Kurt & Amy's steaming shitburger of revenue!

This one begs for more attention.

At the same time he's saying that he doesn't want to burden our children and grandchildren with debt, the only proposal for additional revenue from the MNGOP is, you guessed it, more debt, in the form of "tobacco bonds" (remember that one of the reasons for the tobacco fund was to take care of health care cost of smoking?) and another shift of $700 million in K-12 school aid funds. We already did that last biennium to the tune of nearly two billion dollars.

Both ideas are just borrowing from the future.

Then, after serving up this steaming shitburger, Kurt and Amy have the gall to say, Since we've come so far, we want every social disfigurement initiative we've thought up for the last twenty years. Do we have a deal, guv?

You couldn't make up these grifters and patent medicine salesmen if you tried.

Downeyville

This afternoon (July 6th) at 4:30, Downeyville will be erected on the Capitol lawn. The event is sponsored by AFSCME and MAPE:

The laid-off [by the state] workers will set up an unemployed town called “Downeyville,” named after the state representative from Edina who would wipe out the jobs of 5,000 state employees and eliminate the collective bargaining rights of all state employees and public school teachers in Minnesota.

But that’s just the beginning: If Republican leaders get their way, their cuts-only budget will also eliminate 30,000 public- and private-sector jobs – permanently.

The photo is of one of the many Hoovervilles in the United States during the Depression.

On the agenda July 5th

Yesterday, Special Master Kathleen Blatz had this item on the calendar:

What do you suppose the auto dealers want?

Obviously, it is to get the automobile titling system going again so dealers can sell and people can buy cars.

And the sons of Pullman porters

Thanks to Two Putt Tommy for reminding me about Steve Goodman's great song about a trip across America by train.



Have a great Fourth of July, everybody. I started mine by riding in a parade.

Maybe he's the best man

Kurt Zellers - who has always struck me as an aging frat boy stuffed uncomfortably in a suit, and on his way to Blutto Blutarsky's wedding - said this recently:

"We will not saddle our children and grandchildren with mounds of debts, with promises for funding levels that will not be there in the future," said House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove. "This is debt that they can't afford. It's debt that we can't afford right now."

Perhaps it's just his carelessness of speech. If you read a little deeper into the same article, you will see this was one of the proposals of the MNGOP:

The GOP proposed delaying another $700 million in payments owed to schools, which would add to the more than $1 billion the state already owes K-12 schools.

Republicans also offered to issue "tobacco bonds" of an unspecified amount to cover any remaining budget gap. Sources said Dayton considered the offer, but he criticized it as unwise borrowing late Thursday.

So I ask, who is engaging in Wimpy's hamburger politics? (Thank you, Kevin Staunton.) Who is the one who is proposing to pay for what we get now?

And who is saddling our children with debt? It isn't the governor.

Rachel's got it Bass Ackward!

According to Rachel Stassen-Berger, this is the moment for Governor Dayton to decide.

Yup, the Lege has nothing to do with it. Never mind the unethical Republican blackmail of bringing its social disfigurement agenda into negotiations at the eleventh hour.

My heavens, Rachel, do you share an office with Katie, the patron saint of prevaricators and dissemblers?

While it is true that the governor is the only adult in the room, it's a libel to lay the problem at his feet.

St. Katie, the patron saint of prevaricators and dissemblers

Words from the Clumsy Propagandist

Katherine Kersten must have gotten her work in early, because her column for tomorrow's paper is already up on the Strib website. It won't surprise you to know that, according to Katie, the shutdown is all Mark Dayton's fault, in fact, it is part of a sinister plot:

In recent weeks, DFL minority leaders Paul Thissen and Tom Bakk have been glued to Dayton's side throughout budget negotiations. Why? If Dayton -- with the help of DFL legislators -- could parlay a shutdown into a DFL legislative takeover in 2012, the political payoff for the party would be huge.

