Nitwits 'r' us

Joel Hanson of Eden Prairie somehow imagines that a few months of slightly improved economic news erases all the myriad of facts illustrating new records of economic failure on the part of the current administration.

The unvarnished truth is that President Bush and his team are poor stewards of the economy: They have amassed the worst jobs record in more than half a century, piled up a mountain of government debt for the nation’s children and, equally bad, they have no realistic, fair and effective plan to fix the economy and put America back to work.

The nation has lost jobs in 25 of the 31 months that President Bush has been in office, making for the worst jobs record at this point in a presidency of any administration since Herbert Hoover. Including last July’s loss of 44,000 positions (when economists had predicted a 10,000-job increase), our economy has shed more than 2.5 million jobs and 3.2 million private-sector jobs since the president took office.

Hanson the genius figures this demonstrates Republicans are more in favor of a strong economy than Democrats.

Then there is brain boy Mark Hepokoski of Menahga, Minnesota who thinks that killing some 12,000 innocent Iraqi civilians is Ok because Saddam Hussein's political (and criminal) prisoners have been released and because the Iraqi Olympic team had a pleasant trip. He also claims the Kurds no longer have to fear poison gas attacks, conveniently ignoring the fact that they have not had to fear them since the first Gulf War when the weapons inspectors showed up and destroyed all the equipment (which the USA sold Iraq back when they were our buddies) for making the stuff. He also ignores the fact that by wasting our time and lives in Iraq, we've taken our eye of the ball -- hunting down Osama bin Laden and dismantling Al Queda.

I'm sure every country which has a despotic ruler would love to have the USA invade, cause mass civil destruction and insurrection and kill thousands of their innocent civilians in order to get rid of the despot. Just ask the surviving family members of those 12,000 Iraqis how happy they are.

St. Paul mayor vetoes smoking ban

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly ought to just get it over with -- and change his party to Republican, a party that as it is currently constituted may as well be called the neo-con right-wing party for amoral corporate interests. Kelly apparently can't read the writing on wall, writ large by the Bloomington and Minneapolis city councils earlier this summer. He appears ignorant of, or immune to all the evidence which shows that smoking bans do not harm business over all and often even help it. Except of course the tobacco business. That must be the business Kelly is worried about when he says the St. Paul ban would "harm businesses."

Bone-headed laws

Zoning laws in Minneapolis make it illegal to have anything (except for those on a short list of exceptions like air conditioners and bay windows) between the ground and the sky in your front yard. So all you folks with bird baths, gazing globes, bird feeders and lawn chairs in your front yards in Minneapolis are criminals.

Here's a law that's far overdue for being changed.

Selective Amnesia and Hypocrisy

Just a list of Minnesotans who have recently demonstrated in public that they are suffering from selective amnesia or hyporcrisy or both.

Reaction's to Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11

Chris Tiedeman, Republican hack

"I've seen all of Moore's films, and he gets progressively crazier. He's so selective with his information that he's just not credible."

And the Bush administration is credible?

Michael Wilson, a marketing wrter planning to make his own film attacking Michael Moore.

"[H]e manipulates the conversation... It made me want to be meaner to Moore in my own film."

Pot calling the kettle black?

Tara Anderson, director of a college organization of twits

"He [Moore]...ignores the previous eight years when Clinton failed to respond."

Yeah, like the cruise missles Clinton ordered into Sudan and Afghanistan to destroy Al-Queda targets? Like the fat security threat report about Al-Queda given to the Bush administration which was ignored for 8 months until the day before 9/11? Like tracking down and prosecuting the first World Trade Center bombers? And all the while, having to fight off Republican idiots in Congress, and the bogus persecution over 7 years by Ken Starr, who found zip, zilch, nada, nothing.

Other Idiotic Ideas

Cheri Pierson Yecke, not a real Minnesotan but just as stupid

Believes the idea of separation of state and church is a myth

Turns out she was equally controversial and disliked in Virginia, contrary to the false accolades her supporters credit her.

Ron Eibensteiner, chief twit of the Minnesota Republican party

Bashes urban public schools for having to serve different populations, including those people -- you know, the ones who are not well-to-do, privileged and white like him.

A dishonest, narrow-minded, ignorant, arrogant, elitist, corrupt racist bigot, if there ever was one.

How about this insult?

Can you imagine the gall? The Senate Majority Leader, Reverend Dean Johnson, suggested appointing three House-Senate negotiating groups which would meet publicly as part of a legislative special session. How incredibly insulting is that? Imagine if someone proposed something so outrageous, abusive and rude as that to you? Holy smokes!

