So Long Norm--For Now

So former Senator Norm Coleman isn't going to run for Governor of Minnesota. He posted a statement on his Facebook page that made it very clear why.

I have to say that even though I really like Norm, I think this is probably the right decision. It's a little bittersweet; I think he would make a great Governor for Minnesota, but I also feel like I know it would be wrong for him to run. Frankly, I think we need to bring the Republican party closer to the Tea Party definition of what a conservative really is. That movement has such momentum that I think it will define who should run and who will ultimately run in all upcoming elections for a time. Norm is more of a centrist, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But right now, I think conservatives are craving a real conservative.

I don't know Norm personally. I met him on several occasions during his run for Senator. I volunteered a lot for his campaign, and I have photos of him with me, my husband, my children and holding my granddaughter. I have shaken his hand and spoken with him more times than I can count; I believe you can tell a lot about someone by shaking his hand and looking him in the eye.

What I felt viscerally about Norm was that he is a good man. Hearing him speak just enforced that. I really feel his intentions are pure and that he has a genuine love for this country. I also think he possesses the traits necessary to work across party lines and not alienate people (unlike the current occupant of his job).

Early on in the campaign when I spoke with him about issues, he had an energy and passion that was palpable. But what I remember most is an appearance I attended with a very small group of people about two days after the ludicrous charges came out about his wife funneling money through her employer to him (more about that in an upcoming column). When I shook his hand and looked him in the eye, when I handed him my granddaughter, he seemed as if he had been punched in the gut. When he spoke briefly about the allegations, you could feel the anger bubbling below the surface. One can hardly blame him. The eleventh hour attack was malicious and despicable. But mostly, he seemed beleaguered. That's the word that keeps coming to mind when I think about it now.

The protracted recount process for the Senate seat didn't seem to help. Photos of him in the courtroom show a stressed-out, tired man.

And now? Norm looks like he did when I first met him. He looks healthy, energized and happy. Again, I do not know Norm Coleman on any level but as an occasional acquaintance while volunteering for his campaign, and I'm just trying to convey my innate sense of the man.

I hope he continues to thrive in his new life. But, as I said, it is bittersweet. Since he's not running for Governor, what's next for him in public service? I really think he should hold public office again; I just wonder what it could be. I, and many of his other supporters, aren't ready to say good-bye just yet.

In the meantime, Norm, so long, good luck, and thanks for your service.

Four reasons conservative Minnesotans should help MA's Scott Brown be elected to U.S. Senate

Why should Minnesota conservatives care about a Senate race between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown? After all, it's taking place all the way over in Massachusetts. So why should we care?

Because it could have a direct effect on you, your children and your grandchildren.

Martha Coakley, a Democrat, and Scott Brown, a Republican, are in a very contentious race for the U.S.Senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy.

The Senate is very polarized these days, and we are in desperate need of more Republican Senators. It would be a coup for Republicans to win a Senate seat that had been occupied by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy for 47 years. More important, it would deny Democrats the crucial 60th Senate seat they need to stop Republican filibusters of bills that further Obama's socialist agenda.

Brown has been running on the promise to stop the Senate health care "reform" bill. He is particularly opposed to the part of the bill that puts a tax on medical devices. With 1,349 medical equipment and device companies in Massachusetts, the state has a huge stake in stopping this tax.

Minnesota has a stake in killing the tax on medical devices as well. There are 1,008 medical equipment and device companies in Minnesota, 463 of them in Hennepin County alone. The tax on medical devices included in the bill could do catastrophic damage to companies such as Medtronic, whose world headquarters is in Minneapolis.

This even caught the attention of senator Al Franken (oh, it hurts to write that), who co-sponsored an amendment to the health care reform bill with fellow liberal senator, John Kerry, to to delay the device tax to 2013. The amendment was not adopted in the Senate's final version of the bill. I don't know what they thought delaying the tax would do to help medical device manufacturers; it would still threaten to destroy some of them and seriously decrease the profits of others--possibly driving them out of the country--whether the tax is in 2010 or 2013. The only reason I can see for doing that is to delay the tax to start after the 2012 election. Hmmmm, do you think that was behind this? Thanks for looking out for us, senator Franken.

