Jack of All Trades

As I had revealed in this post, Using Social Networking to Lie to Constituents
Terri Bonoff made this statement, concerning her missed votes.

“I feel badly about not voting. I have never done that before.”

But, I was able to find two votes in 2008 that Terri had missed, one of which was a tie vote that if Terri had voted in favor of an amendment may have had significant impact on military retirees.

Upon further review of the Senate journals, apparently, there are a few more missed votes.

Senate Journal for Jan 29, 2009 - Day 7 of Session

Limmer amendment of SF 49 26 yea 34 nay
Koch amendment of SF 49 28 yea 31 nay
Final passage of SF 49 49 yea 7 nay

Terri had also missed April 3, 2009, but no votes were called on that day.

Terri was well experienced at missing votes.

On Terri Bonoff’s new blog terribonoff.com, Terri uses the social networking tool utterli.com to post a welcome message to her new blog.  In the replies to her message a brief discussion occurs in which Terri explains her extended absence from the state capitol  and makes the claim

“I feel badly about not voting. I have never done that before.”

Click for full size image.

But this isn’t true.   On April 2, 2008,  Terri missed two votes even though she was in the Senate chambers.  In the Senate Journal for the 98th day of the session, Terri is listed in the roll call, but she fails to vote for two separate amendments.

On page 8290,   she fails to vote on the Rosen amendment to SF 2869.  And again on pages 8291 and 8292, she fails to vote on the Ortman amendment to SF 2869.   This amendment failed to pass with a tie vote of 31 to 31.   If Terri would have voted for the amendment it would have exempted Military retiree pay from state income taxes.

It’s great that Terri is embracing new technology to communicate to her constituents.  It would be even greater if she could tell the truth.

While doing a little research into the voting records of my SD43 representatives and neighboring representatives, I came across a pretty ineresting fact.

John Benson (DFL-43B) is a stinking, sniveling, hypocritical coward.

Here’s why.

The House DFL has a budget plan.  It consists of spending decisions and revenue decisions.  The Senate, and the Governor have similar plans.   All of these plans attempt to solve the budget deficit with different combinations of spending cuts, and revenue enhancements.     Our state budget is required by law to be balanced.

Most members of the legislature understand this, but not SD43B’s House Representative John Benson.

Here is Benson’s voting record on the major DFL spending bills
HF1122 - Yes
HF855 - Yes
HF869 - Yes
HF2 - Yes
HF1169 - Yes
HF2123 - Yes
HF1362 - Yes
HF1657 - Yes
HF1781 - Yes
HF1309 - Yes

Every single spending bill approved by the DFL had Benson’s vote. But, what about the bill that paid for all of this spending? The bill with a tax bite of $1.5 billion. Surely, if you want to spend like a DFL’er you’ve got to tax like one too.

No, John Benson, because he lives in a right leaning district, didn’t have the courage to vote with the rest of his DFL tax and spenders. Benson’s vote.

HF2323 - No

Note:  Maria Ruud (DFL-42A) did the exact same thing.

In my earlier post Modeling the Cooling of Global Warming, I facetiously developed a graphical prediction for the decline of belief in anthropomorphic global warming using results from three Rasmussen surveys.  This model predicted a rapid decline in the belief that humans were to blame for global warming.

Now that Rasmussen has issued results from a fourth survey, it’s time to see how well my model is doing. The two new data points represent the Rasmussen reports data, that in April, 2009, 48% of respondents believe that long term planetary trends are to blame for global warming, and that only 34% believe humans are to blame. As you can well see, my model has accurately predicted the continue decay in support of AMGW.

In regard to the following article in the April 21, Star Tribune.

Klobuchar, Ensign spar over Minnesota Senate race

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

Bob,

A couple of lines from your recent article.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar saying the state “has that right to two senators.”

and

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, who repeated GOP talking points that “votes [of all Minnesotans] should be treated the same.

Notice the difference between your two quotes?   Why did you insert the phrase “who repeated GOP talking points” into Ensigns quote without a similar insertion in Klobuchar’s quote?

Blatant bias like this is unacceptable, and is a major reason that the Star Tribune is headed for bankruptcy.

The economic decline of the Star Tribune can in many ways be blamed on hostile attitude towards many of the people it hopes to sell papers.    No finer example of this attitude can be found than in this article by Tom Horgen. His urban cool/suburbs not cool shtick seems far more suitable to for rags like City Pages than for a struggling metro wide newspaper.

A few highlights.

If you hate shopping in the suburbs, drinking bad beer and eating at giant chains, Maple Grove is your worst nightmare.  The northwestern ‘burb, known for the massive Arbor Lakes retail monstrosity along I-694, is also the last place you’d expect to find a bar dedicated to craft beer, those edgy brews that seem to be an urban cool kind of thing.

and

How could such a place survive in Maple Grove’s overgrown maze of “lifestyle centers” and fake Main Streets?

Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar calls Federal Express “Un-American”.

“They don’t want to have to stand up and justify their getting a piece of the antitrust law of the nation?” Oberstar said of airlines to reporters after his speech. “That’s nonsense. That’s un-American.”

From Bloomberg News

Outrage from the left expected to happen any moment now…..

Guantanamo Detainees May Be Released in U.S.

I’ve got an idea. Let’s forgive them, and then let them run wild in St. Paul

Regarding Kathleen Soliah’s release from prison.

Found HERE, from Lynn Musgrave, a Twin Cities theater director and sound designer who directed Olson in a couple of productions,

“She is a different person now than she was,” Musgrave said. “We all are. We were all activists in the ’70s and expressed ourselves in different ways.”

Yes that’s right, some of us grew our hair long and sewed flowers onto our jeans, others kicked pregnant bank tellers in the stomach while robbing a bank, and tried to blow up cop cars.

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. — Luke 17:3

That’s my answer to Doug Grow’s question “What happened to the concept of forgiveness in the Sara Jane Olson case?”posted on MinnPost. There’s an order in this process of forgiveness. First there is the trespass, next comes the rebuke, then there is repentance, and finally we arrive at forgiveness. We’re nearing the end of stage 2, the rebuke. Kathleen Soliah (I will not ever refer to her as anything else) has finished her term of incarceration and will soon be serving parole back home in Minnesota. But, after all of these years, we have no evidence of any sign of repentance. Without repentance there is no forgiveness, but apologists on the left can’t seem to understand this simple process. Even Lutheran pastor turned Senator Gary Kubly (DFL-Granite Falls) wants us to skip ahead to forgiveness. Kubly goes as far as to consider the years Soliah spent hiding out in St. Paul somehow displays some sort of repentance.

“She led an exemplary life here [in St. Paul] for 20 years. This is where her family is. She’s paid her debt to society … This person deserves forgiveness.”

Soliah’s life in St. Paul was far from exemplary. She was a criminal in hiding. She assumed a false identity and lead a false life. She got married as a criminal. Gave birth to three daughters as a fugitive, raised a family while living a complete and utter lie. Her trespass didn’t end when she came to St. Paul, it didn’t end when she did community theater or held fundraisers. It ended when she was discovered and brought back to California to face her past.   But Sen Kubly thinks she deserves forgiveness, that we shouldn’t judge her, yet he’s quick to judge Governor Pawlenty

Kubly admits, with a smile, to being perplexed by the theology of Pawlenty, a regular church attender.  “I felt like if his church is supporting his position on this, then, he ought to find one that doesn’t,” said Kubly.

If Kubly is perplexed by Pawlenty’s theology, he should re-read Luke 17:3, and take heed.