Best Speech of the Convention, So Far

Michele Bachmann Doesn't Know Where Republican Convention Will Be

Just In....

On an appearance on Larry King tonight Rep. Michele Bachmann said in response to a question of whether or not the VP Dick Cheney should come to the convention:

"I hope everybody comes to Minneapolis."

Take that St. Paulites. Not even Congresswoman Crazypants acknowledges you. Maybe you should feel lucky.

Seriously, if she really thinks that the convention is in Minneapolis, no one correct her. It'll be fun to watch her get that confused dog look as she sits wanders Downtown MPLS to find no convention. 

Cutting the Crap

I love it when someone cuts through the crap. Here is an example:

I love it when Sir Geldof points out that between snarfing down caviar and staying in luxury suites, the G-8 will accomplish nothing. The idea that 8 people think they can decide what is best for the rest of the world is a little scary isn't it?

Wal-Mart Gives Employees Reasons to Vote Democratic

They say they don't tell employees who to vote for, but they tell employees which political party will "hurt"the company more. Read it yourself here.

Thanks for giving me another reason not to vote Republican Wal-Mart!

Latest Hysterical Claims By Andy Aplikowski In Rain Delay

It's the first time I've ever seen it, but the latest accusations by story-maker-upper Andy Aplikowski have been delayed by rain. 

OK I'll give the chicken hawk a little latitude here. There is a serious storm coming through but won't stop us Farmer-Labor types. We know what it takes to be a real "hero" to our fans and that means blogging no matter what Sven at KARE 11 says.

So all I am left with tonight is the teaser: Dirty Tricks In 51A ????? 

Please tell us more Andy Aplikowski. I am dying to know what sort of information your little coffee klatch has come up with. I'll just have to assume you are referring to the breakfast pow-wow Governor Pawlenty had in Blaine. Maybe you guys woke up and decided it was a  dirty trick because it will actually hurt Timothy "I Support Stuff" Sanders. I mean you can't really have the support of a mullet-headed, long hair like Pawlenty. Pawlenty was a McCain guy back when McCain was saying he would be a better President than Bush.

So until Andy Aplikowski comes out of his bunker. We'll just have to wonder. 

Andy Aplikowski Just Plain Makes Stuff Up

Andy Aplikowski publishes posts on The True North blog and another called Residual Forces. I haven't read too much of his stuff but it's so unbelievable the Onion must take notes. One needs to look no further than the graphic he dittoed blaming high gas prices on Pelosi.

He also decided to take a dip into the race in 51A to defend Republican Tim “Where’s The Beef?” Sanders.

Hilarity ensues.

In the screed that spins the race for the GOP in Blaine, Aplikowski claims: “Sander's fundraising and doorknocking are well ahead of schedule and far outpacing his Democrat opponent.”

I am going to out on limb here and say that is made up. There is NO WAY you could prove this one way or another. I would be very interested to see how he could factually back this up. Unless the MN Secretary of State has some super-secret website that keeps track of Legislative door to door activity and how many people got “stickered” along a parade route, I think I am safe in saying this is total nonsense.

At least Sander's oppenent, Shawn Hamilton, has proof he actually has been door to door.

My favorite part about the post is that he sets its goals so low that he only hopes to be: “decreasing the Democrat majority” and not retaking the House In November (emphasis his & I love the abuse of the word "Democrat" instead of "Democratic").

I'll give Aplikowski props for actually using his name as a blogger but that could be made up too.

Impeachment on the House floor TODAY (AGAIN)

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will present a single Article of Impeachment to the House of Representatives sometime between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm (CDT) today, Thursday, July 10th. 
 
Sessions of the House of Representatives are broadcast live on C-SPAN (check your local cable listings for channel) and streamed live via the Internet (www.cspan.org). 
 
The article of Impeachment will deal directly with President Bush fraudulently obtaining support for an attack on Iraq by creating a false case for war. Full details of the Article of Impeachment will be available after they are read on the floor of the House by Congressman Kucinich.

