It’s probably quite easy to discern from reading this blog that I’m quite enamored of North Dakota’s capitol building. I photograph it often, my little boys love to visit its halls and peer down from the observation deck windows, and of course there are the holiday adornments in its windows at various times of the year. Pretty cool, I must say…even if I’m a little bit biased.
Minnesota Republican representative Matt Dean, however, thinks otherwise. According to this article, he had plenty to say about our state’s headquarters:
“Has anyone seen North Dakota’s Capitol? It’s like State Farm calling: ‘We want our building back.’ …It’s embarassing.”
Ahem. Not only is our capitol distinctive but it’s also quite reserved and pragmatic in its design. It’s no opulent palace or apotheosis of government overspending…and we like it fine. Besides, according to that Forum article, Minnesotans need to “repair [their capitol’s] crumbling outside walls, its outdated electrical system and interior that is falling apart” …it sounds like they are the ones who need to be embarrassed about their capitol!
Unlike Minnesota’s, our capitol building is in fine shape…with current electrical (and ample backup generation) as well as free wireless internet tip-to-toe and a cafeteria with an AWESOME taco bar on Wednesdays, it seems far more habitable than its neighbor to the east.
Perhaps if Minnesota wasn’t known for being the nation’s biggest welfare state – with nearly forty percent of its state budget going to entitlement programs in 2009, for example – and put more money into infrastructure than they do into printing entitlement checks, they could afford to keep their state capitol building from crumbling. Until then, go ahead and take your petty pot-shots…we can take it.
By the way, which do you think Minnesota tax-n-spend legislators (including “Republican” Matt Dean”) will accomplish first: repairs to their already neglected, dilapidated capitol building, or a brand new taxpayer-funded stadium for the lackluster Minnesota Vikings?
I took the opportunity to flex my media credentials and pop in at the Republican Party state convention last weekend – it’s been pretty hectic since then so this is the first opportunity I’ve taken to sit down and go through some of the photos. Here you see the entrance to the Civic Center arena – I had to camp out a little bit until the red carpet was clear. There was a LOT of activity that Saturday afternoon.
One of the first things I found photo worthy was the men’s room. That’s a spooky sentence to type – no, I’m not a weirdo, I just found the way that this bathroom was wallpapered to be quite entertaining. It should have been no surprise; the entire Civic Center (including the fences outside!) was so adorned.
Even funnier than the rest of the john was this clever sign tacked onto each hot air hand dryer. If I only got one photo out of the whole adventure, this would be my choice. I love a campaign with a sense of humor!
Drew Wrigley, current Lieutenant Governor, candidate and nominee. His youngest is trying hard to cause a wardrobe malfunction in the background. Kids and animals…you should never share a stage with ’em. 🙂
My friend Kurt, consummate professional and one of my role models in this business, technical director of the video portion of the show. He was joined by a veritable “Who’s Who” of veteran broadcast video talent. My friends Mike, Scott, Dan, and Marty were also part of the crew. The GOP was in good hands that day.
Of course I got some of these eagle-eye photos by climbing around in the catwalks up near the ceiling of the Civic Center. It’s funny, I can dangle around in the rafters of buildings like the FargoDome or our own little Civic Center, over the ledge at the top of the Capitol, or atop heavy equipment while it’s operating…but I cling to an eight foot stepladder with white knuckles. Go figure.
Due to some other photographic commitments I was unable to catch much of this convention, including the keynote speaker and some fireworks over the delegate selection debacle. The party is going through some interesting times as newly-active conservatives like myself begin to join the party and assert themselves. I think it’s a good thing.
The lesson I took away from this convention is that we are EXTREMELY energized. Seriously. The atmosphere was unmistakable. While the Democrats could barely get a small assembly to their convention with their beloved Bill Clinton as speaker, we had the Civic Center bursting at the seams. People were upbeat, energetic, and motivated for November. It was a great sight to behold, and I’m confident that North Dakota conservatives are geared up for a long and successful fight to restore liberty and responsibility to our government.