Dayton won't face reelection until 2014, and the public's memory of the current fiscal train wreck will be long gone by then.

Well, just like Amy and Junior, who have been glued to Michael Brodkorb's side! At least all the DFLers are elected officials.

While there's no profit in analyzing the entire dog's breakfast, there are a few detours from reality I do want to mention. Here's the first one:

In 2010, he squeaked into office by a mere 9,000 votes, in a political climate that swept fiscally conservative Republicans into power across the nation and in the Minnesota Legislature.

Katie engages in pure revisionism here. Each and every candidate for state-wide office (the governor and the constitutional offices: Secretary of State, etc.) was won by a DFLer. Spread across the state, the House turned over by a margin much smaller than Dayton's margin over Emmer. (I had a link for that; I'll find it back.)

And just as seven of eight dentists chew Dentyne gum, Katie says this:

On June 20, a KSTP/USA Survey poll found that 87 percent want state spending to decrease or to stay the same, and only 8 percent want it to increase. Of the 60 percent who want it decreased, two-thirds say cuts to services are "acceptable."

But the newspaper that tolerates Katie's scribbling found this in its own poll:

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they favor a blend of higher taxes and service reductions to tackle the state's $5 billion projected deficit. Just 27 percent said they want state leaders to balance the budget solely through cuts.

Katie says that the Republicans proposed a six percent budget increase for the biennium. Not true according to Politifact.

And there's this one, so transparent it doesn't even need a link for refutation:

The Legislature sent its bills to Dayton six weeks before the session ended, but he frittered away the time for negotiation. He vetoed all nine bills at the end of the session, so legislators had no chance to rework them to address his concerns.

If the governor had gotten budget bills six weeks before the end of the session, and neglected to veto them until the session ended, they would be law today. What happened, in fact, was that the poorly-led legislature dumped budget bills on the Governor's desk in the closing days - or minutes - of the session.

Finally, Katie complains that Governor Dayton didn't sign at least some of the bills, the less controversial ones. But Mark Dayton is cannier than that. In a negotiation, you don't give your opponents the things they want and then try to negotiate for what you want. That's a recipe for losing your shirt.

UPDATE: Here's a better link on the 6% claim.

Amy Koch's personality defects

Just the title is a shocker, isn't it? But it's the kind of thing that righties say or intimate about Mark Dayton all the time: he's an alcoholic; keep his bed warm at Hazelden, etc., and tweeting about him being mentally ill.

But how oriented as to time as place is a person who says this, knowing she is going to drop the Republican social disfigurement agenda on the governor's desk as a list of demands later in the day:

"We felt very, very optimistic yesterday morning that we were there, that we had a deal," Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, said Friday.

The governor is quoted in the same article as saying the policy issues "drove us apart." Gee, no kidding.

Tony Cornish must be pissed!

When the Republican leadership came up with its list of social engineering demands last night, it didn't even include Shoot First on the laundry list.

The photo of Tony in the Hall of Dead Things (his House office) is from WCCO.

Nice state ya got there, bub

Pity if anything happened to it.

Apparently this is what compromise looks like to the Minnesota GOP: We let the economy of the State of Minnesota function. You, on the other hand, agree to ban scientific research we think might involve cloning, enact illegal restrictions on the constitutionally protected rights of women, make it harder for people to vote, gut teachers unions and prevailing wage requirements, enact tort reform, give up transportation bonding, and agree to a redistricting plan that assures our part wins most elections. Plus a bunch of other stuff that will reshape what we all know Minnesota to be.

Keep in mind that this “offer” was made less than 48 hours ago, not in the early days of the legislative session.

But it can't create jobs, right?

With teeth -- and arse -- firmly clenched, Craig Westover, the current mouthpiece for the Republican Party of Minnesota, has for a long time quoted dead Austrians for the proposition that government can't create jobs. It isn't true, but it is so far beside the whole point as to render a discussion with Captain Fishsticks a complete waste of time.

