I first heard this during the Carter Administration. I first heard it seriously during the Clinton years. Jews, tired of the Democratic party’s one-sided approach to Israel, will eventually bolt from the Tics. Someday. Maybe. Honest.
I’m starting to think American Jews are to Israel the way American Catholics are to pro-life politics; the theoretical tie frays when you get down to specifics; “progressive” politics beats out the purported big issue.
I first met Teresa Collett at the House District 64B Precinct Caucuses in February of 2010.
I told her how many followers I had on Twitter, and she told me that Karl Rove was following her on Twitter. An auspicious beginning, to be sure. We met again at the Minnesota Organization of Blogs party last Saturday night. It seemed like a good idea to introduce Teresa to the True North community.
Teresa is a professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School, and has been there since 2003. (Full disclosure: I am a former St. Thomas faculty member, and while Teresa and I chit-chatted about various St. Thomas issues, none of them have anything to do with what I'm about to tell you about her.) How did she get to St. Thomas? She and her husband Bob (they've been married for 31 years, 3 adult children, grandchild on the way) started a small wholesale tuxedo business in Oklahoma in the early 80's. As small business owners, they had interactions with lawyers from time to time. Teresa observed what the lawyers did and thought "I could do that." She graduated from U. of Oklahoma Law School (with honors) in 1986. She started working for the largest law firm in Oklahoma, when a faculty member at the Law School died suddenly in a car crash. Teresa filled in on very short notice, not knowing at the time it would blossom into a successful career as a legal educator and scholar (20 years teaching, 4 books, numerous articles and presentations). Her specialties are property rights, professional responsibility and bioethics.
In a recent Minnesota Public Radio article profiling the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, Democratic-Farmer-Labor party chief Brian Melendez is quoted disparaging those grassroots activists who seek to uphold the Constitution.
The tea party tends to identify themselves with the movement that some have called ‘10th-ers,’ people who support the 10th Amendment as a vehicle for obstructing programs sponsored by the federal government, like health care reform.
This term “10th-ers,” which Melendez attempts to distance himself from with an artful use of the anonymous “some,” is a blatant effort to rhetorically group advocates of state’s rights with so-called “Birthers,” who insist on questioning the national origin of President Obama, or “Truthers,” who question the events of September 11, 2001. Apparently, Melendez would have us believe the 10th Amendement is a conspiracy theory.
Wednesday, State Sen. Julianne Ortman introduced a legislative resolution that would instruct Minnesota's Attorney General to file a lawsuit against the federal government questioning the constitutionality of the individual mandates in the bill.
"The legislation being considered by Congress is unconstitutional and threatens the rights of Minnesotan citizens," Ortman said. "The State of Minnesota has a responsibility to act now to protect and defend itself and its residents from an abuse of power by the federal government."
Ortman referenced several unconstitutional elements in the bill, including an individual mandate that would force U.S. residents to buy health insurance. Proponents of HR3590 argue that the Commerce Clause contained in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority to impose this mandate; however, Ortman sees this as a clear abuse and violation of the Commerce Clause.
Mark Levin's Legal Landmark Foundation has announced that they will file an appeal to the Democrats' health care bill the minute President Obama signs it into law, if it gets that far. On a similar front, Megyn Kelly interviewed Michael McConnell, formerly a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and now a constitutional law professor at Stanford. Here's the partial transcript of the Kelly-McConnell interview:
MCCONNELL: Well that's right because Article I, Section VII of the Constitution lays out a procedure by which legislation has to be passed. And it requires that both houses of Congress, both the Senate and the House, seperately pass any piece of legislation before it goes to the president for his signature.
And along the way, Article I, Section V then further specifies that, upon the demand of one-fifth of the members of the House or the Senate, that the yeas and the nays must be recorded on the journal. The purpose of these provisions is to make sure that, when our senators and representatives are voting on the people's business, that they do so on the record and that their constituents can later see what they've done.
