OINK!

Here is a brief list of some big local subsidies:

http://www.hoytlakestobabbitt.com/

Excelsior Energy "The Gas Plant":http://www.irrrb.org/_site_components/lists/newboard-meetings/October%2027%20Board%20Minutes.doc

http://www.sehinc.com/online/tower/index.htm (The Harbor at Tower)

And our old favorite Giants Ridge: http://www.cagw.org/site/DocServer/2006_Minnesota_Piglet_Book.pdf?docID=1701


The first is a planned road from Hoyt Lakes to Babbitt, essentially a road between two nursing homes. This is, of course, to serve the burgeoning growth of these two outposts. St. Louis County is taking the lead on this while cutting budgets in other areas. It's symbol should actually be a pig on its back...

The second, if you have not been buried under a rock, is a loan to someone with no capital, no collateral, no engineering expertise, and whose only qualification is that he was hockey player at Hibbing and the University who was then funneled into gravy executive jobs via his connections from boosters. 9.5 million. To Lobby. To lobby to force others to give money to you for a non-existent technology known for pollution, coal gasification.

The third is the "Tower at Harbor", in which current public money is being used to pay an Engineering consultant for preliminary studies on re-routing HWY 135 in Tower, then dredging out wetlands and a river, placing jetties into Lake Vermillion, constructing what is essentially a multi-story strip mall with condos at the top surrounding a Harbor with 80 slips. No private money...developer "must be found" ....this will supposedly turn Tower into a virtual economic powerhouse, as teenagers sell espressos, bagels and trinkets to wheezing boomers piloting their pontoons up the taxpayer dug channel. There is, of course, no mention of locally connected business people benefitting at taxpayer expense. SEH's lobbyist is the thankfully retired State Senator Douglas "Porkbarrel" Johnson.

The last is 2006's subsidy to Giant's Ridge, which should tell us just how well such plans work. 20 years of subsidies later, and all they have managed to do is sell off a bunch of public land and make some contractors some cash.

We do not have heath care. Many of our current roads rival old Karelian cart paths. These are their only ideas?

Oink

As the crash goes further, and Obama worship becomes a religious cult, critical thought processes are something forgotten...the Bush administration was crazy, but will there actually be a cure..watch Kevin Phillips here:

More of Norm. I am not even going to try to explain what has been going on, but it comes down to Norm trying to deflect attention away from potential trouble. So go see it here

The Scary Part is how many of these people exist...The frightening nutballs of America; or the loads of ignorant cracker trash we are surrounded by:

Both the Intrade prediction market and 538 have Obama steadily ahead. In State races, the Senate Race and the 6th CD are tight, but the important subject of the night is the consistent movement of Democratic candidates in all races and places where they have not been strong in years.

And finally, another endorsement for Obama...from Colin Powell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efv3Vr8T9MA

A long story of Norm's ties to the dirty ads and calls he complains about, and Michelle Bachman steps further over the crazy line...and geez, other than Hillary coming to the range, it has been seemingly boring up here

Douglas " Pork Barrel" Johnson...former State Senator and an official political whore. He endorsed Coleman yesterday while still claiming democrat status, ( which was always in question, this cat thought of nothing but himself for years)..he does not tell you he is a registered lobbyist for excelsior Energy, the great future polluter. This is another piece of evidence telling us the Dfl'ers in the north need a great cleansing, as whatever values they once had have become the property of greedy self serving swine like this useless bucket of offal...

Here is his registered client sheet:

From Minnesota Campaign Report, Norm Coleman's voting record...It is ugly

The 8th District repubs candidate.

For the 8th District, of course, James Oberstar is the candidate. Two years ago, Rod Grams rose from his political grave to yet again create noise pollution. Hopefully he is buried for good now. This time, no such known name came forth. Instead we have this guy . So one needs to ask, what is he for actually for and what is he against? My first impression, and this not partisan, is he thinks in a standard talk radio repub way. The way out of the oil crisis ( really a crisis of transportation and production) is to drill more in the Arctic, North Dakota and offshore. Like most who believe this, he has no clue about the amount the U.S uses everyday or how it is used. His other solutions include tax breaks for higher mpg vehicles ( oh my) and nuclear power. In short, more of the same bull which assumes we can continue on with what we do.

On social issues, we have the same small religious based thinking on abortion and marriage. Marriage is somehow sacred, rather than the legally defined contract which it is. As usual, he claims to be for individuals, but wants the state to define who a person can marry. He says nothing about divorce, of course.

There is a beep about property rights, and a link to a nutball property rights group. These people believe that you should be able to do what you want regardless of the consequences to the environment and everyone downstream or downwind.

As in the last go round, we have the criticism of Oberstar's address. Do these people even study just how much time congress is in session? Or what being head of a major congressional committee entails? The time it requires, or the complexity of the issues involved? Obviously not. You might need to have a house or apartment rather than charging up hotel bills.

