waste.
Now, Marty Seifert and company, are disturbed by EBT (human services card) transactions being used in Hawaii for $2,890. If you go to the story on MPR and then click on the Minnesota map on the left side, it will give you a US map with the amount of EBT purchases in each state. Quite naturally, the amounts lessen the farther away from Minnesota you go.
But it would seem that Marty Seifert is very concerned that some people might be taking "vacations" in Hawaii -- although the average purchase of $22.93 per transaction wouldn't seem to get very far.
Gov. Pawlenty has been getting some strange press today. First, he gets this headline on CBS.com:
Pawlenty Praises Obama?
With the following excerpt:
Speaking to the GOPAC, Pawlenty said, “say what you will about Barack Obama … people gravitate when you have something positive to say." Pawlenty added that John McCain has also been positive thus far, according to the AP. "People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders," Pawlenty continued. "They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person."
Now I always thought of John McCain as the Bob "Get Off My Lawn" Dole type.
Anyway, do you want your future VP candidate getting press headlines like that?
Then Pawlenty gets caught on the gossipy TMZ.com. Here is the transcript for the Video:
TMZ: Excuse me Gov. Pawlenty, what do you think about Paris Hilton's remarks in her new video?
One of the reasons America has difficulty finding effective solutions to real problems, is that right-wing conservatives ridicule first and discover facts later, if ever.
This week, John McCain and thousands of his surrogates mocked, ridiculed, and abused Barack Obama for suggesting that inflating tires properly would conserve fuel. The McCain campaign went so far as to send tire air gauges to the media to poke fun at the idea.
When they stopped doubling up with laughter, they discovered that that NASCAR, the American Automobile Association, the United States Department of Energy and just about every expert all agree that inflating tires properly would save 3-4% of gasoline consumed.
Obama effectively pinpointed the problem when he said, “It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.” . . .