I was thrilled when I heard that Rick Green was coming to New Song Church last weekend, because I’m a huge fan of his work with Wallbuilders. This was an afternoon presentation on the Constitution and the Christianity of the founders of our nation, and the information presented was extremely eye-opening and educational.
If you haven’t visted the Wallbuilders website, you simply must do so. And even better is the daily half-hour Wallbuilders Live podcast. With a tagline like “The intersection of faith and politics” this show is enlightening and puts current issues in the context of the country’s founding documents and the faith of those responsible for them.
There was plenty of Q&A which ranged from current affairs and the upcoming elections to the original intent of the founders and some very interesting technical “nuts & bolts” about the Constitution (including some common misconceptions), the role of the courts, and the powers of the branches of the federal government. If this sounds like dry stuff to you, you’re mistaken.
I found out about this at the last minute or I’d have posted more about it earlier, giving people time to call New Song and RSVP to attend. The cost was $10 and pizza was provided (yum). The next time Rick comes to town, I’ll make sure to help New Song promote his visit and encourage you to come! In the mean time, check out Rick’s website and the Wallbuilders Live podcast.
I originally brainstormed the root idea for this post a month and a half ago – I actually made this graphic on February 3rd – but in light of a bunch of other posts I’m reading around the web coming to the same conclusion, I figured I’d finally get around to a little stream-of-consciousness here.
My friend Rob and I are not the only ones noticing that there are two Heidi Heitkamps running for office this year: there’s the relatively conservative, “North Dakota Values” type of Heidi Heitkamp running here in North Dakota, while there’s a “leftest of the leftists” Heidi Heitkamp running on the national stage.
She’s been going on a magical mystery tour with a bunch of leftist Democrat women “standing up for women’s rights” out of state, while claiming support for a religious exemption here at home. Notice in the Fargo Forum article I linked here, that even the stenographers and apologists at the Forum are forced to point out that she’s one candidate here and a totally different candidate nationally…although from a sympathetic point of view (natch).
Lest you forget, here’s Heidi addressing a bunch of her “progressive” buddies and union front groups after Obamacare was stuffed down our throats against the wishes of a vast majority of North Dakotans:
And here’s a recent ad in which she appears along with some of the more radical elements of the Democrat party in support of forcing the American people to pay for other people’s contraception and abortion-inducing drugs despite their religious objections:
By the way – has anyone actually tried to ban contraception? Nope. We just don’t want to pay for it. Apparently in the eyes of Heidi Heitkamp, that’s a sin. Notice how they will NOT mention the abortifacients: no, they know they’d lose that battle in a landslide. Instead, they re-frame and misrepresent the argument, claiming that Republicans want to BAN contraception entirely.
By the way, North Dakota has a LOT of people who profess one manner of religious faith or another…does Heitkamp really think that they’ll enjoy being forced to finance the sexual habits of everyone else including abortion-inducing drugs? Apparently she does, at least outside of North Dakota’s borders where she espouses that view.
Then you’ve got good old Gaylord “Kent” Conrad. For years he harped on President Bush about deficits that look like a monthly allowance next to the spending habits of the Democrat-controlled Congress since 2006. At President Obama’s behest it’s only gotten worse, with deficits so huge they have to be expressed in numbers typically only used in astronomy!
Don’t expect any accountability on these folks, either: Kent Conrad has been under ethics investigation forever, but the Democrats have buried it the best they could…even to the point of changing the locks on the committee room doors so that Republicans couldn’t join the investigation hearings! The Democrats have so far managed to whitewash the whole thing and claim nothing happened. How did this appear in the North Dakota media? It didn’t, until:
As far as I recall, he wasn’t “cleared” – the investigation was merely dropped. If you want to see the tip of the iceberg on his misdeeds that even a blogger from Bismarck can uncover, click here.
