RULES OF MINNESOTA

Sent by email from Stan G.

Thanks Stan.

Here's to all of us who live in Minnesota , some born and raised here. Some got here as fast as they could and others who would like to be from Minnesota . This is the best version of this that I have seen.

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a Pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

3. You say our lakes smell to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it.

4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 combines that are driven only 3 times a year.

5. So every person in every pickup waves. Its called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of ducks are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

7. Yeah, we eat walleye & northern pike and love it. You really want sushi & caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.

8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the pound of ham & turkey.

11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: Onion, Pepper, and Garlic!

12. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a hell of a lot more fun to watch.

13. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards --it spooks the fish.

14. Colleges? Try St. Olaf, Concordia, or St John's . They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come home for the holidays.

15. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, than any other state, so "Don't screw with Minnesota .." If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

Minnesota is the greatest state ever!

Quantitative Easing Explained ... in simple terms!

Emmer for Governor, Republican Party of Minnesota Petition Minnesota Supreme Court to Ensure Number of Total Votes Matches Total Voters

Concerns have been raised over more votes than voters

St. Paul– Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton and Deputy Chairman Michael Brodkorb today announced that Emmer for Governor and the state Party have filed a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court asking the court to ensure that reconciliation has occurred in each of Minnesota’s 4,136 precincts as required by Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. § 204C.20). The petition includes affidavits from election judges throughout Minnesota who prepared or observed preparation of summary statements for their precinct and did not witness election judges count the names of individuals signing the polling roster or the names of individuals who registered to vote on Election Day.

“The most basic right of our election system is one person, one vote. We cannot have a system that allows more votes to be counted than legal voters. After the 2008 election, estimates varied that there were between 17,000 and 30,000 or more ballots than total voters. In 2009, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie pledged to match voter registration with canvassing board results to within a thousand. Ritchie has had two years to address this issue and yet we’re receiving reports today from election judges stating they did not reconcile the ballots cast with the number of signatures on the polling roster on Election Night 2010. These reports raise concerns about the instructions and written guides given to election judges by the Secretary of State’s office as to the statutorily required reconciliation procedures for Election Day but more importantly, raise serious questions about the integrity of the result of the election.

“Phantom votes have no place in the final vote count. There is a clear statutory remedy that must be followed, namely, that excess phantom ballots are removed from the certified vote count. Until reconciliation has been completed in each precinct, the legislatively mandated recount cannot begin. Today's petition is of course within the legal framework of the canvassing process and the recount. We are seeking the court’s assurance that only legally cast ballots are counted. The next governor should be seated on January 3 with an outcome that has followed the letter of the law,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton.

“It is incumbent upon our election system to count each and every legally cast ballot and not include phantom ballots in the vote count. Our petition today is simply asking the Supreme Court to confirm that the number of votes matches the total number of voters on Election Day, as required by state law and that election officials follow the clear statutory remedy for the removal of phantom votes before the results are certified,” added Republican Party of Minnesota Deputy Chairman Michael Brodkorb.

Click here to read Minn. Stat. § 204C.20

Click here to read the filing

In 2008: Estimates Varied that there were Between 17,000 and 30,000 More Ballots Than Total Voters

Estimated 17,000 more ballots than total voters. "Kiffmeyer is 'absolutely sure' that Ritchie's efforts to eliminate voting regulations ensured Franken's victory. 'The first thing he did when he got into office was to dismantle the ballot reconciliation program we started. Under that program districts are required to check that the number of ballots issued by matching them with the number of ballots cast,' she said, ‘that way we know immediately that the vote count is accurate.' But that isn't what happened, she said. 'We now have 17,000 more ballots cast than there are voters who voted and no way to determine what went wrong. Why anyone would eliminate that basic check, I don't know,’ she said." (Ed Barnes, “States' Secretaries of State Are Tipping Balance of Power,” FOX News, February 1, 2010)

Estimated 30,000 more ballots than total voters. "He said the goal was to match voter registration and the certified canvassing board totals within 1,000 names. ‘You'll never get a perfect correlation between the two,' he said. 'We were at 40,000 in April. We're at about 30,000 now.'" (Patricia Lopez, “Ritchie is sued over voter-registration records,” Star Tribune, May 28, 2009)

In 2009: Ritchie Pledged to Match Voter Registration with Canvassing Board Results to within a Thousand

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie pledges to match voter registration and canvassing board result to within a thousand. "He said the goal was to match voter registration and the certified canvassing board totals within 1,000 names. 'You'll never get a perfect correlation between the two,' he said. 'We were at 40,000 in April. We're at about 30,000 now.'" (Patricia Lopez, “Ritchie is sued over voter-registration records,” Star Tribune, May 28, 2009)

Hitler on the Election

How Our Tax System Works - Explained in Beer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100…

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7..

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do..

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,”but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Thomas Jefferson said...

