The Minnesota Critic

Republicans Hate Peace

2005-09-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

I guess it was obvious, but Republicans are now on the record hating peace. They're against a department that would develop policies ranging from international conflict-resolution to reducing domestic abuse.

It's established fact that Republicans love war and are so eager to start them that they'll lie to peace-loving Americans in order to justify their wars. But even I didn't think they were as bad as to support domestic abuse.

Minnesota GOP Executive Director Bill Walsh called the idea an "unreasonable approach to dealing with the problems of the 21st century, including international terrorism."

Uh-huh. And the Republicans have proven their incompentence in dealing with international terrorism.

George Bush Has No Moral Clarity, But He's Not Purely Evil

2005-09-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

You want moral clarity? Consult Bill Maher and his New Rules:

Is George Bush purely evil? Of course not. And that's what's so evil about him. He doesn't twirl a mustache and smirk and cackle. Well, he doesn't twirl a mustache. He's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. Wherever he goes, he stirs up such a humongous mess it can only be cleaned up by Halliburton. But he is not pure evil.
Because evil is a chain. Did any one person doom New Orleans? No, it's a chain. People vote for a corrupt leader; a corrupt leader puts unqualified cronies in high places, and when those cronies fuck up, evil gets done. The devil didn't fly up from hell and knock a hole in that levee. The levee just didn't get built because the money for it went to rich people's tax cuts and pork projects and corporate welfare.
Evil isn't "Salem's Lot." It's Trent Lott. This week, an ailing American bald eagle was found to be dying from mercury poisoning. Republicans immediately tried to blame it on the eagle's lifestyle choices. But it's worth noting that also this week, the White House threatened to veto limits on mercury pollution. Now, pure evil would be if George Bush sat around the White House saying, "Let's poison eagles!" And even I don't believe George Bush would do that.
Cheney would do that. And even he is not pure evil. Dick Cheney doesn't hate poor children and caribou. They're just in the way.
Bottom line: some people think Satan is real and some people think global warming is real. If you think stopping gays from doing it is more important than the ice caps melting, the boogeyman is you...

Seventy-One Percent Think Randy Kelly Is Unfit For Office

2005-09-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

How bad is the covert Republican mayor of St. Paul, Randy Kelly? He is so horrible, that he got only 27% of the vote in yesterday's primary. The Green Party candidate got 19%, fer Chrissakes! The good people of Saint Paul know something about floods and they've seen in New Orleans how Bush-loving, government-hating Republicans treat flooded cities and you know what? They want absolutely no part of it.

No surprise, then, that they are so enthusiastic for DFLer Chris Coleman that they gave him 52% of the vote.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people."

2005-09-04T12:42:00.000-05:00

That sentence was uttered by rapper Kanye West's during NBC's "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" telethon. But NBC's viewers didn't hear it because the corporate media giant censored West.

The truth hurts.

The Cost Of Bush's Inaction

2005-09-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

This man is dead

This woman is dying.

This is the price of misrule.

Photos courtesy Star Tribune.

New Orleans Is Screwed By Bush's Feeble Response

2005-09-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

It ain't just me.

The editorial pages of perhaps the most conservative newspaper in the country, the Union Leader of New Hampshire, blasted George Bush for his complete failure in response to Hurricane Katrina:

"A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease...The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

Anyone who does not agree is simply, pathetically blinded by their partisanship or foolishly, willfully blind.

Snipers are shooting at hospital vehicles, the old and infirm are dying outside the Convention Center with no help in sight. New Orleans is indeed in anarchy.

From watching Fox News, you'd never guess the magnitude of this catastrophic tragedy. According to Fox, there are only some house fires and looters in New Orleans--not black, poor people dying like flies because their government has failed them.

Thank God for CNN's Jack Cafferty, who, apparently, is the only journalist in America with enough guts to tell it like it is: A complete and abysmal failure by the Bush administration with it's most fundamental obligation, the protection of its own citizens.

Bush's Failure Of Leadership Costs Hurricane Victims

2005-08-31T19:36:00.000-05:00

It took George Bush two whole days to come back from vacation to deal with Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath.

FEMA has thus far been AWOL.
There is widespread looting and lawlessness in New Orleans.
A massive public health threat looms.
The death toll may reach the thousands.
The scope of human suffering and tragedy is staggering.

And what does Bush do? Calls a press conference, two days too late. These are Americans suffering, Mr. President. Get to goddamn work!

Secretary Of State Mary Kiffmeyer Opposed To Ethics Code

2005-08-31T10:50:00.000-05:00

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer opposes a proposed Code of Integrity " that would bar formal partisan activity by the office," the Star Tribune reports.

Just why the far right wing conservative Kiffmeyer opposes such a reasonable measure is a bit of a mystery. Could it be because she wants to be sure she can be partisan in the future, just as she has in the past? Such as in 2004 when she attended a campaign even on behalf of Laura Bush.

It's no secret that Kiffmeyer has politicized a formerly neutral office. She has, for example, stocked the office with far right wing staffers from organizations such as the radical right wing fundamentalist Christian organization Minnesota Family Council.

