At the same time, this is how a free society functions, and without your essential dedication and voluntary service to your neighbors we all know the door can be left open for the slow advance of civil disorder and various kinds of malevolence that follows. Be proud of your accomplishment, but also remember that our livelihood depends upon your determination to continue offering your Republican neighbors the opportunity to represent themselves fairly, peacefully, and openly. While we are a minority in this district, most of you would agree that the Republicans administer the only viable political organization that claims, and sometimes does, recognize the natural rights of individuals to their lives, liberty, and property, rather than the alternative authoritarian viewpoint that we ought to be granted rights distributed by our government. We are the party that says, and sometimes behaves as though, when natural rights are breached we should restore a government ‘by the consent of the governed’ and remove the government ‘at the expense of the governed.’ The way I see it, if people can’t be trusted to be responsible for themselves and their neighbors, how can we expect an employee of government to be trusted to be responsible for populations of nameless, faceless dependents? This is the strength, in my opinion, behind the limited government message – a popular message that Democrats seem to universally reject and Republicans endorse to win elections, and then forget as soon as they get their hands on the purse strings. It seems to me ALL Republicans ought to not only pay lip service to this message, but also be held accountable for peacefully eliminating the systematic and non-consensual transfer of power and wealth from the people to an irresponsible, wasteful, and dangerous government.

And, if you believe this, it won’t bother you that our little Republican BPOU is outnumbered. While smaller, we have the unique opportunity to demonstrate an alternative to the politics of subjugation and dependency that surround us. We can do this by being a steadfast example to all that a peaceful, respectful, well-organized, voluntary government by the consent of the governed is alive and well, and lives throughout the SD60 Republican organization. It thrives in every precinct as we saw in the caucuses last night, and it will continue in even the smallest GOP precinct organizational meeting. While our opponents claw themselves to the top of their organization, often seeking the spoils of power and privilege, we use what liberty we have left to welcome all our neighbors to participate in a free society, and when they wake up, I hope and expect they will join us. Many have awakened already, and we met a lot of them in crowded caucuses last night. We have momentum. It is an exciting time to be a Republican in Minneapolis.

I haven’t stepped on my soap box for a while, but I have been so encouraged and inspired by your hard work and dedication that I felt a return word of encouragement was in order. The good fight is not always easy, and it is not always popular, but it’s worth protecting what land of the free remains in Minneapolis. And besides, if you’re not fighting the good fight you’ll always end up running out of your neighbor’s money.

Keep up the good work,
Mark Johnson, SD60 Chairman

Well, we are too! So, instead of our regular monthly meeting on Monday, January 16th, we will be showing the movie “Waiting for Superman” about the sad state of government schools. This movie is well done and highly regarded and we encourage everyone to come and see it. Bring a friend or neighbor who is also concerned over failing Minneapolis schools and wants to see the system reformed. John Cairn, a local attorney and school reform activist, will be there for a discussion after the movie and will bring us up to speed on what can or should happen in our city schools.

The details:
What: Waiting for Superman movie
Free popcorn!! Everyone welcome!
Discussion following the film
When: Monday, January 16, 2012, 7:00pm prompt
Where: MCRC Headquarters
707 3rd Street N Suite 202
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(map http://g.co/maps/xb5e4)

Also, Minnesotans for a Limited Government is showing a move about School Choice at O’Gara’s (164 Snelling Ave N, St Paul, MN 55104) on Jan 26th, more details here.

Sponsored by Senate District 60 Republicans

Senate District 60 Republicans of South Minneapolis will partnered with the CD 5 Republicans to host a debate between three potential challengers to Congressman Keith Ellison in the upcoming 2012 U.S. House election. Participants included Michael Katch, Lynne Torgerson, and Chris Fields. The event was moderated by Bob Davis on November 29th at the James Ballentine VFW, 2916 Lyndale Ave. South.

Bob Davis is the co host of the popular morning show ‘Davis and Emmer’ 6-9 am weekdays, on Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130, and the host of the Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130 ‘Roundtable’ featuring all twincitiesnewstalk.com commentators on Saturday mornings.

Mark Johnson, SD 60 GOP Chair: “We are delighted to invite these candidates together to have a friendly discussion before the residents of CD 5. These days people wonder whether our elected officials are working for Washington or working for us. We believe the Republicans of this district can offer a better alternative to what we’ve been getting, and this debate will help us decide what that alternative will be.”

The debate was open to the public. About 75 people attended.

Watch the video of the entire debate

Download this Press Release as a PDF.
Webcast provided by Central Media Services
Please RSVP on Freedom Connector. Follow the debate on Twitter!

