Secret Young Republicans training compound located!!

First photos are emerging from behind the enemy lines, where their nefarious indoctrination techniques corrupt the innocent minds of America’s youth and prepare them for a life committed to espousing Republican ideology that runs counter to their own self interests!

We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Democratic operatives that have risked their lives to bring us this first haunting photo:

Here we can obviously see a seemingly innocent piece of playground equipment that has been twisted by the right-wing propaganda masters into some sort of sick political metaphor…

Undercover operatives for the Democratic Party have told us that Republican parents force their unwilling children up the molded plastic stairs into the GOP’s “Indoctrination Machine.” These children remain inside for up to 48 hours until they are fully processed. The children, once they are completely transformed into a smelly mass of waste material, will eventually tumble down the chute behind the Indoctrination Machine fully prepared to carry-on the Neocon Agenda.

Said one Republican mother after her child was expelled from the Indoctrination Machine: “Oh, he’s still the little stinker he always was….” where she snickered and waddled away.

UNICEF, Save the Children and Sally Struthers have begun nationwide media campaigns to save these poor little children before they’ve become indoctrinated into the little GOP shit’s that’s expected of each and every one of them. So please: If you can give anything, please give to Sally Struther’s Christian Children’s Fund. Because Jesus, and only Jesus could love these little Turds.

I found it on Bartcop Nation… So it must be true!

Katherine Kersten’s “Fascist America”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune press has Katherine Kersten’s newest column: Is there hope for Minnesota conservatives? There is now.

Kersten shills her entire piece by announcing a new conservative hate group called; “Freedom Foundation of Minnesota” which is headed up by her BFF Annette Meeks. Now everybody knows that Kersten is the laziest columnist on the Star Tribune staff. The research behind her writing is positively deplorable and instead of worrying about the facts, she makes the shit up and lies her ass off to make her point. But I’m digressing. In this piece, Katherine Kersten gushes about how fabulous her BFF is and informs her faithful readers about Meeks’ newest venture called the “Freedom Foundation of Minnesota”.

Nice! It’s an advertising column!

I whipped out my welding goggles, required reading for Kersten’s work, and waded through her piece with a firm grip on my nostrils.

Former Deputy in Chief to US Speaker of the House and philanderer Newt Gingrich, Annette Meeks is kicking off this new …”organization” as a mechanism for everything conservative in Minnesota. It’s really nothing more than another boring watch-dog group for conservatives. Apparently we don’t have enough of those groups here. The Minnesota Tax Payer League as an example, is another boring watch-dog group. But Meeks isn’t president of that organization. She plans on a bigger, better watch-dog group of her own.

Haven’t you heard? Republican chicks rule!

In Kersten’s column, Ms. Meeks gushes:

“Most Minnesotans are happy with our quality of life, but the debate at the Legislature is always about spending more money,” Meeks said. “If you listen to some legislators, you’d think we’re spending down to the level of Mississippi, with services to match.”

Ahhh…. Well thank God the Father, the Son and the Spooky One we have this brand new non-prof here on stand-by!! …Because when it comes to anything remotely related one single penny spent by our extremely Hated Legislature: Meeks will be up in their grill and kicking their political asses!! …And then Minnesotans will be extra super-duper happy with their quality of life!!

<<WHAT?!?!?>>

Kersten points out Meeks’s secret “mission”:

The Freedom Foundation’s mission is to provide intellectual ammunition for center-right ground troops in the war of ideas. It will arm legislators with information about innovative, free-market solutions to problems like crime and traffic congestion.

Skipping past all of the “war rhetoric bullshit”, the highlighted phrase is very important. In case you’re unaware, “Free-market solutions” is code for “privatization”. It’s a huge Libertarian Republican theory running through many Republican policy makers started by Ronald Reagan.

Reagan taught all of us that hating our government is good! Our government is stupid, broken and nothing more than a giant-sized Red Devil sucking the chump-change right from underneath the sofa cushions. And since our government is so horribly broken; Privatization is the obvious answer.

…God bless America!! Go Twins!!

…Our government is BROKEN!!