I won't even comment on the criticism for refusing to save a fire hazard riverboat

This is precisely what I mean by a "talk radio view of the world". Like many who do not know the extent of their own ignorance, he assumes the world is simple place, and that all problems are quickly solved. I am sorry, but problems involving complex systems such as energy, transportation and social policy aren't resolved by decree and appeals to the local pastor.

It reminds me of this:

NEXT FRIDAY THE OBAMA BUS COMES TO THE RANGE! The national RV Campaign for Change tour will be here next Friday the 12^th of September. If you’d like to attend any of the following roundtables:

ELY Sportmen and Environmentalists’ Roundable at the Grand Ely Lodge, 9:30-10:30am

VIRGINIA Veteran’s Roundtable with Sen. Dave Tomassoni at the Virginia MN for Change Office, 327 Chestnut St, 12-1pm

HIBBING Sportsmen’s Roundtable at Grandma’s In the Park, Howard St. at Hway 169, 2-3pm

Norm Coleman, friend of Bowlers:

I don't know if this is playing up here yet, ( it might not because most up here would probably see through and they know it), but I was forced to sit through the latest Coleman commercial yesterday. It is three actors playing bowling guys bad mouthing Franken. Minnesota Independent has it all. I like the names of the corporate front organizations: "Minnesotans for Employee Freedom" and " Coalition for a Democratic Workplace". Those names alone tell us wealthy owners are behind them.

This will appear as as strange post, but it is very relevant. It is not about political gamesmanship or the campaigns, but it directly relates. It is about fuel prices and how they have structured our society , and how they affect us now. I do not agree with everything said here or claim to read the future, but the predictions have been coming true, and the data is real. The cheap easy to get liquid hydrocarbons we have based our life on are going or getting more expensive to process and extract, and people within the U.S. in general and locally need to deal with the reality that 40 mile commutes will not be affordable for many people anymore ( Listen planners and local boosters). We have to find a way out for transport and how we live. The first section is a Russian author who compares the Soviet collapse and the similarities he sees in the U.S. now; especially the flat out denial of reality. I will add another link to a speech by Matthew Simmons, an oil investment banker. It is a long speech, but he exposes the reality of the world's oil fields and lack of discoveries since the 1960's. This relates to the complaints of high gas prices and the new proposed solutions. All of them are about keeping the cars and trucks going as they are now, or smaller vehicles. It is ethanol, North Dakota, or Oil Sands. It is never our transport system, or 5000 people commuting 30 miles in a four ton vehicle. Or our food system, producing packaged junk in a box to be shipped 1500 miles. As prices go up, the poor will suffer first, especially as ethanol is used to give the wealthier the fuel to drive around. So here are the links: here and here

Let us not eat our young...

This is just the latest internal fight within the DFL at large; worries over Al Franken's writing and broadcasting past. The internal fights are spilling outside with the primary long off in September as candidates and others worry about this. The Repubs are united behind Bush's pet Norm, and are already letting the dogs loose and will throw every cent, the bathwater, and kerosene on a baby seal just to keep the seat. Here is a piece of advice to fellow Dfl'ers: Keep your mouth shut and work for whatever candidate we throw up there for they will be better than weasel Norm. (My cat is a better candidate than Norm, for at least she thinks for herself and craps where she is supposed to). This is about our policies winning, not whether you are fully in love. Ms. McCollum; it was a playboy comedy piece...again..a playboy comedy piece. You are playing their game by defending against a whisper campaign that doesn't exist to distract you from hammering at what they have done and what they are doing; bringing the country over a cliff with their hand in our pocket at the same time. Remind everyone Norm has been along for the ride...

More of Normie's votes:

Giving foreclosure protection to ordinary people: voted no

Allowing medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies ( why not?) voted no

Pell grants to low income students: voted no

Healthy mothers, healthy babies act: voted no

He really doesn't like ordinary people.

He did like bitching about the UN for a couple years, however.

Coleman, Franken, and the Republican Hate Machine...

Republicans know they are in trouble. Their policies and their president have run the country into the mud like the drunk cousin you hope doesn't come to the wedding, so any positive campaign is out of the question.They have nothing. Franken, in reality, is the front runner for the DFL. So the Repub noise machine is focused on one thing; run a blistering negative campaign against Franken. This will include the usual tactics; press releases, circulated fake stories etc etc. My favorite is posing callers and blog commentators. These people will call or write in, posing as normal citizens, then immediately spin out a statement right out of a campaign message plan...see these comments here, and it is obvious. This is a problem, because for some reason, I have never seen reporters confront this. So, for reality's sake, here is part of Coleman's campaign donor list. The CEO of Amway..interesting; A truer nutjob if ever walked the planet. Hey..Bill Mcguire, big time thief. This what they do not want you to see. Norm's ties to the extremely wealthy,the crazed right wing and his lapdog service to them. Geez, he doesn't like funding education for the disabled or to extend unemployment funding for people laid off. Here is his voting record...

over here

Sometimes you have to look at a road accident...

