Speed Gibson

The admittedly interesting story about the 646 pound catfish took up the first segment. After the break, Nick Coleman addressed the shutdown. I don't warrant that this is a perfect transcript. A few words were not intelligible, and I removed about five percent as unrelated content. Finally, since Mr. Coleman (like Mr. Prager) leaves many sentences unfinished, I did a little doctoring to keep it readable without distorting the content.

Tim Pawlenty is howling like crazy this morning because… He’s the Governor. He’s supposed to be the leader of the State. He has never negotiated … Wasn’t it just the other day he wanted them to get on the State plane […] and they wouldn’t go. They didn’t get on the plane. They went to the mansion. They went about their business.

I don’t know what he’s complaining about. I’ve got complaints about the Democrats. I don’t think they should have dropped the income tax rollback on the irresponsible tax cuts handed out to the wealthiest Minnesotans by the wingnuts who have run [the] State and Federal Governments over the last few years. The Democrats I thought [had] a very modest proposal to restore some of those irresponsible cuts. [It] would have raised millions, hundreds of millions in revenue by restoring a small portion of the tax cuts handed to the most wealthy Minnesotans. There was a “millionaires pay your fair share” […] proposal. They dropped it in the end. I don’t think they even should have. They dropped it trying to reach a compromise.

The Governor all year long put forward one nutty proposal after another, and one dishonest tax hike after another. His own people called him out, like Phil Krinke, the Chair of the House Tax Committee, who said at one point […]let’s start calling these taxes by what they are – taxes! […] Pawlenty has tried to sneak them under the radar, hundreds of millions, billions actually, over a billion dollars in user feed [and] surcharges. There’s a billion dollar property tax offload that has gone on for the last couple of years with local governments being forced to raise property taxes while they’re being starved by State government. All of this has been going on, not to mention the “butt” tax, 75 cents, or it was also talked about as a dollar on a pack of cigarettes. A tax that is not called a tax. He called it a health impact fee.

All of this nonsense that went on has two goals. One is to cover his political butt and preserve his pretense to be a Presidential pretender and a person who has never raised taxes. Of course, he’s raising them left and right, but he’s raising them on the low and middle income people, and dropping the neediest from protection of State government and from State services that the need to get out of … If you believe in a progressive government that helps people move along to get along with the help of their own bootstraps and the compassionate people, that’s not happening anymore.

You know where the compassion is going? To the millionaires! So he was dead set against any income tax increase for the wealthiest Minnesotans, even after the Democrats shaved it. It was very small to begin with and applied to only a small percentage of the wealthiest Minnesotans, and it was reduced. And he wouldn’t take it because that would be owning up to his responsibilities, that would be owning up to the obligations of government, while they are playing games.

The Racino? Excuse me? The Racino was bad policy. What did he do? He bashed the Tribes all year long. He played his own little Minnesota version of a popular game in Washington among politicians and lobbyists which has been shakedown of Indian Tribes. The Indian Tribes of this country, they didn’t do anything wrong. They played by the rules, and the rules were set against them very violently for two centuries or three centuries. But they totally went by the rules. They totally went by the system. They played what government asked them to do and with the deck that they were dealt, and they made some very successful businesses. Now they are a target. […] They’re not being targeted fairly. They’re being targeted around the country by politicians who have used centuries of racial resentment and prejudice to whip up [an] environment where it’s OK to go to after … Indian gaming and the Racino is just another aspect of that.

That’s off the table, now, too. Nothing got done. […] What do we have here? There’s no funding for libraries, early childhood programs, adult education or local public health agencies. […] Because those are not important. Early child programs? We’ll catch up with them when they’re sixteen, and in [Juvenile Detention]. And on licensing: new licenses won’t be issued. I got one, you don’t want one, they’re freaky-looking. And driver testing suspended. Most new professional licenses won’t be available, either. No permits for most over-size, over-weight truck loads. Thank God for small favors. […]

No enforcement of minimum wage, prevailing wage, overtime laws, along with routine workplace safety inspections. Oh, a few arms will be lopped off. Closed completely: Disability Council, [...], Physical Therapy Board, and no traffic information via message boards. […] Most highway rest areas, some of which will close today. […]

At any rate, […] 9,000 State workers [are] off the job. I think most Minnesotans can grin and bear this for a couple of weeks. It’s not a disaster. Remain calm. Remain calm. Your State government is shut down but I still love you, and we’ll get through this together.

But when you see who’s mad this morning, who’s hopping, hollering, stomping, yelling mad, it is the Republicans. It is the leaders of the Republican Party and the Governor of this State, and that’s [because] they bought into a wingnut agenda from day one. It did not work. It will not work. It does not fly. And they would not leave it, they would not abandon it, and as a result, this State government is shut down. They dropped this baby on their toes, and that’s why they’re hollering.

Well, have a good Holiday anyway.

There it is, for your consideration. Remember, this site gave up fisking Nick Coleman for 2005, including on the radio.