Think of that part of the transcript as the foundation for discussing the constitutionality of the rule. Here's the part of the transcript that deals with what's specifically required for constitutional passage of a bill:
Tomorrow night's One-on-One debate just keeps getting better. Both the Seifert and Emmer campaigns have announced after hours events that should be a lot of fun for supporters. So if you have a horse in the race, stop on by one of these Plymouth establishments:
The Twitter account for the campaign will be @kingforhouse — please find it, follow it, and watch for more. I feel like the Facebook fan page looks too plain tonight so we’ll get to that tomorrow. And for those who have inquired about online donation, thank you so much. We will get that up tomorrow as well, along with an address for those preferring the paper variety.
Education Minnesota president Tom Dooher said today the statewide education union won’t endorse a candidate for governor before the party conventions. The union’s political action committee isn’t scheduled to meet until May. He said they have no plans to meet before then. The DFL convention is set for April 23-25 and the Republicans will gather April 29 to May 1.
This afternoon, I participated in another Whip's Office blogger conference call. Kevin McCarthy and Parkerr Griffith were the congressmen on the other end of the line. Also participating in the call were Matthew Continetti of the Weekly Standard, Jed Babbin of Human Events and James Antle of the American Spectator.
The biggest news from the call came when Kevin McCarthy said that Democrats currently have 206 votes for Pelosicare. McCarthy also said that he thought that Democrats had gone backwards from last week, partially due to the Slaughter Solution. Apparently, that path isn't sitting well with fence-sitting Democrats.
This morning's article about King announcing his candidacy for the HD-15B seat currently held by Larry Haws includes a couple quotes from Rep. Haws, one of which is a gift to King. Here's what Rep. Haws said that got my attention:
Haws also said he's working on legislation to allow counties and cities to combine services and operate more efficiently.
Rep. Haws joined with Larry Hosch and Tarryl Clark in submitting legislation that would create a new county for St. Cloud. The proposed name for the new county would be Wobegon County. The problem with the legislation is that, when they announced it, they hadn't done the logistical homework, as evidenced in this Strib article:
If Obamacare passes, it will see swift opposition in the form of legal challenges to its constitutional validity and from the states. Minnesota Republicans today have already let their opposition be known. This just in from the MN Republican Senate Republicans:
Minnesota Senate Republicans today took a stand against the impending federal health care overhaul moving through Congress. Senator Julianne Ortman of Chanhassen introduced a legislative resolution that would formally request Minnesota’s congressional delegation to stop the passage of the federal health care reform bill, HR 3590.
The resolution also engages Minnesota’s Attorney General in preparing to file a lawsuit to protect and defend the residents of the State of Minnesota from an abuse of constitutional power or illegal action by the federal government upon the passage of this bill.
The New England Journal of Medicine commissioned a poll that should scare Democrats. This isn't the type of news that politicians can ignore:
Health Reform and Primary Care Physicians
46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.
You can't reform health care without having enough physicians. It's physically impossible. I highlighted in this post something from a study done by the American Medical Students Association, aka AMSA:
Many liberals are angry. Really angry. Whether politicians or voters, they feel cheated, and rightfully so.
Liberals may be swayed by emotional arguments, stubbornly bike down the middle of the lane during rush hour traffic and tote organic health food co-op membership cards with more pride than attorneys flash bar cards. But, logic-deprived or not, liberals are first and foremost Americans.
Here is their short list of grievances with President Obama’s health care reform bill and process.
