North Star Liberty

• Sarah Palin at Mall of America

  Sarah Palin arrived at the Mall of America in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington on a cold, brilliantly sunny (once the sun rose) December 7. According to Tweets from Mall of America spokesperson Erica Dao, Going Rogue readers began lining up outside the East Entrance to MOA by 4:30 a.m., [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 1:26pm EST
  

• Ad hominem, ad nauseam

  "It's not about me." —Sarah Palin
  
  The current issue of the liberal news and entertainment rag City Pages, from its parody cover image (right) to the cover story (well-fisked by Gary Gross), epitomizes the left's familiar ad hominem strategy [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 6:51am EST
  

• AMA endorses House bill; pay no attention those other doctor groups

  The American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the Democrat government health bill scheduled to be voted on by the U.S. House of Representatives, but the medical community at large is far from consensus on the AMA endorsement.
  
  The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) harshly [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 11:50am EST
  

• 111 reasons to vote against the Democrat health care bill

  "As government expands, liberty contracts." —Ronald Reagan
  
  The nearly 2000-page Democrat party's "health care" bill creates no less than 111 new bureaucracies. Just reading the list alone should be enough to give all Americans pause over this unprecedented attempt to give American society an extreme makeover. Let' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• Freedom: you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone

  

  Brandenburg Gate on December 1, 1989. (Photo: Mediawiki)

  
  

  If the light of freedom in America is extinguished, there is no place left on earth to flee to. —Anna Marie Hirschmann
  
  On November 9, 1989, Ronald Reagan's impossible dream to tear down the Berlin Wall became' [...]

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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  

• Paulsen opposes "cap and trade"

  I wrote an e-mail to my federal representatives in opposition to the fraudulent United Nations Climate Treaty and the cap-and-trade scam (one of many before Congress). Rep. Erik Paulsen (MN-3) sent me his assurance that he also opposes both:
  Thank you for letting me know of your opposition to [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 8:48am EDT
  

• Our schools are leaving too many minority children behind

  By Brian W. Grogan
  
  Republicans and conservatives need to do a better job communicating to the voters that the Republican Party is really the education party. Let's face it: over the last forty years, the Democrat leadership has enacted and steered education policy that has produced a slow decline' [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 12:13pm EDT
  

• A Constitution Day primer

  
  by Marjorie Holsten
  
  In 1787, our young country faced serious problems including bitter division between states, a deeply depressed economy, and high inflation. The Continental Congress operating under the Articles of [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 12:51pm EDT
  

• Americans still believe in Constitutional principles

  We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 9:00am EDT
  

• Remember 9/11/01

  [...]
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  Posted: September 11, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  

• Health care lessons for America

  A Canadian doctor has some very important lessons to teach Americans pondering health care reform, while a local think tank has succinctly presented its health care reform ideas based on principles of individual freedom, personal responsibility, economic freedom, and limited government.
  
  The observations of Lee Kurisko, M.D., were published [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
  

• State fair photoblog

  Here are my morning and afternoon images of the Minnesota DFL (few visitors) and GOP (crowded) booths at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair, which ends today.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [...]
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  Posted: September 07, 2009, 10:01am EDT
  

• Political heartburn from Grandstand Mini Donuts

  
  Top reasons to avoid Grandstand Mini Donuts at the Minnesota State Fair:
  54 calories per donut27 calories from fat per donut 6 g total carbohydrate per donutUndisclosed contribution per bag to the Tenth [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2009, 8:34pm EDT
  

• Gubernatorial hopefuls meet at SD43 picnic

  

  Gubernatorial hopefuls at SD43 picnic with Rep. Sarah Anderson (center, holding microphone). Photo: SD43

  Monday evening, six hopefuls for the Minnesota GOP endorsement for governor broke bread, gave stump speeches, and answered questions in Plymouth on their statewide tour of Republican summer picnics. [...]

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  Posted: August 20, 2009, 12:21pm EDT
  

• Sound and fury

  "If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard." —Deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina in a town hall strategy briefing on August 6, with senior White House adviser David Axelrod, to Democrat Senators
  
  "The America I know and love is not one in" [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 12:29pm EDT
  

• Mike Pence: back to basics

  If the GOP has lost its way, people like Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN6) are trying to steer it back on course. Republicans across the country should consider his remarks on yesterday's Fox News Sunday:...government handouts through a government bureaucracy' [...]
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  Posted: August 03, 2009, 11:47am EDT
  

• When pigs fly

  Politics makes strange bedfellows. —Charles Dudley Warner
  
  People used to use the expression "when they send a man to the moon" as a way of saying, "it will never happen." Then they did send a man to the moon, several [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 12:29pm EDT
  

• Minnesota Majority protest took a lot of...

  

  Drew Emmer (holding box) distributing "Election Integrity" golf balls to visiting secretaries of state. (Photo: Dick Taylor for Minnesota Majority)

  Minnesota Majority launched its "ballsy" campaign to oust Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie with a humorous protest to [...]

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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 12:06pm EDT
  

• Palin takes the ball into her court

  
  

  I learned of Sarah Palin's resignation from the Alaska governor's office while walking around Times Square, on vacation last Friday (see my grainy tourist video, above).
  
