HometownSource Blogs

Not only has Iraq turned a corner, so have Americans’ attitudes toward it. Forty-eight percent now believe the effort is going very/fairly well, a like number believe the troops should stay there, and a whopping 53 percent believe we will succeed.

Interesting how one surge causes another.

All four major climate monitors have noted “precipitous” cooling over the last year, prompting DailyTech to write:

For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down. 

This, of course, does not fit at all with the predictions of a slow but steady increase in global temperature associated with the theory of global warming. In fact, with 2007 coming in 10th, we actually appear to going the exact wrong way. Which, come to think of it, is probably why we are supposed to call it “climate change” these days.

After listening to legislators prattle on about the state’s current recession for the last month-plus, the geniuses at the Capitol finally figured out a solution: $6.6 billion less in disposable income for taxpayers.

While the feds seem to understand the basic idea that the way to battle a recession is to put more money in people’s pockets, the state apparently cares much more about filling its own.

Less than a two years removed from the last election the taxpayers of Minnesota now suffer one of the largest tax increases in history, even as oil prices continue to rise, and the cost of goods and services as a result.

The six Republicans who voted to override have been “demoted” by party leadership and they deserve it. Here in Chisago County, Rep. Jeremy Kalin and Sen. Rick Olseen gleefully supported the gigantic tax increase all the way.

Minnesota is again one of the highest taxed states in the entire nation. Luckily, it won’t have to suffer through the recession it has been warning us about recently. That task will be left solely to us taxpayers, who can apparently expect only to be left swinging in the breeze by a state government that places a higher priority on its budget than it does our own.

In response to the NYT’s McCain story, the Washington Times writes:

The New York Times’ recent hit-and-run on John McCain is a moment of reckoning for the “newspaper of record.”

I must confess that, after reading the first line of the editorial, I did not read on, because the premise is ludicrous. If there were no “moments of reckoning” after it published national security secrets, ran Abu Ghraib on the front page 32 days in a row, used phony soldiers to sully the reputation of all, and violated its own advertising policy to smear a general, there certainly will not be one over the relatively minor offense of smearing (without a shred of evidence) a Republican presidential candidate.

That’s not a reckoning. It’s all in a day’s work.

How do you know when you have truly blown it?

Is it when your own readers let you have it? No. It’s when the most slanted newspaper in the nation accuses you of justifying bias allegations.

The Cottonwood tragedy is compounded today by the news that the accident may have been avoided if the state saw fit to enforce laws already on the books:

Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien.

It’s not even the first time Alianiss Morales has had run-ins with the law over her inability to drive:

…Sandra Keding of Montevideo said in an interview Thursday that she had been reading the newspaper in her home that afternoon when she heard gravel flying.

“I stood up from the couch and looked out my window and this car was coming right toward my house,” said Keding, 45. “The car hit the curb, came right up on my yard and stopped about 12 feet from the front of my house.”

Despite being here illegally, Morales was only fined for driving without a license. Such is life in a state with “sanctuary city” policies; those who belong at the mercy of those who don’t, simply because government chooses to turn a blind eye to the rule of law.

We live in a country in which someone can be considered fit for the presidency despite the fact that their own supporters can’t recall a single significant accomplishment.

I’m not sure if that’s beautiful, or frightening.

Need to stop that pesky global climate warming change? You might have to do away with certain annoyances:

There must be open minds to look critically at liberal democracy. Reform must involve the adoption of structures to act quickly regardless of some perceived liberties.

Down with democracy! Up with “authoritarianism of expertise!”

It’s like I always say: If you can’t get it done with the people, make them irrelevant.

Congratulations to Michael Zeldin of the Wall Street Journal, who becomes the one-millionth person to use the phrase “swift boat” in reference to a smear campaign. Sadly, I don’t have a toaster for Mr. Zeldin.

It has been amazing to watch “swift boat” become a part of the lexicon, and with such a negative connotation. Most would likely be shocked to find out that, contrary to popular belief, nothing about the Swift boat campaign turned out to be a smear, despite John Kerry’s formation of the “Patriot Project” in 2006, the sole purpose of which was to refute the allegations: Read more »