Which brings me back to my original point: you cannot afford to elect a Democrat, not even for dog catcher or meter maid. Why? You don’t want to be responsible for advancing their political career even one tick, because before you know it you’ll have a Byron “Abramoff Skybox” Dorgan, Kent “Countrywide Mortgage” Conrad, Earl “Union Owned & Operated” Pomeroy, or Heidi “Two-Face” Heitkamp.
Regardless of how Heidi Heitkamp campaigns in North Dakota, or what she really believes, look at how she already behaves outside the state! At this very moment she’s walking in lockstep with radical leftist Democrats who have next to nothing in common with the values of the average North Dakotan. They’re the ones whose money and support she needs to try to get elected, and they are the ones to whom she will be indebted if (God forbid) she ever gets elected. Who do you think she’ll listen to before voting on legislation: you, or the Democrat Party machine which she needs to keep her in office?
If you think that a Senator Heitkamp would be any less duplicitous as Candidate Heitkamp, then you’re fooling yourself. If you doubt me, simply look at how Dorgan, Conrad, and Pomeroy played that same two-faced game for decades. They’d throw on a flannel shirt when they come to ND, talk about “our North Dakota way”, then jet-set back to Washington and vote 90% of the time with Kennedy, Pelosi, et al…while getting most of their campaign funding from out of state.
If you still aren’t convinced, let me put it another way:
– People who support abortion, including “partial birth” abortion where a child is delivered up to the neck and then killed with a spear to the brain, even to the point of killing a child who survived an abortion because “that was the mother’s original intent” anyway – vote Democrat.
– People who hate oil, coal and gas, want us to pay European gasoline prices ($8-10/gallon), want to shut down American power plants and kill American oil exploration while handing out billions to their “green energy cronies” – vote Democrat.
– People who want freedom from religion instead of freedom of religion… people who think “separation of church and state” (which appears in NO official document) applies to banning prayer from schools or the Ten Commandments from public property, but does not apply to the goverrnment forcing churches to pay for abortions against their doctrines – vote Democrat.
– People who want to “reinterpret” or abolish the 2nd Amendment and disarm the American people – vote Democrat.
– People who want to tell a landowner what they can and can’t do on their property if they discover an endangered bug, vermin, or other critter on it – vote Democrat.
– People who scream “keep your laws off my body” but want to force their government healthcare system on yours – vote Democrat.
– People who scream “keep the government out of my bedroom” but want you to pay for what they do in there – vote Democrat.
– People who claim that America is the source of evil in the world, want to dismantle our national defenses, and treat dictators and Islamic theocracies as moral equivalents to the United States – vote Democrat (or Ron Paul).
I could go on and on, but you get the picture…and it ain’t pretty. It doesn’t matter if some local Democrat candidate sounds somewhat decent in their campaign for local or state office: at the end of the day, they’re beholden to the activists and perverted ideologies I listed above.
North Dakota Democrats have to follow their party leadership and ideologies, which is the same bunch of twisted activist radicals who have put us in this current predicament. You elect a Democrat, you’re giving all the above a foot in the door…a foot which will someday occupy the boot on your neck.
While out on the road I keep an eye out for things like windmills (obviously) and old farm equipment like threshing machines. Even one who doesn’t naturally look for those things would have no trouble at all spotting this one along Highway 200.
As you can see, the owner is no fan of President Obama or Senator Kent Conrad, and has no problem outlining the relationship between the two. You’ll get no disagreement from me on this one, especially in their duplicitous behavior toward our state’s energy industry (of which I’m particularly proud). Besides, that’s one of the more inventive uses I’ve seen for an obsolete 1-meter C-band satellite dish lately.
If you’ve got an idea what this is all supposed to mean, post a comment. It’s got me more curious than anything I’ve seen along the enchanted highway. I’m familiar with the hand gesture given by the figure on the left…the Democrats have been giving this country the bird since they gained control of Congress in 2006. Why they’re chasing ducks I’m not exactly sure, so I’ll leave that open for your input.
