This Bud's for you...except if you live in Minnesota that is

Minnesota is as of right now still closed for business.  While their former Governor, Tim Pawlenty,  is out touting his record in Minnesota which created the mess they are trying to clean up. Their government shut-down, which could begin to resemble what the U.S. would look like if the Republicans continue to cling to their blood oath to Grover Norquist and refuse any semblance of common-sense in their approach to raising the debt ceiling.

Now while much of story that has come out of Minnesota has focused upon the closure of highway rest areas and state parks, it is the unintended consequences of the shuttering of government offices that has been featured of late.

Nobody considered all the work that the Minnesota civil servants do on a daily basis, but the fruits of their labor will become clear in the near future, since average Minnesotans will be touched by their absence soon. 


First up: the alcohol tax office.  It seems that many distributors, bar owners and retailers have licenses to buy beer that have lapsed or will soon lapse with no way of renewing them.  Miller Coors' failed to renew their trademark for brand labels and pulled all its products from shelves. If the shutdown goes on much longer, Minnesota will resemble a dry county in the bible belt, and with the state of Minnesota professional sports, that can't be a good thing.

Next in a closely related manner, there is nobody to collect taxes and issues tax stamps on tobacco, so the amount of cigarettes, cigars and the like is rapidly diminishing.  While this might not hurt the profits of big tobacco too terribly, especially since they have shifted focus on peddling their wares without regulation and oversight in the 3rd world especially Indonesia, where even 2yr olds chain smoke (though the child has since quit his 2pk a day habit).

Third is the shuttering of Canterbury Park and their thoroughbred racing season. The government shutdown has closed the Racing Commission offices, so there is no governing body to oversee and officiate the races.  Canterbury Park has cancelled their 9th straight racing card and could rapidly face its horsemen moving operations to other tracks, thus compromising the entire meet if a solution to the track shuttering isn't reached soon. 

All of this courtesy of the mess left by Tim Pawlenty, and he wants to do for America what he did for Minnesota, for the sake of the nation I hope not.