When we get piled
upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
Thomas Jefferson


The democracy will cease to exist
when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson


It is incumbent on every
generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save
one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson


I predict future happiness for
Americans if they can prevent the government
from wasting the labors of the people under the
pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson


My reading of history convinces me
that most bad government results from too much
government.
Thomas Jefferson


No free man shall ever be debarred
the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson


The strongest reason for the
people to retain the right to keep and bear arms
is, as a last resort, to protect themselves
against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson


The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson


To compel a man to subsidize with
his taxes the propagation of ideas which he
disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that
banking institutions are more dangerous to
our liberties than standing armies.
If the American people ever allow
private banks to control the issue of their
currency, first by inflation, then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around the banks will deprive the people
of all property - until their children
wake up homeless on the continent their fathers
conquered.'

Eric Magnuson Named Lead Litigator for Emmer for Governor, Republican Party of Minnesota

St. Paul- Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton today announced that former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice and State Canvassing Board member Eric Magnuson has been named chief litigator for Emmer for Governor and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Former Chief Justice Magnuson joins a legal team headed by Michael Toner.

“I’m very pleased to announce that former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson will serve as lead litigator for Emmer for Governor and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Eric is an enormously talented litigator who is independent minded, thoughtful and substantive. As a former member of the State Canvassing Board, Eric understands the issues at stake during this process. Eric is a tremendous addition to our legal team, and I know he will do his part to make certain that every legally cast vote is counted,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Tony Sutton.

Eric Magnuson’s biography can be viewed here.

An agenda in the mainstream

Here is a great article taken from the Pioneer Press.

By Frank Luntz

The United States has just witnessed its third straight rubber band election.


Once again, Americans had their patience stretched, fired a Washington run amok and now want their new leaders to snap back to attention. The government Americans seek is simpler, more efficient and more accountable; one that takes on less but does better; one that executes the essential and eschews the excessive.

For two election cycles, the winners overpromised and underdelivered. So, will a newly divided Washington finally learn how to govern effectively in dire times?

First, a warning to both sides. Republicans, for their part, must realize that the voters have given them a reprieve, not an endorsement. In my polling last week, GOP voters agreed with this statement by more than 2-to-1: “I am willing to give the Republicans another chance, but if they mess up again, I’ll vote them out again, too.” That’s hardly a cause for GOP celebration.

Similarly, Democrats must grasp that their defeats were not about deficient personalities or insufficient communication, but about their philosophy and substance. Roughly two out of three voters agreed with the statements that President Obama “has failed to deliver hope and change” and that in the midst of an economic crisis, Democrats “had their priorities wrong.”

Over the past two years, I’ve polled tens of thousands of Americans. Their top complaint about politicians is that they fail to “say what they mean and mean what they say.” Their top complaint about government is that it lacks “accountability.” Their top complaint about Washington is that “government has grown too big, too inefficient, and too out of control to do even the bare minimum things it is supposed to do.”

These concerns explain why Hurricane Katrina ended President George W. Bush’s presidency three years before his term expired. They explain why the gulf oil spill disaster crystallized voters’ concerns that Obama is in over his head. And they explain why the stimulus — after all those billions in debt, unemployment is still near 10 percent — has been deemed a failure.

Americans’ agenda is simple. In broad terms, they want the government to spur job growth, but not by subsidizing more government jobs with taxpayer dollars. They want Washington to balance the budget and reverse the growing influence of government on daily life. They want the government to encourage success, allow failure, punish those who break the law — and then get out of the way. And above all, they want politicians to follow through on their promises, even if that means tempering those promises in the first place. They also show clear support for the following five ideas:

● Balance the budget as quickly as possible through spending reductions, a hard spending cap and a constitutional amendment so that it never gets unbalanced again.

● Eliminate all earmarks until the budget is balanced, then require a two-thirds vote by Congress for future earmark legislation.

● Keep taxes down by requiring supermajorities for increases, and eventually enact tax reform with a simple, low, fair rate that drastically reduces the length of the IRS code.

● Create a blue-ribbon task force that engages in a complete, line-by-line forensic audit of federal agencies and programs to end waste and reduce red tape and bureaucracy.

● And require Congress to provide specific constitutional authorization for every bill it passes so that the government stays within the boundaries imagined by the founders.

I’ve found that each of these policies has at least 60 percent public support, so if you agree with most of them, it means you’re in the American mainstream. It also means that — wait for it — you agree with the tea party.

These points come directly from the teaparty- backed “Contract From America,” a document compiled from and voted on by the various tea party organizations and promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group. This governing agenda is supported not only by conservatives, but also by largely nonideological, anti-political voters in the middle.

The tea party is not some fringe coalition hopelessly removed from the mainstream. The movement supplied the ideas that made independent voters flip from favoring Democrats by an 18-point margin in 2006 to supporting Republicans by 15 points Tuesday — and it will keep pressuring the government to change until the government truly changes.


