"He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left."
Matthew 25:33

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

West Saint Paul Inflow/Infiltration Update

Mark Mohr received this letter from the ACLU after he wrote them to question them on West Saint Paul's soon to be new Inflow/Infiltration ordinance. I apologize for the quality of the scans.


Here is a scan of a letter sent to West Saint Paul Mayor, John Zanmiller. Mark Mohr contacted the ACLU after the January 14th WSP city council meeting to ask about 4th and 14th ammendment protection. The ACLU appears to have immediately responded by sending Mayor Zanmiller this letter dated 17 January and a response to Mr. Mohr on the 25th. What Mark and I have learned about this issue at the council meetings is,


1 If you do not let the inspectors in, you will not get fined,


2 If you are 65 years of age or older, you will not have to pay an assesment.

3 It is very doubtful that anyone will be bothered with an administrative search warrant. The city will have to talk a judge into issuing a blanket warrant to cover every residence in the city. Only then can an inspector enter your home against your will.

4 We believe the city will enact a sewer ordinance but hope it will address several of the concerns we brought up at the January 28th city council meeting.

5 Our elected officials will not attempt to take on the Mighty Met Council. It would cost the city, (us taxpayers) too much in legal fees. Lake Elmo took on the Mighty Met Council once only to lose.

6 It is the Environmental Protection Agency that is coming down on the Mighty Met Council and then it is passed on to the cities to do the dirty work.


Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Infiltration/Inflow Ordinance Public Hearing!

A Public Hearing will be held in West Saint Paul at the City Council meeting on January 28, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. You may present written or oral questions to the City Council at that time.

I visited the web sites of Little Canada and Vadnais Heights. Neither of these cities call for repair or replacement of private sanitary sewer lines or their inspection. I believe it is important to let our officials know that we are aware of this. Requiring us to make our sump pumps compliant with building codes is one thing. To force a percentage of us to have our yards excavated at the cost of up to ten grand is unconscionable and excessive.

I urge you all to show up and let it be known that we expect to live in liberty. Free of government oppression. We will not tolerate our elected officials intimidation and scare tactics. They were elected to represent us, not the Mighty Met Council. We must remind them that this is an election year and we will remember how they represent us!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

From the Taxpayer's League of Minnesota

A “Gold Star” and an extra cookie before nap time for Rep. Juhnke.

Last week, I linked to a KSTP news story about the explosive increase in per diem payments that were made to state legislators in 2007. In Wednesday’s West Central Tribune, Rep. Al Juhnke (DFL-Willmar) – and I give him credit for this – tried defending himself without sounding too much like a naïf.
“Juhnke, chairman of an agriculture and veterans affairs committee, said the $18,234 of per diem he took home in addition to a $31,140 legislative salary was the result of his busy committee schedule and other legislative responsibilities.
“‘I’m proud to be one of the hardest-working legislators in the state,’ he boasted. [ed. Like he’s James Brown or something? Unfortunately, Rep. Juhnke – and many liberals – find the only consequence of “working hard” to be the necessity to raise taxes and increase spending.]
“Juhnke said a large share of his per diem after the regular session was the result of his perfect attendance [ed. Gold Star!] on at least six capital investment committee tours. It is important to see proposed projects in person before deciding which deserve funding, he said. [ed. Any chance you toured any of the dozen or so road and bridge projects that should be the focus of the Capital Investment Committee? I’m sure the snow-making machine that Battle Creek State Park wants was a real humdinger of a tour.]
“In 2007, Juhnke said, he also attended commission and board hearings during the legislative interim, spoke at agricultural conferences and attended meetings of the Midwestern Legislative Conference, where he leads an agriculture panel.”
And one more thing. What in the world is Sen. Mee Moua (who lives six miles from the Capitol) doing collecting $22,000 in per diem payments? What happened to liberals loving bikes and walking and such?

You can link to my previuos post on this issue here,
http://jungbauer2010.blogspot.com/2007/11/senate-per-diem.html

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

PETA Killed 97 Percent of “Companion Animals” in 2006

Center for Consumer Freedom

An official report from People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), shows that the animal rights group put to death more than 97 percent of the dogs, cats, and other pets it took in for adoption in 2006.

