Spring is Here. The Boats are Launched and the Legislature is Docked.

It has been a very busy two/three weeks for me. I worked the horse show at Hugo.

Usually during the summer I work just the horse shows here in Minnesota with some off time between for other things, but this year I have a regular job working at the double "H" stables / Haines Tree Service out of Stillwater.

It makes the Sunday end of show breakdown and cleanup day a lead in to a week at "HH". It is a little taxing and makes Monday long.

Yesterday Steve, Gary and I took the motorboat to the shop, we need to get the 135hp Johnson up and running.

We also have acquired a 28 foot pontoon boat and trailer. It needs some work. The deck needs replacement, the motor is shot, and the pontoons have a few dents.

But its twenty eight feet long and we will get it up and on the lake. It may have little power at first but it will have a gas grill.

We intend to launch it and anchor it as our flag ship. Then we can canoe and sail our other vessels around and also have a lounge area on the lake.

This is going to be great!

Changing the subject to give a little closure to the legislative session, the DFL at the last moment pulled out their plan - raise taxes. No one was surprised.

They seem to think that talking about trivial things till the last moment would jam the Governor to follow their lead.

They thought that they left him with the choice of signing on to their plan or force a government shutdown or a special session.

Bad assumptions by the big brains in the DFL.

The Governor was not moved by their tear soaked pleas to follow the words of Jesus and further empower the tax collectors. (How they got that interpretation, I still don't know.)

The Gov. vetoed their government employment plan and began taking charge of the States Budget and began line item "un-allotments" to balance the budget.

The typical and predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth commenced.

The press releases describing tales of woe and doom to come from this horrible action by the Governor have been issued constantly from all government quarters; State, County and City as well as all government subsidized enterprises and "non-profits".

We have been bombarded by threats that the “sky is falling” and other false threats for years.

All to induce fear in the populace to coerce them into following the DFL in there liberty thieving and tax guzzling ways.

It has worked for years.

But like Abe Lincoln (who died on April 15) says: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

I think the “F” in DFL no longer stands for “Farmer”, but “Fool”.

May in Minnesota

It is now the second week of May. Today is Mothers Day.

Here in Minnesota, the leaving of winter behind is now total, even though it is 30 degrees in International Falls.

The trees are leafing out, and the song birds are back and nesting. The clouds are racing by in front of a high pressure system bringing in bright, but cool Canadian air.

The first mowing of the year has been done in most yards and the tulips are opening brilliant red and yellow this morning. The coffee is perfect.

It is warming and this is one of the best canoe times of the year, no bugs yet. I'll be on the Saint Francis River meandering through parts of Sherburne County before it meets the Elk Rivers' trek to the Mississippi.

The Fishing opener was Friday and the Governor held his event just south of Forest Lake in White Bear Lake. I was in town and ate breakfast at the diner. It was a nice day but with a chilly wind and more clouds than blue sky.

In town, the large "workers rights" [communist] May Day parade at Powder Horn Park in Saint Paul had a float drive over an individual, nothing major but rather symbolic if you ask me.

In Saint Paul the legislature is now being compressed to the May 18 deadline and the demand for tax hikes is beginning to increase in pitch.

It is proposed by the DFL that we adopt a fourth income tax bracket, and raise all of the ones we already have.
This would make two of the highest income tax brackets in the nation exist here in industry crushing Minnesota.

Also they intend to raise taxes on alcohol consumers. The stuff for drinking, they still want to subsidies that intended for the gas tank.
[More irrational energy nonsense brought to you by the powerful environmental lobby.]

The tax-guzzling, special interest groups that live off of working Minnesotans are also making maneuvers for the new monies generated by the "legacy" amendment.

It was voted into law last election based on a false, fear mongering, tax funded, campaign that brow-beat Minnesotans into believing that our water was dangerously polluted and needed this additional remedy now.

To secure political support at the Capitol the so-called "sportsmen" joined with the so called "arts" lobby. They ended up splitting this new revenue stream and are giddy with new money, power and influence.

Watching such sycophantic and demeaning groveling and pawning by these groups and their members at the feet of these committee meetings, is embarrassing enough. To know that we are paying these people handsomely to behave so cravenly is more than a little disturbing.

Public Broadcasting here in Minnesota did well by their (our) marketing investment on behalf of the tax hike.

The Minnesota Film Board is angling for some of these "new arts dollars". They can be seen interviewed on "news" shows saying how a dollar they are given creates five in the economy.

They may understand lobbying and grant righting and all that, but they have a clear lacking in the understanding of basic economics.

Minnesota is vast and varied in terrain, vegetation and climate. There are advantages to making a movie here naturally. We do not need a "film board".

I don't think we need a department of tourism for many of the same reasons. Trust me, people will vacation in Minnesota without the MN Dept. Of Tourism.