Kiffmeyer should support Integrity in election activities, not oppose it.

More Proof Conservatives Hate Poor People

2005-08-30T11:08:00.001-05:00

This is what you get when you let the Barbarians rule: Four straight years of poor people getting screwed, the Associated Press reports.

The nation's poverty rate is at almost 13 percent.

Next year it could be you if we don't wrest power from their greedy little fingers.

Poor Florida - Cheri Pierson Yecke Headed To Sunshine State To Cloud Young Floridians' Minds

2005-08-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

Florida's parents should expect their kids textbooks to be bereft of any mention of Democratic presidents, but they should find plenty of Creationism there now that Cheri Pierson Yecke has been hired by Florida Governor Gov. Jeb Bush to head their education department, the Star Tribune reports.

That's the type lunatic fringe crap Yecke tried to pull on us ordinary, hard-working Minnesotans ever since Tax & Spend Timmy Pawlenty inflicted this horrible woman on us.

Jeb Bush knows exactly what he's getting--and he likes it--but poor Floridians probably don't.

As if Floridians don't have enough to worry about, what with deadly hurricanes constantly pounding their shore, Republicans always stealing their votes, now they've got to monitor their kid's textbooks for lies.

Tim Pawlenty Insults Women

2005-08-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

Governor Names Patronizing, Far Right Wing Lynda Boudreau To Health Post

"Former state Rep. Lynda Boudreau has been named deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health," the Star Tribune reports.

Boudreau, you'll remember, authored such anti-health bills such as the so-called Citizens Personal Protection Act, hoping to make our streets more dangerous by innundate them with gun-toting people. As if that weren't bad enough, Boudreau also authored the patronizing Women's Right To Know Bill--rightly derided as the Women Are Stupid Act--that required a waiting period before women had an abortion to give the far right wing religious nutjobs a better chance at intervening.

Hate Mail Par For The Course For Far Right Religious Nutbags

2005-08-26T10:41:00.000-05:00

"Dr. Catherine DeAngelis is a staunch Roman Catholic, used to give communion to her patients and says she strongly opposes abortion," the Associated Press reports. Yet that hasn't stopped the wild-eyed far right wing nutjobs from innundating her with hate mail for publishing as study in JAMA that dared to call into question their political argument that fetuses feel pain.

Sadly, this what we've come to expect from the Republicans far right wing fundamentalist Christian base: Hate.

Let The Character Assassignation Begin - President Goes After Cindy Sheehan

2005-08-24T13:49:00.000-05:00

Get ready for the Republican slime machine to unleash it's wrath on Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan for having the gall to question President Bush just why her son died in Iraq.

President Bush dismissed Sheehan by saying that her "views" did not represent the opinions of most of the military families he has met, even though all she wants is an answer to why her sone died in Iraq. Even though, as the Los Angeles Times reports:

another mother protesting in Crawford, Karen Meredith of Mountain View, Calif., said that the president was "fooling himself" and that he had met with only a small fraction of families of slain soldiers.

As an example, said Meredith, whose son, Army Lt. Ken Ballard, was killed in 2004, Bush had not met with her yet. "I'm in his back yard, so I'd love to come over and have a lemonade with him, because many families feel the same way that we do," she said.

Not only are they now going after Sheehan, but they're lying about her argument. Bush is saying an "immediate withdrawl" from Iraq would be a disaster, even though nobody is suggesting that.

In Fact, Operation Truth's Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq veteran, was on MSNBC's Hardball recently saying that what we need is an exit strategy. And that's a fact the Bush administration does not want discussed.

Does Bush Agree With Pat Robertson, His Right Wing Religious Radical Friend?

2005-08-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

Far, far right wing religious radical Pat Robertson's call to break longstanding United States law and assasinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was met with silence from President George Bush and mild quasi-denunciations from administration officials.

The New York Times quotes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying only, "Certainly, it's against the law. Our department doesn't do that type of thing. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "This is not the policy of the United States government. We do not share his views."

Private citizens say things?!? We do not share his views? Those are not denuciations; it's weasley word play. Just the type of thing we've come to expect from this irresponsible administration.

But then that's what you get when far right wing conservatives control everything--support for the irrational and irresponsible.

Church Leaders Challenge Pawlenty Administration's Interference Of Religious Freedom

2005-08-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

Church leaders are challenging Tax & Spend Timmy Pawlenty's administration's unprecedented infringement on freedom of religion, the Star Tribune reports.

Absolutely appalling.

Conservatives - They Lie And Cheat

2005-08-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

As if we needed it, still more proof is revealed that all Conservatives care about is their own power. And they are perfectly happy to lie and cheat in order to keep it, the Star Tribune reports:

In his recent book, "Steal This Vote" -- a very judicious work, despite its title -- Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper the Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Harris' "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.

Let's face it, the reason Democrats continue to lose elections is that they love Democracy too much and, as a result, they abide by the rules and play fair during elections.

