Tag Archives: Politics

An open letter to the Roseville School District

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Dear Dr. Thein,

I am a parent of a child in the Roseville, MN School District. I am very concerned about news reports I’ve been hearing from elsewhere in Minnesota indicating that there are parents upset about The President of the United States addressing the students in some classrooms next week.

I am primarily concerned with the responses by the school districts to the parents. The responses I’ve heard have been rather appeasing to these parents. I do not think this is appropriate.

The parents in question are insane.

Continue reading An open letter to the Roseville School District →

Poll: Should President Obama be allowed to do a nationwide address to school children without parental consent?

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A poll of facebook … link is here … asks “Should President Obama be allowed to do a nationwide address to school children without parental consent?”

I find the wording of that statement to be astounding. But anyway, if you are on facebook, you may want to go and vote. CUrrently, 65% say NO, 29% say YES.

OH, and people are posting this on their facebook status today:

“_______ believes that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and nobody should go broke because they get sick.”

(you put your name int he blank, or whatever)

Bachmann’s Town Hall

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I did not go to the Michele Bachmann “town hall” meeting yesterday because of a schedule conflict (I was out of town) but there is some news. Check out the last few posts on Dump Michele Bachmann blog. There is evidence, apparently, that Bachmann supporters were bussed in to pack the room. I’ve heard from two other private sources, one from inside and one from outside, that there were mostly supporters inside and mostly anti-Bachmann people outside.

I expect there to be a couple of good blog posts out about this in the next day or so, and I’ll point to them if I find out about them. Add any to the comments below, please.

I also expect that most of the people inside the hall were Dittohead Lockstep Republicans and most of the people outside the hall were Discordant Democrats.

Ridge Faked Terror Alert To Get Bush Re-Elected

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Let me tell you what I think about this:

Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush’s re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.

Continue reading Ridge Faked Terror Alert To Get Bush Re-Elected →

Health Care Event in Saint Paul Friday

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Yesterday, I called Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and expressed my support for the public option in Heath Care. If you are a Minnesotan, please do that too. Al’s number is 651-221-1016. If you are not a Minnesotan, call Al anyway as he is on the Health Education Labor and Pensions committee. Use his DC number for that (202-224-5641).

Amy’s number in he Twin Cities is 612-727-5223, and if you are outstate you can get the right number at this link.

While you are in the process of making calls or sending emails, you should consider contacting the members of the Senate Committee on Heatlh, Educatoi, Labor and Pensions. You can get that info here.

Call, send emails, send snail mail.

On Friday, MoveOn members are gathering in Saint Paul to show Sen. Franken that constituents are counting on him to support real health care reform. Here’s the info on that event:

Continue reading Health Care Event in Saint Paul Friday →

Michele Bachmann will hold “Health Care Town Hall”

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I’m calling all my friends, we’re going to get on a bus, we’re going to go to Michele Bachmann’s health care town hall and SCREAM AT HER FOR AN HOUR and make sure no one else can talk. Because THAT’S HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS, BITCHES!!!!

Oh, no, wait, forget it. I read the head line at DMB wrong. It looks like Michele Bachmann is going to have one of those highly controlled events that allow in only her stepford-zombie Bachmann-symps with prepared softball questions. She doesn’t really do the Town Hall thing. Why should she? She’s a Republican. It’s the Democrats that are into Democracy. The Republicans, like those after whom they name themselves, would be happy with a fiddle plaing Caesar.

Michele Bachmann Challenger Drops Out

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Elwyn Tinklenerg has withdrawn his bid in the race for Michele Bachmann‘s seat in congress. Tinklenberg had run against Bachmann last time around, and carried out what started as a rather Quixotic race against the then very entrenched Bachmann, but received a great deal of extra funding and support when Bachmann made a name for herself by calling for an investigation for un-American activities of everyone in congress who disagreed with her. But that push, as substantial as it was, came to late in the game, and Bachamann does represent a district consisting primarily of Cave Men and Tray-Lor Trash (I spelt that funny so as they coudn’t make nothin out), and so in a sense, she represents her district rather well.

This blog got really mad at Tinklenberg the other day, and issued an un-endorsement after he made the totally dumb-ass move of stating that if he does not get the DFL endorsement he would stay in the race anyway. This is a totally dumb-ass thing the Minnesota “Democratic Party” (the DFL) does. They have nine or ten things that are like primaries or caucuses in row, leading up to a moment in which they endorse a candidate, then they have two or three more primaries, then whoever wants to can pretend to be the Democratic candidate and run in the official election. Or something like that. The result is that for important races you often get two Democrats running against each other, so the Republican or Indy candidate wins almost any time.

This is said to be the greatest election system ever invented by the Republican Party, and is the main reason there are ever any Republicans from this state at all. (Most of our governors have been Republican, for instance.)

