Vote Yes MN. Or not.

The proposed amendment:

An amendment to the Minnesota Constitution is proposed to the people. If the amendment is adopted, two sections will be added to article XIV to read:

“Sec. 12. Beginning with the fiscal year starting July 1, 2007, 63.75 percent of the revenue from a tax imposed by the state on the sale of a new or used motor vehicle must be apportioned for transportation purposes described in section 13, then the revenue apportioned for transportation purposes must be increased by ten percent for each subsequent fiscal year through June 30, 2011, and then the revenue must be apportioned 100 percent for transportation purposes after June 30, 2011.

Sec. 13. The revenue apportioned in section 12 must be allocated for the following transportation purposes: not more than 60 percent must be deposited in the highway user tax distribution fund, and not less than 40 percent must be deposited in a fund dedicated solely to public transit assistance as defined by law.”

I like the part about making sure transit gets adequate funding, and it makes sense that transportation-related taxes ought to be going to transportation funding. But, as this person puts it, “Specific funding being declared in the state constitution seems inappropriate to me.”

I mostly agree with the principle, but not so much with the method. So I shall Vote No MN.

[Further discussion at E-Democracy.Org, with lots of numbers and stuff]

October 10 marked the 2nd anniversary of Metroblogging Minneapolis. On behalf of everyone here at Metblog I’d like to say thanks to everyone out there who’s reading and leaving us comments.

I love that the world has come to this – Blogging Scholarships. All of those afternoons of trumpet lessons would have been free if only I could have honed my blogging skills for scholarship money instead of wearing that horribly awful feather-covered hat in marching band.

The Top 10 finalists have been announced, and there’s one from the Twin Cities. Ben Kimball is one of the ten bloggers eligible to win a $5000 college scholarship. He’s junior at Augsburg College, majoring in Religion. You can make sure Ben wins by voting for him here.

Why a blogging scholarship?

We believe passion is important. As the world gets more competitive, those who are passionate about what they do, and work close to their passions, will be able to become and stay successful even as technology and automation eat away at many business models. Those who are willing to share their experiences with the world help make the world a better place, even if most bloggers only consider blogging a hobby.

I don’t see any reason at all why the first blogging scholarship offered by this organization shouldn’t be represented by someone from the Twin Cities, which is quite possibly the most awesome blogging place of all time. Or something.

One friendly neighborhood school teacher is looking for the best public murals in town.

It’s not the prettiest thing ever, but I like the one on the Midtown Greenway just west of 5th Avenue and the Kix soccer field. I watched some school kids work on it and the adjacent garden over the summer.

Where’s your favorite public mural?

It’s every burrito-lover’s favorite day tomorrow – Free Chipotle Burrito Day (as long as you’re dressed as a Chipotle food item in some regard).

I’ve lived in Minnesota for almost five years and this promotion has been going on each year, as far as I can remember. They definitely did it last year, according to Metroblog archives, which we know are as good as the Bible.

Slap on a few pieces of tin foil and enjoy your 1000+ calorie free lunch and/or dinner. That’s a pretty tough offer to beat.

“He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything.”
-Joseph Stalin

If there’s a common theme you can count on after an election, it’s partisan crybabies whining about their candidates losing because of every reason in the book EXCEPT that they didn’t deserve to win.

Particularly, ballot irregularities are a favorite topic among voters, but rarely until after the election when their candidate doesn’t win (think back to 2000 with the “hanging chads” debate in Florida and again in 2004 with the software glitches of Ohio). It’s a fact that the most popular liberal excuse is that the voting system in their market was 1). flawed or 2). complicated.

According to the MN Daily, “About 40 percent of registered voters will use some kind of electronic voting system this fall. Some states, Minnesota included, require voting machines to create a paper trail, to provide assurance against fraud or failure.”

In fact, we don’t use direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines like other states, and instead use paper ballots and optical scanners, which should make it simple stupid to cast a vote in MN. You’ve had a minimum of 4 years go learn how to vote since the last major election, so I refuse to listen to you tell a news reporter you were confused or bewildered by the process.

And because DREs are also “…at risk for some of the same potential programming errors as DREs,” according to the Pioneer Press, we’re lucky there’s a human review process overseeing us Minnesota voters.

If you really want to stop the whining, you can volunteer to help these kind overseeing souls at Citizens for Election Integrity. And it’s good they’ll be around, because we all know that when Pawlenty and Kennedy win next Tuesday, the liberals will cry foul and somebody from their group will be forced to mug for the cameras as they recount the votes by hand.

I’m not at all a hardcore biker, but I’ve been pondering what to wear for winter riding. I happened across the Minneapolis Bike Love forum and started to read up. Hours later I was still scrolling through.

They’ve got everything from rides and races around town to clothing suggestions to accessories and hardware and basically anything you can think of that’s related to biking more than casually around town. Great source of info.

Makes me want to hop on my bike more.

Originally uploaded by sopheava.

From the Twin Cities Flickr Pool. Speaks for itself.

Twin Citizens discuss what kind of winter coat to buy. At length and with passion. There seems to be two camps:

1. People who are sporty/outdoorsy and have no issues with down, Goretex, or shopping at REI.
2. People who will not be caught dead in such things and instead will wear seven layers of clothing just so they can wear their favorite hipster jacket on the outside.

You do, of course, have to factor in whether you’re actually spending a lot of time outside or not. And this whole discussion only covers your day to day outerwear. Recreational activity is not included. Do you walk/bus everywhere? Or are you going from home garage to car to work garage?

I’m a home/car/work person. I actually have a Thinsulate jacket that hits me mid-thigh that I really like, both in terms of weight and warmth, except that it’s green and I’m really sick of that color green. I’ve recently acquired a black wool peacoat, too. And I do have enough lighter fleece and wool items to effectively implement the layered-to-high-heaven look. Depends on how I feel on any given day, I guess.

One thing that was not addressed: mittens vs gloves. Me, I’m a mittens person.

Find out when the city of Minneapolis is sweeping the streets in your neighborhood. I’m guessing they’re less aggressive about towing than in a snow emergency, but why tempt fate?

(via Roadguy)