Back in the seventies, TANSTAAFL was a favorite slogan of Republicans in Minnesota. I think there was even a newsletter titled that. TANSTAAFL means There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Along with this slogan there was the accusation of "soft on crime" against the Democrats. To back up their tough stance, the Republicans passed some tough laws that they wanted rigorously enforced.
In order to enforce laws, you need a criminal justice system that will attempt to sort out the guilty from the innocent. Oops, I forgot, "Everybody knows he's guilty." Well, enough decent people of various political persuasions didn't believe that and wanted to see a good justice system.
Now, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (Republican, Minnesota) wants to cut back on the costs of courts in Minnesota. But he's the one that cut back taxes. Is he asking for a free lunch?
BTW, I did a search of "TANSTAAFL Republican Minnesota newsletter" and the second hit was to http://www.mngop.com
I searched both the visible page and the source for TANSTAAFL. Nothing!
The Google item was dated 2/13 but a date in the page's source was 2/27. Did somebody think touting TANSTAAFL was not a good idea at this time?
