Find out more about Minnesota's government at congress.org State legislature page State Constitution Secretary of State website

Marianne Stebbins (mstebbins) [Message] State coordinator Excelsior, MN 55331

Terry McCall [Message] State coordinator Burnsville, MN 55306

Continue to call Senators Klobuchar and Franken, urging them to co-sponsor S 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act.

Precinct Caucuses are fast-approaching!  Put the evening February 2 on your calendar for your local party meeting where delegates are first elected.

Complete information, including how to find your precent and answers to other questions, may be found on the MN Secretary of State's website.

The political parties holding caucuses include:

Constitution Party *
Web site: www.cpmn.org
(Caucuses: To be determined)

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
Web site: www.dfl.org
Caucuses: February 2, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Green Party *
Web site: www.mngreens.org
Caucuses: February 2, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Independence Party
Web site: www.mnip.org
Caucuses: February 2, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Libertarian Party *
Web site: www.lpmn.org
(Caucuses: No caucuses in 2010)

Republican Party
Web site: www.mngop.com
Caucuses: February 2, 2010 at 7 p.m.

* These political parties may choose to hold caucuses, but are not required to do so under state statute.

Declaration of Health Care Independence -- Please Sign! Posted by mstebbins

Posted 03/09/10

Twila Brase, Citizens' Council on Health Care President asks us to please sign the Declaration of Health Care Independence:

At Saturday's rally at the State Capitol with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, CCHC would like to present her with the LARGEST stack of petitions imaginable against government-run health care!

Declaration of Health Care Independence (online)

Please sign one and send it in!

Also please let all your friends know about this EASY opportunity to support Congresswoman Bachmann's fight against the government takeover of health care!

Understanding parliamentary procedure Posted by Steve Rogers

Posted 02/20/10

Lately I been wondering why, if the Minnesota GOP wants new members to participate in the political process, and based on the radio ads prior to the recent caucuses I will assume that they do, that they do not make much of an effort to ensure that these new members feel a part of the process. For example, at my recent convention several newcomers approached me feeling lost and not understanding the basics of how a convention worked.

In response, several folks from the Minnesota Campaign for Liberty and myself created a video series on understanding the basics of parliamentary procedure. This gives a solid overview of the basics of conventions with its primary focus on Robert's Rules of Order, so as to help newcomers to the political process not only be more comfortable, but also better able to fulfill their role as a delegate.

I am frankly astonished that no such tool, even a paper handout, is made available by the MNGOP, and to my understanding none of the other major political parties, to their convention delegates. Is it any wonder that politics in any party is run by "the old guard"? In my short involvement in the game, I have seen a large percentage of newcomers fail to return, often not even coming to the next convention to which they were elected. While there are many reasons to be disgusted by politics, this, at least, is correctable rather easily.

Along with the video series, we have also made available a powerpoint presentation and a one page table of motions that is a very handy reference to have at a convention.

I hope you find this helpful, and if so, please feel free to pass it along as we go into the spring convention season.

Links to the vids and the files can be found at http://www.mnc4l.org/parliamentary-procedure/

Letter: A Second Revolution Posted by Terry McCall

Posted 01/29/10 Last updated 01/29/10

Some times a letter to the editor is so remarkable, so to the point that it needs to be posted in toto.

From the key leader in the Sovereignty movement in MN - Leon Moe, it says much.  Here is the link to the letter should you want to forward it.  http://www.swcbulletin.com/event/group/group/Opinion/

Published January 29 2010- South Washington County MN Bulletin - Leon Moe - Cottage Grove, MN

"A Second Revolution

In 1773 the People of Massachusetts made their voices heard loud and clear in a protest against taxes and corrupt English government at an event called the Boston Tea Party.

In 1773 the People of Massachusetts made their voices heard loud and clear in a protest against taxes and corrupt English government at an event called the Boston Tea Party. By all accounts this event was the beginning of the First American Revolution. Three years later on July 4, 1776, The Declaration of Independence was enacted, declaring us independent from the taxation and corruption of the English crown.

On Jan. 19, 2010, The People of Massachusetts again made their voices heard loud and clear against out-of-control government spending, taxation and corruption in an election that could very well signal the beginning of a second American Revolution. This beginning comes from the most liberal, progressive state in the Union which has not elected a conservative senator for nearly half a century.

It was interesting to note a news commentator mention that 51 percent of the voters were independent, not affiliated with any political party. In my personal view this is a great start! We need to continue to elect public servants that are willing to make their allegiance to the Constitution, which is non-partisan, greater than their allegiance to a political party, corporate lobbyists or self.

Much has been mentioned about the current health care proposal. Yes, I would agree that we need some health care reform. But when 82 percent of the American population is satisfied with their current health care and along comes a government proposal, much of it initiated and conducted behind closed doors, covering illegal immigrants and abortion and voted on at midnight and 3 a.m. in the morning to stuff it down our throats following election campaign promises for government transparency and open negotiations, it has a strong tendency to anger people! This type of government makes it much easier to understand why people are outraged!

Let the second American Revolution continue in November."

