Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2008

James Janos Chickens Out

Someone convinced him not to be a spoiler, I guess:
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has decided not to run for U.S. Senate in that state, he told CNN's "Larry King Live" Monday night.

Jesse Ventura says he decided not to run in part because he didn't want to submit his family to media scrutiny.

Ventura, a former professional wrestler, had said last week he was weighing whether to run. The deadline to file for the race is Tuesday.

Ventura said he was "close" to running against incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, but he decided against it because he didn't want to submit his relatives to the kind of media scrutiny they endured when he was governor.

As I said, the freak show that is Janos continues unabated. Every time he sees an opportunity to try to regain relevance or political power, he's going to head fake and cause a ripple. He would not have won a Senate seat had he chosen to run this fall--he would have siphoned off enough of Al Franken's support to throw the election to Norm Coleman. As it is, Franken has a tough road ahead of him.

--WS


Friday, July 11, 2008

PZ Myers Needs Your Help

Actually, he needs you to have a good laugh at the expense of Bill Donohue, the raging, out of control Super Catholic who protects America:
So far today, I have received 39 pieces of personal hate mail of varying degrees of literacy, all because I was rude to a cracker. Four of them have included death threats, a personal one day record. Thirty-four of them have demanded that I be fired. Twenty-five of them have told me to desecrate a copy of the Koran, instead, or in some similar way offend Muslims, because — in a multiplicity of ironic cluelessness — apparently only some religious icons must be protected, and I would only offend Catholics because they are all so nice that none of them would wish me harm. I even have one email that says I should be fired, that the author would like to kill me, and that I only criticize because Catholics are so gentle and kind.

Oh, and of course, the university president's office has also received lots of mail demanding my immediate ouster (keep in mind, though…Catholics are no threat to anyone at all.) I don't know how much, but since Donohue published the president's email address and not mine, I imagine it's much greater than what I've seen. Those lovely Dark Age fanatics at the Catholic League have started a write-in campaign to start up an inquisition.

So no poll-crashing today. Instead, I would appreciate it if you would write a short note to President Robert Bruininks in support (he's going to hate me for this). I have to ask for a few constraints, though: only do so if you are willing to sign a real name to it — most of the complaint mail I'm getting uses fake names, making it much less persuasive — and that, unlike the religious screeds I'm seeing, you take the time to proofread and send him something that at least looks like a high school graduate wrote it, which will put you way above the level of the hate mail. Be polite and rational, too!

If you really want to impress, send him regular mail at this address:

President Robert H. Bruininks
202 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street S.E.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455

All of this started because Myers wanted to be mean to a cracker. Isn't it five minutes past the time when someone was supposed to report Donohue to the police for having public sex with an animal while wearing a nun's habit?

Update below the fold:


BG writes a letter in support of Dr. Myers:

I know first-hand the foam-flecked idiocy his detractors are capable of. I have been threatened, stalked, and at one point...pelted with rosaries as I walked across the quad to the Science and Technology building, and lemme tell ya - that can hurt!

My most recent bit of difficulty came after a panel discussion on ESCR - having a functioning scientific brain, I'm for it - one of the religious whackos on the panel tried to talk science with me. In mid rant I asked him to stop, I had a question - Could he tell me what a telomere is, and why it is important? He was at a loss, and he stammered and stuttered and tried to shift the topic, stopping just short of pointing and screaming "Witch! Burn her!"

I am certain that I gave the chancellor heartburn when I zeroed in for the kill and maybe engaged in a little more mockery than was absolutely necessary (but not much) and utterly humiliated that poor fool who thought he could vanquish my science - and my mean streak - with a bible. I left the panel discussion, and trotted off to engage in the valiant struggle of attempting to force some semblance of understanding of Cellular Biology to stick in the eensy little brains of the future nursing students who will, upon receiving licenses, inspire me to consider bleedings and leeches when I need health care. Back at my crummy little grad-student office after class, about an hour and a half after the panel ended, I had tens of emails and my voicemail box was full of the stupidest, most illiterate spewings you have ever seen, some rising to the level of death threat.

I corrected them for grammar, spelling, proper sentence syntax, etc and sent them back, with a nice little note explaining why they should try to come off literate, and I agreed, I am a monster who must be stopped, but they were going to have to step up their game a bit.