Get the full story here,

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/release/223

Monday, January 14, 2008

Minnesota Atheists on AM950 Air America

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not much of a church goer. Anyone who knows me knows that I am proud to say that I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

For me, the outdoors is my cathedral. I am at peace when I am alone outdoors. I spend four and a half months a year hunting deer in Minnesota and South Dakota. While I sit on stand I often times pray or spend my time reading my pocket bible. I feel in my heart that the Lord has answered my prayers many times in my life. I truly believe that I have seen proof of his presence. I believe that every deer I have ever taken was a gift from God. Every fish I have ever caught was a gift from God. My children are gifts from God.

Today I read that the Minnesota Atheists have a radio show on Air America. I wish them well. I hope they are happy. I hope that some day they can feel the Lords presence. I am convinced he is real.

West Saint Paul and the Inflow Ordinance

The city of W. St. Paul has backed off of their proposal to fine the citizens that refuse to allow them entry into thier home fifty bucks a month surcharge on their water bill. Last week the ACLU had declared such tactics coercive and in violation of the constitutions fourth amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.

Now the city plans on using a search warrant to enter our homes against our will. I find that to be offensive and very coercive. I personally doubt that any reasonable judge is going to issue a search warrant on mere speculation. Does the city attorney plan on going before a judge to say, "he wont let us in, so we think he might have a sump pump?"

The city is also saying that they will reimburse citizens for up to half the cost of repairs. But there is a maximum of $500 that they will pay. If your sewer line needs to be replaced, that could cost thousands of dollars. A citizen would have the option of having the amount of repairs assessed to thier property taxe bill over a period of time, with interest, of course.

How is this for a proposal,
A citizen of W. St. Paul, upon putting his home up for sale, will have his sewer and sump pump inspected, and brought up to code, if nessesary, before sale can occur. Purchaser of the home may assume responsibility for repairs, which must be completed within twelve months of closing on said residence.

Here is the link to todays article in the Pioneer Press,

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_7963859

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Redistricting

Former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale and former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, as well as other prominent Minnesota politicians have proposed the creation of a non-partisan commission to be in charge of the 2010 redistricting of Minnesota's legislative districts. This, I am very much in favor of. Our present system of allowing our legislators the task of doing it themselves leads to partisanship and tactics designed to keep voters locked up for incumbents.

From the Pioneer press article.http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_7947646?nclick_check=1

Under current law, state legislators are empowered to draw their own lines - an action that can mean political life or death for them.

That creates an "inherent conflict of interest" for lawmakers, Carlson said. It's difficult for them to resist the temptation to protect their incumbency.

Legislators typically try to draw "safe" districts where they are almost assured re-election. As a result, most incumbents don't have to compete with strong challengers.

Only about one-third of Minnesota legislative districts are competitive, said Larry Jacobs, director of the U's center. In 2006, 84 percent of incumbent state senators and 89 percent of House incumbents were re-elected.

"Incumbents are increasingly able to pick their own voters," Mondale said. A lack of competition means less accountability to voters, more petty partisanship, exclusion of voters from campaigns and fewer incentives for citizens to vote.


I would like to see South Saint Paul redistricted. I was thinking about this issue just last week. All of our candidates from SD39 and HD39A are from S. St. Paul. And this goes back to past elections. I started looking into last years Legislative Bluebook at statistics for S. St. Paul. It is divided up in a bazaar fashion. HD39A, has one precinct in S. St. Paul which is represented by Rick Hansen. HD39B has two precincts and is represented by Joe Atkins. The remaining two precincts are in HD57A which is represented by Karla Bigham.

S. St. Paul is also represented by Senators Jim Metzen SD39 and Katie Sieben SD57.

It is very obvious that S. St. Paul is over represented. Five precincts are represented by five different legislators. Two senators and three representatives.

