Minnesotans vote today, + IOKIYNMW
It’s our new moved up super special primary day in here in Minnesota, and I was thrilled to see that most of the Entenza-Robinson green online ads have been replaced with UM Gopher burgundy Margaret ads this morning. It’s election day, her efforts are peaking, and that speaks to a superior campaign organization.
Yes, Dayton will probably win, but I look forward to seeing Kelliher demolish the credibility of the lame primary polls. I’m headed out the door now to vote and because I did not get any robo-calls from the Kelliher camp I will be voting for her.
Otoh, Chevy Chase? But that’s all the hook Swiftee needed to leave a comment at MinnPost with this wtf? link. Linking to a story ripping on Tysvar I could understand, but what Swiftee seems to be saying here is “environmentalism bad, therefore Entenza bad.” (Matt Entenza is, of course, Mr. Lois Quam.)
I’m not sure, but I think Swiftee just tipped us off to the fact that this fall’s Republican smears of Democrats will be completely unhinged. The new Republican Party: fuck the environment, fuck the uninsured, fuck the unemployed, fuck the military, fuck teachers, fuck government workers and fuck everyone else who isn’t us and who doesn’t think exactly like we do.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Here are some more incomprehensible (to non-Koolaid drinkers) Republican-driven “scandals”:
Al Franken says Nancy Pelosi’s name and ‘pugs have proof!
Spanish vacations and arugula [Limbaugh's v.]
The party of the Laffer napkin blocks confirmation of M.I.T. professor specializing in taxation, SS, pensions, Medicare, labor and behavioral economics due to lack of expertise in macroeconomics
Only Muslim women are subjected to hate crimes
Want real scandals? Try these:
Med student Rand Paul abducted a co-ed and tried to force her to smoke pot (which has resulted in Paul’s campaign threatening GQ)
Former Indiana Republican Congressman Joel Deckard has confessed to human trafficking
Rightwingers suddenly discover that Ted Olson is not one of them [more proof]
GOP removes 14th Amendment from their Accomplishments page
But for the usual gut-churning hypocrisy, see affirmative reactionary hire Jonah Goldberg’s latest screed:
Jonah’s turned populist? Is he writing about how 1% of Americans own ALL of America? Or maybe he’s acknowledging that Bush’s tax cuts totally favored the rich?
The truth? He’s mocking Obama for plugging the $40k Volt as a “people’s” car. Worth a link because in this screed he acknowledges that average Americans don’t earn shit or have squat to spend. Not just that, but Goldberg denigrates our economic winners by calling them “affluent hipsters who don’t need a lot of space for family.”
How conveniently perceived, how disingenuously written. More up is down black is white “conservative” thinking from one of the Confederate-based right’s leading thinkers.
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The House Ethics Committee has finally deigned to release the charges against Maxine Waters after a week of vague insinuendos and the usual Fox lies. When I say these don’t sound very serious to me (TPM followed up ASAP with the details the House left out), it’s because we’re talking about a half million dollar conflict of interest in which the best interests of the community, bank and Waters’ husband were all in agreement. The House is seemingly saying that because Waters’ husband had money at risk, Waters should have stayed clear even though her district would have been harmed by OneUnited’s failure.
OneUnited is the largest black-owned bank in the U.S., Waters’ district is mostly black, Waters is black but because her black husband invested in their community, the House thinks Waters shouldn’t have gotten involved.
Just a few districts up the road, Jane Harman’s billionaire hubby has money invested in practically every munitions maker in the country, and that never stops Queen Jane from picking and choosing which contracts are OK for the CIA and Pentagon to hand out.
Waters is guilty of Legislating While Black, and there will be hell to pay for that. More on how It’s OK If You’re Not Maxine Waters (IOKIYNMW) from TBogg.
Meanwhile, Robert Gates has announced some big cuts to private military contractors. Here’s how the WaPost reacted:
A bit of an overreaction considering that these cuts were prompted by the Post’s Dana Priest’s three-part exposé of the Pentagon’s one million private contractors and their employees.
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Economics:
Bob Herbert on the unemployment horror show
Paul Rosenberg on where the debt came from
Efficiency killed the factory stars
Bribery gains ground in American culture
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More politics:
Steve Benen on our midterm prospects
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MNetc:
More on Gov. Bridgefails tax cutting confessions on Bloomberg (he said a lot more than what the media’s been reporting on)
Strib finally mentions the My Dough Girl corporate bullying scandal
Mississippifarian featured Bettye LaVette gets rave review for Dakota show
Target boycott gets more complicated
Bring Me The News gets $1 million from Dolan Media/Padilla Speer
Dolan Media buys Federal News Service
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International:
Israeli teen gets 12 years for stabbing stepfather for having raped his younger sister because (I’m paraphrasing here) Israelis cannot treat each other like the IDF treats Palestinians
Arresting Arabs for “stealing water”
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Etc.:
Thai field hand stars in Palme d’Or-winning movie
For nerds only: God’s # is 20
Top 10 Pirated Movies of the Week (these are mostly “camcorded” movies and very low quality)
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R.I.P.s:
2 more Marines, eight since last Friday
Pakistan (more dead than Russia?)
I can’t tell you how annoyed I was to read Robert Gibbs’ comments just before lunch. It was some kind of tipping point or final straw. I came back from lunch and wrote the below. Sending both copies the old-fashioned way, signed and on paper inside a stamped envelope.
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August 10, 2010
Dear Press Secretary Gibbs:
I’m 53 years old. Liberal. Progressive. I have defended your boss against birthers in my own family, etc. I’ve never written to a WH Press Secretary in my life. Congratulations, you’re the first – you moron.
Here’s how I’ve voted since my first opportunity to vote:
• Barry Commoner
• Walter Mondale
• Dukakis
• Clinton
• Clinton
• Gore
• Kerry
• Obama
Do I need to hear a lecture from you that I need to be drug tested? No, instead – you know what? Why don’t YOU pay some respect to those who put your ass in office. You know who I’m voting for in 2012? Not Obama. Probably a Green candidate, or maybe not at all (for the first time). I’ve spent seven presidential cycles voting for a better country, I’m middle aged, and what I’ve been trying hasn’t worked out. Time for a new approach.
Your team had a historic, sea-change opportunity in 2008. This country – this world – is in crisis. We need visionary leadership on levels of magnitude above what we have now. Instead, the torturers walk free, the banksters draw higher bonuses than before they crashed the economy, the ecology is on a seriously downward slide (I’m not just talking about the Gulf), we don’t have good health care for everybody, the wars are grinding on, the country is bankrupt (by any logical rules of accounting), people are out of work and the jobs aren’t coming back, my former congressman, Rahm Emmanuel, calls people like me on the left “fucking retarded” and you’re telling ME I need to be drug tested?
Your voice and demeanor – along with much of your White House — are starting to sound like fingernails on chalkboard to me. Why don’t YOU go and get drunk on some good scotch whiskey, or whatever your grindingly moderate, pasty white mainstream ass likes to get stoned on.
Sincerely,
Rob Conrad
(address)
Cc: Your boss
Rob, you are a slow learner. That’s OK. Most Minnesotans are incapable of learning much of anything at all. You must be in possession of that “Brain” they like to talk about. When you are done with it, put it back in it’s box.
Congratulations.
BTW: My name could rightfully be Chicago Bob.