They did before.

These closed-loops, that lobby for tax dollars with tax dollars, have contributed significantly to the unsustainable financial mess Minnesota and its industrious citizens are burdened under.

Things must change. Things will change.

Politically that is.

Minnesota will always be beautiful in May.

Green Bays' Jetsam Drifting to Minnesota.

There is much discussion lately around here in Minnesota, as well as amongst our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin, about the possibility of Brett Favre quarterbacking for the Minnesota Vikings.

Many people have been voicing strong opinions all around.

In Wisconsin, where the Green Bay Packers are the Government owned professional football team, they speak of betrayal and disappointment.

They also make taunting remarks usually about Superbowl victories and the possibility of Brett making it possible for the Vikes to actually win one.

In Minnesota most think Favre, although very talented, is past his prime.

I think most people, including the professional sport journalists, are not reading the data properly and are coming to wrong conclusions.

I do not believe that Mr. Favre has any intentions of the quarterback position with the Vikings.

I think Brett Favre is very possibly going to be on the coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings.

Rally's for Tax Cuts

This weekend there will be a gathering of some friends of mine at the State Capitol in Saint Paul.

We have been meeting for many years now. I started having these little regular get togethers after the first billion dollar bonding bill well over a decade ago.

It was just a small group of us then. Myself, Colin my brother and Charles Test; then Chair of the Libertarian Party of Minnesota.

I reserved the steps at the Capitol, built the "lug-a-lectern" and the "port-a-podium".
We hauled them up the stairs, set up the works (with a sound system provided by C. Test), weighed it down with sandbags and cranked up the tunes.

I did the M.C. work for most of them.

Over time others who were there include then State Representative Phil Krinkie, Tom Workman, Todd Van Dellum, Kevin Knight, and State Senator Linda Runbeck and Carol Molnau, just to name a few.

There were lots of people you never heard of. Many helped in many little ways. Some fed me, some bought me gasoline or lunch. Ken Iverson gave me an old car of his when mine died.

These get togethers came to be called rallys.

Some were titled such as the "Give it Back", "Give it all Back" and "Tax cuts Now!" rallys.
Eric Escola of CBS came to refer to us as the "Give It All Back" crowd on "Almanac" and elsewhere.

Jesse Ventura spoke at one of our "Give it Back" rallys prior to his election as Governor. The pictures are funny in that I built the podium to fit me, at five feet seven inches. Needless to say Jesse Ventura is quite taller than that.

At least a year before that, house Speaker Steve Sviggum spoke. He had a great prop I helped him display, a very large pink porciline pig.

The crowd loved it and the photos are great.

Now these rallys are known as the annual "Jason Lewis" tax cut rallys.
You saw me lead the Pledge of Allegeance at last years "Tax Cut Rally".

(I and some others had a complaint sustained by the MN News Council from last years coverage by WCCO. Read my complaint here at; "Complaint to MN News Council")

I delivered the Pledge of Allegiance at the "Tea Party" on the 15th of April.

I am very happy with the momentum and support gained over these many years.

What started with three is now easily thirteen thousand strong, and growing.

I may not get the opportunity to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this year, but I don't mind at all.

It is nice to watch and not have to worry about making cues, setting lecturns and all the other incidentals I have done for all these years.

It is good to sit down and look back with satisfaction at the movements growth.

Hopefully we shall see our efforts bear fruit.

The End of a Cycle

I have been using the comparison of the Minnesota Legislature to that of a four cycle engine. You can read here the article "The Engine that is Minnesota"

We are entering the end of the compression cycle, approaching the power cycle.

The heat and temperature in the cylinder is increasing as the piston rises towards the engine head with a fuel and air mixture that is very rich.

The DFL members think its lean and are attempting to dump even more fuel into the gaping, tax guzzling, carburetor before reaching top-dead-center; and that hard end on May 18.

The way they drive the vehicle, and with all those odd attachments, and then tow everyone's stuff around; well there's no wonder why they cannot pass a tax station.

We used to have a budget year then a bonding year. [Before that, we meet every other year.]

These too seem to be combined, ending with a bonding every year now.

The engine that is Minnesota is overloaded, and many seem to think making a four cycle engine perform like a two cycle engine, with twice as many power cycles, is the way to go.

I think they are going to blow a head gasket and the engine is going to seize.

Minnesota Minning and Manufacturing No More

In 1902 in the little north shore town of Two Harbors Minnesota, five businessmen began what they thought was a venture to mine a local mineral deposit to be an abrasive on grinding-wheels. However the mineral deposit was found to be of little value (not corundum) and they moved to Duluth were they focused on producing sandpaper products.

This company was called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Since then this little risky venture has blossomed into a multinational powerhouse with manufacturing, distribution and research facilities located worldwide.