Conservatives hate Democracy and they demonstrate this hatred by saying and doing absolutely anything to maintain their iron grip on power. And it's only going to get worse because, as the paper reports:

Our current political leaders would suffer greatly if either house of Congress changed hands in 2006, or if the presidency changed hands in 2008. The lids would come off all the simmering scandals, from the selling of the Iraq war to profiteering by politically connected companies. The Republicans will be strongly tempted to make sure that they win those elections by any means necessary. And everything we've seen suggests that they will give in to that temptation.

Bush Callously Dismisses Mother Dead Soldier

2005-08-12T10:05:00.000-05:00

In a stunning case of in-your-face dismissal, President Bush used the occasion of a vigil by the mother of a solider killed in Iraq to insist that more of America's sons and daughters should die needlessly in his incompetently-run occupation, the Star Tribune reports.

Extremist Randy Kelly's Flip-Flop Too Little, Too Late On Crime

2005-08-12T09:54:00.000-05:00

Last year the St. Paul City Council was on top of the city's violent crime problem when they proposed a 2% property tax levy to put more cops on the streets. Covert Republican Mayor Randy Kelly opposed safer streets for ordinary, hard-working St. Paul families, calling the Council's proposal "extremist," the Star Tribune reports.

Now that violent criminals are ravaging the city's residents, the Bush-lovin mayor is flippin and floppin like a fish out of water, proposing his own 3% tax increase to cover his ass.

St. Paul needs a real leader, not a flip-flopper.

Stones Fans On Edge: Will Bush Ban Them?

2005-08-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

"The Rolling Stones' upcoming album contains a song seemingly critical of President Bush," the Star Tribune reports.

A song--"Sweet Neo Con"--from their new album A Bigger Bang, refers to Halliburton but does not name administration officials specifically. However, It is decidedly critical of the administration. The song includes the following line:

"How come you're so wrong? My sweet neo-con, where's the money gone, in the Pentagon,"

The Stones kick off their tour in Boston this month but fans across the world are wondering if the the group will find itself on a terrorist watch list because of their criticism of the administration.

Oil Prices Soar, Bush Does Nothing

2005-08-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

The AP reports oil prices reaching $64 a barrel and yet President Bush sits on his hands and does nothing.

But then what do you expect from a pro-Big Oil administration?

Randy Kelly - Soft On Crime

2005-08-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

St. Paul Mayor and covert Republican Randy Kelly disasterous lack of leadership of our Capitol City has lead to an alarming rise in violent crime in St. Paul, the Pioneer Press reports.

"Serious offenses in St. Paul have surged noticeably this year, according to St. Paul Police Department data," the paper reports. Aggravated assualts have risen by 10%; robbery by 16%; and forcible rape by an appalling 20 percent.

Shameful.

Mayor Kelly should spend less time hosting out of state politicians and rubbing shoulders with national far right wing Republicans and more time on the job protecting St. Paul's ordinary, hard-working families.

Pawlenty's Blame Game Continues

2005-08-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

Tax & Spend Timmy Pawlenty continues to refuse to take repsonsibility for his disasterous scheme to shut down state government and, stand up guy that he isn't, instead is trying to distract ordinary, hard-working Minnesota families by pointing his childish finger of blame at anyone but himself with his new gimmicky "Performance Pay for Politicians" proposal, the Star Tribune reports.

The adult at the Capitol, National Guard chaplain and Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, will have none of Pawlenty's childish games. The paper quotes Sentator Johnson:

"The Minnesota Senate will concentrate on bonding, pension reform and cleaning up Minnesota water," Johnson said, "not waste time."

Amen, Senator Johnson. Amen.

Flop: Norm Coleman's Stem Cell Reversal Reveals Lack Of Core Beliefs

2005-08-05T08:56:00.000-05:00

For once, political chameleon Norm Quimby Coleman has taken the correct stance on an issue. But he flipped and flopped before arriving at the decision to support allow expanded stem cell research.

That doesn't sit well with his far, far right wing radical supporters for two reasons--one of them right and one of them wrong. The wrong reason, as articulated by the director of Prolife Across America in an op-ed piece in today's Strib, is that Coleman's new position is contrary to the radical right's irrational insistence on opposing new cures for deadly diseases. The correct reason for the far right wing's displeasure with Coleman is their disdain for his breathtaking political expediency over an issue they consider one of paramount principle.

Coleman's flop on the stem cell issue only highlights his lack of any deeply held beliefs; the only thing the Senator seems to fundamentally believe in is his own political power.

Fecke's The Best

2005-08-01T12:18:00.000-05:00

Forgive me, O Lord, for this, my dreadful toadying.

Fecke, over at Moderate Left, has a great piece on Powerline's Bush syncophancy. The pull quote is priceless.

And, God, whenever the Monty Python quote fits, use it!

Props.

Local Chapter Of John Roberts' Secret Society Scammed State Education Credits

2005-08-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

The Minnesota chapter of the Federalist Society--the secret society that George Bush's Supreme Court appointee John Roberts "can't remember" if he belonged to despite evidence to the contrary--shamelessly scammed credits the state's continuing legal education system, the Star Tribune reports.

The paper reports today that:

Lawyers were getting state continuing education credit for the category "elimination of bias" with a conference whose main thrust was to question whether the system is biased at all.

No wonder Roberts is lying about his membership.