Say Anything Blog

Here is another person that gets it right. The tax revenue is ours, it beliongs to the people of North Dakota. If your state has a billion dollar surplus that means the state is confiscating too much of our money.

North Dakotans deserve a share of the revenue
Published Sunday, August 10, 2008
GRAND FORKS — Responding to Lynn Hellebust’s letter that criticized American’s for Prosperity and its initiated measure that will reduce North Dakota’s personal income tax by 50 percent and corporate income tax by 15 percent, I am having trouble understanding why anyone would oppose a measure that will put more money in the pockets of every taxpayer in North Dakota (“Group has billionaires’ interests at heart,” Page A4, July 29).

Obviously, Hellebust feels that the government knows how to spend our money better than the citizens do. Hellebust also must believe that the state is not taxing its citizens enough. If that is the case, I know for a fact that the state of North Dakota will accept a check that Hellebust would offer to further boost the record revenues that will be collected this biennium.

With gas at $4 a gallon, milk pushing $5 a gallon and everything else costing the citizens of North Dakota much more than in the past, I think the citizens also deserve to benefit from the projected billion- dollar surplus that we will have this biennium. During the last legislative session, state spending increased about 23 percent. The government benefited last session. This session, it is time for the people to benefit. Remember, the 23 percent increase in spending was made possible from tax dollars paid in by the citizens. Don’t you think they deserve some of it back?

Lynn, we will be looking forward to your check. Thank you for continuing to support our fine state.

Mike Motschenbacher

Cross Posted @ Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck

Yeah; this person should be applauded for asking all of the right questions. This person got it right when she said that we want tax relief, and we don’t want to pay for some silly lights. When will the Grand Forks City Council get it that we don’t need this silly fluffy project? Give us some of our money back. I am sick and tired of the Grand Forks City Council spending our money like a bunch of druken sailors.

In the mail: Tax relief, not Christmas lights

GRAND FORK — When will the City Council realize that it is not a myth that many of Grand Forks’ citizens would prefer lower property taxes (thanks, Terry and Mike) to short-term, high cost, fluff-type projects?

Spending this huge amount of money on Christmas lights, which also requires labor (possibly overtime) and extra electricity (I thought the mayor was supposed to be promoting a Green City .?.?. even using LEDs, the lights will still look like energy hogs) this only reinforces the City Council’s current image of “spending like drunken sailors.” It just adds to the endless saga that includes the $30,000 buffalo sculpture gift to our ex-sister city in Japan, the amazingly creative ballooning of the mayor’s office, the $180,000-something 10-year flood party, etc.

It’s nice to think that the lights would bring in visitors, which in turn would increase sales taxes. But it is too much like a health club that neglects its longtime members while soliciting new memberships. All of a sudden, the long-timers are gone, and the manager can’t figure out why.

I have a win-win idea regarding the Christmas lights. Let private donations create the Christmas Lights Fund. Let’s challenge the City Council members and city administration who believe this is a necessary and brilliant idea to write out the first checks to get the funds going. Citizens who have money to spare can add to the fund. Then, the city will be prettier for these six weeks out of the year, maybe visitors will come to add to the sales tax revenue, and, hopefully, the rest of us can get property tax relief.

Bev Benda-Moe

The Wall Street Journal had an article about on August first and I have to agree with the premise and it makes a lot of sense. Unions are killing this country with their outrageous demands that they make. I don’t know what the Huffpost is all upset about but they are right, a vote for Obama could cost you your job. It’s right. If politicians start forcing people to pay a certain wage, businesses will cut their loses and cut workers or shut down their business all together. Of course Obama and the left don’t get this.  Andrew Wilkow is right and these out of touch left wingers don’t get it. 

What apparently has Wal-Mart executives’ panties in a snit is the belief that if Obama becomes president it’s more likely that its employees will unionize, which is something the notoriously stingy employer fears. Wal-Mart’s reputation as a lousy employer is legendary. Charges of low wages, poor benefits and overall workplace mistreatment have plagued the company for years.

At issue now is a bill, co-sponsored by Obama and opposed by the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain, that could force the retail giant’s hand and serve to appreciably lighten its pocketbook. The measure, called the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow unions to organize workplaces without secret ballot elections, thus making it much easier to turn companies from non-union to union. Should this happen at Wal-Mart, it would cost the company bazillions, eating into its sizable earnings. Wal-Mart recently reported first quarter 2008 profits of over $3-billion, a 6.9% increase over last year. Our collective hearts bleed for them, huh?