Continue reading Michele Bachmann Challenger Drops Out →

Al Franken actually won by a landslide

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In any event, more people seem to like Al Franken than who voted for him … if we compare the 42% of the vote he got with the 49% approval rating he now has. (details)

This is partly a function of increased favorablity following the nasty recount process, but is also reminds us of something else: There was a third candidate in this race. If Dean Barkley was not in this race, would the outcome have been so close? And, who would have won?

The common knowledge on the street at the time of the election is that about two thirds of Barkley’s votes would have been for Franken had Barkley not been in the race. In addition, Franken was advancing on Coleman for the last several weeks. In other words, if the election was held three weeks later, OR if Barkley was not in the race, Franken would have had a decisive if not overwhelming victory. If both were true, Franken would have taken Coleman out by a landslide.

This is why I’ve been so frequently annoyed at calls to “just do it over” or statements that “no one really won” and so on. Franke was behind. Franken came from behind and passed colement.

In addition, consider this: If Franken was moving in on the vote count, then what about absentee votes cast days or weeks before the election? Wouldn’t more of those have been Franken votes had they been cast on election day?

MSNBC: Time to retire Buchanan (an open letter)

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Dear MSNBC,

I know it is appropriate to have a range of opinions among the talking heads representing a news agency, and MSNBC certainly does have a range. Pat Buchanan, regular commentator on two or three MSNBC news shows, probably serves at the most conservative individual in the MSNBC panoply.

But he has to go now.
Continue reading MSNBC: Time to retire Buchanan (an open letter) →

Franken Wins Court Battle, Unclear if Pawlenty will Sign

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UPDATE: COLEMAN CONCEDES

The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge by Norm Coleman, thereby leaving the vote count determined by an election contest judicial panel placing Franken in the lead standing.

The basis of the Coleman legal challenge is was essentially that all abentee votes shoudl be counted no matter what, because they are, after all, votes.

The reason that is bad election procedure and bad law is that absentee voting is subject to serious abuses, and thus demands a certain amount of procedural control. This has been established previously. The absentee ballots that were not counted in this contest were all in violation of standing procedural rules. Coleman wanted those rules ignored so that the votes could be counted, Franken simply asked that the law be followed.

The court decided in favor of Franken.

…because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice…

This, by the way, is one of the reasons that I never vote absentee. You should not either.

Now, the question remains: Will Governor Tim Pawlenty, Republican presidential hopeful, certify the election? The Minnesota State Supreme Court did not specifically order Pawlenty to do so, so there is a chance he won’t.

Pawlenty made these statements during an interview on CNN last Sunday:

I’m not going to defy an order of the Minnesota Supreme Court. That would be a dereliction of my duty … I’m going to follow the direction of the court … I also expect them to give guidance and direction as to the certificate of election. I’m prepared to sign it as soon as they give the green light.

Well, as far as I know, the court did NOT give Pawlenty a “green light” or “guidance and direction.” It seems to me that he spoke on Sunday in such a way as to leave open the possibility of not signing the election certificate.

The court said, specifically, “Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled … to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.” That is clear, but it is not direction. It is guidance, but it is not a “green light.” And keep in mind that Tim Pawlenty is as smarmy and slimy and slippery as they come ’round these parts.

Of course, Coleman could just concede. But no one expects that. The only person smarmier than Pawlenty ’round these parts is Norm Coleman.

We wait. With baited breath.


WCCO reported the story here.

Star tribune reported the story here.

Watermelon Dan is at it again

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Republican Congressperson Dan Burton calls for a Plexiglas shield to be built over the congressional chamber to protect the congresspeople from attack. This is the same guy who carried out the famous and embarrassing reconstruction of Vince Foster’s suicide:

Burton gained attention for re-enacting the alleged crime in his backyard with his own pistol and a pumpkin standing in for Foster’s head. After hearings into Democratic fundraising (see section below) began, a Democratic National Committee staffer appeared in a pumpkin suit with a button that read, “Don’t shoot.”

wikipedia

Franken-Coleman Senatorial Race Decision Expected …. Any Time Now

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According to various sources which can not be named but that are being reported by the Capitol Report, the Minnesota Supreme Court is likely to make a decision today, Thursday, June 18th. If the decision is anything other than to support (uphold) the decision of the three judge panel which previously ruled in Franken’s favor, several legal experts in the state and across the country are going to drop dead on the spot of shock and chagrin.

It is not know if Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty is going to be ordered by the court to produce an election certificate, but it is generally thought that he will not issue one unless so ordered. If the court does not order the Governor to carry out his legal duty, it may be required that Franken makes an argument to the court to do so.

One thing people have not commented on yet to my knowledge is this: In the event that Franken has to argue for the court to order Pawlenty to act on the court’s ruling, what sort of argument will Coleman make to the contrary? That could be interesting.

In the mean time, I understand the Coleman legal and recount team has offered its services to parties in Iran. I wish I was joking about that.