You see what I mean? It even SOUNDS patriotic!! You hear someone say: “Our Government sucks!!” and Meeks (and Kersten) will be front and center hoping someone whips out a cassette of Neil Diamond’s “We’re coming to America!!”

No wait…That’s a song about immigration. They hate immigrants too.

Privatization solves the financial crises they’re facing when it comes to a low-tax or no-tax political platform. For example; privatizing the police department will result in a pay as you go when it comes to rounding up the team of detectives to find that thief who burglarized your home. And if you’re poor, living in a low-income area in rural or urban Minnesota, don’t even bother calling the cops, you couldn’t afford them anyway.

• Your local fire department has a sale going on right now: “Is the barn burning? We’ll even extinguish your burning woodshed for only $595 extra! Hurry! There’s only two weeks left for this great savings!”
• Your drive up to Grandmas for Christmas next year will be decided on how many toll-booths are on MN 65 compared to US 10. (Nevermind the charges of those tolls of course. WellsFargo owns MN 65, Northwest Airlines owns I-35 and Champion Auto Stores owns US 10, so look for coupons in the Sunday press!!)

This entire effort isn’t new, it’s just been retooled. In 1922 Benito Mussolini coined the original word: fascism.

From ’22 to ’43, Mussolini, Italy’s dictator of WW II, privatized everything in the Italian federal government and all if it thrown under the control of his cronies and their corporations. The citizens of Italy quit paying taxes to their government and began paying instead, everything to corporate CEO’s. Deregulated corporations were beholden only to the “Super CEO” Mussolini and the Italian people were instantly thrown into despot poverty.

Yeah, I know… President Bush calls the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan “islamo-fascist” and he’s using that junk-word incorrectly. But when you have a president that has the diction of a third-grader, what more could you expect? (My humble apologies to third-graders everywhere.)

These Republicans are all into it this “privatized” and “free market solutions” crap. Libertarian Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul is another one.  Paul not only supports disposing of the IRS and privatizing the tax collector, he’s also a huge supporter of ASSS: The Alliance of the Separation of State and Schools. These guys think that if you want your kid to get an education, you should have to pay for it. All of it!! The books, the teachers, the chalk, the toilet paper…you pay everything.

Trust me: I’m sure the any company that’ll educate your kid will not hesitate the opportunity to charge you rent for your kid’s desk too!

And if you’re in a lower income bracket;

…government schools already fail the poor in some of the most spectacular ways — illiteracy, dangerous schools, the worst teachers, low expectations, and the list could go on.

Nice, huh?!

If the government is already “failing” poor kids (which are really your kids), then what the hell is the problem? Never mind the hundreds of thousands of children from low-income homes who graduate and go on to become highly respected doctors, lawyers or maybe even a Mom or a Dad just like you!! All thanks to our public education system!

But think about how much we save in taxes if we abolish education?!?!

After Hurricane Katrina, these fascist neocons got their wish and have privatized virtually the entire New Orleans school system. Currently, living in New Orleans requires the consideration of your income, your skin color or who you are politically connected with if you want your kid to have an education down there.

Bush is the biggest perpetrator of this movement of “free market solutions” with our government. No-bid contracts to private corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel in Iraq. His failed attempt to privatize social security and Medicare. Even his private mercenary army called Blackwater has “mega-bases” in North Carolina and California and now they’re building another one in Illinois. (For an in-depth look into Blackwater, I highly recommend that you spend the time with Bill Moyers and Jeremy Scahill in a two-part video available at PBS. Both parts are 22 minutes each, but you’ll be flabbergasted at what you’ll learn on this form of “free market” privatization.)

In a discussion regarding the privatizing of FEMA as a result of Hurricane Katrina, Ezra Klein writes:

It’s a larger-scale, and significantly more cynical, deployment of the classic starve-the-beast strategy. If government has no tax revenues, it’ll do a bad job. If it does a bad job, people won’t like it. If people don’t like government, they’ll vote Republican. Replace “no tax revenues” with “incompetent leaders appointed through political patronage” and you’ve got this slimy little bastard.

From Wikipedia’s page on fascism:

Fascism in Italy combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, militarism and anti-Communism. Fascism won support as an alternative to the unpopular liberalism of the time.

