Well, we have plenty to talk about today — or, more properly, we have Pawlenty to talk about. Why? Because Thursday Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty offered his final State of the State address, and that's the sort of thing that sends pundits into a tizzy of logorrhea. Before this dam of graphomania bursts and a cataract of spin is upon us, though, let's take a look at his speech itself, unencumbered, as it were, by anything except the orchidaceous language of this paragraph, which, honestly, even we find a bit too much, but it's already written and our delete key is broken. Pawlenty's State of the State address is available here in MP3 form, you can watch it here, and MinnPost offers a transcript here.

City Pages' Matt Snyders summarized the importance of this speech, saying, "[H]is conspicuous presidential ambitions have rendered every public word to roll off his tongue laden with import." So what did Pawlenty actually say? Bill Salisbury of the Pioneer Press summarizes, his lead paragraph focusing in on Pawlenty's thesis: "Gov. Tim Pawlenty says the most important question before Minnesota is: 'How do we best grow good, private-sector jobs?'" In a jointly written piece, MPR's Tim Pugmire and Elizabeth Dunbar break down the major points of the speech, including a job creation bill that includes tax cuts to the private sector and a plan to solve the current deficit through — let's see if you can guess. We'll give you a second. No? The answer, according to Pawlenty, is cutting back on spending.

The Pioneer Press' Dennis Lien has more on the job creation bill, which includes a reduction in corporate tax rate and a partial exclusion from taxes for small business. We can expect to see more details of this in the budget proposal Pawlenty is expected to deliver on Monday, which, as MPR's Tom Scheck discusses, is also expected to suggest additional tax cuts. The Associated Press mentions that Pawlenty also floated an idea for how to address education: Minneapolis and St. Paul's mayors should "take over their cities' school districts." MPR's Tom Weber explains that Pawlenty didn't really go into detail on this plan but mentions that in other cities, the mayors pick the school superintendents.

And now, as City Pages says, let the spin begin. Sarah Janecek of Politics in Minnesota thought the speech was one of the best a Minnesota governor has ever given, and was surprised to discover that Pawlenty himself wrote it. But MinnPost's own Doug Grow found the speech "tepid," saying, "[T]he governor was offering the same old things in the same old ways, and the end result — heavy partisan bickering and a budget mess — are almost assured."

City Pages writer Hart Van Denburg rounds up responses, from Mark Dayton (who says the governor "owes the people of Minnesota an apology for abandoning them during this very difficult time to pursue his far-fetched presidential ambitions") to Matt Etenza ("No vision, no real ideas for how to make Minnesota work again"). Polinaut also rounds up the usual suspects, including DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez ("Gov. Pawlenty's final State of the State address today was just the latest stop in his public-speaking tour across the country, designed to help him pander to big-business CEOs and further his personal ambitions") and state GOP Chair Tony Sutton ("Instead of more Democrat tax increases and more Democrat spending, state government must live within its means. Governor Pawlenty's Spending Accountability Amendment is the right approach to keep government spending under control"). It's hard for us to parse sentences like this, so we can't be sure if Sutton is using "Democrat" merely as a adjective or in the pejorative sense; this is especially embarrassing after we made such a fuss out of using the word orchidaceous.

Of course, Pawlenty isn't the only news today. Why, Denny Hecker pleaded not guilty (his brief statement to that effect is available on the Star Tribune website), and that's news, sort of, although we were expecting he would. A drunk guy stole a bus, which is not only news, but kind of funny; WCCO has the story, including this quote: "Flowers allegedly said he was drunk, high, and just wanted to go to jail." University of Minnesota scientists might have found the first-ever examples of the dark matter that is supposed to make up 85 percent of the universe, which makes it sort of surprising that its so hard to find, but, then, it's dark. So that's news, unless their discovery falls apart under peer review. WCCO's Jason DeRusha prepares for Valentine's Day by looking into whether aphrodisiacs work or not, which is news to anybody who doesn't have access to Wikipedia. Quick answer: some do, some don't, and hard liquor and chocolates will always work on certain Daily Glean writers. The hard liquor particularly.

Also in the news, Minnesotans are unhappy. According to Minnesota Independent's Paul Schmelzer, they're embarrassed by Michele Bachmann — or, at least, 56 percent of the entire population, Republican and Democrat alike, according to a survey commissioned by Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action. It's worth noting, however, that 58 percent of Minnesota Republicans said they were proud of Bachmann. Does that mean that a lot more Democrats must be disapproving? You bet it does: 87 percent. Minnesotans are also unhappy about the new parking restrictions: Businesses are complaining, as are bloggers. Nobody has broken down this displeasure by political affiliation, but we at the Glean suspect this might be a rare example of bipartisanship.

A local news channel started out its broadcast schedule Thursday night by saying something like "A new proposal to keep the Vikings in Minnesota — and it would only cost a dollar!" We won't track down the exact quote, or the station responsible, as that was just idiotic. The proposal they mentioned is from Rep. Paul Kohls, and his proposal is to sell the Metrodome to the Vikes for $1, as detailed by the Associated Press. So yes, it would only cost the Vikings a buck, which seems like a very reasonable return on the investment Minnesota taxpayers poured into the building, including the $23-some-odd million raised by a hike on liquor taxes from 1977 to 1984, not to mention the $15 million that taxpayers ponied up for the land that the Metrodome sits on (PDF). So, let's see, if we paid out at least $38 million, and we're getting back a dollar, that puts us ahead by ...

Hmmm. It doesn't put us ahead at all. We should probably correct that, but out delete key is broken.