Aren't you glad we don't both work for you?


I even signed it with my professional name and included a gaggle of initials off to the right...

Oh - and here is Bill Donohue's cell phone number if you want to give him a jingle: 917-838-1057.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

James Janos to Run for the US Senate

UPDATE WS @ 1128 AM: Janos says he won't "make a decision" until the filing deadline. This was probably a false alarm...

Yeah, would it kill me to call him "Jesse Ventura?" As a matter of fact, yes it would.
In an interview with NPR's David Welna that ran today former Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Ind-Minn., says he will run for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whom Ventura defeated for governor in 1998, as well as Democratic nominee and former Saturday Night Live humorist Al Franken.

Ventura, born Jim Janos, tells Welna that the main reason he's running is because of Coleman's support for the war in Iraq. "That's the reason I run," he says. "I run because it angers me...All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?

Ventura had a stormy tenure as governor and horrible relations with the Minnesota press corps. Thus, it was the June issue of a local wine magazine where he chose to drop hints about his pending campaign.

"I'm not a politician, I'm a statesman," he told Wineheads. "I do one term, and then I go back to the private sector. If I get back into the fray again this year, it's only because I've been gone five years back to the private sector. That's what I did when I was mayor. That's a statesman. That's not a career politician."

I think that effectively ends any chance Al Franken had of ever being a US Senator. And no, Janos isn't going to win either. The Republicans just had a Senate seat handed back to them on a silver fucking platter.

Typically, voters don't think "yes, who would I want to be in a dark alley with me" because, well, that would mean that they would have to imagine themselves as being total fucking idiots to have gone into the dark alley with Janos, Coleman and Franken in the first place, and if a large number of voters are imagining themselves doing something stupid, well, you end up with...Governor Ventura.

I hope I'm wrong.

--WS

Friday, June 13, 2008

Flood Photos #3

Several hundred thousand people have been evacuated from rising flood waters. Areas untouched by the devastating flood of 1993 have been underwater for days. Will FEMA show up and help this time?

Cedar Rapids IA:



Cedar Rapids IA:



Maysville IN:



Austin MN:


Des Moines IA:


Decatur IL:

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Flood Photos #2

All photos from the Associated Press:

Columbus, IN:



Iowa City, IA:





Preston, MN:



Lake Delton, WI:



Elnora, IN:









Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Flood Photos

All photos from the Associated Press:

Preston, MN:


Mason City, IA:


Wabash River, IN:


Lake Delton, WI:


Edwardsport, IN:


Cambridge, IA:

Friday, June 6, 2008

"You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain"

Steve Benen brings us a little cheer this morning:

...the MinnPost had an interesting report on the Obama rally at the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday, and the kind of treatment Hillary Clinton’s supporters found when they got there.

Specifically, the head of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign attended the Obama event, as did a few Clinton-supporting superdelegates, Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Minneapolis City Council President, and the mayor of St. Paul, all of whom also backed Clinton. Some were reluctant to go, but showed up in the interests of “political healing.”

And they were pleasantly surprised. In fact, both Barack and Michelle Obama met privately with 25 prominent Clinton supporters after the speech.

“He shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you for being here; I’m sure it’s not easy,’ ” said Stevenson of her meeting with Obama. “I thanked him and said that everyone involved in his campaign had been so gracious. I didn’t know what to say, so I mentioned that my daughter works for a federal health clinic. And he knew right away which program I was talking about. He said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful.’ ”

[DFL activist Jackie Stevenson], a feminist and Clinton supporter, had to admit this: “He’s very impressive.”


The report added that Stevenson had arrived at the event with another Clinton backer, and “as they were taken to their seats, people kept stopping to hug them and thank them for being there…. All of the other Clinton supporters received similar treatment.”

The St. Paul mayor added, “I think especially for women of my mother’s generation, it’s going to be very hard. They had waited so long for this (a woman in the White House). But I’ve spoken with a number of women like that in the last day. I think they’ll come around. You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain.”


That's right--no, you don't. You don't vote for McCain unless you want Bush's third term.