Its headquarters once located in Saint Paul, is now in Maplewood Minnesota. I drive by the old large multi-building complex at least twice a month. It is still held in high esteem to work there.

Its been there my whole lifetime, so far.
They too have had some difficult times.

Sales of many of 3M's products have slowed during the last quarter, and its profits are reflecting that.

In France a company executive was held by striking workers at a factory expected to be closed.

Here in Minnesota we have been forcing them to chase phantom menaces on land used generations ago.

The executives have made clear the difficulty working in Minnesota with its high tax burden on the company and its employees.

3M announced some time back they would not be building on their aging Saint Paul campus.

And long before that they stopped referring to 3M as "Minnesota Minning and Manufacturing".

THE STATE is not friendly to anything having to do with "companies" or "minning" or "manufacturing". Today unlike times gone by, Minnesota is not "industry" friendly.

Nope, now its just 3M, period. Sad.

3M is selling its Saint Paul Campus to the Saint Paul Port Authority. It was the old headquarters before the move to Maplewood in the 60's. It will be leveled and the Port Authority will set it up for light industry and office space.

They, like other companies (and 3M is not just another company), are announcing layoffs and early retirements and buyouts for employees.

This will ripple throughout Minnesota. 3M is generous and always has been. They've built public buildings, symphonies, theaters, educations, hospitals.... the list of positives is very long.

3M has been a pillar of our society for over a hundred years.

However to me it seem that the McKnight Principle;

"As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative. This requires considerable tolerance. Those men and women, to whom we delegate authority and responsibility, if they are good people, are going to want to do their jobs in their own way.

"Mistakes will be made. But if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it undertakes to tell those in authority exactly how they must do their jobs.

"Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative. And it's essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow."

....does not mesh well with THE STATES principle of centralized command and control.

3M appears to be leaving my beloved State of Minnesota.

Tornados, Paper Puppets and Public Broadcasting

This is Severe Weather Awareness Week.

Today the sirens will sound throughout Minnesota at 1:45 pm and 6:55 pm for tornado drills.

Last year about 5 miles south of my home in Forest Lake a violent tornado tore through the town of Hugo, about 5:00 pm on May 25, 2008.

I watched the storm approaching from the window on the second floor looking south. The sky was dark and menacing around 4:45 and my roommate with her three year old daughter were on the road just east of Hugo, attempting to drive home.

The wind was very strong and gusting, the clouds became a dark green, indicating hail, and I was very concerned for their well being.

I knew that I could get more detailed information from the public broadcasting system channel 17 Doppler radar display.

This is part of their "public service" on the "public airways".

I turned on the television. Boy was I wrong.

Instead of the crucial and timely information I was expecting to receive, I was frustrated to see what was being displayed was not the radar that the channel was established to provide the public, but a children's program called "Donna's Day".

Apparently the creation of paper bag puppets and "children friendly" broadcasting had eventually became the more important function of this Public Broadcasting Channel than the original reason given for the establishment of this additional TPT Channel. (Twin Cities Public Television... not Toilet Paper Television)

I called my roommate on her cell phone. She said she had stopped driving and was parked under a tree, seeking some shielding from the hail.

I could here the baseball sized hail hitting her station wagon and I could hear the child screaming in the background.

I was very frustrated in that I did not know the details of the storm and its track... Then the sirens started.

The private news stations were broadcasting information but I wanted more detailed, real time radar over some time to see the drift and trend of the storm. They showed the radar, but also more general storm related reports from throughout the region.

I told her to sit it out, if I knew more I would have told her to drive East.

Her windows were smashed, she barely made it home two hours later.

That tornado, an EF-3 with winds of 136 to 165 miles an hour tore into a Hugo housing development, destroyed dozens of homes and killed one young child.

The public broadcasting folks seem to think these channels are their own little broadcasting system. Useful to air their "green" programs, child "friendly" programing (that they say is unavailable on private TV stations), political reporting, and their behavior and thought modifying "educational" programs.

Once again the arguments made in the Legislature to justify these DFL projects are just, as the late Democrat Senator Daniel PatrickMoynihan called it, "Boob Bait For The Bubbas".

Rhetoric to placate the normal Minnesotan, that can be ignored later once the project is established.

Then they can do what they really intended, as normal folks don't have the time or inclination to follow up on such things.

The Radar Channel should be broadcasting the Radar data, if we wanted Laurence Welk we would borrow grandmas phonograph thank you very much.

TPT used to run with the phrase "If we don't do it, who will?"

I can get "Donna's Day" at the movie rental, thank you.

If you tell me and my fellow Minnesotans you need this channel and broadcasting equipment to provide radar data for public safety, then that is what we should be receiving.

Especially in the middle of a Tornado.