Woah! Spooky sounding, huh?! Like, where have we seen this recently?!?

Al Franken said it best:

“These Republicans complain that our government is broken. And then they get elected and prove it!”

How very true is that? Minnesota’s Lt Governor Carol Molnau performs double-duty as Minnesota’s Transportation Commissioner because it saves the Minnesota taxpayers the commissioner’s annual salary. To make sure MnDOT is run on the cheap, they have to hang protective shielding over the sidewalks to keep pedestrians from getting hit by falling cement chunks. I don’t even have to discuss the I-35W bridge collapse, I already did when it fell! Sufficed to say, these fascist neocons will run our government on the cheap, even if it means killing our families and neighbors.

Kersten clarifies the beauty of Meeks’ Freedom Foundation of Minnesota in the twelfth paragraph of her advertisement:

For example, Minnesota ranks No. 2 in the country in the percentage of people under age 65 with private health insurance. But in 2006, we were No. 1 in legislatively imposed health-care mandates, according to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance. That makes insurance more expensive, Meeks says. Flexible, affordable health-care packages, not more spending, may be the key to expanding access even further.

Now, I warned you that Kersten’s writing is nothing short of crap. Does this paragraph look like a pigeon in a flock of mallards? So…if we had more imposed health-care mandates, we’ll be Number 1 in the country who has affordable health care? You see what I mean? It’s crap and it’s 100% Katherine Kersten.

Kersten finishes her advertising column quoting Ms. Meeks:

“We’ve heard for a long time that Ronald Reagan was the conservative movement and he’s dead, so the movement must be dead,” Meeks said. “But these young people have no memory of Ronald Reagan. They’re drawn to conservatism by something else — the power of our ideas.”

Hrmm… Yeah. A friend of mine just zapped me an interesting YouTube. It’s a live recording of that very same Ronald Reagan giving a stump speech for Harry S. Truman in 1948 where he also highly praises a “good Democrat” from Minneapolis called Hubert Humphrey. In the four minute speech, Reagan blasts the Republicans and corporate CEO’s for raising prices and offers pity to lower income Americans who have been stomped by the Republican elite. Do you think this is what Meeks had in mind?!

Worth Noting..!

In Annette Meeks’ “Freedom Foundation of Minnesota’s” website, there’s a section for “issues”. One of them is on the subject of “Transportation” where they cite a white paper published by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Clicking on the italicized “Minnesota Chamber of Commerce” will bring you this:

• The Minnesota Chamber supports the following revenue options for consideration as part of a comprehensive funding package:
  • Trunk Highway Bonding. A portion of the new motor vehicle sales tax dollars should be used for trunk highway bonding to accelerate transportation projects throughout the state.
  • General obligation bonding.
  • Up to a 5-cent fuel tax increase.
  • A change in the vehicle tab fee depreciation schedule designed to raise up to $100 million.
  • Up to $100 million in new operating efficiencies.

<<GASP!!>>

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce supports up to a 5-cent fuel tax increase in their long term transportation fundingplans in the state!?!!? The MN Chamber of Commerce is proposing political heresy!! Where are the GOP screams? Where’s the gnashing of teeth?! Oh…The Horror!! The HORROR! Why…the Democrats in Minnesota’s 2007 legislature proposed both a 5-cent and a 10-cent gas increase and our GOP governor voted both of them!!

This “Freedom Foundation of Minnesota” non-prof group, Annette Meeks and Katherine Kersten are nothing but two-bit political hacks. They’re a joke and should be regarded as nothing less than the fascist neocons that they are.

Minnesota’s (Collapsed) Bridge #9340: Use Alternate Routes

The feeling here in the Twin Cities is …subdued.

It’s the feeling we now share with our friends in New Orleans, and in New York and in Washington DC. Quiet…shy questions we ask each other while standing in line at the grocery store; “Has your family been affected by the Bridge Disaster?”

