Fox Guarding the Hen House

Only the Governor's veto can now stand in the way of the Minnesota legislature's most recent ineptitude, if not malfeasance. 

Crossing the Governor's desk next week is the spectre of emasculation of Minnesota's environmental protection act, Senate File 42, and House File 1  This ill-conceived legislation would put the fox in charge of the hen house in an illusory attempt to decrease the time between applying for a permit to site an industrial plant and granting the permit. Playing upon the urban legend of "guv'mint inefficiency" the revision to Minnesota environmental statutes would be reworded:

Article 1, section 7, allows a project proposer to prepare a draft environment impact statement for a project for submission to and review, modification, and determination of completeness and adequacy by the responsible government unit. 

Current law requires the local "responsible unit of government" to undertake the environmental review specifically to avoid real or perceived bias in the content of the review. But, we're not done yet! The new bill goes even further by violating basic principles of judicial review:

Article 1, section 9, modifies the procedures for judicial review of decisions regarding the need for an environmental assessment worksheet, the need for an environmental impact statement, and the adequacy of an environmental impact statement.  Current law provides that these decisions may be reviewed by a declaratory judgment action in the district court of the county where the proposed action or any part of it would be undertaken.  This section provides that these decisions would be subject to review by the Court of Appeals, rather than the district court.

Reasons for this miscreant revision are obvious enough, opposition to citing industrial plants, especially "dirty" ones, arises from the grassroots at the local level. Sending the citizenry to St. Paul to attend Appellate hearings will clearly reduce citizens' involvement in the review process. No evidence has been provided to show that such a diversion of responsibility from district courts to the appellate court will be more expeditious, or, could even be handled on the crowded docket of the appellate court.

Best Governor Money can Buy?

Riddle overheard on the streets of Milwaukee:

QUESTION--How do you spell Walker?

ANSWER--B L A G O J E V I C H

Wisconsin really is broke; you get what you pay for and this Governor is clearly a bargain-basement purchase. If you need further proof, just look up the Journal-Sentinel Online or, better yet, hear the recording Audio: Prank Interview there of a prankster, posing as billionaire David Koch (Walker gift horse), in a telephone conversation with the new Boy Governor. I won't say anything more here at the risk of revealing the aural pornography in store for the listening audience.

Tommy Lee Jones said it best in No Country for Old Men, "You can't make up such a thing as that. I dare you to even try."

Fiscal bankruptcy is curable, but moral bankruptcy?  Ask Blagojevich.

Cross-posted to The Renaissance Post

A New Infantile Paralysis

My generation grew through childhood during those perilous years before Jonas Salk developed an effective vaccine against the poliomyelitis virus. One strain of the virus induced paralysis in about 1% of infected persons, children being especially susceptible, hence the name, infantile paralysis. The Good News is that the last reported case of wild polio virus transmission in North America occurred in 1979. The World Health Organization hopes to be able to declare world-wide eradication of the disease early in the 21st century.

The Bad News is that a new virulent plague of infantile behavior among elected officials is currently sweeping the country. This behavior has already paralyzed government in Wisconsin and is rapidly closing in on Washington, D.C., where it may cripple the federal government within the next two weeks.  What are the origins of this plague and the prognosis for a cure?

Best Idea in 5000 Years

Born on this day in 1809,  it is appropriate to celebrate the intellectual and human freedoms promised by the work of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.  Coupled with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued only four years after “The Origin of Species”, these documents mark the dawn of a new awareness in 19th Century life, that would prove to be every bit as empowering as the Renaissance in Europe had been during the 14th to 16th centuries.

Health Insurance? Surely, you Jest!

The issue has never been one of insurance, but of health care. Young people don't worry much about it, elders do. Confusion may stem from the notion of "Life Insurance" which is recognized (when purchased at a young age) as an investment because everyone knows you can't insure against death; accidents, yes (hence "term" insurance), but death, no. So the misnomer has gotten us into trouble because it is a deception, just as the "Patriot Act" has nothing to do with patriotism, rather it is used instead of "tyranny" or "authoritarian", two more accurate, but less endearing terms.

Coming Home to Roost

Today we recall, on what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, the various hills and valleys traversed in world history as a consequence of his election to the Presidency of the United States. There will be claims and counter-claims as to the President's involvement in, or, even knowledge of, events such as the "arms for hostages" exchange, or support for the death squads of the banana republic "freedom fighters". We will argue whether it was Reagan's ascendency as a world leader, or the crushing weight of its own bureaucracy that brought about the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Because Reagan was so insistent upon revisiting the principles of governance exemplified by the writing of the founding fathers, we should re-examine those principles, beginning with the proposition that all politics are local.

Procustes ad infinitum

"There you go again..." is the only possible response to the procustean pronouncement of Judge Roger Vinson in his ruling on the Affordable Care Act. Rising from his constitutional procustean bed to compete with the inanity of Mississippi jurisprudence, the honorable Florida jurist has decreed, "I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate. Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."