We had a good snowfall at the end of this week. Thursday it fell for hours then Friday was bright and clear (and cold) and all the trees in white. I love Minnesota.

Meanwhile the Minnesota Legislature appears to be on a path to raise taxes or shutdown operations till they are raised.

The Democrat Farmer Labor (DFL) party of Minnesota is in majority in the House and Senate (and Judiciary). The Governor is a Republican who has already had his veto of a gas tax increase over-ridden in a previous session.

D.C. Has Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, Minnesota has Larry Pogemiller and Margaret Anderson-Kelleher.

In Washington they think the Federal government should spend lots more and regulate "better".

In Saint Paul it is very much the same. On both fronts, some organized resistance seems to be slowly forming.

Here in Minnesota all levels of government are looking for money from on high. The Cities want it from the counties, (and some from the State/Feds). The counties look for it from the State and the State expects it from the Feds.

And they all expect it from you.

A lousy way to run a railroad if you ask me, but we've seen how they run railroads.

Saint Paul, Duluth, Rochester, Minneapolis all say they have to lay off police and fire department workers, and plow the streets less, if they don't get their Local Government Assistance "LGA" check from the State.

Duluth is a fiscal basket case after decades of Democratic leadership. Come to Duluth, we have an aquarium.

Rochester after helping shutdown the expansion of a local private railroad through town, is now lobbying for government to run a railroad through town.

The DFL seem intractable on the position of raising "revenue" to maintain "services".
It looks like normal, waste time posturing till the big stand off at the end.

The DFL went on a State wide tour badmouthing the Governors' budget, they didn't have one of their own to offer as an alternative, oh no we're here just to pick apart the Governor, thank you very much.

I see a special session (or two) and possibly a "government shutdown" on the horizon. Which is just a taxpayer funded extra holiday for the government workers. [Minnesota is the largest employer in the state.]

And we've seen the hardball personal politics they play. Dan Ocksner, from the radio station I listen to when at my folks house in Sartell: KNSI 1450am, was denied press access to the Legislature. He had normal press access in the past, but I guess his politics became less than appropriate or some such nonsense...who knows.

And shutting down all staff hiring, not to save money but because the Republican caucus was in the process of hiring a chief of staff. And there are thousands of other examples, big and small, of the "progressives" using the law, or their position, like a club to quiet down any opposition.

Pogemiller and the others are hardball politicians who have no problem at all using whatever they have at their disposal to forward their agenda and take down the opposition.

Just ask Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau

The Minnesota State Government Departments and Agencies are full of people who think and act the same way.

The opposition is strong, organized, and entrenched. The challenge is great and hopefully those involved and those getting involved will realize the magnitude of the problem.

To make any real headway on this I think we need to move boldly and swiftly.
It is too big to chew on the edges.

I think we could pass a bill to abolish the Minnesota Department of Tourism. We don't need the government to entice people to come to Minnesota, they do so naturally.

If not that, how about the Minnesota Film Board.
What do ya say, throw me a bone will ya?