Boy, oh, boy, things have sunk low in politics when someone suggests 3 negotiating groups to the 5 you wanted.

No wonder Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum is so justifiably upset. Did I say upset? I apologize for the understatement. Sviggum is more than just upset. He is so angered, he has made statements like such a proposal "doesn't even warrant a response," "Dean Johnson has shut the door" and "the Senate is unwilling to serve the interests of Minnesota."

Enough parody.

Who is the baldfaced, lying bastard that is obstructing the legislative process here? Who is slamming the door and unwilling to server the interests of Minnesota?

That would be you, Mr. Sviggum, you arrogant maggot.

Big Wanker of the Republican Party

Randy Wanke, St. Paul; communications director, Republican Party of Minnesota whines like the big baby he must be about how the Star Tribune has no conservative columnists in its Metro section -- conveniently overlooking the fact that columnist James Lileks is a bozo right-winger just like Wanker. Ok, so most of the time Lileks is confined to attempting to write a humor column, but his outtings on the editorial pages are far too frequent and full of right-wing bile. But I don't see Wanke calling for more liberal commentators at Fox news, or on jerkwad Jason Lewis's radio show.

Just another crooked politician enriching himself at taxpayer expense

Former Rep. David Bishop, Republican-Rochester, bought into a development venture that assembled more than 450 acres alongside Hwy. 63, and met with MnDOT officials to talk about and then voted for a spending bill to build interchanges connecting to his land, according to a Star Tribune report.

Like all legislators, Bishop was required to disclose his financial interests -- including property -- so the public could determine whether he had any potential conflicts of interest.

As a legislator from 1982 to 2002, Bishop routinely listed his property holdings, sometimes in great detail. But he never disclosed that in 1997 he had bought into a development group that controlled 450 acres along Hwy. 63 between downtown Rochester and the city's airport. The investors planned major commercial developments, including housing, a business park and large retailers. Bishop's report said only that he had acquired "development land southeast, southwest and northwest of Rochester."

The public disclosure board demanded specific locations and acreage. Bishop responded a month later, itemizing details about land he had owned for years. But he omitted 21 acres he acquired in 1997 along Hwy. 63. He continued to omit that land in later disclosure statements, and he also did not report his 25 percent interest in joint ventures formed to develop the entire 450 acres.

After being questioned by the Star Tribune in late January, Bishop amended his financial disclosures again to report the 21 acres. He said he had meant to report the development land all along, but mistakenly had listed the legal descriptions of two small parcels he had owned up the road. He couldn't explain how he confused those 1-acre parcels, which he had previously disclosed, with the much larger spread he had just acquired.

Bishop did not list on the amended forms his interest in the joint ventures that owned the rest of the land. Earlier this month, after the newspaper questioned why his amended statement failed to disclose his interest in the entire property, Bishop said he and his lawyer "did kind of a sloppy reading" of the law before filing his amendment.

Sure he did, Mr. Bishop. And I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Welcome to the new theocratic fascist state!

Or at least, it will be if boneheads like Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and Minnesota State Senator Michael Jungbauer, both Republicans, have their way. Jungbauer wrote in a letter to a constituent that separation of church and state is "a false belief" and that "It is legal for a state to establish and promote a religion." Kiffmeyer told a conference that "separation of church and state" was a destructive idea. Then there was Minnesota State Senator Michele Bachmann's little prayer escort in the Senate chamber.

John Locke, our founders' intellectual father who proclaimed the natural rights of man, inconsistently argued for a national church, and nine of the original thirteen colonies had state religions. Patrick Henry supported Locke's idea of a state-church alliance, but it was Madison's views that prevailed in the adoption of the Constitution. You can't have it both ways, Madison argued -- you either have a religious state or a state that protects individual liberty.

Or, if we're really going to have a state church -- let's make it the Catholic Church. I'm nominally Catholic and that would suit me fine. But since most of these right-wing nut cases are not, they would be quite unhappy I suspect. And that would make me even more amused.

So, to recap:

Kiffmeyer: Ignorant, stupid, right-wing nut case.
Jungbauer: Ignorant, arrogant, right-wing nut case.
Bachmann: Ignorant, hypocritical, right-wing nut case.

Is this a great state or what?

More and more it seems like the dictionary definition of hypocrisy should include modern-day Republicans. This past week, the DFL began running an ad attacking Pawlenty. I guess it was a pretty mean ad. One might think it was the first of its kind, given the yowling of Republicans like scalded cats. But it's merely another case of selective memory or hypocrisy. They conveniently ignore the dirty ads they ran branding opponents as akin to terrorists in Pawlenty's gubernatorial campaign.