An article in the Strib today gives us a glimpse of why: State shutdown would put a big crimp in lending. Here's the lede:

Banks, auto dealers, farm implement dealers, new business start-ups and other enterprises are bracing for a significant disruption in commercial lending in the event of a government shutdown this week.

What you say? These people don't depend on the damn gubmint!

Sorry; they do. If the Secretary of State's UCC division cannot accept or file financing statements, lenders aren't going to lend. So borrowers aren't going to borrow.

It's too bad, too. Since you won't be able to occupy the state park campsite you reserved this weekend, you may have thought about going out to kick some tires or sit in that shiny new boat in the showroom. Just don't plan to buy it unless you have cash.

This is one small example of how business relies literally every minute on government.

We can hope this will be a teachable moment for guys like Westover.

Nah.

Mikey's on the bubble!

And so is Chas Anderson and David Strom and Margaret Martin. Just like the people who clean the restroom at the rest stops.

Here's Conclusion of Law #6 from Judge Kathleen Gearin's order appointing a special master to oversee the shutdown:

Is puppet master Brodkorb "core" or not? Someone will have to plead Mikey's case before Special Master Kathleen Blatz (a retired Supreme Court Chief Justice).

With a straight face.

Drinking Liberally: Bye Bye, Beck

Thursday evening's Drinking Liberally could be a wake for state government. But wouldn't you rather have a party?

That's what we're going to do. Thursday is also Glenn Beck's last evening on the air with Fox, so we're having a Bye Bye, Beck Party, an idea dreamed up by the boys and girls at the Other 98%.



Bring a sign, your best Bronx cheer, or a raspberry toast for Beck. It's the least you can do.

We'll be at our usual place, the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis, from six to nine PM.

This is the map in the moving van

As it pulls out of Winterset, Iowa this morning with Marion Morrison's ancestral home disassembled and crated inside, this is the map in the cab.

Meanwhile, both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have advertised for the newly-created campaign position: revisionist historian.

Keeping Wikipedia revisionists busy

It is humbling to know that in my most uninhibited dialogues involving Michele Bachmann I cannot out Michele, well, Michele. Even someone who has not lived in Iowa for forty years knows, without looking it up, that Marion Morrison - John Wayne - was born in Winterset, Iowa. The fact that John Wayne Gacey was born in Waterloo, Iowa is pure bonus.

Heck, you can see Winterset from, say, Des Moines.

It is clear the the Wikipedia revisionists have their work cut out for them with both Palin (maybe) and Bachmann seeking the Republican nomination.

The image is Tild's.

The exorcism of Michele Bachmann

Bachmann is in the news, so I thought I would repost a link to a little serial I wrote when she ran for Congress the first time. Unlike Bill Prendergast's comics - which are based on Bachmann's actual quotes - Michele Bachmann's exorcism is fiction. Mostly.

Just to give you a flavor of the serial - the whole thing is at the link above - here are the first two episodes:

God: Listen up Michele!
God and Michele talk again

The photo is from Hardball.

The Deputy's Six Percent Solution

As one of the chief Republican confidence men, Il Vacario always bears watching.


The Deputy's Six Percent Solution from Steve Timmer on Vimeo.

In the clip, Geoff Michel repeats the current meme of the MNGOP: we're proposing a six percent increase over the last budget. But that involves a sleight of hand that Two Putt Tommy explains:

In a nutshell, here's what happened during the 2009 Legislative Session: the February 2009 Forecast predicted revenues of $31.1 Billion (rounded).  Knowing that number, Gov. TBag proceeded to sign Spending Bills of $33.8 Billion (rounded) anyway.   

This created a deficit of $2.7 Billion (rounded) from Governor-approved spending -- remember, when TBag signed those spending bills, they were now law).  A bill to balance that deficit, HF-2323, was passed and presented to Gov. TBag to sign.  Except, TBag didn't sign that revenue bill to balance the budget; he vetoed it. 