So what exactly is Wal-Mart up to? The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the company has been holding mandatory Chicken Little meetings with store managers and department supervisors warning that the bill would likely pass in an Obama administration and that that would negatively impact its workers. To what degree the warnings were issued is not confirmed, but many Wal-Mart employees anonymously have said that the company’s message is quite clear: “a vote for Obama could mean a loss of jobs.” And while the company may not have specifically instructed any of its employees—be they management or rank-and-file—to vote specifically for McCain, the intention is obvious: “We don’t like Obama. We don’t like Unions. Obama will unionize us. That will hurt business and result in massive layoffs. We do not want Obama to be president.” They don’t need to finish this with, “and if you vote for Obama you will lose your job.” The perceived threat is already there. Of course, Wal-Mart denies that it’s threatened or intimidated its workers.

As expected, right-wing spinheads are rushing to Wal-Mart’s defense. On his national Sirius Satellite Radio program Friday, The Wilkow Majority, Andrew Wilkow emphatically and repeatedly asserted that Wal-Mart, or any company for that matter, not only has the right to maintain whatever size workforce it so desires, but that it would be well within their right to warn employees outright that “If you vote for Obama you will be fired.”

In an email exchange, I pointed out to Wilkow that not only is his suggestion unconscionable in terms of voter intimidation, but that it was convoluted in its enforceability. How would Wal-Mart know who their employees voted for? And how, therefore, could they fire only those who voted for Obama? It’s moronic no matter how you slice it.

This is what has the left all up in arms; Andrew Wilkow chimes in on the debate…

Wilkow replied:



“What I said was that a company has the right to inform the workers of the stark reality of the effect the election may have on their business. I wasn’t endorsing voter intimidation. A company doesn’t have any obligation to maintain a particular number of employees or production output. If a company feels that the political climate is going to add weight or cost to doing business a company is free to cut staff or production. If that is not the case then who is going to force a company to maintain said levels of production and staff or stay in business at all for that matter?”

Cross posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck

This is the new McCain ad. This a really good, I really like it, the ad
hits all of the bases…

Cross Posted @ Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck

I wonder if the price of gas is finally hitting at the Fargo Forum and finally now sees a need for concern on off shore drilling. They are a day late and a dollars hort. I am actually shocked that the Fargo Forum makes mention of Nancy Pelosi and how she is obstructing drilling, because she is the leader of Earl Pomeroy’s do nothing democratic caucus. Ussually the Fargo Forum fails to hold the team North Dakota democrats accountable and ussually goes with the status quo. I mean hey they are still bringing home the bacon to North Dakota; right?

For once the Fargo Forum is getting it right, ex-post facto, there should be a vote on whether or not to have off shore drilling. Pelosi doesn’t want to have a vote because she knows that she will lose and she is being propped up by the Green/environmental movement and by George Soros and moveon.org who is against off shore drilling and for higher gas prices.

Lets be frank; the will of all American people is not being heard. The vote for offshore drilling is being held up by empty suits in Washington. The voice of all people needs to be heard, not just the voice of left leaning environmental extremism.

This is a winning issue in the 2008 elections. I believe the left over stepping its bounds and taking way too much stock in the false science know as the green environmental movement.

Today’s issue: House Speaker says no to a vote on off-shore oil drilling.

Our position: Despite her pledge, she’s engaging in partisan politics of the worst kind.

When Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they pledged to change the way the House was operated by Republicans, who, Democrats said, were autocratic and harshly partisan. Democrats under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi aren’t living up to the pledge.

The latest display of partisan arrogance from Pelosi was her refusal to allow a House vote on lifting the ban on offshore drilling for oil. President Bush lifted the ban that was imposed by his father, but Congress needs to follow through in order to give states the option to drill. Pelosi would not schedule a vote.

Whether one favors or opposes more offshore oil drilling is really not the issue.

This is about allowing the people’s Representatives to vote on the matter – to put them on the record. Could it be that Pelosi, who is in the hip pocket of the environmental fringe, knows that lifting the drilling ban would pass? Could it be she knows that enough of her Democrats would join Republicans to lift the ban? Could it be she’s just avoiding the embarrassment of losing a big one?

It looks as if Americans will never know. She shut down the House for the August recess without acting on what could be one of the most important pieces of the energy puzzle. In league with hapless and numbingly incompetent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Pelosi is playing politics with the nation’s most pressing domestic issue.

Both Democratic leaders claim oil companies have thousands of acres under lease already but have not been exploiting them. It’s not that simple. Leases expire, turn over and often prove to be without the potential they were thought to have. At more than $130 per barrel, oil companies are pumping as much as they practically can.

Moreover, oil companies already operating in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore locations have demonstrated good – not perfect – environmental records.

But old and existing leases should not be an excuse for locking up areas with potential for new oil finds. The focus should be on offshore areas that have not been fully explored but show great promise. Pelosi is playing politics with the nation’s energy welfare, and therefore with the pocketbooks of families and businesses.

