So Senator Clinton did it...she pulled off another "must win" and is again back in the hunt...so much so that it has caused one writer to delve into the process and opine on "Why Hillary Clinton Should Be Winning."

The continuing contest for the Democratic presidential nomination has become a
frenzy of debates and proclamations about democracy. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been particularly vociferous in claiming that its candidate stands for a
transformative, participatory new politics. It has vaunted Obama's narrow lead in the overall popular vote in the primaries to date, as well as in the count of elected delegates, as the definitive will of the party's rank and file. If, while heeding the party's rules, the Democratic superdelegates overturn those majorities, Obama's supporters claim, they will have displayed a cynical contempt for democracy that would tear the party apart.
These arguments might be compelling if Obama's leads were not so reliant on certain eccentricities in the current Democratic nominating process, as well as on some blatantly anti-democratic maneuvers by the Obama campaign. Obama's advantage hinges on a system that, whatever the actual intentions behind it, seems custom-made to hobble Democratic chances in the fall. It depends on ignoring one of the central principles of American electoral politics, one that will be operative on a
state-by-state basis this November, which is that the winner takes all. If the
Democrats ran their nominating process the way we run our general elections,
Sen. Hillary Clinton would have a commanding lead in the delegate count, one that will only grow more commanding after the next round of primaries, and all questions about which of the two Democratic contenders is more electable would be moot.

While there are certainly a number of peculiarities within the Democrats process that do deserve to be roundly derided, it does lead to a more serious question...why can't Barack Obama close this out? Let's take a look at their reasons...one at a time.

RACE: The jury is still out on whether a black man can overcome America's original sin and be elected president.
About one in five Pennsylvania voters said the race of the candidates was among the top factors in deciding how to vote, according to exit polls, and white voters who cited race supported Clinton over Obama by a 3-to-1 margin.
Results from all the primaries suggest that whites who said race was important in picking their candidate have been about twice as likely to back Clinton as Obama.

I think this can put to rest the meme that the Democrats are a "color blind" party.

WORKING-CLASS VOTERS: Obama can't win the presidency unless he starts onnecting better with blue-collar voters.
The New York senator easily won among Pennsylvania voters without college degrees and those from families earning less than $50,000 a year. Gun owners, rural voters and churchgoing Democrats also backed Clinton.
These are the folks who Obama said "cling to" guns and God, an inelegant attempt to explain to San Francisco liberals how GOP operatives exploit Democratic voters in anxious economic times. He bowled (poorly) and drank beer in a feeble attempt to show a blue-collar touch.

No doubt about it....the San Francisco fundraiser hurt the Obama campaign more than he or his staff will ever admit.  If he does still manage to pull off the Democratic nomination, this comment will come back to haunt him in the General Election.

FRIENDS IN TROUBLE: The longer the campaign goes, the more questions Obama aces about his friends and associates.
He was forced onto the defensive by incendiary comments by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Friend and fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko faces corruption charges. And McCain is raising questions about Obama's relationship with former 1960s radical William Ayers, who has been quoted in an interview as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs" decades ago.

INEXPERIENCE: It's true that Clinton has never run a government or a business, but many voters give her credit for proximity. They consider her experience as first lady preparation for the presidency.
By any measure, Obama is relatively inexperienced, having left the Illinois Legislature less than four years ago.

Senator Clinton has almost 8 years of Senatorial experience under her belt - compared to Senator Obama's 3. Does that really need any further discussion?

METTLE: Clinton's backers love the fact that she fought Republicans — not to mention the "right-wing conspiracy" — during her husband's presidency. Many Democrats wonder whether Obama is tough enough, a charge that he should be putting to rest in this brass-knuckle nominating contest. But he hasn't.

Well, well, well...it appears that the Governor may actually be coming around to the common sense take on HF 3391 (HT Gary)

 

Gov. Tim Pawlenty told legislators Monday that he is concerned that legislation now before a conference committee to revamp Minnesota's health care system might actually drive up costs instead of cutting them.

 

This has been a constant theme in my posting on this issue.

 

Health care costs continue to rise at "unsustainable" levels, he said. The Legislature's proposal, he said, would raise those costs further by expanding eligibility for state health programs. He said Minnesota still has "what is arguably the most generous human services system in the country."

 

Excuse me while I say....DUH!  Every argument, every amendment from the House Republican Caucus tried to address that very fact - something that the DFL majority rejected time after time after time!