You know the Democrat Party has really screwed things up when normally reserved North Dakotans are putting up displays like these and attending protest rallies in the hundreds. Normally we just go about our business and want to be left alone, so for a political party to elicit these kinds of reactions speaks volumes.
On my way out of the office earlier this week, I saw Monica Hannan open “First News at 5:00” with a story touting an interesting poll. It claimed that a majority of Catholics’ opinion of President Obama hadn’t changed in light of the Obamacare mandate on “contraception.”
I was surprised to hear this poll reported as credible on KFYR, because it ignores two very important facts:
1- The pro-abort crowd has WON this issue if they continue to refer to it as a “contraception” issue. Go back to those same professing Catholics, poll ’em again AFTER reminding them that the mandate also includes ABORTION drugs. Look up what an “abortifacient” drug is, or a “morning after” pill. Guess what: the Catholic church is going to have to hand THOSE out too. My guess is that at a LOT of Catholics who don’t mind strapping on prophylactics in defiance of the Pope would have a real problem with handing out abortion drugs!
2- It’s not just an issue of contraception, or even abortion. It goes far more fundamental. Let’s simplify the scenario for a second:
Government: “Hey, church – we want you to do ‘X’ and we’re going to require it by law.”
Church: “Um…no. ‘X’ is against our beliefs and teachings, and has been for centuries.”
Government: “Well, that’s too bad. We’re going to make you do ‘X’ anyway. After a week of bad press, we’ll claim it’s the insurance companies paying for ‘X’, but you’re still going to do it. Besides, your membership’s doing ‘X’ in secret anyway…regardless of your church’s belief.”
So what’s the right answer for the churches or practicing Catholics to give here? I’ll give you a hint: it’s NOT one of acquiescence.
And by the way, it’s NOT just a Catholic issue. Just because Christian churches don’t have a tenet forbidding contraceptives, they are ALL united against abortion. That’s what brought Catholic, Christian, Jewish, and even Muslim groups together in unity against this mandate. But you don’t hear anything about that anymore, do you?
This is how the media works to further leftist agendas: with a vacuum. They locked the issue of mandatory government-funded abortion into a vacuum chamber, and only reported on “the contraception issue.” Not only did that take the worst part of the issue out of the argument completely, but it also sliced those unified groups apart and focused only on the Catholic church, an organization liberals knew they could easily roll over. Divide and conquer, 21st century style.
I’m not surprised at how many Catholics have fallen hook, line, and sinker for it…given the fact that the Catholic Church has given in to liberal progressivism long ago in what Paul Rahe calls “Catholicism’s Pact with the Devil.”
I haven’t been able to reconcile the philosophy that a centralized government is a bad thing with the philosophy that putting all local spending in the hands of a centralized state government is a good thing. The problem with the property tax lies with local governments, and that’s where it needs to be fixed. Measure 2 will not accomplish this. In fact, I think it’s an example of bad mechanics.
Our legislature meets part time for eighty days every two years…that is supposed to be sufficient to take on the responsibility of managing ALL local spending for the state? Not likely. Just the support structure required for the legislature to assume the additional oversight duties would amount to a huge balloon in spending and bureaucracy – and we all know how well that works out for the general citizen.
State spending under the guidance of our legislative body has soared time and time again, with no apparent frugality to be found anywhere. Now, according to Measure 2 proponents, this same legislative body is expected to be the responsible party and rein in all this rampant overspending and over-taxation by the local government bodies. These same local entities, I might add, have a pretty decent lobby already in place with the Association of Counties et cetera. Riiiiight. Am I the only one who lacks faith in the fiscal virtue of our legislature? What happens if the Democrats ever get control of it someday and cut loose the purse strings even further?
Remember Governor Hoeven’s ill-fated “property tax relief”? It was a shell game which did little if anything to relieve property taxes in the short term, but it hung the issue squarely around the neck of the state legislature. I remind you that the legislature neither levies nor collects property taxes – but thanks to this blunder, they own it in the eyes of the people.