Obama and the "Center"

In the past few days, Obama has been reminding liberals that he hasn't changed or is running to the center. This is true. His stance on the war hasn't really changed. He left himself wiggle room in debates by not saying the troops would be out by 2013 and saying he he will work to get the troops out in 16 months- almost a year and a half. However, Iraqi leaders might make the point moot if they kick the U.S. out by the end of the year like their elected officials have been saying.

What Obama and others need to remember is: Obama wasn't really Progressives first choice to begin with. If you thought that Obama was going to be progressive on health care or be a radical on other touchy issues, then you need to check why you call yourself a progressive.

Progressives have known for sometime that Obama isn't really the "most liberal Senator" as conservatives would like to tag him. He's pretty left-wing but he's not Sen. Russ Feingold or coming up with the same ideas as Rep. Waxman or Rep. Wexler.

Progressives, however, have made his campaign a success. They rejected Clinton as a nominee of the old guard much like they did with Humphrey and Muskie in 1972. And Obama does have some very progressive planks in his platform. He is very squarely for LGBT issues, Labor, Native Americans and the environment.  

Those items excite Progressives into action.

And those are the ideas that put him ahead for the nomination and put him ahead in national polls.

The rumble the press heard from the left last week was a lot of progressives wondering if their issues were going on the back burner. That's what Arianna Huffington's posts were about last week.

And why can't progressives can't be critical when a campaign says stuff we don't like?

Case in Point:
What happens when you have the former Health Secretary for the present administration and a co-chair for Obama's campaign talk about health care?
Total agreement! Ignore all the problems we have with the health care system here and how well other countries health care systems work. All our system needs is a little tweaking.

That's right. All you need to do is regulate tobacco more, make insurance forms simpler and require phys. ed. in schools. That's what Tommy Thompson and Tom Daschle came up with at a lecture on the subject. 

OK,that's a start. But that's the best these two knuckle heads can come up with at a hour-long lecture about health care. Both ruled out single-payer health care out of hand.

That's what was said at the 6th Annual Templeton Lecture.

You can listen for yourself here:

Skip ahead to about minute 23. That's where the BS starts flying.

We The People Stories - 6th Annual Templeton Lecture: Health Care, Choice or Mandate?

Typical Republican Campaign Website

It's humorous to see what kind of snake oil GOPsters are peddling on the web to entice honest, hard-working Minnesotans to vote for them. 

Sometimes the less is more (or at least does little harm) approach is best. Case in point is the website for Timothy A. Sanders, GOP candidate in 51A.

What information can we take away from this bare bones approach to informing the voter?

He says his values are: Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Freedom and Pro-American.

On the last three  of that list, who in the world runs for office against those issues? 

And what does pro-life mean today anyway?  Does it mean you are against wars, for making more safety restrictions for guns and for using science to do what ever is necessary to save lives? Sanders' website doesn't tell you what pro-life means to him. But since that is what I think it means , then I'll conclude that Sanders is an anti-war for gun control and stem cell research candidate. 

That must be what he means. Because he says he is pro-freedom. Therefor, he wouldn't take reproductive rights away from citizens. 

About all I know about Sanders is he is from Blaine. How do I know this? Well, in the 18 or so sentences of factual information he has on the website almost all of them mention Blaine.

Case in point: 

"Tim is a Conservative voice that will stand up for the values of the citizens of Blaine. He has passion and drive to serve the people of Blaine at the Capitol. Tim will work hard for you and your families to represent what is best for the city of Blaine."

I didn't make that up. You can see for yourself here.

Now contrast that to the site his DFL opponent, Shawn Hamilton, has here.

OK? 

'Nuff said.

 

Obama Inner Circle Is Spineless

Arianna Huffington now has this post basically backing up what we said July 1. It's pretty telling when the main person making the argument for having Daschle in your inner circle is David Brooks. 

Huffington said:

"Daschle was also the poster child for Democratic spinelessness on the war, going from supporting the use of force to questioning it to ultimately supporting it with his vote because he felt it was crucial for America 'to speak with one voice at this critical time.' And we know how well that turned out, too."

'Nuff said.

We're Back....

Well things seemed to be moving in a Progressive direction for a while there, but the ghost of Floyd Olson has begged us to bring this blog back to remind everyone what the "FL" in "DFL" stands for.