 

Under both bills, clinics could qualify for higher reimbursement by establishing themselves as "health care homes."
Those clinics would provide comprehensive and coordinated care, especially for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. An estimated 80 percent of health care costs are spent on people with chronic conditions.
Pawlenty asked the legislators to simplify that concept, apparently after hearing concerns from some health care providers in rural or small, independent clinics who worry that they might not have adequate resources to compete with larger health systems such as Allina and HealthPartners.

 

 

 

Originally, he agreed to spending Health Care Access Fund money to enroll people who are eligible for MinnesotaCare, but he seems to have changed his position on that," Berglin said.
Minnesota has the lowest rate of uninsured people of any state, about 7.2 percent. Of those, half are eligible for MinnesotaCare "and getting them enrolled would be a big step toward universal health coverage," she said.

 

 

While I was busy painting and planting and generally getting ready for this week-end's open house, I was paying attention to the news out of Pennsylvania. One comment from Barak Obama that struck me was a remark he made in response to the uproar over his remarks at the San Francisco fundraiser where he said that mid-staters "cling" to guns and religion and are bigots because they are bitter. His comment was how people would take one poorly worded comment...one that was not "properly phrased" and use it to continually "beat" the candidate "to death" over it. I found that comment to be entertaining (to say the least) considering how Senator Obama did the very same thing he is complaining about (beating an opponent over the head with an out of context comment) to both Senator Clinton and McCain! Yet he claims to be a "different" less divisive candidate?
Another story that came up last week was Senator Obama's ties to former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers. About the time that story was really gaining traction (on the internet) I was on a field trip with the Junior Logicians class to the Minnesota History Museum. They are hosting a travelling exhibit "The Enemy Within:Terror In America 1776 to today". A large portion of the exhibit was dedicated to the Weather Underground and their activities. It was a vivid reminder of a period of my youth that I had forgotten (the Weather Underground had a base of operations in the Chicago area).

Much has been said, this week, about the impact of the Delta/Northwest merger on the Minnesota economy. There was much wailing and gnashing of political teeth about the announcement that there was "no chance" of the corporate headquarters of the combined entity staying in Minnesota. While the loss of jobs from Northwest (and 3M moving another operating unit out of the state) is important, small business is the heart and soul of the Minnesota economy and the small business environment in Minnesota is not a healthy one (H/T TN reader James)x when it comes to taxes.

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council's "Business Tax Index 2008" ranks the states from best to worst in terms of the costs of their tax systems on entrepreneurship and small business. The Index pulls together 16 different tax measures, and combines those into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared and ranked.The 16 measures are:
1) state's top personal income tax rate, 2) state's top individual capital gains tax rate, 3) state's top corporate income tax rate, 4) state's top corporate capital gains tax rate, 5) any added income tax on S-Corporations, 6) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on individuals, 7) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on corporations, 8) whether or not the state's personal income tax brackets are indexed for inflation, 9) property taxes, 10) consumption-based taxes (i.e., sales, gross receipts and excise taxes), 11) whether or not the state imposes a death tax, 12) unemployment tax, 13) whether or not the state has a tax limitation mechanism, 14) whether or not the state imposes an Internet access tax, 15) gas tax, and 16) diesel tax.
The 15 best state tax systems are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Wyoming, 4) Washington, 5) Florida, 6) Alaska, 7) Texas, 8) Colorado, 9) Alabama, 10) Mississippi, 11) South Carolina, 12) Tennessee, 13) Missouri, 14) Ohio, and 15) Virginia.
The 15 worst state tax systems are: 37) North Carolina, 38) Nebraska, 39) West Virginia, 40) Hawaii, 41) Idaho, 42) Vermont, 43) Massachusetts, 44) New York, 45) Rhode Island, 46) Maine, 47) Iowa, 48) California, 49) Minnesota, 50) New Jersey, and 51) District of Columbia.

Emphasis mine.

Pity poor Al Franken.  When he was simply a satirist/author, he only had to worry about Dave Pierre debunking the "facts" in his many books.  Now the author of "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Liar", "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" and "The Truth With Jokes" has to deal with a different kind of truth.....one that put's Franken in the same light as fellow DFLer Lori Swanson.  It appears that not only did Franken not pay Workers Comp Insurance premiums on his employees (as first reported by Michael Brodkorb at Minnesota Democrats Exposed) he also has not paid corporate income taxes in California for the last 4 years (again as first reported by MDE).  Michael has laid out the trail of spin, excuses and changing stories from the Franken camp as both stories gained traction in the local traditional media.

 

 

Parents of Minnesota school children take note.  This will be coming to a school near you if the Governor signs HF 3391.