Brown's opponent, Democrat Martha Coakley has revealed herself today to be a typical liberal who has trouble with the truth and blames things on right-wing conspiracies. She was approached last night after a Washington D.C. fundraiser by Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack. He asked her if she stood by her comments, made during a debate on Monday, that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan. She rudely refused to answer his question. Shortly thereafter, a man linked to Coakley's campaign knocked McCormack to the ground. According to McCormack, she looked at him lying on the ground and kept on walking.

When asked about the incident today, Coakley said, “I’m not sure what happened. I know something occurred, but I’m not privy to the facts. I’m sure it will come out, but I’m not aware of that.” She went on to blame GOP "stalkers" for any problems that occurred after the event. There is an AP photo and video of the incident. You can plainly see Coakley was "aware" of the incident.

So there are four reasons why Minnesota conservatives should care about this far-away Senate race:

1. The seat is needed to deny Democrats the crucial 60th vote.
2. We need a conservative voice to help stop the tax on medical devices, which could cost Minnesotans jobs. The liberals are only using the issue to look out for themselves.
   
3. Democrat Martha Coakley is a typical liberal who seems to have a distant relationship with the truth and blames her problems on GOP conspiracies. We don't need another one of these in the Senate. We have enough of them, thank you.
4. Stopping the Democrat insanity in Washington is key to your future and the future of your family. Banding together and helping conservatives be elected across the country will help America stay recognizable.
   

What can you do? You can still donate money to Scott Brown's campaign. You can make phone calls on his behalf as well. (Don't freak out about the page heading. You don't need to travel to MA to do this. You can do it from home.)

Pray this works because our future and the future of our children depends on electing conservative candidates to the Senate to stop Obama's socialist agenda.

That's Coakley on the left clearly looking at Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack, who was "allegedly" pushed to the ground by the other man in the photo, who is linked to Coakley's campaign. She later stated she was "unaware" of the incident.

Poto by AP

Harry Reid Not Racist, Just Incompetent

Unless you've been living under a rock these past few days, you know that the new book, Game Change, by political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, alleged that Harry Reid said Americans would be “ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama –-a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.’ ”

There has been much debate over whether Reid is racist or not. I don't really know. Based on his comments, I think he was trying to be a realist and just trying to divine the political winds of the time.

But what I do know is that anyone who would refer to anything having to do with an African American as "negro" is so out of touch with modern America that he is unfit to lead.

I really don't have anything more to say. It's as simple as that.

Friendly Neighborhood Republican Has New Gig

While I still remain focused on my Friendly Neighborhood Republican blog, I have a new on-line column. I'm the Hennepin County Conservative Examiner with Examiner.com.

This new column will have a mostly local focus, though I will write about national and international topics as well. I may also, from time to time, overlap columns by posting Friendly Neighborhood Republican columns on the Examiner.com site, and vice versa.

I'm excited about this new opportunity to write for Examiner.com. I'm even more excited about my first article, which went live today.

It's a profile of local entrepreneurs Sheila Kihne and Betsy Gall and their new Cool Conservative clothing and gift line. Thanks to Sheila and Betsy for willing to be the subjects of my first column.

Please check out Examiner.com and look for me, the Hennepin County Conservative Examiner!

Obama Hanged in Effigy: Blogosphere Quick to Blame Conservatives

This weekend's awful discovery of an effigy of President Obama hanging from a building in Plains, Georgia sparked lots of premature blame from bloggers.

Note: I refuse to attribute any comments I might use here, because I don't want to give these people free advertising. I'm also not running the photo of the effigy because I find the image disturbing and disgusting.

Bloggers today have blamed, "Evil GOP Bastards," and "Frustrated Racist Tea Baggers." One site asked, "Rush Limbaugh? Glenn Beck? Happy Now?"

Limbaugh and Beck were blamed because of the "hate they have instilled in so many of their ignorant followers."