For starters we'll link to this article from the Huffington Post by Arianna Huffington. It outlines what is going wrong with the Obama campaign.

And we'll also link to this election prediction site that shows as of right now....before all the weird shifting to the center starts to show up in the polls....that Progressive ideas put the Democrats way ahead.

Who is to blame for this shift to the center or return to the Whig party of the 1800's? I blame former South Dakota Sen. Thomas Daschle. He and his former campaign staff are key advisors to Obama. What was one of Daschle's key strategies to get elected? Not to put the word Democrat anywhere in his campaign and running from the center-right. Now it looks like he's rubbing off on Obama. 

Taser Update

The City of St. Paul did clear the way for those 234 tasers to be purchaced. The vote was 6 to 1.

You can watch the debate here. It's not as electrifying as you might think.

Message to Pawlenty

This sums up what the Minnesota Legislature think of Pawlenty's Veto of the Transportation Bill:

Who Wants To Use Deadly Force?

Rep. Tony Cornish loves guns and the NRA.
So, it only makes sense that he wants give people a chance to use guns more by expanding times people can use deadly force (guns).

What doesn't make sense is a DFL committee chair that would allow such a bill to see the light of day.

This is from the Star Tribune:

"Surprisingly, I think this is catching on," said Cornish, adding that some DFLers quietly support the proposal "because it's a popular constituent bill." There is a companion measure in the Senate.

Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis, confirmed that he will give the bill a hearing in the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee, which he chairs.

"I haven't counted votes at all, so I don't have any idea what's going to happen," he said.

Mullery opposes the bill, calling it extreme. The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association also opposes it.

So why give it a hearing? Does the Minnesota Legislature have so much time that they can afford to have a little intellectual jousting? 

If you're interested in the bill, it is HF 498. You can read a summary of it here.

Hey MSN, Fix Your Spell Check!

If you have Hotmail, Live, or any of the other MSN incarnations of free email service, you may have noticed something funny when you run a spell check on your email if you mention Sen Obama's name.
It will always ask you to correct the spelling to OSAMA.
Try it yourself.
Any time you type in the lastname of the front-running Presidential candidate, MSN will ask you to change to the first name of the biggest enemy of the United States.

What's the deal MSN? Change it already.

I mean really, which name are you more afraid of misspelling?

Good Stock Tip? Buy Taser...

The company that makes the Taser is making money hand over fist these days. Word is several hundred of the devices are making their way to St. Paul in time for the GOP convention.

Here is a resolution with the city of St. Paul to keep an eye on:

Resolution – 08-99 – Establishing a 2008 financing and spending plan to purchase
234 Tasers for the Police Department. (GS 3048234)
Laid over to February 20 for a public hearing Yeas – 7 Nays – 0


We'll keep you updated after the Feb. 20th meeting.

For further reading, here is an article about the jubilant capitalists (although they make nearly all of their money from taxpayers) at Taser International, Inc: here.

Romney Drops Out, Implies Huckabee is a terrorist.

Romney dropped out. This paves the way for an Obama/ McCain race that will naturally make McCain the Wendell Wilkie of our era.

The best quote from his concession speech:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Does that mean Huckabee is in bed with the Taliban?

Recession Hitting Minnesota More

This is from the Pioneer Press:


Amid slumping sales, Macy's is making big changes that will affect 950 local jobs.

The retailer's Macy's North headquarters in Minneapolis will be consolidated into the retailer's eastern regional operation in New York, the Cincinnati-based retailer said today. A press release said 950 jobs at the Minneapolis headquarters would be affected, and while it noted that workers laid off would receive severance benefits it didn't provide specific job cut numbers.

Macy's North executives will be considered for jobs in a new local market organization the retailer outlined today or for open jobs elsewhere in the company.

"A Clean Break....."

Vermont Town Wants to Charge Bush & Cheney with War Crimes

BRATTLEBORO, VT --
A small Vermont town is mulling the idea of issuing arrest warrants for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

In the town of Brattleboro, officials will let voters decide if the duo should be charged with war crimes.

On town meeting day, March 4th, people in Brattleboro will vote on whether the President and Vice President should be indicted and arrested for war crimes if they ever set foot in Vermont.