Downfall of the Empire, Rome Burns

The news just keeps getting worse and worse here in the USA.

"Bipartisan group works to revive auto bailout" reads the AP headline. Well, yeah, there are corrupt Congress-critters from "both" side of the aisle supporting the taxpayer money giveaway. But they're really all on the same page -- paid off by auto industries residing in their homes states.

And then there's this jerk, South Financial Group CEO Mack Whittle. He takes an $18 million golden parachute just before his company gets $347 million in taxpayer money bailout.

We've already heard about lots of other such cases, like the notorious AIG junket and party paid for its bail-out millions.

How bad does it have to get before taxpayers rise up and storm the offices of these greedy bastard CEOs bearing pitchforks, tar and feathers? Or are Americans so complacent and stupid these days, they won't do a thing?

Many years from now when they write the history of the USA ("a quaint democratic republic which died decades ago due to corporate greed and citizen apathy"), this bailout spending will be noted as a turning point in the downward spiral.

Michele Bachmann: Pathological Liar

Good grief! Now the Minnesota 6th district congresswoman (and FOX TV talking head wanna-be) is claiming what she said is just an "urban legend" -- despite millions of people seeing her say it on video. Bachmann is essentially claiming that Day is Night.

Too bad this kind of stupidity isn't painful or fatal; it would put Bachmann out of our collective pain.

FUD on the Coleman/Franken election recount

Jim Ragsdale of the Pioneer Press gets it right in his November 12 article:

The Coleman campaign, while promising to "work together to get things done,'' has dished most of the dirt, suggesting that normal bounces in the unofficial results are evidence of vote-tampering or worse. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty jumped in this week, saying that the question is whether "ballots from outside the process are going to be allowed in."

I understand the freak-out factor for the Republican team when the net result of the "unofficial" changes has benefitted Franken, the Democrat. That will be sorted out in the recount. But having our top Republican officials suggest that state and local election officials are crooked is irresponsible and reminiscent of the battle in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Tallahassee in November and December 2000.

In fact, Ragsdale says it so well, I have little to add. He finishes his article with this:

Deep breath time. While it is true that Coleman-Franken is also a statistical dead heat and that vote-counting remains an inexact science, Minnesota has two important elements in its favor.

• An automatic statewide recount law. In Florida in 2000, there was no statewide ballot-by-ballot recount. Gore had to seek hand recounts in selected counties. Minnesota law provides for an automatic recount of all votes in close races. It ends with two district court judges, two Supreme Court justices and Minnesota's Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, voting on challenged ballots and deciding who won.


• "Intent of voter" language. Those good Floridians looking at punch-cards for hours upon hours had no law to guide them to determine what a voter intended when the hole wasn't punched clearly through. Minnesota uses paper ballots marked by voters and counted by optical scanners. For incorrectly marked votes, state law gives officials considerable guidance on how to determine a voter's intent.

That was the civics-class version. It will produce a winner, sometime before Christmas. But Florida showed that there are separate legal and political realms where this battle will also be waged. Either side can go to court and contest the election or challenge specific decisions; there is even the possibility of a court-supervised Recount II.

And the political fight goes on. While the Franken side has been quiet, the Coleman team has not gotten out of campaign mode. When the unofficial results change, the Coleman team issues a statement saying that "improbable and statistically dubious chunks of votes appear and disappear.'' Coleman went to court over Minneapolis absentee ballots that his lawyer later said proved not to be a problem. He fired off demands to vote-counters as if he were dealing with a hostile nation.

The tie will not be broken to everyone's satisfaction. Election officials have to check out all allegations, operate out in the open and show their work; but we as citizens do not have to assume the worst until proven otherwise. And we can judge Coleman and Franken by how they allow their supporters to behave in this difficult challenge to our precious democratic system.

Deep breath, indeed. Coleman should rethink his criticism, essentially of every person involved in the election process, and his fear-mongering. He knows the facts better than what his statements say; his complaints about a few hundred votes changing are ridiculous in the face of his benefiting from changes in the thousands in the very same manner in the 2002 election.

Minnesota District 6 Voters: Morons

Last election, where Michele Bachmann was elected to Minnesota's U.S. House District 6 seat, pretty much left me appalled. But to re-elect the biggest nut-job in Minnesota politics? Against a moderate, well-liked El Tinklenberg who has demonstrated success at getting the taxpayer's job done at a couple of positions, both elected and appointed?

That's completely nuts.

One can only draw one conclusion when a district elects a woman who hides in the bushes at rallies, places a lip-lock on the president upon meeting him and repeatedly shoots herself in the foot by making completely false or inflammatory statements -- amongst the many, many crazy, bigoted, racist, and just plain stupid additional things she has said and done.

That one conclusion can only be that too many of the district 6 voters are complete, utter, mindless, uninformed, raving, idiots.

For example, several 6th district supporters claimed they voted for Bachmann because of her "Christian" morals -- as if her opponent, Tinklenberg, a minister himself were not Christian. With that kind "thinking" (or lack thereof), they can't be anything other than plain stupid.

A commenter on the Star Tribune web site (who appears to be named Lisa and live in Savage) describes the situation well:

I don't know what ever happened to the Republican party I used to support. Oh wait... yes I do. The party I used to support did not embrace far-right evangelicals trying to impose their specious religious beliefs upon the rest of us. THAT party lauded higher education. THAT party was fiscally conservative. THAT party embraced reason and logic. Now you all seem to rejoice in your lack of education, celebrate your lack of heart and hold up your fear tactics and warmongering as virtues. I was a registered Republican from 1988 to 2000. George W. Bush drove me away from the party and I remain a proud anti-Republican - voting against the party of theocracy, hatred and fear at every opportunity.