Truth Surfer

Thankfully, I'll be taking the next few days off to eat turkey and sit mindlessly in front of the big screen TV if not actually sleeping..my life is great and I've got at least 8770 reasons to say so! I can't blame the turkey for causing the drowsiness associated with eating a large Thanksgiving meal. Studies show it's the large, carbohydrate rich meal rather than just the turkey that releases tryptophans in the brain causing drowsiness after eating... About that turkey...I got a fresh, locally grown, organic turkey...did you know Minnesota raises more turkeys than any other state?...An estimated 45 million turkeys will be eaten tomorrow (or 675 million pounds of turkey!) and most of them came from Minnesota. Starting with Harry Truman in 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the U.S. President with a live turkey in celebration of Thanksgiving. Each year, the live turkey is “pardoned” by the president and most recently has been flown to Disney world to serv...

Tom Emmer's Recount Petition... denied by Minnesota Supreme Court. Recount on... Alisha and Pete Arnold (BirthOrNot.com...aka right-wing internet troll Zeeboid. )...F ake . But even that misses the point that Pro-Choice is just that...having a choice about your own reproduction and not having a poll or ? decide for you. Governor Tim Pawlenty fails even when judged by the 'google idiot index' . Number of Google-Indexed Web Pages featuring the phrase “[GOP Contender Name] is an Idiot” Although I would have bet my last dollar Pawlenty was called an idiot more often than not...hmmm..who knew! Sarah Palin is the queen of idiots and Ron Paul their king...no surprise there: Haley Barbour: 23,700 Jim DeMint: 11,600 Newt Gingrich: 13,300 Mike Huckabee: 7,230 Sarah Palin: 60,500 Ron Paul: 70,500 Tim Pawlenty: 9 Mitt Romney: 8,300

Tip O'Neill—a longtime Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress—once declared, " All politics is local. " He was explaining how the problems and concerns of towns and cities around the country affect the actions of their representatives and senators in Washington, D.C. If that still holds true, then look for Minnesota's City of Eagan to play a major role in the upcoming legislative session not because of who they elected, but because of several major announcements this week of... Thomson Reuter cutting 60 jobs this month in addition to the 130 workers from Eagan and Rochester, NY to accept buyouts announced in September (they eliminated 120 last December). Lockheed Martin is closing its sprawling Eagan facility by 2013. That will cost over 1,000 jobs. Both companies say they are restructuring..blab, blab, budget, blab, blab, competitive edge...but the message boards say they are both transferring work overseas and out-sourcing many tasks once performed within the...

A Gallup Poll released earlier this week showed support for Republican presidential hopefuls. In it, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is tied for sixth with 4 percent. That's an improvement from June when he was tied at 2% with 'none of the above'! Currently the four clear front-runners are : Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich. Each has 80% name recognition among Republicans, and they are about 10 points ahead of any other candidates in trial heats and polling that have tested various combinations of the candidates against one another. In general terms, Pawlenty lacks a strong national profile but could emerge as competitive candidate if he can gather support away from the front runner Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney who is at 19 %. Currently Tim Pawlenty is seen as being fourth in terms of the political futures market InTrade , the current “power ranking” according to the National Journal’s Hot Line which uses the average standing in five recent polls o...

Governor Pawlenty had an emergency lunch on Friday...How do I know? Well his car was parked in the 'Do Not Park' zone for 'handicap' parking - van access- all during his lunch at Kyoto's in Eagan. There was 'pawlenty of open parking' but apparently, the governor likes to keep his driver close...I'm guess in case of emergencies...although two spaces down was an open 'legal' parking space. hmmm... Wonder is that's just another government office perk? Timmy sat with another suit, at a window table. I didn't see who picked up the tab for the 'business lunch' that spanned over an hour. Must be nice being king. Note to Pawlenty: The Minnesota's Driver's Manual can be downloaded online and at no charge. To obstruct handicap parking spaces is to break the law. In Minnesota to be eligible for handicap parking you must meet one of the following eligibility (note that governor is not considered a handicap): To be eligible for a disa...