If the speaker believes she’s changed the way the House was run by Republicans, she’s mistaken. Indeed, her haughty partisanship is worse. Tom “The Hammer” DeLay, the disgraced Texas congressman who ran roughshod over Democrats during his tenure as Republican majority leader, would be proud.

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board

Thanks to Matt from the Duane Sands campaign for the heads up on this one.

Cross Posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck.

So according to Earl Pomeroy it is OK to drill on Indian Reservation’s but not in the ocean off the coast of the USA.

The bold letters are the key; OK so lets fix this by drilling in the ANWAR and on both of the coast and off the coast of Florida. Lets stop cow towing to left-wing extremism. Stop obstructing on having a vote and lets allow the oil companies to open up other ares to gas exploration and drilling.

Pomeroy Urges Interior Secretary to Improve Energy Development on Fort Berthold
Washington, D.C. – In a letter today, Congressman Earl Pomeroy urged Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne to improve energy development on Bakken Shale by streamlining the approval process for oil and gas exploration on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.  Due to bureaucratic delays within the Department of the Interior and a shortage of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) resources, there have been significant and unnecessary delays in the oil and gas development on the Reservation. 

“Folks in North Dakota and around the country are feeling the crunch at the pump,” said Congressman Pomeroy. “The rich, Bakken formation promises great opportunities to increase the domestic energy supply, but we are not taking full advantage of this important opportunity. 

The Bakken formation in North Dakota, which the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation sits on, is estimated to contain as much as 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil.  However, due to bureaucratic delays within the Department of the Interior and a shortage of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) resources, there have been significant and unnecessary delays in the oil and gas development on the Reservation, leaving Fort Berthold behind non-Indian lands in North Dakota. 

“More can and should be done by BIA to help us drill this land more quickly and more efficiently,” said Congressman Pomeroy. 

In a meeting last week, Congressman Pomeroy met with Fort Berthold Indian Reservations leaders who have several proposals to improve upon an action plan created by Secretary Kempthorne to enhance energy development on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.  In his letter, Pomeroy calls on Secretary Kempthorne to promptly consider these recommendations and work with him to develop next steps to better take advantage of the opportunity the Bakken formation presents.

Cross Posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck

You have to listen to this moron. Inflating your tires is not going to have that big of an impact on the oil crisis, come on lets not be silly. Drilling, drilling, drilling and then refining all of this oil that was just recovered from the earth; that is the only thing that is going to solve the energy crisis. It is called supply and demand. Besides; my tires are already inflated to the proper tire pressure. This guys is a fucken idiot.

Here is the empty suits comments:

It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.

They think it’s funny that they’re making fun of something that is actually true.

No it is you BHO that is ignorant. Does anyone else find his voice annoying?

Cross Posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck...

Former village idiot and disgraced former Grand Forks city council man ”little Johnny Hoff” is back to spewing his disgusting hate rhetoric again. Yawn… From time to time former Grand Forks Resident John Hoff will surface to take another shot at North Dakota, Grand Forks, UND or Ralph Englestad. This time the unamusing John Hoff is attacking the statue in front of the Ralph Englestad Arena. Oh course Hoff has nothing to back up his claims, nothing.

Now our favorite neighborhood moron has come to the conclusion that that “Sitting Bull” statue in front of Ralph Engelstad Arena is from Nazi Germany. Oh really? Please little Johnny what leads you to believe this? I suggest you put down the bong and go to work.

Please John tell us what evidence you have discovered that led you to believe that the 3rd Reich is responsible for the Sitting Bull Statue. Please tell us where you got your evidence? Please provide us with the facts, not innuendo. Also, just because the REA management doesn’t have the time of day to answer your silly questions and accusations that doesn’t mean you’re right.

IN THE MAIL: Engelstad Arena should come clean on statue

By John Hoff, Grand Forks Herald

Published Sunday, August 03, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS — Where did the “Sitting Bull” statue in front of Ralph Engelstad Arena come from? Who is the artist who created it? What specific Native American, if any, was it intended by the artist to depict?

After so many years, and with the UND “swastika scandal” fouling the very air of Grand Forks like the stench of Simplot, isn’t it about time to get the truth and to find answers, no matter where that might lead us?

FACT: No artist or country of origin ever has been revealed in regard to the statue in question.

FACT: Ralph Engelstad liked to collect antique Nazi bric-a-brac.

FACT: It is highly unusual, almost unheard of, for a statue to be installed and for nobody to know the name of the artist or the origin of the statue. Statues might sit around and their origins be forgotten, but newly installed statues are never anonymous. Why has everybody in Grand Forks looked the other way for so long? What shame is lurking in the shadows?

I strongly suspect the statue has origins in Nazi Germany. I am still waiting for management at Engelstad Arena to provide specifics — the name of the artist, the date and place of creation — to prove me wrong.