--WS

This is What A Failed Bank Looks Like


During the Depression, banks failed in rapid succession when the panic hit. So the government created the FDIC--you know the drill. When the FDIC shows up and shuts down a failed bank, it should be shocking news. In the new economy, it really isn't unexpected, even when it's a small town bank:

Federal regulators today [May 30, 2008] shut down a small Minnesota bank called First Integrity, saying unsafe practices had weakened its financial condition.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed as receiver of First Integrity National Association of Staples, which had $54.7 million in assets and $50.3 million in deposits as of March 31.

The FDIC said all the bank's deposits will be assumed by First International Bank and Trust of Watford City, N.D. Its two offices will reopen Saturday as branches of First International. Depositors of First Integrity will continue to have full access to their deposits, the agency said.

It was the fourth failure this year of an FDIC-insured bank — following two small Missouri institutions, Hume Bank and Douglass National Bank, and ANB Financial National Association of Bentonville, Ark., which had about $2.1 billion in assets.


So this shouldn't have been all that jarring of a shock, right?

Check out that logo again:



Yep--for what it's worth, a small town bank that SURVIVED the Great Depression just failed.

--WS

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Vandalism and Witness Intimidation in Minnesota


The official portraits of three former Minnesota governors were defaced by unknown vandals:

The official state portrait of former Gov. Ventura and those of former Govs. Elmer L. Andersen and Harold LeVander were removed Wednesday from the State Capitol after officials found they had been defaced with felt markers.

Thin red marks were found on Ventura's white shirt and across Andersen's mouth, and a black mark was discovered above LeVander's lips.

White-gloved curators with the Minnesota Historical Society, which oversees art in the Capitol, took down the three paintings for repairs.

Unless someone saw who drew on the paintings and reports that information, it's unlikely the culprit or culprits will be identified, said Bill Keyes, director of the state's historic sites and museums.

All three paintings hang in the Capitol's ground-floor corridor, which, unlike the upper floors, doesn't have security cameras.

Suspects? Keyes figures that it was probably schoolkids who have jammed the Capitol on field trips this week.


More disturbingly was the plea in the comment section of this story--a grandmother alleges witness intimidation in the repeated tipping of a porta-potty near her residence:

re : "Unless someone saw who drew on the paintings and reports that information, it's unlikely the culprit or culprits will be identified"

Even if they were seen they might not be identified. The other day my visiting granddaughters saw the kid who has been tipping over the porta-potty near our house. I asked what he looked like and both of them were mum on the description. I suspect he may have threatened them if they told.
posted by RipAnderson


It is not known if "RipAnderson" has contacted state or Federal authorities to complain about witness intimidation, nor is it known exactly where the tipped porta-potty is being taken for cleaning and repair.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Farm Bill Negotiations Continue

Occasionally, you stumble on a blog that does certain issues really well, and this looks like one of them. The Rural Blog points out that there are serious Farm Bill negotiations that are going to be taking place today. Essentially, there is disagreement between the House, Senate and the White House over how to reform or provide subsidies.

David Rogers learned the agriculture beat in Washington as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Now he writes for Politico, the political news outlet, but from time to time offers some of the best reporting on what's going on with the Farm Bill. He writes today that negotiators "are staring failure in the face, with a major deadline Friday, continued Democratic infighting and the commodity lobby’s stubborn resistance to altering an outdated subsidy system." Trade issues are also complicating the talks.

In his new role, Rogers is able to be more analytical and pointed, and he gigs the Bush administration: "Having raised the banner of reform, the White House appears to be playing the role of the spoiler, resisting even modest revenue-raisers accepted by House Republicans while refusing to come off the bench and pressure for some savings from direct payments to producers, now costing $5.2 billion a year even with today’s high crop prices."

The biggest stumbling blocks are the Senate's wish for an extra $4 billion in disaster aid, pushed by the National Farmers Union and other interests from the marginal, drought-sensitive row-crop region of the Dakotas and Montana, and $2.5 billion in tax breaks, including one for the horse industry. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) told Rogers, “The tax package will not be in this farm bill. It ain’t going to happen, and the sooner the Senate realizes that, the better.” Peterson dropped the disaster provision in a compromise offer last week, infuriating Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Rogers reports. But Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has deeper problems with his House counterpart, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York, over Baucus' proposed revenue measures to pay for the disaster aid.