“Oh no! Thank gawd! Isn’t this just aweful?!! My family is all okay thank God…”

We return to our groceries, putting them on the conveyor belt ready to get scanned; happy for the neighbor’s relief. Worried that the next question might not be the same response. But, the question has to be asked and all of us have to be ready for a hug, or to offer a shoulder or perhaps an offering or token of love.

It’s subdued. And in secret we cry for those that have lost someone.

My mother called from northern Minnesota where my uncles and aunts and Grandmother live. A cousin of mine who lives here in Minneapolis relayed that he was on a metro city bus. He’s a survivor by means of less 90 seconds. The city bus driver slammed on the breaks and screamed in horror. My cousin, recovering looked up ahead and he said; “The freeway just disappeared. The long line of cars..instantly vanished. My stomach dropped with them in horror. Then it was a horrible crash and everybody was screaming…and then the could of dust drowned everything in sight. The bus was about two car-lengths from the break in the pavement.”

Subdued. Numb.

The parade of politicians have become an embarrassment to the city. We’re not accustomed to people giving us sympathy. Nobody sympathyzes with a Minnesotan when their local weatherman points out that it’s -30 F. Well, maybe they do and we don’t know it. Our local heros are getting the backseat while the politicians make promises of inspection, and rebuilding and promises for a safer future. The media finds and focuses on some of the heros and make them answer embarrassing questions.

Shanna Hanson, Capt., Minneapolis Fire, Ladder 10. She’s the blonde haired firefighter being shown in the water swimming around in the wreckage that you’ve all seen. Shanna gave a heartwarming interview where she cracked up with emotion during the television airing. The video is two minutes long and you’ll be startled, moved and very proud of her as an American.

Jeremy Hernandez a camp counselor, on the bus taking a short nap as the bus crossed the I-35W bridge, at less than 10 miles per hour. After the crash, the bus landed at an awkward angle. Quickly, he found a safe place for the children to evacuate to and one by one he carried each child out and helping them to that evacuation point. A few children had minor injuries, but none of them parished and all of it goes credit to Jeremy. The video is 1:50.

Jeremy had to drop out of Dunwoody College in Minneapolis because he couldn’t afford the tuition. Jeremy wanted to be an automobile mechanic, so he decided to become a camp counsellor for the summer and decide what to do next. After the story broke, Dunwoody was bombed with phone calls demanding that Dunwoody reinstate Jeremy as a student and wave his tution fees and book fees. I guess Jeremy discovered what was coming up next in his life.

One hero deserving mention goes to a politician: Congressman Jim Oberstar (D-MN 8 Cong Dist). While this (Republican) disaster remains fresh on the minds of every member of Congress in both the House and the Senate, Congressman Oberstar, Minnesota’s most Sr Congressmember, shoved a $250 million funding bill to be released to Minnesota for the repairs to begin immediately. Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN and Jr. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) both followed suit with a bill that sailed through the US Senate. Tomorrow, George W Bush makes his appearance joining his wife Pickles and there’s little doubt that he’ll veto the spending.

This is a remarkable move by Congressman Oberstar and he should be commended. First, the tragedy push Bush’s Iraqi Oil war below the fold, and Bush’s demand that Congress remain in session until he gets his funding bills passed turns to nothing more than a temper-tantrum. Secondly, it forced Bush for the first time to act like a President rather than an insolent spoiled-rotten and apathetic child as he did in the Katrina disaster and the NYC Towers disaster.

Governor Tim Pawlenty, for the first time in his entire time as governor appeared to have caved into the Minnesota DFL demands that quick and swift action be taken to look at our states infrustructure. If you’re not a Minnesotan, you may not quit understand how this works…but perhaps you will!

Perhaps you have the same thing in your area.

The Twin Cities Public Television (PBS/TPT) airs a program every Friday evening at 7:00PM called Almanac. Almanac is a public affairs show that’s run for years now. It’s a quiet “Minnesota moment around a quiet campfire”.

The show focuses on the local music and theater scene, the latest craze going on at the highly celebrated Minnesota State Fair. The show might focus 10 minutes in each broadcast to talk about the political scene. Each political conversation is a brilliant work of bi-partisan conversation where shy and reserved Minnesota politicians mutter and argue shyly about their opposing political views.