S. St. Paul has a population of 20,167 people. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=04000US27&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US27&_street=&_county=south+saint+paul&_cityTown=south+saint+paul&_state=04000US27&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=040&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=ACS_2006_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null&reg=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=&show_2003_tab=&redirect=Y

W. St. Paul has 9 precincts and just one senator and representative. Rep. Hansen and Sen. Metzen.

W. St. Paul has a population of 19,405 people. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=16000US2761492&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US27%7C16000US2761492&_street=&_county=west+saint+paul&_cityTown=west+saint+paul&_state=04000US27&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=160&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null&reg=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry==

I was speaking with a W. St. Paul official last week and it was mentioned that during the last legislative session S. St. Paul received $2,000,000 in Local Government Aid money and W. St. Paul received only $900,000. This brings me to wonder if Senate President Jim Metzen has been playing favorites with his home town and neglecting the rest of his district. Also, What has Rep. Rick Hansen been doing for the people of the rest of his district? It appears to me, not much.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

My Son's First Paycheck

When my son started his first job bagging groceries at the local grocery store he had plans on how he was going to spend his first paycheck. When the big moment came, he opened the envelope and ask me, "Where did my pay go? What's FICA? What are all these deductions?" When I was finished explaining it all to him, he decided that he would work more hours. He worked other peoples hours thinking that he was going to make so much more money. Well, he did make some more money. But, the government took more from him. When this was discussed again I told him that the liberals want to take even more of his wages from him. His response, "Screw that!"

So one of the latest big scams we the public are witness to involves our elected officials giving themselves raises. Dakota County commissioners now make $64,700 for a part time job (up from $61,600) plus $4,659 for a car and expense allowance. The big insult to us working folk is that they feel that given the number of staff and committee meetings, their weekly workload is roughly equivalent to a part-time job.

The lucky members of our US Congress have just received a $4,100 per year raise to $169,300 despite having a lower approval rating than our President.

Last session, our own Jim Metzen, along with other members of the Senate Rules Committee, gave themselves a 45% increase in per diem. They approved, for themselves, without the approval of the citizens, or a vote of the full Senate, to give themselves $96 a day for lunch money!

In the House, Representative Rick Hansen, co-authored HF1468 which asks for the creation of a committee, yes, another committee, to establish salaries for legislators. It looks fishy to me, like they have realized that we are not to happy about the abuse of the system to line their own pockets with per diem money. They want to dip into our pockets again and give themselves pay raises but they are quite aware that this will cause a big stink. This behavior could be especially damaging with an election on the horizon. So the plan is to establish a committee to give them the pay raises they desire so they can pass the buck and blame some one else for their money grubbing ways.

The Senate version, SF0898, happens to be coauthored by good old Jim Metzen himself. But lucky for us, I would bet my bottom dollar he is on his last term.

The democrats, who happened to claim last election that they were all about being fiscally responsible have done nothing but propose massive, regressive, tax increases. Increased their per diem to line their pockets, doubled the bloated house committee budget from $324,000 to $646,000! Now they propose to expand government to even larger proportions by creating a committee to give them the raises they feel they are so entitled to!

I have a quick suggestion for them. They can save a lot of time and suspense and hire the firm that recommended the raise in pay for the Ramsey County Commissioners! It worked for them. They are making more money now, and hardly any one showed up to protest at the public hearings. But then again, all those meetings were scheduled during the day when all of us toiling masses happened to be at work, paying taxes for their continued folly.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

More Pay Raises to Make Us Ill

Dakota County / Pay raises kick in for county officials
Pioneer Press

Ever wonder how much money your elected county officials make?

In Dakota County, the answer ranges from $64,700 a year for a county commissioner to $149,342 for the county attorney - or at least it does as of Tuesday.

On Dec. 18, the commissioners approved a 5 percent pay increase for themselves, raising their annual salaries from $61,600.

The commissioners also are eligible in 2008 for a car travel and expense allowance of up to $4,659.
But not everyone is taking the extra dollars.

The commissioners had until 4:30 p.m. Monday to submit paperwork to the county's employee relations director if they wished to decline their raises.