Check out Rob Port's Embittered Hack article on John Hoff...

Cross Posted @ Goon’s World

This McCain ad accurately illustrates how arrogant Obama really is. Yep he is the one WE have been waiting for.

Cross posted @ Goon’s North Dakota Redneck

This is a perfect example of why I think the democrats are dangerous and are trampling on the constitution and the first amendment. The left controls most of the MSM (print media and the three fourth of the major networks. Earlier this year I wrote the democrats from the state of North Dakota, receiving a letter back from Kent Conrad that basically said he would support the fairness doctrine if it came up.

Fairness Doctrine Vote Not Happening, House
Thursday, July 31, 2008

By Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer On the Spot (CNSNews.com) - A bill to permanently ban the “Fairness Doctrine” – a dormant FCC rule that says broadcasters, mainly talk radio, must grant equal air time to opposing viewpoints – probably will not be voted on this year in Congress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told CNSNews.com on

Majority Leader Hoyer also joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in strongly suggesting that he would support reactivating the Fairness Doctrine, telling CNSNews.com that he is interested in “ensuring the availability of fair and balanced information to the American public.”

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), however, who wrote the bill – the Broadcaster’s Freedom Act – which would permanently ban the Fairness Doctrine, expressed surprise at Hoyer’s statement on Wednesday. Pence said that if Democrats maintain a majority in Congress, he thinks there will be a movement to restore the Fairness Doctrine.

“No, I do not expect that bill [by Pence] to come to the floor, certainly not in the time that is remaining,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com. Hoyer’s office is in charge of scheduling which legislation is debated on the House floor.

“There is a real concern about the monopoly of information and the skewering of information that the American public gets,” said Hoyer. “First, is to the monopoly.

“Obviously, if one group, or a large group, controls information and only allows one perspective to be presented, that’s not good for democracy. That is not good for the American public. That is, of course, what the Fairness Doctrine is directed at, and it can have great merit. But there are obviously complications involved in that as well,” he said.

Pence, however, elaborated on why he thinks the Democrats will push to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine if they retain control of Congress.

“With the support of Speaker Pelosi and the majority leader for a return of the archaic legislation that, combined with the support of Senator Durbin, Senator Kerry, and Senator Feinstein, it seems very clear to me that should the next Congress remain in the hands of the Democrats, there will be an effort to restore the content regulation of the so-called Fairness Doctrine to the airwaves of America,” Pence told CNSNews.com.

Check out this article written by actor Jon Voight, he couldn’t be more right on BHO. Voight hits the nail on the head with this article. Of course the morons at the Huffpost didn’t like it.

VOIGHT: My concerns for America
Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people

OP-ED

We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.

Those same leaders who were in the streets in the ‘60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.

Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we’ve almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there’s not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend.

Gen. Wesley Clark, who himself has shame upon him, having been relieved of his command, has done their bidding and become a lying fool in his need to demean a fellow soldier and a true hero.

This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.

Jon Voight is an Academy Award-winning actor who is well-known for his humanitarian work.

I like to refer to Barack H Obama as being an empty suit, seriously the man has done nothing as a first term as a US Senator but run for the president of the United States of America. Now there is a new group of people Native Americans Against Obama that are less than impressed with BHO.

Seems Obama’s chair in the Senate has been empty a lot during some critical votes.
Cross Posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck

Here is a trailer from a new movie out this fall. It will be interesting to see what Stone comes up with. I am sure it won’t be good.

I found this article in the left leaning Capital Times from Madison Wisconsin. It would be interesting to see what DNC fringe group is funding his speaking tour? I mean seriously folk; what is the left going to gain by impeaching Bush with 7 months go in his term?

Impeachment town meeting in Madison Monday night
The Capital Times — 7/28/2008 8:34 am

Following a call for impeachment at a congressional hearing Friday, two town meetings are set Monday and Tuesday night in Madison and Milwaukee to discuss the possibility of the removal of President Bush and Vice President Cheney from office.

The town meetings will feature Vietnam war veteran Robert Bowman, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who is on a national speaking tour advocating impeachment.

The Madison “Take Back America” town meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday in Van Vleck Hall on Bascom Hill on the UW-Madison campus. The Milwaukee town meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Friends meeting house, 3224 N. Gordon Place.

The Madison town meeting also will feature national political writer and Capital Times associate editor John Nichols.

The town meetings are free, and will include discussion periods. For more information about the Madison meeting, contact Buzz Davis at 239-5354.

Cross posted @ Goon’s North Dakota Redneck

Here is some good stuff from the former speaker of the house Newt Gingrinch, funny he almost sounds presidential or he sounds better than the current Republican candidate. Think about it Newt is right on when he explains how silly the United States congress is sounding right now.

Cross posted @ Goon's North Dakota Red Neck