As much as Democrats rightfully fret over the tea party, establishment Republicans should fear it just as much. The movement has already put Republicans on notice: Deliver or get dumped. Nearly six in 10 registered voters I surveyed the weekend before the elections agreed with the following statement: “If Republicans do win a majority in the House and Senate and fail to deliver on their promises, I would consider supporting the creation of a new third party dedicated to reducing the size and scope of Washington.” (Only 17 percent disagreed.) And when asked “which best represents your views?,” about a third of registered voters, 36 percent, chose Democrats, while 25 percent chose the GOP and 22 percent opted for the tea party. Together, Republicans and the tea party movement represent 47 percent of America to the Democrats’ 36 percent. That’s a recipe for massive electoral success in 2012 if they stay united, but unprecedented failure if they pull apart.

This is the whole story of American politics today. When conservatives are divided or dispirited, Democrats win. But united, conservatives control the political landscape.

The last time Republicans gained control of the House, in 1994, they achieved more in the first 100 days than some Congresses have in two years. From welfare reform to tax cuts to a balanced budget amendment, they passed every one of their 10 “Contract With America” items. Some of this agenda stalled in the Senate, and much of it was vetoed by President Bill Clinton, but they held on to their majority for a dozen years because of those first 100 days. They worked with the president when they could, opposed him when they couldn’t — and the American people were satisfied with the results.

Once again, Republicans cannot be timid. American voters overwhelmingly support spending cuts to balance the budget; six in 10 of them support a 21 percent across-theboard cut in nonmilitary discretionary spending, even if it means reductions in education and health programs. With their “Pledge to America” in September, House Republicans campaigned on this 21 percent cut.

The question: Do they have the courage and the determination to deliver what they promised? If so, they can look forward to a governing majority nationally and locally for a decade, perhaps even a generation.

Frank I. Luntz, a pollster and communications adviser and frequent Fox News commentator, is the author of “ What Americans Really Want . . . Really.” He wrote this column for the Washington Post.

Marco Rubio gives the best speech of election night!

New members elected to the House

Republicans will take over the majority of the Minnesota House of Representatives when the 87th Legislature convenes Jan. 4, 2011.

The DFL held an 87-47 majority heading into Election Day, but Republicans now hold a 72-62 edge.

All totaled the House will see 36 new members — 33 Republicans and three DFLers.

According to the Office of the Secretary of State, three races may be subject to recount. They are in District 15B where Republican King Banaian leads DFLer Carol Lewis by 10 votes; District 25B where Republican Kelby Woodard leads incumbent David Bly (DFL-Northfield) by 31 votes; and District 27A where incumbent Robin Brown (DFL-Moscow Township) trails Republican Rich Murray by 58 votes.

Two previous members of the House, Sondra Erickson and Linda Runbeck, both Republicans, will be returning.

The State Canvassing Board is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m., Nov. 23, in State Office Building room 10 to certify the election results.

For a guide to the members-elect of the House of Representatives, based on unofficial results compiled by the Office of the Secretary of State, go to www.house.mn and click on “2010 Election Directory.”

New members-elect are:

Diane Anderson (R-Eagan)

King Banaian (R- St. Cloud)*

Bob Barrett (R-Shafer)

Mike Benson (R-Rochester)

Kurt Bills (R-Rosemount)

Roger Crawford (R-Mora)

Kurt Daudt (R-Crown)

Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton)

Dan Fabian (R-Roseau)

Mary Franson (R-Alexandria)

Kerry Gauthier (DFL-Duluth)

Marion Greene (DFL-Minneapolis)

Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe)

David Hancock (R-Bemidji)

Andrea Kieffer (R-Woodbury)

Deb Kiel (R-Crookston)

John Kriesel (R-Cottage Grove)

Ernie Leidiger (R-Mayer)

Mike LeMieur (R-Little Falls)

Kathy Lohmer (R-Lake Elmo)

Pat Mazorol (R-Bloomington)

Joe McDonald (R-Delano)

Carolyn McElfatrick (R-Deer River)

Rena Moran (DFL-St. Paul)

Rich Murray (R-Albert Lea) *

Pam Myhra (R-Burnsville)

Tim O’Driscoll (R-Sartell)

Branden Petersen (R-Andover)

Duane Quam (R-Byron)

Linda Runbeck (R-Circle Pines)

Joe Schomacker (R-Luverne)

Kirk Stensrud (R-Eden Prairie)

Chris Swedzinski (R-Ghent)

Bruce Vogel (R-Willmar)

Doug Wardlow (R-Eagan)

Kelby Woodard (R-Belle Plaine)*

*Subject to recount based on unofficial Secretary of State numbers.

Drunken Democrats, Vote Emmer!

As a parent of two wonderful children, I hope to never feel the pain of losing one of them. In that respect, my heart goes out to Margaret Everson, the woman in the ads run by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota. I must ask, how can we expect a “Better Minnesota” from a liberal organization attacking one of our candidates for governor with such a misleading hit piece?

What hypocrites the liberals can be considering that Senator Metzen weaved down the highway in 2007 and was defended by his Democratic peers and even retained his post as Senate President. And how can anyone forget Ted Kennedy who crashed his car into the Chappaquiddick River and killed a young lady while driving drunk, then went on to serve a lifetime as a Democratic U.S. Senator.

While Emmer's troubles were decades ago, Mark Dayton admits to a drug and depression problem today. Tom Emmer gets my vote for governor.