As of 4:15 p.m., Nancy Schouweiler, of Inver Grove Heights, was the only commissioner to forgo the pay increase.

Other county officials have defended the raises, noting that given the number of staff and committee meetings, their weekly workload is roughly equivalent to a part-time job.

Other salaries approved by the commissioners were for the positions held by County Administrator Brandt Richardson, at $149,342, an increase of 3.5 percent over 2007; County Attorney James Backstrom, at $149,342; and County Sheriff Don Gudmundson, at $134,408.

Under county provisions, the salaries of the county attorney and county sheriff are capped at 100 percent and 90 percent of the county administrator's salary, respectively.

- Frederick Melo

Betty McCollum Gets a Pay Raise

Despite their miserable public approval ratings, Betty McCollum and her piers will receive a 2.5% pay increase over last years pay. Now our elected officials in congress will be paid $169,300! That comes to a pay raise of $4100! I sure hope they feel entitled to their raise. I mean they are so much better than the rest of us slovenly masses! I have not received an increase in pay for quite some time now. To use one of Betty's favorite words, I personally find this to be unconscionable! One thing is certain, my coworkers and I would be laughed out of town if we told our boss that we just voted ourselves a pay raise!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Watch This Video!

Watch this video and I am sure you will agree that every law abiding citizen deserves the God given right to protect themselves.

http://www.wfaa.com/video/?nvid=206115&shu=1

Monday, January 7, 2008

The ACLU Gets It Right

I have been up in arms recently because of the proposed West Saint Paul sewer ordinance. One of my biggest complaints with it was the $50.00 monthly surcharge that would be applied to a citizens water bill. This would be added to your water bill if you refused to allow an inspector into your home to look at your sump pump. You would have no choice in the matter. The City of West Saint Paul, as well as other cities, have been choosing to coerce their citizens, unconstitutionally, to comply to the requests of the Mighty Met Council. It is the Mighty Met Council that has been throwing it's weight around and threatening to fine cities that do not attempt to reduce the amount of water that ends up in the sanitary sewer treatment facility after a rain.

I spoke to Mayor John Zanmiller and several city council members on this issue this evening and we can rest assured that the proposed ordinance for West Saint Paul will be revised. I mentioned to council person Aaron VanMoorlehem that I would like to see the city stand up for it's citizens and fight the Mighty Met Council. He said that it would cost us more in attorneys fees than it would be worth. Too bad.

In an article printed in today's Saint Paul Pioneer Press, titled ACLU Foils Sump Pump Policy, it states that the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has sent a letter to the city of Vadnais Heights informing them that their policy violates the U.S. Constitutions Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.

Vadnais Heights citizen Don Jorgenson has shown the intestinal fortitude to stand up to city hall and put up a fight. He contacted the ACLU and received a refund check for $260. It takes citizens like Jorgenson to stand up and make a difference.

A similar city policy in Little Canada cost the city's insurer $90,000 to settle a lawsuit after a resident was charged after refusing access to an inspector.

The Mighty Met Council has been pulling this kind of drek on the cities for quite some time now. This has also been going on in Forest Lake and Shoreview.

Read the full article here,
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_7899414?nclick_check=1

Previous posts on this issue,
http://jungbauer2010.blogspot.com/2007/12/attention-citizens-of-w-st-paul.html
http://jungbauer2010.blogspot.com/2007/12/update-on-sewer-ordinance-brown-shirts.html

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Boycott Foxnews GOP Debate! Ron Paul Not To Be Included!

After Years of watching Fox and thinking that they really were "Fair and Balanced," I now realize that they are no better than any other biased news outlet. Their decision to exclude Dr.Ron Paul from their January 10th debate is nothing but a sham. Ron Paul came in 4th in Iowa with more than twice as many votes as Rudy Giuliani.

The New Hampshire Republican Party has dropped their sponsorship of the debate. More info here from the Union Leader,

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=State+GOP+withdraws+as+FOX+debate+partner&articleId=fecf75e6-240c-4ef4-80f0-637736adf6fd

It may even be illegal. Check this out,

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000315—-000-.html

“If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station”