That's just the beginning. The hatred spewed in many of the comments on the blogs shocked me. Here are a few more "pearls:"

"It's easy for us to be anxious about foreign terrorists, but such worry is misplaced in the face of home-grown demagogues like Glenn Beck and his ilk, who incite ugly outpourings such as this - and who veer frankly into sedition."

"No effigy of Bush or Cheney when it was they who destroyed the world economy. "

"The K.K.K. is now the republican party under another name. Maybe now they are called Teabaggers or Birthers?"

"These Obama-haters are worse than anything we've seen in years. It's probably run by the Aryan nation, who are afraid of a smart black (albiet half-black-they seem to forget he's part white) man. I'll bet they're mainly Republicans too!!! "

So much for tolerance.

How about waiting until the Secret Service investigation is over before we start pointing fingers? We don't know who is responsible, and we may never know. It could have been a liberal trying to set up the blame on conservatives. It could be some crazy person, with no political affiliation whatsoever, who is just a racist. If it was someone who calls themselves a "conservative," I will be appalled because they don't represent me or the vast majority of conservatives, who are not racists. They hurt the conservative cause by doing things like this, just as those who kill abortionists only hurt the pro-life cause.

Most of us have already been labeled racists by the likes of Janeane Garofalo and her ilk for daring to even disagree with the anointed one. They just can't understand that we actually don't like Obama's policies and think he is systematically destroying our country. It's just easier to cry, "racist!" than to talk through the issues, I guess.

To quote the late, great Elvis Presley: "Stop, look and listen, baby. That's my philosophy." Liberals could use more of the King's "philosophy" before they come to these hasty conclusions.

War On Terror Like War on Drugs

Terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, brings explosives on Northwest Flight 253. Homeland Security springs into action and puts additional screening measures into place, including banning passengers from holding coats or blankets in their laps or using restrooms during the flight’s last hour.

Years ago when the U.S. declared a "war on drugs," it put lots of money, manpower, etc. into catching street drug dealers and addicts. It filled America's prisons with them. Were there efforts to stop drugs at the source? Yes, but the real focus was on the minutiae.

Decades later, we have an exploding prison population and Mexico is in danger of being taken over by a drug cartel.

The government is making the same mistakes with the war on terror (a term that Obama has scrapped). A terrorist brings liquid explosives on a plane. No more shampoo in your carry-on bag. A terrorist tries to ignite a bomb in his shoe. Eighty-year-old grandmothers have to remove their shoes before boarding. At the end of a flight, a terrorist ignites his crotch. You freeze and pray you don't have to use the bathroom during the last hour of your flight.

What about attempts to alert authorities by Abdulmutallab's own father that went essentially ignored? Why isn't the database for potential terrorists (which included Abdulmutallab) automatically linked with the no-fly database, the excuse by Homeland Security for why he was allowed to fly? Why aren't we tightening the student visa application process? These are the issues we should be addressing, not blankets and bathrooms.

Terrorists will just try something else next time. Banning the phrase “war on terror” has made us forget we are indeed at war. Fighting it requires focus on the important things before the terrorist equivalent of America’s being taken over by a drug cartel is our reality.

Good Grief! It's a Charlie Brown Christmas

I decided to tap into the holly-jolly side of the Friendly Neighborhood Republican by putting politics aside for for the holiday to post an essay I wrote long ago. Merry Christmas.

As I prepare for the holidays, I’m reminded of a Christmas many years past when I learned an important lesson: a great Christmas doesn’t necessarily come in a perfect package.

That year I had lofty plans. It would be a Martha Stewart Christmas.

My expertly decorated house would be fit to be photographed for a magazine. I would bake awe-inspiring cookies from scratch. My husband and I would stroll through the malls taking in the splendor of the season instead of rushing to get our shopping done in a few child-free hours. Every gift would be wrapped with beautiful ribbons. Our Christmas cards would be hand calligraphed (never mind that I don’t know how to do calligraphy). Everything would have a special touch.

I thought I would have time to do it all because I was newly self employed. I could set my own hours! Time would be abundant! (Those who are self employed can pause now to chuckle at my naiveté.)

Instead, I found myself working around the clock on a client’s project. The countdown to Christmas was moving fast, and I hadn’t done anything. So one Saturday, I took a break to put up the Christmas tree.

We had bought a beautiful artificial tree at an after-Christmas sale the previous year. We sold our old tree at our garage sale. Or so we thought.

As we began to put the contents of two boxes together to form a tree, it soon became clear that we were dealing with the makings of two different trees. My husband and I exchanged wide-eyed looks of horror as we realized we had sold some poor, unsuspecting soul the bottom of our new tree and the top of our old one.

Because “self employed” is not a euphemism for “rolling in dough,” there was no way we could afford a new tree and still have presents to put under it. Life was grim.

“Kids, we can’t put up the tree,” I said. “There’s only half a tree.”

“Half a tree!” my daughter said with delight (inexplicably), and she and her brother started sticking branches into the tree’s post. It looked like a malformed bush.

Then, a Christmas miracle happened. My husband, Ebenezer, whose laments of “Why did I marry someone who is allergic to Christmas trees,” and “Do we really have to put up the tree yet,” are more common during the holidays than poinsettias, said, “We can make this work,” and started fashioning a tree from the mismatched parts.

With his help, the discordant mess was transformed into a small Christmas tree. Granted it was only about three feet tall and winged out on the bottom like Farrah Fawcett’s hair, but it was a tree nonetheless.

My son, blankie in hand, gingerly touched a branch and said, “Look at our beautiful, beautiful tree.” It reminded me of the scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas, in which Charlie buys a stick with some pine needles on it from a tree lot, and Linus, armed with a similar blankie, says, “All it needs is a little love.” Then the children transform the pitiful stick into a beautiful Christmas tree.

So we put our tree on a box to make it taller, wrapped the base with my mother’s homemade tree skirt and decorated it. I’ll always remember the four of us standing together in the soft glow of the twinkle lights to admire our handiwork.

My father called that night after hearing the news about our tree. “I’ll lend you the money to buy a new one,” he offered.

“No thanks, Dad,” I said. “We have a tree.”

I’m sure somewhere there is a family with a similar Christmas memory:

Remember when we bought that stupid tree at a garage sale, and when we tried to put it together we had parts from two different trees?

I wonder if those people were able to squelch their inner Martha and accept imperfection like we did. Or did their warm, fuzzy feelings of holiday cheer turn to cold, hard, homicidal rage? We’ll never know.

The countdown to Christmas continued, and my husband and I completed our shopping in a four-hour marathon. The presents had stick-on bows on them. The cookies came courtesy of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I never sent my Christmas cards. Still, one of my most cherished holiday memories is of our Charlie Brown Christmas.

It’s a good thing.

Argentina 1916 = America 2009?

This is a great article that was on the District 42 Blog site about Argentina and what happened when they went down the same yellow brick road Obama is making us skip on.

"Argentinian history doesn't fascinate me," you say? Give it a try anyway. It will make you think about America and how great countries can become once-great countries in the blink of an eye.

Don't cry for me America

Writing Lessons

Okay, apparently I need to spell a few things out for a few folks.

I went into this blogging venture thinking there would be a few people out there who would send inappropriate comments to my blog but that most of the comments would be from people who truly wanted to engage in intellectual discourse about the issues.

How naive I was.

I now know that it is the exact opposite of the above scenario--the inappropriate comments rule and the civil discourse is nowhere to be found. Those who choose to comment are apparently fixated on killing the messenger rather than discussing the message.

Those who know me know I welcome opinions that are different from my own. I enjoy discussing politics with people, even those who don't agree with me. Sometimes I learn something new that sheds light on a particular issue, and I am grateful for the enlightenment. And I admit, I do like to discuss politics with those who agree with me because it's fun.

There is nothing I'd call "discussion" going on in the comments being sent to my blog. I've had people call me names and expect me to publish their comments on my blog. I've had people spew vicious personal attacks and expect me to publish them on my blog. The key words here are "my blog."

I've been accused of censorship for not publishing every bit of vitriol sent my way. This is not the public library. I'm not encroaching on anyone's first amendment rights by choosing not to publish comments I find personally offensive. I have the right to publish anything I want on my blog, because it's my blog. Does that make it clear?

If you wish to send comments my way, don't call me names, refer to my bodily orifices, or attack me in any other personal way. If you do, I won't publish your comments. Some of you have sent comments that have things I would like to address in them, but they are surrounded by insults. That's too bad, because we'll never get the chance to talk about the issues at hand.

I'm so surprised by the nastiness directed at me personally just because I may have a differing opinion on a political issue than someone else. It makes me wonder if those who comment are all still in junior high.

I do want to address one thing that came up in one comment from today. Apparently I've offended someone who thinks I'm calling people names when I use the word, "libs." I'm so sorry if people find this offensive. I guess I'll use the full word "liberal" instead. And I don't consider calling someone a liberal to be name calling. I don't object to being called a conservative. It is what it is.

So, to go over this one more time: if you wish to comment and have your comments posted, or even read for that matter, please refrain from personal attacks and discuss the issues. If you can't do that, then don't bother taking the time to comment because your comment will be deleted, and that's a waste of time. I welcome all serious attempts at expressing opinion or promoting discussion. Now, do we understand each other?

Obama's “Cash for Caulkers”--Long on Caulk, Short on Cash

Obama's newest photo op was at a Home Depot in Virginia to promote his "cash for caulkers" program. His newest idea to create jobs is to give tax breaks to citizens who insulate, caulk, install windows, etc.

AP

Okay, I suppose to some people who are mostly concerned about what they're going to "get" from the government, this would look good. I want to caulk my house. The government will help pay for my caulk! I want new windows. The government will give me money for them!

But where does the money come from? So many forget that any government funds originally belonged to us, the taxpayers. So essentially, we are paying for ourselves to get caulk and windows.

This is supposed to be a job creation program. What kinds of jobs will it create? Will so many people flock to Home Depot that they will need to hire more employees? Let's say the answer to that is yes, though I'm skeptical. Will those jobs be the kinds of jobs that could support a family? What happens to those jobs when the government runs out of money for caulk?

Will so many people install new windows in their homes (which is incredibly expensive, even with "government money") that companies who install windows will need to hire massive amounts of new employees to install or manufacture those windows? What I think is more likely to happen is companies that install windows will have more work for their existing employees, and it may stop some layoffs.

Is stopping layoffs creating jobs? Is giving more work to existing workers creating jobs? Is the quality of any jobs created high enough to support a family?

I'm so tired of these job creation programs thought up by liberal elitists who don't seem to understand what is going on in America. Last summer, they were talking about "shovel ready jobs." They came up with ideas to build bridges and roads and jobs that catered to unions (who always vote Democrat). But they never thought about what would happen once those projects were finished. What happens to the workers then? Do they still have work to do? No. What happens when a worker has no work to do? His job is eliminated.

The "jobs" this administration "creates" seem to be:

1. short-term construction jobs
2. short-term low-paying retail jobs
   
3. short-term manufacturing jobs
4. white-collar government jobs (10,000 per month, but that doesn't count because it's taxpayer funded and is a whole different blog.)

Why is every job they ever talk about "creating" a blue-collar job? It's as if they think America consists entirely of blue-collar citizens, while the only white-collar jobs are in government. Doesn't that betray a pretty screwed up world view?

There are millions of unemployed white collar workers (IT, human resources, marketing, accounting) right now. There are thousands of entrepreneurs who can't start businesses or can't maintain their businesses.

You could argue that if you create manufacturing jobs you might need more white collar workers to manage the extra people and projects. You could argue that, but you shouldn't because every job this administration has thought about creating is short term. Businesses don't create permanent jobs for white collar professionals for short-term projects. They just pile the work onto existing employees.

We need to create not only "shovel ready" jobs, but jobs for the other people in America: white collar workers that support families and have enough disposable income to buy things, go on vacation, go out to eat. You know, all the stuff Americans have stopped doing that help create permanent jobs.

So Obama went to Home Depot. He should have stayed home and looked at his calendar, which should read 2009, not 1933.