Upon creating an unbalanced budget, rather than call a Special Session, TBag immediately claimed unilateral power to fix the problem he created, and then hit the campaign trail.  As to TBag's actions creating an anticipated budget problem, then using powers to deal with unanticipated budget problems?  The Court was not amused. 

The only reason GOPers today can use that "$32 Billion" number, is because in 2009 Pawlenty did something the Supreme Court ruled he couldn't. 

The reality is that the "$34 Billion" compromise number the Kochzellerstan crowd is crowing about today, is really the same "$33.8 Billion" number that Pawlenty signed into law, before he went all Nixonian by utilizing excessive  -and illegal - Unitary Executive Power (Nixon would be so proud!)

The Deputy brags about “hundreds of million more” for K-12 education. But ask your school board if it would get six percent more under the Republican plan (especially if you live in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or Duluth). School districts around the state are planning to make budget cuts and lay off staff. Health care facilities are in the same boat, or worse. And never mind what the Republicans want to do to local government aid for our largest cities.

One more point: the Deputy challenges Governor Dayton to sign the non-controversial (less, anyway) parts of the budget and avoid the shutdown.  If he did that, health and human services, among others, would be left entirely in the cold. The only way to negotiate a budget is comprehensively: put everything on the table, not to give your adversary what he wants then beg for the rest.

You know how far that will go with the current Republican crowd.

Netroots Nation Drinking Liberally: the slide show

Here's a brief slide show of the guests at Netroots Nation Drinking Liberally at the 331 Club in Minneapolis on June15, 2011.


Netroots Nation Eve Drinking Liberally from Steve Timmer on Vimeo.

Drinking Liberally tomorrow night: June 23rd

There were several DLers at the Netroots Nation conference in town last week. Since not everybody could be there, those who were will be talking about memorable speakers, great sessions and more, tomorrow night at our regular DL meeting: six to nine PM, Thursday, June 23rd, at the 331 Club.

If you couldn't make it, here's a chance to catch the flavor of Netroots Nation.

If we're really lucky, we'll get to sit outside.

The photo, incidentally, is from the great show we had last week when Netroots Nation was in town. Papa John Kolstad (with his sidekick Gary Schulte) provided the music. Photo by Zach Roberts.

Nukes in the news!

The really great news for the nuclear industry just continues to pile up

First, it is becoming obvious that something is seriously wrong with the Fort Calhoun nuclear facility north of Omaha on the Missouri River:

A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.

And sure enough, here is the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) just issued by the FAA:

!FDC 1/6523 ZMP NE.. TFR, FORT CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT BLAIR,NE Pursuant TO 14 CFR Section 91.137(A)(3) To provide a safe environment for FLOOD RELIEF EFFORTS Effective immediately until further notice SFC- 3,500 MSL Aircraft flight operations prohibited within 2 NMR 413113N/0960438W

It is complete and transparent bullshit that the no fly zone has anything to do with "flood relief efforts." Why not upstream or downstream of the plant?

The second item of interest is that the Fukushima situation is worse than authorities have been letting on:

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera. 

Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant. 

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

Finally, for the hat trick, there is another troubled plant in Japan that occurred before the earthquake:

TSURUGA, Japan — Three hundred miles southwest of Fukushima, at a nuclear reactor perched on the slopes of this rustic peninsula, engineers are engaged in another precarious struggle. 

The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor — a long-troubled national project — has been in a precarious state of shutdown since a 3.3-ton device crashed into the reactor’s inner vessel, cutting off access to the plutonium and uranium fuel rods at its core. 

Engineers have tried repeatedly since the accident last August to recover the device, which appears to have gotten stuck. They will make another attempt as early as next week.

My efforts to interview Julie Rosen, the champion of the bill to lift the nuclear moratorium in Minnesota have been thus far rebuffed.