From Left: SD60 Chairman Mark Johnson, Candidate Michael Katch, Moderator Bob Davis, Candidate Chris Fields, SD60 Vice Chair Juliette Jordal and SD60 Secretary Mitch Rossow.

Poster for the debate (Click here to download full size printable version):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIhiWNhkLqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWuL3WcrAbc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6ZEjMqM3A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuWH2Foi39w

While Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful cities in the Midwest, everyone knows that basic city services are faltering (potholes, anyone?) while taxes and fees continue to rise. MCRC has put together some easily readable fact sheets that explain how the city taxes us and where the money goes. Learn More…

So let’s get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs.
If this doesn’t show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don’t know what does. Please pass this information to others and think about it before you buy a GE product. Business Week Article on this and Snopes.

Yes, as I watch those dead leaves drift to the pavement and under the wheels of a passing bus, I see instead my dollar bills mangled, then washed down the gutter by the last cool rainfall of the season. I remember that as I work harder than ever to innovate and better serve the needs of my customers, the public employees we’ve hired to run the city are also hard at work innovating language to justify the increase of property taxes while property values have decreased and the economy continues to weaken.

There might be talk of pensions, or ‘Acts of God’ requiring struggling Minneapolis residents to dig even deeper. There will, of course, be the usual appeals to fear, particularly those alluding to the fiery doom that awaits us all due to the jubilant classification of the Fire Department as the most fatty portion of meat to be trimmed. Alas, there can be no justification for extracting more money from less resources, but justification is irrelevant when an organization has access to magical powers beyond those of any private company: the ability to extract money from objecting, protesting subjects.

We will be kindly asked to purchase whatever the city offers us for this additional 2%. And, while these precious additional services will certainly be desirable, even irresistible, no doubt driving some to mad fits of joy, my observations reveal the grumbling majority would instead prefer the same city services, at the same, opulent premium paid last year.

‘How dare these neighbors ask to keep their money?’

Well, I can only conclude that these residents have somehow imagined some purpose even more congruent with their family’s needs…incredibly, one capable of benefitting themselves even more soundly and immediately than solutions provided by the city. Maybe, for example, such funds could instead be devoted to, oh I don’t know, a mortgage or car payment. Excuse my lack of confidence in the creativity Mr. Rybak, the City Council, and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator to evaluate and satisfy every family’s most pressing need.

It could be argued that the relocations, foreclosures, and other hardships encouraged by this increase (an increase that will be higher than 2% for most) will be redeemed by the future work of the new Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, who can be expected to inherit a bounty of dependents as we gradually decrease the number of residents able to afford a car payment at all. If the city continues to insist on property tax increases, perhaps we can look forward to the day when even bicycles grow unaffordable so that the renamed and specialized “Pedestrian Coordinator” can tackle the much more environmentally-friendly problems caused by armies of commuters on foot, occupying the width of our network of streets and highways.

The beauty of the great outdoors, leisure, work, and time with family aside, what better way to spend a next Tuesday afternoon than attending a city budget hearing to oppose the continuation of destructive property tax increases? (Well, I admit there may be a few.) But come to City Hall, room 317 at 4:00 pm anyway (next Tuesday 9/13) if you’re fed up with all this like I am. There will be time for public comment.

“I’d rather be a hobbit than a troll,” freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on a conference call when asked by POLITICO about McCain’s remarks. “I think in reading the books, the hobbits were the heroes. They overcame great obstacles, and I think I’d rather be a hobbit than a troll.”

Added fellow freshman Sen. Mike Lee, who co-founded the chamber’s tea party caucus with Paul and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.): “It’s stunning to me that some people have resorted to name calling rather than simply addressing the issue.”

McCain, his party’s presidential nominee in 2008, took to the Senate floor a day earlier, blasting tea-party lawmakers for opposing House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to raise the debt ceiling because it doesn’t require passage of a balanced budget amendment.

The five-term senator is a strong supporter of such an amendment but he dismissed their stance as “foolish,” “deceiving and “bizarro,” saying it is unrealistic the proposed amendment could win the 67 votes needed to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial, McCain said “tea-party hobbits” were mistaken to think that if Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling and the government defaults on its loans, President Barack Obama would get the blame.

“This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned [tea-party heroes] Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP Senate nominees,” McCain said, citing the editorial.

Angle shot back in a series of rapid-fire tweets Wednesday night, then hit McCain in a statement Thursday noting that the senator picked tea-party darling Sarah Palin as his 2008 running mate and ran to the right last year as he fended off a tough primary challenge.

“This man campaigned for TEA Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O’Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin,” said Angle, who tried to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last year.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60151.html#ixzz1TzyW5iod