I read another interesting point about rural counties a while ago. Much of the land in these counties is owned by non-residents. If the property tax goes away, it will not be replaced by income or sales tax from these people; they’re not here to pay it. This will in essence defund many counties, instead requiring the rest of North Dakotans to ante up to pay the difference.
This proposed measure, Measure 2, is an ill-fitting band-aid. We all agree that local (city/county) governments are abusing their power to spend money, assess property values, and levy property taxes; however, this measure does nothing to address that. It takes the idea of spending out of the hands of one bunch of free-spenders and puts it in the hands of another, one which meets once every two years, is barely allowed enough time to finish its business, and has proven itself no more responsible with taxpayer dollars than the local entities this measure aims to dethrone. The stand against abusive property taxes, if it really wants to enjoy any measurable success, needs to be taken at the local level…period.
The Bismarck Tribune recently ran this article stating that Wayne Sanstead hasn’t decided on whether or not he’ll be running for another term as head of North Dakota’s Department of Public Instruction. He asserts that health and tradition play a factor. I’d like to see another very important factor come into play.
Here’s my post about when they actually pulled it off, just like they’d planned. The Bismarck Tribune, by the way, printed a glowing article making DPI’s Sandra Tibke look like a cross between a martyr and a modern day Mother Teresa. It’s no wonder that, if you try to comment on the Sanstead story highlighting things that concern you about this garbage taking place during his term of service, those comments never reach the light of day.
I admit, I only visit the comments section of the Bismarck Tribune website very infrequently…and only when I find myself with a few dozen extra IQ points I want to shave off by subjecting myself to the comments posted therein. But this time, when I decide to chime in with something that doesn’t fit the agenda, it never got posted. The Bismarck Tribune is very transparent on where they stand on the issue.
If Wayne Sanstead does choose to run for re-election, this needs to come out. Regardless of your views on homosexuality, is the public school classroom really the place for advocacy? Do we really want to put our teachers in that position, whether they want it or not? Do North Dakota parents want to cede parental authority in matters of morality and sexuality to their children’s schools, whose view on these matters is obvious and agenda-driven? Under Sanstead’s leadership, DPI’s position seems to be in the affirmative on all counts. We need to stop this, and put an end to his term as head of DPI.
Last week I attended a “town hall” style meeting for the Fix the Tax movement. I was interested in hearing what they have to say, and to me it makes sense: keeping North Dakota’s oil extraction tax competitive with other states will keep the oil companies drilling here, which in turn generates revenue and jobs (in other words, prosperity) for North Dakota.
On the panel above are radio host Scott Hennen, Dustin Gawrylow (ND Taxpayers’ Association), former Governor Ed Schafer, Brett Narloch (ND Policy Council), and Grover Norquist. Each had something very interesting to say from a different standpoint.
After each presented their ideas about the extraction tax, microphones made their way around the room for people to chime in. There were plenty of stories about rigs moving to states with lower taxes, even now. Governor Ed made the point that North Dakota only sees revenue when oil is extracted from the ground, not when one pilot well is drilled.
The math would seem to be in their favor: where one well is being drilled now, three or four would be drilled with a lower extraction tax. Knock off a percentage point in order to compete with Montana, for instance, and triple the output, and the result is more revenue for North Dakota. That means more money for infrastructure, et cetera.
Want more details to make up your own mind? Visit FixTheTax.com to hear what they have to say.
Talk about recognition given where it was deserved! Many of us were left scratching our heads when Earl Pomeroy ran his “Introduce” ad, in which he tried to appear all conciliatory and ended up looking simply pathetic. You can view the original video here, but it’s hard to watch.
In a video I did around the same time, showing Earl Pomeroy’s deception and hypocrisy regarding his Social Security attacks, I mentioned that it made Earl Pomeroy remind us of a pouting ex-girlfriend, whining for us to take her back, even though she knows we’re sick of her nonsense. Again, I was baffled by his ad. You can view my Pomeroy Parody by clicking here.
The full list from National Journal is available by clicking here.