The ad is being compared to the Willie Horton ad -- which, surprise, was run by a Republican campaign.

Or how about the Republican run ads attacking Democrat Max Cleland, senator from Georgia, by comparing him to Osama in Laden -- while Cleland is actually a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran?

The real problem is that the whiners in the Republican party just can't take their own medicine. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

The stinking pile of corruption and lies in the governor's office grows ever larger and smells even stronger. Will Minnesotans notice the odor and clean up the mess by showing Pawlenty and Awada out the door? Seems just as unlikely as it is appropriate.

Governor Tim Pawlenty is now calling for the death penalty in Minnesota in reaction to the disappearance of a young woman from Pequot Lakes.

What a big fat lying hypocrite. Let's see — he's anti-abortion because an abortion is killing a potential life and all life is sacred. But he's in favor of putting people to death who have committed a couple of nasty crimes but haven't actually killed anybody (if one can even justify the death penalty in cases of murder). He's a lawyer but spouts off about the death penalty for a man never convicted of any crime for which the death penalty can be imposed. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is not allowed in cases of rape, for example. Pawlenty must have done poorly in law school.

Pawlenty is just playing dirt-ball politics at a time when people are expressing concern over this young woman's disappearance.

What a loser.

Hook, line and sinker — we've bought the gun industry's BS

The Minnesota legislature passed a "conceal and carry" handgun law this year.

Pro-gun people have repeatedly stated that people with such permits have not and will not misuse their guns.

Governor Tim Pawlenty signed into law an extremely liberal statute, despite hearing testimoney at the state house from a man who was wounded in Mankato by a gun permit holder in a restaurant. Permit holders have not and will not injure, threaten or kill people for other than self-defense? It has already happened. Statements to the contrary are lies.

Gun advocates have also continually claimed they needed guns for self-defense. This report clearly shows that according to pro-gun experts themselves, this claim of self-defense is also completely erroneous.

What's my party?

Someone asked what my political affiliation was. They guessed I was not a Republican, probably because of my recent bashing of the Tim Pawlenty administration. Actually, I've been bashing dishonest politicians for about 26 years, but only recently created this blog.

Perhaps surprisingly, the only political party I've ever been a member of is, in fact, the Republican Party. But I bailed out on them quite a few years ago when it became obvious that it had been hijacked by the religious right, the overwhelmingly dishonest and the politicians completely bought and paid for by the wealthy and big corporations. I was a Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater Republican — the kind who has a certain set of beliefs in how best to improve society and the country through hard work, self responsibility, honesty and integrity.

Today's Republicans, by and large, vote for what will make their contributors or themselves richer or more powerful, with little regard to the long-term ill effects on society and America. Most of today's Republicans are morally bankrupt, unethical, short-sighted ignorant scoundrels, and they're ruining the country. It's much like the fall of the Roman Empire.

So now I am an independent voter, independent of any party affiliation or loyalty. I vote for candidates who exhibit the most honesty, idealism and integrity: candidates with whom I may disagree on some issues or some methods of achieving results, but men and women who have their hearts in the right place, those who want to make life better for everybody in the long run as public servants, rather than being career politicians or self-servants looking only for personal gain.

I'll happily bash anybody in power who is corrupt, stupid, short-sighted or dishonest. On a local level, that group just happens to be Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota Republican Party at the moment.

Yet another cover-up by the Pawlenty Republicans?

Governor Tim Pawlenty's Commerce Commisioner appointee Glenn Wilson has agreed with the wrong-doer to keep secret a settlement and to not call the $100,000 paid to the state a "fine" in an insurance regulation investigation that lasted two years. Texas-based United American Insurance Company misled hundreds of Minnesota seniors into purchasing policies. Previous Commerce Commissioner Jim Bernstein lambasted the company as deceptive and predatory in a press conference last year, and called Wilson's agreement unprecedented and said,

“ The idea of keeping it secret is breaking faith with the people of Minnesota. You're not allowed to be a shrinking violet in the environment. The people of Minnesota have a right to know what actions are taken against insurance companies, or any companies, that violate state law.”

We Don't Need No Stinking Ethics...

In yet another example of politicians paying only lip-service to ethics, we now read in the paper about how Republican State Auditor Pat Awada audits the very same people who are customers of her political direct mail and signs companies. Of course, self-righteous Awada claims there is no conflict of interest.

But former Governor and State Auditor Republican Arne Carlson says:

“You can't go out and expect to have audit independence when your own company is soliciting the very people that you are auditing.
We have bought into this notion that if it's not illegal, therefore it's OK. That means we will become a society without ethics, only laws.”

