Category: Minnesota Politics

by Dave Mindeman

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.

The Legislative Auditor is going to see if it is worth looking into and rightly so; but I often wonder why human service money (welfare in GOP vernacular) being spent in virtually any manner seems to get the hackles up for everybody.

Obviously, even though Minnesota citizens are involved here, they do have family in other states. Are they supposed to be boxed in at the border?

In addition, the first thing to ask is how are on-line purchases tracked? Wouldn't they appear as out of state transactions, too? The assumption from the Republican House caucus always takes a sinister track.

If only they were as watchful on corporate malfeasance.....

Category: Tim Pawlenty

by Dave Mindeman

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?

TPAW: ..her new video?

TMZ: Yea

TPAW: Leave it to Paris Hilton to find another way to elevate her celebrity and her status. But her energy plan mixes an all of the above. Seems like she is moving toward Sen. McCain's position...so that's good progress.

TMZ: Do you think its a good thing to get Hollywood involved with Politics right now?

TPAW: Well, I think anytime we have an opportunity to elevate the discussion and get more people interested...engaged, or talking about it.....it's a good thing for democracy. Even though people make fun of Hollywood...or joke at Paris Hilton's expense...the fact that she is engaging and getting people talking about it and the substance of her message. That's good.

Points to ponder:

1. Good thing Pawlenty pointed out that they were talking about her "new" video.... she has others out there you know.

2. Also good to clarify that he references her "energy plan" rather than her description of McCain as that "wrinkley, white haired dude".

3. And do you really want "good progress" to mean your energy policy is coming in line with PARIS HILTON?

Pawlenty's chances for VP may have taken a hit with McCain.... but on the bright side -- Paris hasn't made a final decision yet!

Category: Presidential Politics

by Tom Hammond

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.”