Thursday, July 31, 2008

2008 GOP Convention Program Schedule

America's Small City Mayor will have an BIG announcement regarding the GOP Convention in September. Please stay tuned for a number of important website changes, interviews, and announcements.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Maria Cino, Chief Executive Officer and President for the 2008 Republican National Convention, today announced the program block schedule for the upcoming Republican National Convention. The program blocks are as follows:

Monday, September 1: 2:30 - 10:00 p.m. CDT*
Tuesday, September 2: 6:20 - 10:05 p.m. CDT
Wednesday, September 3: 6:20 - 11:20 p.m. CDT
Thursday, September 4: 6:20 - 10:15 p.m. CDT
*Note: there will be a 30-minute break at 6:30 p.m. CDT

"We are pleased to announce the official block schedule for the 2008 Republican National Convention and are confident this year’s compelling program will be one of the most exciting in GOP convention history," said Cino. "The convention will showcase Sen. John McCain and his vision for America to the 45,000 convention participants joining us from around the country and the millions more participating from home."

About the Republican National Convention

The 2008 Republican National Convention will be held at Saint Paul's Xcel Energy Center from Sept. 1-4, 2008. Approximately 45,000 delegates, alternate delegates, volunteers, members of the media and other guests are expected to attend the convention. Minneapolis-Saint Paul is expected to receive an estimated $150-$160 million positive economic boost from the four-day event. For more information about the 2008 Republican National Convention, please visit our website at http://www.gopconvention2008.com/.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Great Fire Hydrant Debate of 2008!!

Ask any small city reporter about covering local politics and they will tell you it can get funny fast. They actually cannot report everything because some of it is so strange you would not believe it if you read it. Having ran many meetings I can corroborate this claim.

The local politicians have no "people" to craft messages or engage in spin. Instead, you get people at their very BEST........... and at times WORST.

In the coming weeks I will be creating/dedicating an entire portion of my blog to collecting these Gems of the Public Arena. If you find any please send them my way, because it is true that: "truth is better than fiction".

For you reporters I will allow you to make it generic and remain anonymous.

Here in Clarissa we are no different. The past few weeks had me deal with a political fire storm. I call it "The Great Fire Hydrant Debate of 2008!"

It started with my request to have fire hydrants painted and inspected around the city to ensure they are looking good and operating properly. I had assumed all red fire hydrants would be red, but after half a dozen phone calls I was reminded of the saying: "Never assume anything."

The city crew had inspected and painted the fire hydrants various colors to match the buildings along our main street. I thought they looked GREAT when I went to look, and was impressed at the thought that went into each of them.

However after the dozenth phone call, the angry mobs at city hall, and the impassioned rebuke from a council person to one of our hard working city staff; I decided we have to pick our battles, and this was not a battle worth fighting. We painted them RED!

It was a few days after that we had our council meeting and a few citizens were attending. They asked why the hydrants had been repainted because they loved them, and had so many people comment on how different they were.

The city employees and I all smiled. I think we were reading each other's mind that you cannot win some days. Either that or they were angry at me for making them paint again, but I prefer to see my glasses half full!!

I have learned from this and other situations it is possible to be on the losing end of a WIN/WIN situation. The Great Fire Hydrant Debate of 2008 is proof!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Minnesota 2020 article on Minnesota Cities

Part 1 in a 5-part series.
By Lee Egerstrom
Minnesota 2020 Fellow

I found this to be an interesting read. I hope the other "parts" show some of the progress made, and the positive future that can be attained. I do agree rural Minnesota leaders need to capitalize on their strengths and limit their weaknesses.

Technology, industry trends, and changing demographics will continue to benefit rural Minnesota in the coming decades. I think we need to educate our leaders so that they understand the past does not necessarily apply to the future.

I can tell you many leaders, including myself, are very optimistic about the future of rural Minnesota. The areas that plan and work towards a better future have a chance at achieving it more than ever before.

Technology is allowing individuals to live in areas they choose. It is an example of one possibility that could revolutionize small city life and bring true economic opportunity. I am a living example of this.

The coming Baby Boom transition shows that there will be a demographic shift to areas highlighted in this article. All of this will bring opportunity unseen in past decades.

The time to prepare and plan is NOW!!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Kudlow's Money Politics: Media is missing the Housing Bottom

Media reports painted a pessimistic picture of today’s release on existing home sales, which fell 15 percent from a year ago and recorded higher inventories. But inside the report was an awful lot of very good new news, which appear to be pointing to a bottom in the housing problem; in fact, maybe the tiniest beginnings of a recovery.