Plenty of Excuses

I keep reading letters to the editor and quoted remarks by friends and of associates of Gov. Tim Pawlenty about how he is such a stand-up guy. They say he is honest, highly ethical, sharp, astute at business and law and so forth. Pawlenty is supposed to be so smart about business and legal dealings that Elam Baer's Access Anywhere pay-phone company paid Pawlenty $60,000 for part-time legal and business advice while he was running for governor.

Yet today we find out that Mr. Tim the Brilliant Lawyer did not file a legally-required registration for any company giving legal advice. Yesterday, Mr. Tim the Brilliant Businessman blamed his mistake in filing a financial disclosure on a "confusing form" and bad advice from his tax accountant.

That sure doesn't sound very brilliant to us.

Tim Pawlenty Clones a Human

In an amazing show of courage and advanced science, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who is just a run-of-the-mill lawyer by training, has managed to clone himself. No official announcement of his amazing success has been made, but the evidence is clear. How else can the following factual history be explained?

During 2001 and 2002, Tim managed to do all of these things at once:

1. Run for governor full time
2. Act as House Majority Leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives
3. Make executive strategic decisions as a board member of at NewTel Holdings
4. Run his own company, Bamco
5. Earn $60,000 as a legal advisor to Access Anywhere, a Minneapolis telecom company, working part time over one year
6. Raise 2 children

Imagine how much work and home life you could accomplish if only you had a clone like Tim Pawlenty's to help out. We should demand that Pawlenty reveal his method for producing his clone.

Don your gasmasks!

More and more the stinking, ethical slime pit of Minnesota Republicans connected to the Pawlenty administration look like a who's who list from Jon Grunseth's failed 1990 gubernatorial campaign. For those who don't remember, Jon Grunseth dropped out of the campaign to be replaced by Arne Carlson when it was revealed that he engaged in molesting under age girls.

Look at the roll call:

• Tim Pawlenty, strategist for Grunseth's 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
  
• Victoria Grunseth, former wife, ran unsuccessful campaign for state House seat in 1992. All those companies she supposedl co-founded were "co-"founded by her then husband, Jon. I guess that makes her a rocket scientist.
  
• Elam Baer, senior strategist for Jon Grunseth's failed 1990 campaign.
  
• Timothy Commers, former Young Republican according to my sources, and was Jon Grunseth's driver in the 1990 campaign. He's only 37, so cut him some slack. But don't buy your telephone service from him.
  
• Leon Oistad, involved in various telecom companies, and oh look, he was campaign manager for Jon Grunseth, and former chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
  

The list goes on, but heck, just go read all the gory details at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. They've done a good job here and here.

More corruption, more history

We neglected to mention that Tim Pawlenty pal, State Auditor Pat Awada, is also hip-deep in the muddy morass of dishonest telecom companies. Awada ran her own company which was paid to verify that Pawlenty's company was doing legitimate business. State regulators say her company failed in that role.

Then there is Republican strategist Elam Baer, chairman of the board of New Access Communications and advisor to Pawlenty's transition team. A thumbnail outline of these relationships was researched by the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Plenty of graft and corruption

More and more ethical lapses, insider baseball and corruption are making it to the light of day in the Tim Pawlenty administration. The latest revelations regard his dealings in telecom marketing businesses, an industry widely known for exploiting consumers. In fact, the very businesses that Pawlenty was paid by and sat as a board member on were fined over $200,000 in three states in response to consumer complaints.

The list of dirty players includes Governor Pawlenty, his recently resigned Commerce executive Tim Commers and his current chair of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, Vicki Grunseth. Tim Commers was sued for misrepresenting his own telemarketing business. Vicki Grunseth's only "qualifications" for her job are that she was a business executive (ooo! aaah! We are supposed to be impressed, no doubt) for those very same dishonest telecom businesses.

As Matt Entenza said,

"I think it's absolutely clear there is a pattern here of Republican leadership refusing to help consumers and instead working to help their friends and their investment interests. What we have here is a pattern of Republican friends being invited into these deals. We have a pattern of Republican friends protecting one another."

Of course, there are the dodos out there, like letter to the editor writer Patrick Garofalo of Farmington, who thinks that Tim Commers is an "honest and decent man" despite having been sued for dishonesty in his representation of his telemarketing business and being forced to resign his position in the Pawlenty administration.

More and more, it looks like being a Reuplican politician is equivalent to being a crook. And that's why I am no longer a Republican. Long gone are the honest, hard-working Republicans, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater.