can we pretty pretty please get at least one republican candidate who has at least a tentative grasp on what the scientific method IS?

When you spend money on green roofs over police and fire protection, when you spend money on Trees and shrubbery instead of roads and bridges, your priorities as a City, a county AND a state are well screwed up beyond ANYTHING. And never forget that the bonding bills ALL ORIGINATE in the Minnesota House of Representatives which is held by who???? Say it with me kids….THE DEMOCRATS!

LL

Yes, Palin is the Republican who is most effectively attacking the policies of the Obama-led Democrats. (That is bad?) Her effectiveness is enhanced by her overall positive, happy, witty message.

Furthermore, Palin accomplished more during her abbreviated time as governor than many governors accomplish in several more years. She negotiated a massive cng pipeline infrastructure project that had been hung up for years. She saved billions for Alaska during good times for times like now. She prepaid her state’s entire education budget two years in advance. Palin cut hundreds of millions in wasteful spending. She spent hundreds of millions on energy renawables, heating oil rebates and weatherization projects before Obama did anything about these things. Palin made her state billions with investments with her state’s PDF fund. She kept her state’s unemployment on par with its normal historic levels during an economic disaster everywhere else but in her state. Palin kept her state’s taxes America’s lowest. She reduced earmarks by 85% and medical backlogs by 83%. Palin ended energy dealings in the backrooms, making officials and legislators deal with big oil on camera in public. She passed the strictest ethics reforms laws in Alaskan history. How much more than that did Pawlenty accomplish during his years as governor?

Heed this, supporters of Romney and Pawlenty. When you take pot shots at Palin, you are turning people who respect her into active opponents of Romney and Pawlenty.

I hope Republicans will take to heart the first quoted box (the section in the interview called “On the State of the Republican Party”). I’ve voted >95% GOP for over 30 years, and I’ve finally had it up to my eyeballs with their cronyism, corruption, and hypocrisy. If they don’t start putting forth candidates who mean what they say, I’m prepared to start sitting out elections.

I realize I’ll never take your blinders off, but I think you mischaracterize a few things. “The cities, counties and school districts had more to do with that than anything the state or the Feds “dictated”!” Probably not true. As an example, the federal government dictates that schools provide special education services so that childeren can be “mainstreamed.” At heart, this isn’t a bad idea. It’s unfunded, though. The federal governement has never provided enough funding for those services that they dictate. I don’t know about the recent past, but I know for certain a few years ago that the deficit in the Mpls. school district was exactly the size of the funding for special ed. that the federal government promised when the enacted the mandate but didn’t provide. In the past, some of this shortfall would have been made up from revenue sharing from the state (which is a more progressive system than property taxes) but the state’s share of education funding continues to drop. To say that the state’s decisions don’t contribute to my increased property taxes is wrong. I understand that schools are not managed as efficiently as they could, but it’s beginning to feel like we’re beginning to cut muscle, not fat. As I mentioned in my first comment, healthcare funding for the poor is something else Pawlenty is cutting that will end up on my property taxes when the county needs to fund its shortfall from providing those services.

“He sits down and listens to people who approach him on issues and takes their concerns into account.” Seriously. Were you here last spring? I realize there’s enough blame to go around on the budget issue, but to veto the budget, not call a special session, and then begin to “unallocate” funding to various agencies is hardly “personable.”

And by the way, I’d be careful in calling MN “liberal” anymore. It may seem that way to some, but we’ve been pulled toward the middle like most of the country. Remember, this is the state that’s produced Michelle Bachman and John Kline.

Really, there is no way that an honest person can write that “there are many economists who agree with Paul Krugman that Obama saved the world,” so no apologies here for questioning your intelligence or ability to be truthful. The truth is that you are incapable of describing liberal or Democratic policies or thought accurately.