Thank you Leon Moe for your tiresless work for our Liberty.  For All concerned about Sovereignty, Leon and others will be "Greeting the Legislators Back" 9:45AM at the MN State Office Bldg. next Thursday Feb 4.  Let your voice be heard.  A Sovereignty bill is a great first step towards freedom.

Unprincipled Republican voters -> unprincipled Republican leadership Posted by Jonathan Kovaciny

Posted 01/23/10

My local paper recently published the following Letter to the Editor:

Your View: Republicans counting on forgetful electorate

Few political myths are more assiduously cultivated than the claim that Republicans are good for the economy. The lost decade of George W. Bush conclusively refutes that fiction, with its record bankruptcies, foreclosures, market collapse and towering under/unemployment.

It is the only decade in our history, reported The Washington Post, when not a single net new job was created. Because of Bush's "reverse Robin Hood," trickleup policies, middle income households had a lower net worth and made less at the end of the decade (inflation adjusted) than they did in 1999.

Over Bush's eight years, the Republicans financed three tax cuts, two wars and a $1 trillion prescription drug bill entirely through deficit spending, running up $5 trillion of debt. As Sen. Orrin Hatch recently declared, "It was standard practice not to pay for things."

Bush's presidency ended with an economic crisis and a $700 billion bank bailout that bequeathed Obama $1.2 trillion more debt.

House Republicans, proving that they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing since the Depression policies of Herbert Hoover, voted unanimously for a budget freeze as a solution.

Their other model is Ronald Reagan, who thought tax cuts were a miracle free lunch that, coupled with deregulation, paid for themselves. Republican orthodoxy repeats the free lunch myth but ignores the half-dozen tax increases Reagan passed, including TEFRA, the largest tax increase in history, and his $3 trillion in additional debt.

Despite the spectacular failure of their deregulatory and borrow-and-spend policies, Republicans hope that bafflegab and corporate money can sell their crony capitalism to the rubes again in 2010.

Their only hope is that voters have learned nothing and forgotten everything.

I replied to the editor with the following, which was published a few days ago:

Your View: Government interventions hurt economy

In his Your View, published Jan. 10, Tom Maertens asserts that Republicans, especially Bush, were bad for the economy. I agree with him on that point, but the problem is unprincipled Republicans, not Republican principles.

As such, both parties are to blame: Democrats tax and spend, Republicans borrow and spend, and, thanks to their sugar-daddy Federal Reserve, both parties print and spend. This is an unsustainable course.

At least the Democrats are candid about their desire to grow government; many Republican office-holders are duplicitous. I'd like Bush and our past Republican Congress to explain how exactly the prescription drug expansion and various bailouts and "stimulus" programs fit into the Republican Party platform and their lip service to free-market principles.

If Republican voters are smart enough to stop nominating, electing, and re-electing bad Republicans, we might actually get some good, principled Republicans, as well as enthusiastic volunteers, committed donors, and voters who aren't embarrassed to admit their party affiliation. In the long term, straight-ticket Republican voters have done more damage to the Republican Party than the Democrats.

Decades of market-distorting actions by Congress, along with the Fed's artificially low interest rates, inflated the dot-com and housing bubbles and culminated in a crash. Our current Congress and Administration are furiously attempting to re-inflate the bubble, but we're pretty well out of soap.

We are repeating the actions of Hoover and Roosevelt that turned the Crash of 1929 (itself a Fed-fueled bubble) into the Great Depression.

Left alone, the market will deal with problems and recover rapidly, as it did during the severe yet short-lived Depression of 1920-21. Instead, our government persists in reverse-Darwinist actions that prolong our suffering.

It turns out that Republicans don't think too much of public self-criticism by members of their own party. At my county's monthly GOP meeting (which fell the night my letter was published), I received a tongue-lashing from a local GOP state legislator for the letter, who was aghast that I dared to call George Bush an unprincipled man. The next day, I got a Facebook message from a local party member asking me to leave the GOP, and an email from the GOP District Chair asking to talk to me in person about the letter because he had gotten a number of calls of concern from party activists in the district.

How exactly does the GOP plan to hold on to its principles if it never actually tries to hold on to them?

Such has been our patient sufferance Posted by ndillon

Posted 01/21/10

A reminder for those of you that I've known since 2008...
An invitation for those of you I've connected with since then...

I hear people saying "throw the bums out!" but that won't work if there's another bum waiting in the wings.

We need to educate our fellow Minnesotans that trying to change the direction of our country by voting in November is TOO LATE! As unpalatable as partisan politics is for many Liberty and/or Tea Party Patriots, they need to understand that choosing candidates really starts on caucus night.

Why climb the fortress walls when we can walk right in the front door on February 2nd?

Learn about caucus if you're new to the process. The grassroots activity of the parties is just a neighborhood meeting - that's all.

Go to caucus and become a delegate - these are the people who make the decisions for the party! Volunteer to be a delegate.

Be ready and willing to attend your district/county convention later in the month to cast your vote for candidates and resolutions that support and reaffirm the principles that created this country.

We are very fortunate to have a peaceful process for altering our government - the 56 gentlemen who signed the Declaration of Independence did not. It is your right, it is your duty to send the message that we are no longer disposed to suffer.

Go to caucus.

And bring a friend.