For example, the median existing home price has increased four consecutive months and is up 10 percent since February. Yes, it’s down 6 percent over the past year. But the monthly numbers show a gradual rebound. Actually, this median home price is $215,000 in June, compared to $196,000 last winter.

And there’s more. One of the hardest hit regions is the West, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. The other two bad states are Florida and Michigan. However, existing home sales in the western region are up four straight months, and are 17 percent above the low in October. At the same time, prices in the West have increased three straight months.

Meanwhile, overall national existing home sales are basically stabilizing at just under five million. And in the first and second quarters of 2008, these sales dropped slightly by 3 percent in each case, which is a whole lot better than the roughly 30 percent sales drops of the prior three quarters.

It’s a pity the mainstream media keeps searching for more and more pessimism. The reality is a possible upturn in the housing trend, and at the very least we are getting a bottom. Stocks sold off 165 points largely on media reports of terrible home sales and prices. But I am hoping the market comes to its senses and realizes the data are a whole lot better.

And on top of all that, just as housing may be on the mend, Congress is about to ratify a huge FHA-based bailout that could total $42 billion. Congressional solons are putting up $300 billion to refinance and insure distressed loans through the Federal Housing Administration. But this dubious government agency, with a whole history of bad portfolio management, may wind up taking in the very worst loans on the books.

Of course, taxpayers are on the hook. More government semi-socialism.

posted by Money Politic$ at 2:05 PM

Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Mayor will Vacation at his Lake Compound!!

The Vacation


I want to make my readers aware that Clarissa's First Family will be retreating to their vacation compound the last week of July. It is a remote location in Northern Minnesota that has no utilities except for a boat.

I have been working on some good original material that will be released throughout the week. I hope you enjoy it, and it is published as I intended it to look. (Note: Publishing can be interesting some days when you leave it to the system.)

Lastly the blog will be getting a major face lift in the coming weeks. It will have special sections for commentary, humor, and for those who are serious about working to make rural areas a better place to live.

We will see all of you again soon. Keep those comments and articles coming!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Commissioner Joe sends us an article from Times Online!!

He ventured forth to bring light to the world

By Gerard Baker: July 25th 2008

The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the

Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Have a questions for Norm Coleman & Al Franken?

Here is your chance!!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Telco won't install fiber network, sues to prevent city from

A small town in Minnesota wants to build its own fiber to the home network. The local telco didn't want to do it, but it doesn't want the city competing with it, either. That means one thing: lawsuit.

read more | digg story

Beware the Utopians!!

I do not enjoy the prices we are paying for gas. I cringe as I watch the food prices ring up on the big screen at Jon's Family Foods grocery store. The increases for bread, milk, and virtually any food with three boys soon to hit their teenage (prime eating) years makes me wish for the perfect world...... dare I say the Utopian world.

However, I thought this quote from the Wall Street Journal was appropriate. We live in a world of laws and principles. They are not what we would always like, but they can only be ignored at one's peril. The energy mess we find ourselves in is because of the Utopian world we like to think we live in.

We have elected to many Utopians in St. Paul and Washington D.C. They have a cure for every problem, and create a problem with their every cure. We need a candidate reform bill that administers a quiz to anyone running for office from this day forward. If they are a Utopian, be they Democrat or Republican, they can run for office but must have a VOTER BEWARE disclaimer on their campaign material.


Politicians want lower gas and oil prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?~"Windfall Profits for Dummies" in today's WSJ

Source: CARPE DIEM

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ladies Logic: Minnesota polling for Coleman & Franken


A good post (click it above) on how the Franken Campaign continues to stumble by being behind in polls. I think another aspect is how Franken is more importantly behind in cash-on-hand.

I think we will see National & Statewide Democrats pull the plug on the Franken Campaign soon. It will be interesting to see the next reports on contributions to see how soon his campaign may have died.

Maybe my call of Coleman by 7% was to pessimistic? However, I will stick with it.

The headline today if it was President Obama!!

Thursday July 24, 10:37 am ET By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer

Just thought I would write the flip side of this AP Article.

Inventories at all time highs and prices down 2.6 percent equal a great time for families and first time home buyers!!

(APe) Washington -- The news for buyers keeps getting better with prices declining yet again in June. The National Association of Realtors reported sales dropped by 2.6%. To a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.86 million units. The median price of a home is at $215,100.

The consensus among economists is that now is the time to purchase a home because it is a buyers market. The governments action in ending the credit crisis by saving Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae means buyers can purchase their home with confidence.

Interest rates remain at all time lows increasing purchasing power of individuals unlike any other time in the past two decades. These facts combined our economy remaining at full employment and oil prices coming down substantially means a bright future ahead for the American Economy.....................

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

On the lighter side (not really)..... Obama's policy in Iraq


The First Lady and I were watching the news last night regarding Obama's trip overseas. She pointed out she would be furious if a Republican candidate went over during a war and appeared to negotiate with a foreign government and apparently disregarded the role of our current Commander in Chief.

Then on a recent post reporters apparently had to remind an Obama advisor he was not the Commander in Chief, but the election is still coming up in November.

I thought Obama's trip to Iraq crossed the line. If you want to go on a fact finding mission that is fine. However, do not insert yourself into the Presidents position during critical negotiations.

This cartoon is a good illustration of what Mr. Obama would have visited this weekend had we followed his great judgement.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Two great SCSUScholars articles!!

Two excellent posts that everyone should read. I found it amazing that for all the gloom and doom presented by Mr. Stinson our state government continues to bring in more revenue than anticipated.

I have said for many years now, as Small City Mayor, our representatives and officials in St. Paul need to start to update their view of the world. Minnesota has changed, and there are many items that need to be revamped, scraped, or modified so that everyone is looking at the whole picture.

Tunnel vision seems to come from residing in the Capital or State Government to long. Also a great post on the Federal Reserve. A great topic for everyone to read up on should be Moral Hazard in Federal and State Governments.

Making New Numbers

Dual-plus-one mandate

Monday, July 14, 2008

Today: Jesse Ventura marks the end of the Franken for Senate Campaign!!

There is an event later this evening that marks the end of the Al Franken Campaign. The event does not have to end with a "yes" or a "no". It only has to begin and then end when the time is up.

I am sure you know that Jesse Ventura will go on Larry King Live tonight and say a number of wacky things. He might even say he will run for the US Senate in Minnesota. To be honest......no one really cares here in Minnesota other than the news media and blogger's. To voters out here it is just good coffee topics for tomorrow morning.....nothing else. Really!!

The interview will probably have Ventura reaffirm his off the wall 9/11 conspiracy theories that have been highlighted on this and other websites before. He will then start calling the other candidates names and rewrite history when he was the Best Governor Minnesota EVER HAD.

All of this will be great television and food for blogs. However, I think we should mark today as the END OF THE FRANKEN CAMPAIGN.

Ventura will remind Minnesotans what it was like to have a "C" actor serving their state. The ego, the wild statements, the lack of respect and loyalty to voters who put them in office.

It was just to soon for Al Franken to consider such a run, and today will mark the cementing of polls with him losing by a minimum of seven points to Senator Norm Coleman.

The lack of enthusiasm among conservative Democrats is starting to become amazing out here in rural Minnesota. We will even see if Franken bothers to show for the Farmers Union Picnic in Clarissa, which has been a staple of Conservative Democratic politics for longer than I have been alive.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Banking Crisis almost over.


The report by Bloomberg.com shows the final steps in ending the banking and credit crisis. The solution to the problem will certainly come with increased government regulation in this sector.

More on this subject coming soon.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Senator Klobuchar: Profiles in Leadership or Politics?

Minnesota's Junior Senator, again, fails the courage and political savvy test on another important issue!

The FISA vote occurred a few days ago with President Bush and common sense winning a stunning victory considering Democrats run the House and Senate. This was one of the BIG issues Democrats ran on in their land slide victories a few years ago.

A few weeks ago Senator Klobuchar basically voted for the FISA bill's passage in total.

In true Klobuchar fashion we see another profile in Leadership with a last minute switch trying to ride the fence keeping everyone happy. The result is Senator Klobuchar is the loser with all sides of the political spectrum calling her out when
reading Democrat or Republican blogs and editorials.

Senator Klobuchar voted two days ago with the "Liberal Left" (reversing her votes of two weeks ago) by trying to strip the bill of the immunity provision for telecoms and the eventual cloture vote. The end vote was 69-28 with the bill passing.

The one thing we know after the past few weeks is we effectively do not know, yet again, where the Senator stands on an important National Security issue because she can say: "She voted for it before she voted against it". Amazing!!

CARPE DIEM: FT Portfolios: Real GDP To Grow at 3% in QII

According to the BEA's report today, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services declined to $59.8 billion in May from $60.5 billion in April. Highlights include:• Exports increased $1.4 billion in May and are up 17.8% versus last year. The gain in exports in May was led by fuel oil, chemical fertilizers, and other petroleum products.

• Imports increased $0.6 billion in May, a small rise after a large upward spike in April. Imports are up 12.5% versus a year ago. Imports were held down in May by a decline in autos and energy (petroleum products and natural gas).

• Adjusted for inflation, the trade deficit in goods is $11.6 billion smaller than last May and the smallest since 2002. Without adjusting for inflation, the trade deficit is $0.4 billion larger than last year.

Implications: The export boom continued in May and is adding substantially to real GDP growth. We now estimate the trade sector will add about two percentage points to real GDP growth in Q2, which leads us to boost our estimate of the overall real GDP growth rate in Q2 to 3% (previously 2.5%).

Source: First Trust Portfolios

Thursday, July 10, 2008

A great post on race relations that needs no further explanation!!

SciGuy
A science blog with Eric Berger

July 09, 2008

Is "black hole" a racially insensitive term?

Apparently to some. From the City Hall Blog at the Dallas Morning News:

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole." That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.

Judge Jones should be very glad that the central collections office has not become a white hole, a theoretical object that ejects matter from beyond its event horizon, rather than sucking it in. It wouldn't be fun for Dallas to find itself so near a quasar.

Anyone wanting to know a good deal about black holes should read the excellent new book, The Black Hole War, by Leonard Susskind, which has just been released. I'm in the middle of it, and the book's a fascinating tour of modern physics written for the layman. It's just been marvelous so far.

Thanks to Matt B. for the link.

Colbert Report: With Minnesota smoking danger gone..... a new sense of danger needs to be restored.

Stephen Colbert offers a solution to this emerging crisis!!

Minnesota should eliminate the Corporate Tax Rate!!


A must read interview (below) between Larry Kudlow & former Senator Phil Gramm!! Mr. Gramm is senior advisor to Senator John McCain and a great Conservative.

Want to bring back a strong economy? Let's start by creating a competitive economic environment here in Minnesota starting with our Corporate Tax Structure!! How about getting control of our Unemployment Insurance Tax Rates and putting small business owners in a position where they can hire people without added government taxes and regulations. (See next link below!!)

We always look at the revenue loss when talking about such an idea. However, we never look at the projected increases in investment and increased tax revenue as a result of an expanding economic base. Minnesota as a State ranks 3rd from last in the world as the highest taxed place for corporate business. YIKES!!!

Government needs to look at long-term analysis like our developing world competitors/countries around the world. We are dead last as a Nation in Corporate Tax rates when you include individual states. Just a fact!!


Minnesota Tax Rankings: (Business environment we are in the bottom 10!!)

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

NRO on Tim Pawlenty

Time for Tim
McCain’s ticket to Minnesota.

By Scott W. Johnson

When Bill Kristol reported in May that the McCain team was talking up Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal as their possible vice-presidential selection, it struck me that the talk must be a cover for Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Twice elected governor of a blue state that President Bush almost carried twice, Pawlenty is between Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal in age (47), experience, and intangible factors. Since Kristol’s column appeared Romney has emerged as a front runner, but Pawlenty remains a worthy dark horse.

True, it’s unlikely he’ll help McCain carry Minnesota; though Pawlenty remains a popular governor, McCain isn’t even close in the state. Minnesota is prime, antiwar Obama country. If our formidable Republican senator Norm Coleman were facing a generic Democrat this November, even he would be in serious trouble. (As it is, the Democrats have done him the favor of nominating the comedian who hasn’t been funny since the expiration of the Al Franken Decade in 1990 to oppose him. Senator Coleman may survive.)

In any event, the focus on geography is a bit misleading. When was the last time electoral geography played a serious role in the Republican nominee’s selection of a running mate? Perhaps when Arizona’s Barry Goldwater reached out to New York’s Bill Miller in 1964, but the precedent is not exactly auspicious. On the Democratic side, one has to go back even farther, to Kennedy’s selection of Johnson in 1960, to find a good example of electoral geography exerting an obvious influence.

If not his state’s electoral votes, what does Pawlenty stand to offer McCain? In the current issue of National Review, John Miller rightly credits Pawlenty (along with former congressman Rob Portman of Ohio) with a possible ability to help McCain “tip the scales in swing states.” Pawlenty’s relatively conservative credentials come with a genuine blue-collar background that gives him a tremendous personal appeal. He grew up with four siblings in South St. Paul, where his father supported the family as a truck driver. Pawlenty’s mother died of cancer when he was 16. Pawlenty fulfilled her wish that he would be the first in the family to attend college (he put himself through the University of Minnesota for undergraduate and law school).

