Tim Pawlenty, big fat liar

Here's a video of Tim Pawlenty strongly saying he will support LGA, hold it harmless and most importantly, that cutting LGA will force property taxes higher. And yet that's just exactly what he did not do a few years later as governor. He cut LGA and forced property taxes higher. He's a big fat liar, and he's stabbing every property owner in Minnesota in the back at the same time he is smiling to their faces.

Iranian Election and Twitter

While this has nothing to do with Minnesota directly, it's such a noble cause -- fighting for democracy -- I thought I would mirror this here.

This article was originally captured from here:
http://reinikainen.co.uk/2009/06/iranelection-cyberwar-guide-for-beginners

Reposted here: http://heavenp2.somee.com/helpiraniantwitters.pdf

#iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners

Posted at June 16, 2009

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicize proxy IPs over Twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hastag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranaian bloggers, direct message them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distribute them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags - the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88. Other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep your bull$h*t filter up! Security forces are now setting up Twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don't retweet impetuously. Try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your Twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT + 3:30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don't blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don't publicize their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don't signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real. Please keep that in mind.

6. Denial of Service attacks. If you don't know what you are doing, stay out of this game. Only target those sites the legitimate Iranian bloggers are designating. Be aware that these attacks can have detrimental effects on the network the protesters are relying upon. Keep monitoring their traffic to note
when you should the taps on or off.

7. Do spread the (legitimate) word, it works! When the bloggers asked for Twitter maintenance to be postponed using the #nomaintenance tag, it had the desired effect. As long as we spread good information, provide moral support to the protesters, and take our lead from the legitimate bloggers, we can make a constructive contribution.

Please remember that this is about the future of the Iranian people. While it might be exciting to get caught up in the flow of participating in a new meme, do not lose sight of what this is really about.

Sad State of Health Care

I just read some sad statistics:

One in four Minnesotans had no health insurance coverage at some point during 2007 and 2008.  Four out of five people who lacked health insurance coverage were employed, so it's not just a case of health care being tied to employment.  Employers are dropping health care benefits, or price them at a rate that's too expensive for their employees to afford.

If that were not bad enough, Minnesota had the lowest rate of uninsured people among 49 states studied.  So if 25% of Minnesotans were uninsured, and 80% of those had jobs, and those are among the best statistics in this country, the American health care situation looks pretty dismal.

Who supports Pawlenty these days?

Small town, outstate Minnesota is widely seen as Republican these days, with only those darn liberal strongholds around the larger cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth truly Democrat. So it's interesting to find an editorial in the Ely, Tower and Cook Timberjay newspapers lambasting Pawlenty.

Today's Timberjay editorial says in part:

The budget plan that the governor has proposed includes a deficit of approximately $1 billion, even after nearly $2 billion in federal stimulus funding is included. The governor proposes to address that deficit by issuing bonds, which will supposedly be repaid through future proceeds from the state’s tobacco settlement. With interest, the bonds will require payment of a total of $1.7 billion over 20 years.

The federal government does exactly the same thing when its available revenues don’t meet its spending plans. It issues Treasury bonds to cover the shortfall, and the cost of current spending is paid for by adding to the nation’s longstanding debt.

Pawlenty says he now wants to do that here in Minnesota. Now we can certainly argue about whether the state’s prohibition on deficit spending is a good thing, particularly in tough economic times, when most economists believe running government deficits is useful. But Pawlenty isn’t making that argument. In fact, he’s made considerable political hay chiding Washington for its own growing deficits, due in large part to the stimulus funds that have helped the states, including Minnesota, stave off the worst effects of the recession.

Pawlenty clearly isn’t content with mere doubletalk here - he’s speaking from both sides of his mouth while his hands are dealing three card monty. Hypocrisy is a term that just doesn’t do it justice.

Calling the proposal unconstitutional, the paper goes on to explain the problems with Pawlenty's plan, and how it's likely Pawlenty will be back asking for more deficit spending in the future. They also place blame for the cause of the state's financial trouble squarely on Pawlenty's shoulders:

There is, of course, a very simple reason behind the governor’s deficit spending. His reckless “no-new-taxes” pledge in conjunction with tax policy changes he backed as House Majority Leader, have left the state with an essentially permanent budget deficit.

It's commendable that the Timberjay editorial gets the whole story right - it's not just Pawlenty's time in the governor's office where he's done harm, but the many years in the State House where he pushed through bad financial policies.

I don't know the political persuasion of the editorial writer or writers at the Timeberjay, but I've got to imagine the general tenor of political discourse in the newspaper's circulation area to be traditional conservative. That might mean they're not fond of modern day self-labled Republicans who have stolen the party from true conservatives. Perhaps I'm going out on a log here. But the final sentences of the editorial certainly seem to indicate a lack of belief in Pawlenty as a conservative:

Pawlenty now proposes to deal with the situation he helped create by longterm borrowing that will only exacerbate the problem for future state leaders by stealing future revenues to pay for operational spending today. What we have is a governor who claims the mantle of fiscal conservatism while proposing the most fiscally damaging solution to a state budget crisis since the founding of the state.

And he has the guts to call Washington irresponsible?

Pawlenty supporters claim gov prevents wasteful spending

It's easy to find people in Minnesota who support Governor Tim Pawlenty, despite his many flaws, errors and lies, and stupidly dogmatic adherence to a cockamamie "no new taxes" pledge. They claim he is preventing those darn liberals from raising taxes and wasting money. They claim the state has plenty of money if they would just cut out the waste and unnecessary programs. Maybe they should start "at home" with the Governor himself. As reported in the Minnpost:

The legislative auditor again criticized Pawlenty administration fiscal controls, this time in monitoring federal funds flowing through state coffers. The Strib's Mike Kaszuba says there was a "material weakness" that, among other things, enabled a five-year-long, $1 million theft. Poor instructions to counties made it impossible to monitor some spending.

That's just brilliant. Mr. "I'm trying to save the state money" Pawlenty is allowing theft of money his office controls.

What does that make Pawlenty supporters? Ignoramuses? Or hypocrites?

Michele Bachmann apparently deaf

I just came across this video clip of Michele Bachmann. Judging from her inane and completely from-another-planet responses to the people around her, I would have to say she is completely deaf.

I can't believe this idiot was ever elected to any office. I guess it demonstrates that her supporters are likewise "deaf" idiots.

The problem with right-wing fear mongers

From the comments section on the Washington Monthly site, comes this:

the seal wrote: "She [Sarah Palin] is the only republican who is even dimly aware of the (white)working class, and she speaks their language."

That's hardly the case. Most of Rush Limbaugh's audience is "white working class" and much of the language that Palin uses has been pretty much lifted from Rush Limbaugh's script.

As for this discourse being "their language" -- i.e. the language of working class people -- it is really the language of their worst fears, basest instincts and most shameful prejudices, language which is used to manipulate them into despising and resenting other folks who share their interests and supporting right-wing Republican crooks who proceed to rob and steal from them on behalf of ultra-rich corporate oligarchs.

Posted by: SecularAnimist on January 13, 2009 at 1:05 PM | PERMALINK

The important part is the last paragraph. The Republicans I grew up with and admired were good conservatives, full of hope and optimism. They were honest and hard working. They did not manipulate and play to people's fears, basest instincts and shameful prejudices. They did not steal from the poor to coddle the rich.

But that's what many of today's self-labeled "Republicans" have become. Michelle Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty and many others sully the Republican name. It's no wonder so many voters have turned away from the party.

I guess that's as it should be. When a party allows itself to be corrupted and hijacked, it's time for it to die -- perhaps to be reborn as a better creature.