It's the post election season in Minnesota. Ah, smell the recount in the air! Given the current lead of Democratic candidate Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democratic Governorship is a done deal...but hold up...there's more at stake than the actual position. Look for more GOP foot dragging, delaying, and pretending to want 'every vote to count' . This isn't about winning anymore but more about using the situation to further GOP ideology and push through legislation. While the recount continues, Tim Pawlenty keeps his role as Minnesota's Governor. With a Republican MN house and senate, partisan GOP legislation can easily pass without the worry of a Democratic Governor Mark Dayton veto. With it virtually statistically impossible for Emmer to win with the current vote gap, the recount and any challenge to it is more about furthering a GOP agenda by passing partisan legislation. Incoming state House Speaker-designate Kurt Zellers (R) issued a statement on Monday saying th...

All Aboard! If u don't eat ur meat u kant have the figgy pudding if you don't...er...It's simple, build the high speed trains or give back the money...Apparently Wisconsin wants to keep their federal high speed train money not to have trains but to repair roads...the feds say no, can't be done.... "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated an initial $8 billion for a high-speed rail program, doesn't allow the money to be spend for other purposes, said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers." As Minnesota has a joint study with Wisconsin on plans for a fast train that would connect the Twin Cities with Madison, this could be an issue. For now Minnesota officials are going ahead with their plans but may run out of steam and chug to a stop shortly! Getting Off Track The race for the chairmanship of House Republican conference–a match between Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Jeb Hensarling of...

Minnesota's biggest loser Tom Emmer said at his news conference today... 'it taint over till the fat voter sings'...er or something like that....sigh, remember when news conferences actually had news facts instead of innuendo , lies, and misinformation . In the Franken/Coleman recount, after going over each ballot by hand and through 3 courts, the fraudulent votes came to .00006 percent! BTW Jay Weiner has a nice reply to Michael Thielen's post regarding it's inaccurate information on the Minnesota recount...what is it with outsiders wanting to paint a total public, legal, and transparent recount system in Minnesota as a conspiracy when 'their' horse in the race comes up lame? In addition, if you work with numbers, while not entirely impossible, Emmer would have a better chance buying a lotto ticket for his next big windfall than waiting for 40 times more changed votes than the 2008 recount. Even Coleman's attorney says the fat voter sang for Dayton! My...

Sorry for not blogging this last week...I was in a deep sleep and having the worse nightmare ever where the Democrats got routed by teabaggers...er...nevermind... So we lost the MN House and Senate...not good. Dayton, when he's confirmed a year or so from now, will be are only line of defense (probably not how he envisioned doing his job!)... Unfortunately Governor Timmy and et al GOP will have passed a hell of a lot of hurt by then including...look for no money for true sex education, only the fake abstinence scam, no money for anyone poor, but more tax cuts for wealthy, and some kind of marriage bill stating the usual swill of one man and one women (it's worked so well so far)...sigh...Maybe I should go back to bed as it looks to be a long two years... I see on the national scene, women got handed their walking papers ...we actually lost representation...sigh It's ugly...and I need a few more days to try and cope with this reality: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs...

To use the word 'Integrity' and 'Minnesota Majority' in the same sentence is something of a paradox. This group might find a few voter issues but to characterize it as being widespread or pervasive in Minnesota is a joke. It's like using a stick of dynamite to blow up one pesty house fly.. This very small problem (estimates are less than half a percent statewide!) has creased to be voter fraud but instead is now their over the top thuggery reaction. To use their own emailed words ... "This is just another example of " government [teabagger wingbat ahole brown shirts Minnesota Majority] gone wild" with exercising authority not granted to it by our laws or the Constitution". Don't confuse their over reactions with CIVIL disobedience! Their interfering intimidation, and gestapo like tactics with the American elections process is meant to cause voter suppression which harms us all.