  The left (and many on the right) are bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by Palin's resignation, as they were last summer when John' [...]

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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  

• Musical production credits God for "favored nation" status

  America! America!
  God shed his grace on thee
  And crown thy good with brotherhood
  From sea to shining sea!
  —from "America the Beautiful," by Katharine Lee Bates
  
  Is the United States just another member of the "community of nations?" Or perhaps we are more than that because of our [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 12:01pm EDT
  

• Where should some of the HHS cuts come from?

  Part 3 of a 3-part series
  
  By Brian W. Grogan
  
  Where should some of the cuts come from?
  
  First, we should be reducing welfare fraud by hiring auditors to eliminate the estimated $10 million in fraud already identified.
  
  Secondly, we need to pay monthly [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 12:21pm EDT
  

• What to do with Sarah Palin?

  
  "My concentration is on bettering our country. I've never been known as an obsessive partisan. In fact, I've taken on my own party. I've run against members of my own party in order to reform at a local level and'" [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 11:43am EDT
  

• Why are DFL leaders crying foul on HHS cuts?

  Part 2 of a 3-part series
  
  By Brian W. Grogan
  
  Since 1960, Minnesota’s state budget (general fund) has grown by over 18% annually. The media, liberal commentators and DFL legislators are trying to tell Minnesota taxpayers that our $4.6 billion deficit is due to the economy, but this [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 11:51am EDT
  

• MNGOP leadership debate highlights problems, introduces candidates

  
  It wasn't much of a debate.
  
  Last night's event, billed as a "debate" among the candidates for chair and deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, was really more of a forum to discuss what's broken about the state party out-of-power, and what' [...]
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  Posted: May 29, 2009, 7:43am EDT
  

• Liveblogging the Minnesota GOP leadership debate

  9:00 pm: Wrapping up, thank you, good night.
  
  8:57 pm: Question 9: How would you work with BPOUs and Legislative caucuses? Ruud: communicate with the caucuses, do not interfere with the BPOU selection and endorsement process. Thompson: Ditto. Sutton: Ditto.
  
  8:52 pm: Question 8: What improvements would you [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
  

• The land of the free, because of the brave

  American Legion Post 118, Heritage Park, Wayzata, Minnesota, May 25, 2009
  
  I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are [...]
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  Posted: May 25, 2009, 10:14pm EDT
  

• Education and Health and Human Services funding levels are unsustainable

  Part 1 of a 3-part series
  
  By Brian W. Grogan
  
  Minnesota is faced with the deepest budget deficit in the state's history. Its outcome will impact our state for the next generation. Education and Health & Human Services (HHS) account for over 75 percent of State budget. If' [...]
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  Posted: May 19, 2009, 12:16pm EDT
  

• We still have a $6.4 billion deficit, but at least they saved our pets from cocoa bean mulch

  (a) Except as provided in paragraph (d), a person who sells a product containing cocoa bean shell mulch at retail must post the notice in paragraph (b) in a manner clearly visible to a consumer examining a product containing cocoa bean mulch offered for sale.
  
  (b)The notice must be [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 9:04pm EDT
  

• No shutdown, no special session, no new taxes

  Governor Pawlenty, after inaction by the DFL Legislature to close the state's $6.4 billion budget deficit, which they are required to do by law, took bold action yesterday to declare that there will be no government shutdown, no special session, and no new taxes. The 2009 Legislative session will adjourn' [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 12:05pm EDT
  

• Asset or liability?

  Last week, the Candie's Foundation announced at a media event that Bristol Palin is their new "ambassador." The organization was founded to raise awareness and discuss ways to combat teen pregnancy after the fashion company, as the New York Times put it, came "under fire from critics who'" [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 12:07pm EDT
  

• Stone knives and bearskins

  There is a moment in one of the most popular episodes of the original Star Trek series, "The City on the Edge of Forever," in which Spock explains amidst a tangle of wires and vacuum tubes from 1930s Earth that he is "endeavoring, Madam, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit" [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 12:19pm EDT
  

• The taxman cometh

  Rep. Sarah Anderson (R-Plymouth) reports that the DFL House tax omnibus bill (HF2323) contains a laundry list of tax increases, all of which Gov. Pawlenty has promised to veto.
  
  "If you earn over $16,000 in income, your taxes are going" [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:11pm EDT
  

• Tim Pawlenty, Jason Lewis address Tax Cut Rally

  
  Thousands gathered Saturday afternoon at the Tax Cut Rally at the Minnesota State Capitol, many for the second time in as many months, to hear speakers, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty and nationally syndicated talk radio host [...]
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  Posted: May 02, 2009, 9:40pm EDT
  

• SD 43 online

  My Senate District BPOU, SD 43 Republicans, has launched its new and improved web site at sd43gop.com. I have had virtually no time to devote to help work on this site, so kudos to the SD 43 web team for a beautiful start.
  
  With this central contact point [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 7:18pm EDT
  

• Tax and bonding bills reach conference committees

  If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
  If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
  If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat
  If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet
  Taxman!
  'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
  —"Taxman" by George Harrison

  
  

  As' [...]