During the ObamaCare summit three weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi declared that the bill would create four million jobs over the next ten years, with 400,000 new jobs created almost immediately. Pelosi relied on a study written by the left-wing advocacy group Center for American Progress for those figures, although the Bureau of Labor Statistics already predicts growth in the health-care industry of 3.2 million jobswithout ObamaCare. Now, Americans for Tax Reform and the Beacon Hill Institute have conducted their own study using CAP’s methodology and determined that ObamaCare will destroy jobs, not create them. Hot Air has an exclusive first look at the BHI executive summary:
One of the talking points that President Obama has hit time and time again (including Monday in Ohio) has been the old "if you like your current insurance you can keep it" meme. Many have argued that the way that the bills that came out of the House AND the Senate were written in such a way as to discourage employers from providing their employees health insurance. Defenders of the President's plan have long poo-poo'd that argument. Well that discussion was recently (and painfully) brought home to the Logical household
The Logical Husband works for a medium to large multi state business. While they don't make the multi-billions that some companies do, they make enough that they can (and do) take good care of their employees. While they have been immune from many of the pressures that plagued their competitors over the last 10 years, they have not been immune from the latest economic downturn. They have had to lay off many (mostly management) employees over the last year and they have cut expenses where they could. A couple of weeks ago, the CEO of this company was in town to talk to the sales/support office here in Utah on the state of the company. Most of the report was apparently good, but the only thing that the Logical Husband remembered about the whole report was the FACT that the health insurance plan that we have through his employer - the one we like so much - will be TAKEN AWAY FROM US if health care reform passes. You see, we are not fortunate enough to be SEIU and our "cadillac" health insurance plan will be taxed so badly that the company will no longer be able to afford to pay for it.
The tallies over at MDE have the Republican Governor's race are still essentially in a tie and it has made for a lot of energy at the BPOU and CD conventions. SD45 is putting on a true reply style debate that focuses exclusively on the 2 top contenders, because let's face it this is a 2 man contest. We have confirmation from Associated Press and Tom Scheck with MPR among other local media coming.
Reps. Dean Urdahl & Tom Emmer (Republican candidate for Governor) are pushing for a law that would give Minnesotans the right to choose their lightbulbs. Give is not the right way to put it, it is more like preventing the Federal Government from taking that right away.
State Rep. Dean Urdahl has a message for the federal government: Keep your laws off my light bulbs.
The retired teacher from Grove City -- along with state Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican candidate for governor -- has drawn a new weapon in the battle to beat back the hand of the federal government: incandescent light bulbs, the kind that have been around for a century.
Any responsible adult should take at least some comfort with Governor Pawlenty's trimming of the 2010 jobs, no I mean construction, no, no, bonding, yeah, that's it, bonding bill. Some of us might think he's being too generous, given the national economy and our multi-billion dollar state deficit. Long term projects can almost always survive short term delays, waiting for better circumstances.
Unhappy as the DFL is that the Governor set some priorities when they could not, there is still a noticeable amount of pork in the bill. What caught my eye was $14 million toward renovations of Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis and presumably about the same amount for the Ordway Theater in St. Paul. These are great illustrations of how "public" buildings and their curators think.
On his television program Monday night, Glenn Beck highlighted the subjugation of “faith, hope, and charity” by the Left to gain support for contrived rights like universal healthcare. Sob stories are utilized to leverage proper emotional response toward improper governmental action. Underlying this theater is the fundamental principle articulated in the Declaration of Independence. “All men are created equal… endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” At work in our society today is a wholly contradictory position, articulated last December by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, and revisted Monday by Beck.
What [the healthcare] bill does is… We take that step from healthcare as a privilege to healthcare as an alienable right of every single American citizen. As I have said before, this bill is not complete. I’ve used the analogy of a starter home in which we can add additions and enhancements as we go into the future. But, like every other right that we’ve ever passed the American people, we revisit it later to enhance and build on those rights… (emphasis added)
This statement is antithetical to the Declaration of Independence. Rather than endowment by their Creator, Harkin believes all men are granted rights from government, that rights are “enhanced” by government.
Tuesday morning, King announced that he was running for the HD-15B seat currently held by Larry Haws. In this morning's edition of the St. Cloud Times, Rep. Haws said that Minnesota's budget can't be balanced by spending cuts alone:
"I don't think we can entirely do this by reduction, nor can we spend our way out of it," Haws said. "The key to balancing (the budget) is sustainability and true reform." Haws also said he's working on legislation to allow counties and cities to combine services and operate more efficiently.
That's a nice sounding soundbite but it doesn't reflect Rep. Haws's record. For instance, Rep. Haws's idea of health care reform is to move more small businesses onto MinnesotaCare. By contrast, King told KNSI's Cassie Hart that eliminating health insurance mandates that drive up costs but don't improve health care outcomes would be his priority.