 

Children in a New Zealand school have been banned from bringing cakes to share on their birthdays, due to new government healthy eating guidelines.

 

 

AAA and I have long written about some of the problems with corn based ethanol.  Over a YEAR ago, I wrote about the tortilla shortages in Mexico.  The shortages have finally gotten so bad that the UN talking about stepping in.  Yet our Governor insists on boosting our corn ethanol mandates!  Well I hope all of the corn ethanol acolytes are happy seeing this.

 

For most Americans, the rising prices at the supermarket are definitely an annoyance, but hardly a threat to life and health. It's a different story in countries like Haiti, where food inflation has led to real hunger and, last week, to riots.
News reports say the poorest Haitians are trying to get by on cookies made with dirt, vegetable oil and salt. Food riots also have roiled Egypt and led to a general strike in Burkina Faso in West Africa. The high cost of corn, wheat, soybeans and other basics of the world's diet could soon start bringing down governments.

 

 

In a way, I am relieved that this story ended the way it did.

 

When a pit bull kills a child, "all of us want to find a person who is responsible and to hold them accountable," Hennepin County District Judge Kevin Burke said Friday.
But Burke decided that Zachary King Sr. was not guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the death of his son "Zack Jr." from a pit bull attack in the family home last August.

 

 

 

So yesterday afternoon, I got an email from a reader who had seen my prior posts on the bonding bill and said "you might be interested into what the real priorities were" in the City of St. Paul.  The email included two PDF files.  The first was on City of St. Paul letter head and bore the title "City of St. Paul 2008 Legislative Agenda - Top Priorities"  Included in these priorities were the following.

 

Central Corridor: The Legislature must identify and commit $280 million in state funds for the Central Corridor this session. Failure to do so will result in significant and costly delays. The City of Saint Paul supports Ramsey County and Met Council’s request for this project.

Five Capital Projects: The City of Saint Paul has several capital projects that will improve service to residents and visitors throughout the state. The Legislature should fund the following:
Minnesota’s Event District - $41.25 million state loan forgiveness & $43 million in state bonds
Como Zoo Gorillas Exhibit - $11 million
SPORTS Initiative - $15 million for Midway Stadium renovation and $10 million for soccer park
National Great River Park - $3.8 million for Upper Landing Revetment and $6.0 million for Bruce Vento and Lilydale Regional Park
Asian Pacific Cultural Center - $5 million

 

 

While most of the bonding bill items were indeed removed, the $41.25m in debt forgiveness and the $43m in state bonds are still on the table.

 

Well, it was not as long of a night as it was a week ago during the "War of 1812" but it did try to come close.  It was also rather eye-glazingly boring at times - especially when the proponents of 3391 got into the defense of the more murky "conceptual" themes of the bill like the "Health Care Homes".  There were times when Gary and I were joking that we should request combat pay for sitting through all of that (even though he didn't live blog it).  However, if you didn't allow it to bowl you over, there were some very educational moments in the debate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week Lady Logician put up a post on the inconsistencies of the left when it comes to privacy rights. One commenter took umbrage with her comments saying

Step 1: The government controls health insurance and decides what is covered and what isn't.
Step 2: Life long illnesses that require constant doctors visits aren't covered due to the high costs.
Step 3: They test your infant for long term health issues that could be draining on the govt run health insurance system.
Step 4: People abort infants that are found to have such illnesses due to financial burden on parents.
This is science fiction right now, but how close are we to this?

While there is a lot wrong with the comment, I want to focus on the highlighted section. This is not science fiction...it is science fact. World Net Daily, in a story about Minnesota's fight against this, notes that all 50 states and the District of Columbia all have various statutes or regulatory provisions on their books NOW that allow this to be done without parental permission. Not to be left out in the Big Brother sweepstakes, the Federal Government is also getting in on the Act. S1858 was passed out of the House of Representatives on a voice vote yesterday and sent on to President Bush for signature. S1858 would set up a NATIONAL DNA warehouse. Twila Brase at CCHC has the information.

Yesterday, in a voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to authorize the creation of a national DNA warehouse and broad-scale genetic research on the American public. S.1858, passed by the U.S. Senate last December, has been sent to the President for signing.
Twila Brase, president of CCHC makes the following statements:
"We are asking President Bush to veto this unethical, immoral, and unconstitutional bill. Congress has voted to strip citizens of genetic privacy rights and DNA property rights. The bill also violates research ethics and the Nuremberg Code."