I highly recommend that you take the time and watch the first 40 minutes because this is what you’ll see:

Every show has an opening monologue. Sometimes it’s irreverent, sometimes it’s poetry. It might be someone singing a silly song. Tonight’s episode was a heart-warming metaphore by Jim Ragsdale about Bridges. The monologue will demand a tear to squirt out of the corner of your eye.

Erik Eskola and his wife Cathy Wurzer sat with both Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) and with Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak (DFL). The two of them look tired and Tim Pawlenty looked old. Pawlenty has been brutally beaten up by this bridge disaster and every sagging line and droopy eye-bag shows.

Eskola didn’t hold back to drill at the Governor. It’s a moment when you thank the Gods you’re not the Governor and you weren’t responsible for ignoring the opposing political party. Eskola rounding around and began directly throwing the DFL’s previous transportation bill front and center. Pawlenty threw back as a dead-fish by resigning the fact that all options were on the table to keep this from ever happening again. Eskola, not satisfied with an ambiguous comment like that, brought up the contentious Ten Cent gas tax that the DFL wanted to put on their Transportation Bill that would be spread out over two years. Caved, Tim Pawlenty reiterated that ALL things were on the table.

RT Rybak was on the stick by noting that he’s been coordinating reconstruction teams that includes business leaders in the Minneapolis to begin immediate work on scheduled truck routes that removes heavy traffic coming into the city during the workday hours. He’s also coordinating Washington DC political cash with the Metropolitan Counsel that would rebuild the I-35W bridge to include a light-rail line to be included a transit way to include the 100,000 students who are at the University of Minnesota (less than a half mile from the disaster site) as well as permenant Park-n-Rides throughout the area that would compliment all of this in a reduction of smog and traffic in the area.

For the first time, I saw a Republican (Tim Pawlenty) listening and talking without his political hat. He was accessible, and he had obviously checked his political hat at the door. Will wonders ever cease?

Eric Eskola came back at the Governor and mentioned that there’s been talk on bringing back the states Legislature for a special session. The Governor remained subdued and agreed that if the Legislature wanted to bring back the ignored Transportation Bills in a special session that he would welcome it.

The Governor was yielding earlier in the day as Minnesota Publica Radio reported on a very densive Lt Governor Carol Molnau. For the first time, Pawlenty seemed willing to act like a bipartisan governor and work with the Itchy and Scratchy DFL Party of Minnesota.

It begs noting that Governor Tim Pawlenty was sprucing up his story to make it a “Magical Disaster” by which nobody could explain. The NTSB seems puzzled and they’ve gone public by noting that every inch of the wreckage would be inspected, as well as all of the video – especially the famous “security camera footage”. Yesterday however, Governor Pawlenty was pushing a “magical moment” in Minnesota history by saying:

“It’s a somewhat unique structure in the way that it was designed,” Pawlenty said. “It was inspected both in 2005 and 2006. There were no structural deficiencies identified in the bridge according to MnDOT. There were some cosmetic or minor repair items that needed some attention but no structural defects or deficits identified in the bridge.”

(The emphasis is mine.) This is a wee-bit of a fabrication. To say there wasn’t any structural deficiencies identified is nothing but political spin. Because he forgets that those MinnDOT reports from 2005/2006 are available on line. And here is what those reports said:

BRIDGE INSPECTION RECOMMENDATIONS
This recommendation listing refers to specific areas where fatigue cracks and other eficiencies were located during the 2006 inspection. Bridge inspection lists these eficiencies in the highest priority first.
Long Term Repair Recommendations

• The long term plans for this river crossing need to be defined with replacement, redecking, etc. Due to the “Fracture Critical” configuration of the main river spans and the problematic “crossbeam” details, and fatigue cracking in the approachspans, eventual replacement of the entire structure would be preferable.

• If bridge replacement is significantly delayed, the bridge should be re-decked. The design of the main river spans do not allow for deck widening. Any re-decking contract should also include a complete re-painting of the superstructure, limination of the hinge joint in span #2, and reconfiguration of the deck drainage system.

• Depending on the projected date of bridge replacement, the bridge deck will eventually require a partial overlay repair contract. The expansion joints should also e replaced.