Pawlenty’s people skills come across in person and on television. He is unflappable and remarkably good-humored. He recently made news with comments that may strike a chord among those alienated by Barack Obama’s sermon to the San Francisco Democrats. After spending a weekend enjoying the state’s fishing opener with his lovely wife Mary, he commented to one of the big Twin Cities radio stations: “I have a wife who genuinely loves to fish. She loves football, she’ll go to hockey games, and I jokingly say, ‘Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me.’”

Serving in the Minnesota legislature from a suburban Twin Cities district, Pawlenty’s Republican colleagues elected him the state house majority leader in 1999 at age 38. He held together the Republican caucus with a margin of one vote, doing battle with Independent governor Jesse Ventura and the Democratic state senate. In 2002 he cruised to the governorship in a competitive three-way race. In 2006, he narrowly survived the Democratic tide that decimated the state’s Republican ranks. (I wrote about the race for NRO.)

Pawlenty has had a long, friendly relationship with McCain. Indeed, McCain campaigned with Pawlenty in northern Minnesota in 2006, and Pawlenty signed up as co-chair of the McCain campaign at its inception. When his role in the McCain campaign was announced last year, I interviewed him; Pawlenty told me what he told Sarah Baxter of the London Times for an article last month: “If you look at the way Senator McCain has lived his life, it’s an incredible expression of commitment, duty, valour and patriotism.” Pawlenty admires Senator McCain personally and appreciates his appeal to voters beyond the Republican base.

Pawlenty has been prescient in worrying about the Republican party’s shrinking appeal. In a 2007 profile for The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti documented Pawlenty’s efforts to reformulate and extend the Republican brand with an appeal to “Sam’s Club Republicans.” It is an appeal that John McCain might find he could put to good use in November with Pawlenty on his ticket.

— Scott W. Johnson is a Minneapolis attorney and contributor to Power Line.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

The Mayor agree's: High oil equals strong headwinds for US Economy!!

Paulson, Darling Warn on Economy
By LAURENCE NORMAN
July 3, 2008 9:00 a.m.


LONDON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ended a four-day European trip Thursday, joining with U.K. Finance Minister Alistair Darling to warn that the near-term economic outlook remains difficult and the global inflation threat is serious.

Days ahead of the Group of Eight leaders meeting in Japan, Mr. Paulson said high oil prices represent a "strong headwind" for the U.S. economy and are likely to prolong its slowdown. His comments came as oil hit a new record, breaching $145 a barrel.

Mr. Paulson said the U.S. economy is facing a "tough" period, with the credit crunch and the housing market's woes also weighing. The U.S. economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter and economists say there is a risk of recession. The economic problems have spread out from the U.S., with the U.K. and euro-zone economies also showing increasing signs of strain.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25% to tame rising inflation, even as growth across the 15-nation euro-zone shows continuing signs of slowing significantly. Markit Economics said the euro-zone services purchasing managers index contracted in June for the first time in five years.

The U.K. services PMI also dropped for the second straight month while data earlier this week showed house prices have fallen sharply on the year and consumer confidence continued to evaporate.

Mr. Darling insisted the U.K. will avoid a recession, although he acknowledged that "the rate of growth will be slower" this year. He also warned that "it's of the utmost importance that we do not allow inflation to become entrenched in the U.K. again." The consumer price index rose 3.3% in May from a year earlier, the biggest increase since 1992.

Mr. Paulson said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. earlier Thursday that while core inflation remained contained in the U.S., inflation had become a "huge problem" globally, especially in emerging economies like Russia and China.

--Adam Bradbery in London and Tom Barkley contributed to this article.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

A Minnesota City is Born.

Minnesota has a new city—Nowthen
Published: July 2, 2008

Burns Township took another step toward becoming the city of Nowthen on Monday, when residents elected a mayor and four city council members.

Bill Schultz is mayor-elect. Orval Leistico and Laurie Olmon were elected to two-year City Council seats, while Jeffrey Pilon and Harlan Meyer won four-year seats. The elected officials will be sworn in at the first council meeting on July 8, making the incorporation official.
Located in Anoka County, the city has a population of approximately 4,367.

The decision to pursue incorporation as a city was made at the Burns Township annual meeting in March 2007. Its petition for incorporation was then approved by the administrative law judge on May 1, 2008. The city is planning an incorporation celebration in September.