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  Posted: April 29, 2009, 11:38am EDT
  

• Missing at Tea Parties: right wing extremists

  Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson got it exactly right in his assessment of the Saint Paul Tax Day Tea Party ("Perception of Tea Parties was incorrect," Star Tribune, April 26).
  ...I saw thousands of average, hard-working Minnesota taxpayers (many with family in tow) respectfully voicing deep concerns about the [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 7:41am EDT
  

• Seifert and Brod review the DFL tax bill

  Check out this video of Monday's press availability of House Minority Leader Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) and Rep. Laura Brod (R-New Prague), Republican Lead on the House Taxes Committee. It very clearly explains why the DFL budget raises spending to unsustainable' [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2009, 8:27am EDT
  

• Saint Paul Tea Party speakers call followers to action

  
  
  Twila Brase, President of the Citizens' Council on Health Care: "Do we want to be the land of 10,000 bureaucrats?"
  
  Jim Schottmuller, 2008 Ramsey County Commissioner candidate: "Get involved..."
  
  Chris Baker, 100.3 KTLK-FM: "We're not going away." [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2009, 8:25am EDT
  

• Could Dave Thompson lead the MNGOP back to principled conservatism...

  
  
  ...or lead principled conservatives to a third party?
  
  In the days after the national Tax Day Tea Parties, the GOP had better wake up and smell the tea. Within several weeks, thousands of everyday citizens organized themselves into hundreds of rallies in towns large and small [...]
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  Posted: April 17, 2009, 7:48am EDT
  

• Thousands at Capitol say they are "Taxed Enough Already"

  
  
  An orderly yet passionate crowd of several thousand gathered on the south steps of the Minnesota State Capitol yesterday evening for the Saint Paul Tax Day Tea Party to protest high taxes, deficit spending, and excessive government intrusion, especially from the federal government. The bright white capitol [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2009, 11:28am EDT
  

• Minnesota budget solutions

  Serious, principle-based budget solutions have been proposed by two Minnesota groups. They merit serious consideration by the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty to solve the state's $6.4 billion budget deficit. As an informed citizen and taxpayer, you should check them out, too, and let your legislator know what' [...]
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  Posted: April 10, 2009, 7:39am EDT
  

• Your community is about to be organized

  "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." —Groucho Marx
  
  If you like what Congress and President Obama have done to "fix" the banks and the auto industry, wait until you see what they have in store for [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2009, 8:05pm EDT
  

• Fresh air from the Hollywood center-right [sic]

  The Pop Tarts section of FoxNews.com captured some refreshingly strong and articulate political views from TV's Law and Order star Angie Harmon this week. Harmon's wide-ranging comments went from racial political correctness to Sarah and Bristol Palin to bigotry [...]
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  Posted: April 01, 2009, 11:39am EDT
  

• Peer production

  "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing it." —Rick Santelli in his February 19, 2009 "rant of the year" on CNBC
  
  It has never been easier to find [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2009, 11:41am EDT
  

• American idol

  statism (n) : the basic concept that sovereignty is vested not in the people but in the national state, and that all individuals and associations exist only to enhance the power, the prestige, and the well-being of the state. The fascist concept of statism repudiates individualsm and exalts [...]
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  Posted: March 24, 2009, 12:20pm EDT
  

• SD 43 elects new exec committee

  The Senate District 43 (SD 43) Republicans conducted their BPOU convention on Saturday. SD 43 elected its pro tem chair (following the death last June of Frank Weir) Greg Merz as its new chair, and elected new vice chairs for their House district groups. Norann Dillon will chair the [...]
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  Posted: March 23, 2009, 8:03am EDT
  

• The seven percent solution

  The Senate DFL is getting a lot of grief for their seven percent, across-the-board budget cut proposal. Sen. Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis) sounded several fiscally conservative notes at a Thursday press conference announcing the proposal, which includes a $1 billion cut to K-12 education over the 2010-2011 biennium budget. He spoke [...]
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  Posted: March 13, 2009, 11:41am EDT
  

• Married to the MOB

  I arrived late —around 8 pm — at this year's Minnesota Organization of Bloggers (MOB) reunion party at Keegan's, but it was like walking into a place where everybody knows your name. Quintessential MOB host Mitch Berg (Shot in the Dark and Northern Alliance Radio Network) hailed [...]
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  Posted: March 09, 2009, 12:31pm EDT
  

• Performance pay for legislators

  Now that the Legislature's so-called "listening sessions" have been staged, it's time for the Legislature to get serious about how they are going to dig the state out of its multi-billion dollar budget deficit. I am not sure how necessary a listening tour is in this age of the Internet, [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2009, 12:04pm EST
  

• Online media: no respect

  I don't get no respect. I played hide-and-seek, and they wouldn't even look for me. &mdash Rodney Dangerfield
  
  When Rep. Steve Smith (R-Mound) attempted to amend the rules of the Minnesota House to include online journalists, Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) simply ruled it out of order. According [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2009, 7:09pm EST