My offer of one Fresh Fruit Basket to that Research Goddess “mcg” over at Democratic Underground Discussion board for that amazing piece of research. My personal message to her is: “Day-Um!! Gurl…That was awesome!!!”

A short break resumed with a continuation of Minneapolis and St Paul’s recovery by bringing out State Senator Steve Murphy (DFL 28th District (Red Wing)), Chairman of the Transportation committe who pointed out that he was more than ready to return to a special legislative session. His Republican counter-part, Republican Mary Liz Holberg (R-36A) was quit to sound like a Republican is expected by being cautious one being over reactionary. She conceeded that there probably would be some tax increases, or perhaps some bonding bills. But she worried about taxes and the family budget. The Almanac Hosts, Eric and Cathy were about to introduce a new topic and immediately Murphy stood his ground and whipped out a piece of paper from his suit-coat pocket and was ready to introduce a plan for recovery. He pointed out that the last gas tax increase was in 1988, and that worry about the “family budget” or about the families who’ve lost someone on a collapsed bridge.

The Almanac hosts pointed out that Lt Governor Carol Molnau has not yet been confirmed by the Senate as Commissioner of Transportation. State Senator Murphy was asked if the collapsed bridge would ruin her chances of being confirmed. He said he didn’t know and wanted it to be pushed off the topic until a much later time. The Senator was polite and said the topic wasn’t appropriate until this matter is cleaned up.

Updated:

George W Bush showed up to inspect the site. Nobody much cared I don’t think. More interest was in seeing Marine One flying around the site than there was any care for the guy inside. After a short while watching it on the television – we turned it all off we just moved on with our lives.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Sunday edition (8/5/2007) carries an excellent piece by Ann McFeatters that spanks the Republica part for their insolence and their arrogance. Her opening paragragh will, and should, send shivers down everybody’s spine:

And so our latest true-life, made-for-cable-TV disaster unfolds. Remember the talk about the nation’s crumbling infrastructure after levees failed during Hurricane Katrina? Remember those SUV-eating sinkholes in Brooklyn? Remember the report that $120 billion a year is wasted on road repairs because our highways are decaying? Remember when the electric grid caused a power blackout that affected millions? Remember the Hawaii dam that collapsed, killing seven people? How about the analysis that 13,000 highway fatalities each year occur because of congestion or poor maintenance and design? The catastrophe in downtown Minneapolis caused by an arterial bridge collapsing in rush-hour traffic is the latest in unheeded warnings that, physically, the United States is in bad shape. We Americans who have rejoiced in — and boasted about — the grandeur of our cities, the comfort of reliable electricity, the wonder that has been our national highway system, the easy readiness of tap water and our can-do eagerness to build the best have been blind about growing fissures in that very infrastructure.

Lori Sturdevant of the Star Tribune has line grabber of her own box of crayons and has written an epitaph for the GOP. This war of Bush’s in Iraq and now this bridge collapse is not going to bode well for the GOP in Minnesota. Her title piece:

Can DFL pick up a seat? That’s the whisper

I have to disagree; It’s now becoming a shout.

The 10:00PM News on the local channels stated that mourning services in the Twin Cities have begun today. Tomorow’s Sunday morning servies will be a day of mourning. Not only those who were in cars and stuck in the traffic jam, but there were construction crew workers who’ve still not been found.

St Mark’s Episcopal, downtown Minneapolis will hold an interfaith service tomorrow morning. Governor Pawlenty and Mayor RT Rybak will be leading the services which are at 1o:00AM, and everybody is invited.

Subdued. Numb.

I received a fortune cookie that said: “Knocked down seven times, get up eight”. I thought about that cookie while driving out to my folks’ place to pick some fresh tomatoes and raspberries. Cloudy, rainy – my windshield wiper blade needs changed. That digital roadsign that hangs over the freeway said:

I-35W IS CLOSED FROM HGHWY 36 TO STINSON BLVD

USE ALTERNATE ROUTES

“Yeah,” I thought; “This country needs to begin using ‘Alternate Routes’. Nocked down seven times, get up eight.”