Peterson versus Baucus is really a Minnesota (corn and soybean agriculture) versus Montana (wheat and cattle agriculture) type dispute. I'm generalizing, of course, but there are competing interests at work. You have Southern California and Florida up against the interests of Iowa and Minnesota; you have tobacco growers against horse breeders.

A good place to sort all of this out is The Rural Blog, because I'm not the go-to guy on this stuff, to be honest with you.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

"Christians" like these are why I am so glad to be a member of a different tribe

The Fred Phelps phuckheads have struck again. These people know no shame, have no decency and, well, they just don't know how to act.

I am not a Christian, but I am familiar with Christianity and the basic tenets of that religion. Tenets like clothe the naked, care for the sick, feed the hungry and bury the dead.

In other words, any Christian worth their salt is expected to know how to act like a civilized, decent, compassionate human being.


Civilized, decent, and compassionate are decidedly NOT descriptives that anyone in their right mind would ever apply to those horrible, hateful vermin from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. For those who don't know about these embarrassments to my species, stop reading now!!! If you have lived through the last two decades and not been introduced to the Ministry of Hate, consider yourself lucky.

Those jackals are the Christianist answer to Islamic terrorists. They are the attention-whores with a double-digit congregation (71 members, 60 of whom are related to the cloven-hoofed old goat) and single-digit IQ's that protest funerals of homosexuals, soldiers, and now victims of infrastructure disasters.

One of the first funerals they ever picketed was that of a college friend of mine from Wichita State. I returned to Wichita just in time to spend a little time with him at the very end. His name was Laurent Langlois, and he was a talented actor, a wonderful friend, the best study-buddy I ever had, a trusted confidant, and...a homosexual. He contracted AIDS when it was still a death sentence. I walked out of the church after the service, grieving for my friend, and felt like I had stepped into the twilight zone. I saw that old goat and his evil minions, and their vulgar signs, and then my eyes fell upon the hate-twisted face of Fred Phelps - and it was all I could do to keep walking. I wanted to injure him. For the first time in my life, I knew true, unambiguous and unadulterated hate.


Besides all that, In the intervening years, I still have never been able to figure out what, exactly, they would have us do with the bodies of our loved ones and fellow human beings, after they shuffle (or are shoved) off this mortal coil, if a decent burial ain't it.

The mere thought of protesting a funeral was - and remains - abhorrent to me. An obscenity of the first order. I pray to a God I don't believe in that there is a hell, just so those wastes of carbon can burn for eternity.

Westboro Baptist Church is an apostasy. Those idiots know no shame and have no decency.

Now, they are going to Minneapolis to protest the funerals of the victims of the bridge collapse.

According to the press release above, God knocked that bridge down, you see, because Minnesota is a blue state, and besides that, the state as a whole is just way too tolerant of homosexuals. (I think they need to take it up with their infallible God-person, who made all those gay people to begin with. That just seems like the appropriate place to start. To my rational and undiseased mind, at least.)


Yeah - God knocked down that bridge to punish Minnesota for not hating properly.

Give me a fucking break.

The I-35 W fell down because it was deficient after years of neglected maintenance. Infrastructure has been sacrificed since Reagan's first term on the altar of tax cuts, and now it's time to pay the tab. Last week, Minneapolis got stuck with the check.

To my Minnesota readers, I sincerely apologize for the these pathetic, ineducable assholes. Your state and your loved ones do not deserve this. No one does.

But we have a Constitution I revere that guarantees them the right to say stupid and hateful things, and we have laws against just shooting the wastes of skin, leaving their bodies where they fall, and calling it a day. So I am limited to ranting about how much I loathe them on a blog. (And planning my wardrobe for my protest of Fred's eventual funeral. I am thinking red dress, fishnets and stilettos. Other days, I think I'll do it dressed as a Dominatrix. Whatever I wear, I plan on bringing a whole gaggle of drag queens and every flaming waiter I can find with me. The part of town where I live - I can find a whole gaggle of them, too.)

I realize that this is a terrible tragedy and it is no laughing matter - but Australian comedy team The Chasers know how to deal with the Phelps Phuckheads, and besides that, I think we can all use a laugh right now. Especially one at their expense.