This article should be all the incentive wavering Democrats need to vote against Pelosicare. Here's what I'm talking about:
The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill. A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers.
Mr Obama's threat came as the year-long debate over his signature domestic policy entered its final week.
TOL has it bassackwards. A threat from President Obama is threatening to campaign for a Democrat if he/she votes against the bill. That'd put the fear of God in a Democrat. Look at the results when President Obama campaigned with Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzine and Martha Coakley. Getting a presidential visit this year is like getting the Kiss of Death.
The election of Barack Obama as President has brought changes to America. Some feel those changes are leading to the new era of post-partisanship and transparency in government that were promised. Voters in New Jersey and Massachusetts have spoken for millions of Americans by choosing candidates who want to take the country in a different direction.
America Unplugged is a 12-city tour organized by Salem Communications and AM1280 The Patriot, which includes a stop Minneapolis on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 with Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt. Tickets start at just $12.80 and are on sale now at am1280thepatriot.com.
John Hood from the Carolina Journal Online throws down the gauntlet at those pushing to unconstitutionally pass ObamaCare:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not planning to recognize such a result as legally binding. I’m not going to pretend to obey any dictates from federal health-care bureaucrats that have never been authorized by a constitutional vote of both houses of Congress. I will not submit to any extra-constitutional order to dismantle the consumer-driven health plan I have set up for my employees.
I will not comply. If the government tries to make me comply, I’ll sue. And I’ll win.
Governor Pawlenty used his line item veto power to strip funding for some projects in this year’s bonding bill, but left $686 million worth of borrowing in place. That’s a reduction of about 1/3 from the original price tag of about $1 billion.
DFL legislators, who were largely the catalyst for the bloated size of the bonding bill complained about the line-item vetoes. Senator Keith Langseth was quoted in the Pioneer Press as saying the governor “basically massacred the bill.”
This morning, King Banaian announced that he will run for the Minnesota legislature. If King is elected, King would represent me in the legislature as the representative from HD-15B.
House GOP Leader Kurt Zellers and Rep. Steve Gottwalt attended the announcement, with Leader Zellers introducing King. During his introduction, Leader Zellers said that Minnesota's economy isn't performing the way Minnesotans have come to expect. He then said that you take your car to a mechanic when it isn't performing properly, that you didn't take it "to a florist."
It was clear that Leader Zellers was referring to the fact that Rep. Haws, the man currently representing 15B, isn't doing enough to get Minnesota's economy creating jobs again. Leader Zellers said that King Banaian has stayed in touch with St. Cloud's business leaders and with the people of St. Cloud.
Stumping for Obamacare yesterday in Ohio, Obama touted its manifold virtues like the patent remedy salesmen of old. For whatever ails us, this legislation is the cure. Here Obama touts the legislation's magical reduction of expenses for employers with an incidental benefit to employees:
Now, so let me talk about the third thing, which is my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for families, for businesses, and for the federal government.
So Americans buying comparable coverage to what they have today -- I already said this -- would see premiums fall by 14 to 20 percent -- that's not my numbers, that's what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says -- for Americans who get their insurance through the workplace.
How many people are getting insurance through their jobs right now?
You won't hear more from me today, and this is why.
Rep. Larry Haws, DFL-St. Cloud, now has a Republican challenger for his state House seat: St. Cloud State University economist King Banaian.
Banaian made the announcement this morning at St. Cloud State, where he chairs the economics department. He’s running for Haws’ seat in Minnesota House District 15B, which covers northern and eastern St. Cloud.
I'm back in my office and it is the weirdest feeling. I'll tell you more about it later, but right now I need to write a quiz and a homework for my afternoon class. That will help me not feel so weird.
Look for a post later tonight, where the Twitter and Facebook pages will be linked.
Tomorrow night's One-on-One debate just keeps getting better. Both the Seifert and Emmer campaigns have announced after hours events that should be a lot of fun for supporters. So if you have a horse in the race, stop on by one of these Plymouth establishments: 
Many liberals are angry. Really angry. Whether politicians or voters, they feel cheated, and rightfully so.
The
Still Dishing Up the Pork