Soon, under this bill, the DNA of all citizens will be housed in government genomic biobanks and considered government property for government research. The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential subject of government-sponsored genetic research.

My dear friend and co-founder of True North Andy What's-his-name had a post up yesterday about the National Taxpayers Union Congressional Report Card. In it he (and the NTU) were down on Senator Coleman - giving him a grade of C-. I just have one problem with the National Taxpayers Union Report Card. It only records votes. It does not record things like this from ABC News.

Talk about eating at the government trough. Some $13,000 of your tax money was spent on steak, crab and 40 bottles of wine at one high-end steakhouse chain for 81 postal service workers — a $160 per person meal — and it was all charged to government purchase cards.
A National Science Foundation worker used her card to spend $1,800 for manicures and cosmetics at a nail salon chain. One NASA employee spent $800 on two video iPods for so-called data storage, when he was actually storing his personal songs and videos.
"If you don't watch the pennies, they become millions, and if you don't watch the hundreds and thousands, they become billions," Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said.
But who is watching? Forest Service employee Debra Durfey, 50, of Echo, Ore., used the program to write checks to her live-in boyfriend amounting to $640,000, over six years spent on gambling and mortgage payments. But no one ever noticed.
"It took a whistleblower to find out that she had written 180 checks to her boyfriend — it's the kind of problem that gets recognized immediately in the private sector," said Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste.
"Unfortunately, with our tax dollars at stake, it takes a lot more time to find out what's going on."
The government cards actually streamline the purchasing process, saving Uncle Sam about $2 billion a year. But the abuse and poor accounting cost millions, as in the case of four defense department workers who spent $77,000 on clothes and custom-made Brooks Brothers suits for service members. The suits were charged to their cards and cost three times the government allowance.

 Senator Coleman has used his bully pulpit in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to go after waste and fraud like this. As chairman, he was the one that finally started any investigations into the UN's Oil for Food Program scandal! Why does he do this? Because unlike our Junior Senator, he understands...

Coleman said, "Average people, regular businesses, take a look at expenses and purchases like this and have, in place, systems. Government should not be held to a lesser standard, if anything, the same or higher standard because it's not our money, it's your money."

 
The NTU would be wise to keep these kinds of taxpayer friendly actions in mind for their next report card.
 

Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-59B) has once again put forward a piece of legislation guaranteed to pander to university students.

Representative Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis says lowering the drinking age could decrease binge drinking among young adults because it would make alcohol less forbidden.
Kahn admits her House bill has little chance of becoming law.
 The bill would allow people ages 18 to 20 to drink alcohol at places that carry liquor licenses, but it wouldn't allow them to buy alcohol at stores. A similar bill is in the Senate.

 
The reason I call it pandering is that the University of Minnesota just happens to be in Phyllis' district and her endorsed challenger, Ole Hvode, just happens to be a student at the U.
 
There are a number of reasons why HF 3495 is bad legislation. One is that many 18 year olds are still in High School and they don't just don't have the sense of responsibility to keep from drinking and driving. We simply do not instill that sense into our children. Instead we put them through "zero tolerance" training via D.A.R.E. We teach them that alcohol is "forbidden" and you know what happens when young people get their hands on things that are "forbidden" don't you? Another is that this bill actually encourages drinking and driving in young people! The bill states that 18-20 year olds are allowed to drink in restaurants and bars only - no buying liquor and taking it back to your dorm where you stay off the roads...oh no - you have to get behind the wheel and go to the liquor and then drive home!

Rep. Kahn says that the bill will decrease binge drinking....that goes back to my second point. Americans have a rather unhealthy view of alcohol. What I am about to say will probably make my more social conservative friends cringe, but this is one place where the Europeans are right! They grow up with the thinking that a glass of wine or beer with dinner is ok - even healthy. However we seem to think that any kind of consumption is bad. As we have seen all too often, just because a child reaches a magic chronological point in time, it does not mean that they will know how to handle alcohol (or any of lifes other challenges) without a lot of good healthy interference from Mom and Dad and even then.....

 

 

Seriously, folks.  The Governor does not "hate" any of the cities.  He just did the hard work that the Legislature refused to do.  They were warned not to go over the 3% limit.  They were TOLD that if they did the Governor would veto.  They CHOSE to challenge the Governor and they lost.  It's politics and if you are going to play the game, you have to be prepared to lose as well as win.  The DFL legislature "won" on the Transportation bill and they "lost" on this one.  When our side "lost" on the Transportation bill we were told to "suck it up".  Well, it's turn about time kids....