And sometimes you shouldn't. And this was one of those nights when I should not have, as someone was breathing down my neck saying don't look, you know what you will see. But I LOOKED. And it was bad. The local district Repub party website. Especially the part stating what we believe. As you read it, you begin to wonder where these people live. Just where? Religious belief is now persecuted? Where are the hordes of agnostics burning bibles? Conducting modern day pogroms on church attendees on Sunday mornings? Mildly sipping coffee and reading the paper over pancakes? Then they say they believe in absolute morality. What is that? Does it include Halliburton? Ted Haggard? The lunatic John Hagee? Does local control include No Child Left Behind? I know now why I had not looked before, because I know what happens with deluded people when they get together...they make up more delusions, and you get a roomful of nuts. I hope no one gives them a Ouija board...

This is a picture from the Weimar Republic; a woman heating with cash money as inflation made it useless. For money is actually worth nothing, only what you can get for it at a current exchange rate from someone who has the things you need. And now we need more to buy the things we ordinarily use, like food and fuel. The question is why? Is oil more scarce, at least scarce enough to say, jump in value so much over this time? Not that scarce, though the good, easy to get stuff is going and will be gone...we and others are using more, but not that much more than three or four years ago...so what gives? It is about our money, and what its value is. Back when Nixon dumped the old Bretton Woods system, he made a deal with the Arabs; all oil deals would be done in dollars. And largely, except in a few cases, that is how it is done to this day. You want to buy or pay for oil, you do it in dollars. It makes our currency the baseline that every other currency is compared against. This works well, except when everyone starts seeing the fundamental basis for your economy and the attached value to the currency is a lie, and they know your currency is toilet paper waiting to happen. Such as when you fund war debts by cutting taxes and printing money, as the Bush administration has been doing for a few years now. Or when they realize the three card molly game you played with U.S. housing debt, and overall debt, for a half a decade to prop up an economy going down the drain quickly because of your messed up policies. Other oil producers want to deal in Euros, partly for political reasons, but also because they know we are just printing money and not actually paying for what is happening. Oil is not going up; the value of our cash is going down, probably by 30% in the last two years as judged by the rest of the world. So, when you hit the gas pump next time, thank your republican friend or relative for their blind support of someone with their hand in your pocket...and buy a smaller car and a woodstove. You might need it sooner than you think.

A good examination of Pawlenty's playing with health care at Minnesota Monitor; the typical repub attitude towards ordinary people. Letting them die.

James Oberstar is running again...Thankfully. We in this district have been lucky for decades to have someone this thoughtful serving us. Some may not agree with everything he says or does, but that is true for most of humanity. We do have someone here, however, who is not a deluded ideologue, engages real problems, offers thought out solutions and has stood up,voted his conscience and later proven to be correct on his prediction more than once. And he's done this for ordinary people, and been up front with that...definitely not a servant of lobbyists. Yes, I am thankful. I could be stuck with a Michelle B., a lunatic of the first order ( if anyone wants to see an agnostic genuflect, I just did..and I'll do it again if you mention her or Norm's name..or buy me some ravioli at my fav range restaurant)

There are myths, and then there are myths, and this article has some of my arguments...

I will hit on Franken and Coleman later..but for now here is this...

How to lie ( Or run against your record)

Watching this yokel is more annoying than usual lately, for his campaign theme is now " I am Mr. Future". What this really means, of course, is "Please do not look at what I have actually done for the last six years while I sat on Bush's lap wearing a dress whispering in his ear like Marilyn Monroe". What he has done, for six years is screw ordinary people over for access to power and money, and now, when the train he rode is ready to crash, he is trying to jump off. Except he cannot ...

Governor Tim Pawlenty has always portrayed himself as a sort of disciplinary father holding the unruly children of the legislature from overspending their candy money. He has been successful at this for years, and despite the record of what he has actually done, he has gotten away with it, often due to a press that treats politics as a fight between crazy neighbors. Mostly he has screwed over ordinary people to make sure his clients, mostly the wealthy of Minnesota and the crazed ideologues (see this)that populate the Republican party, happy. And now this budget "crisis", shows more of where his and his parties values and empty ideas leave us. In a time where insane numbers of people lack health care, we will instead of attempting to provide the thousands of workers who do not have it access to it, we will raid the fund(here) to solve a budget problem we helped make, and avoid making decisions that might affect my friends in Woodbury(see here). Like most republicans, the Governor does not believe in reality, instead we get faith-based initiatives like the Jobz program, and other such useless give aways, which have never been shown to actually work, but instead turn communities and citizens into a Santa Claus for businesses. Or,gov, your crew allow this theft to go on...That is where a lot our health care dollars go now, but that is not an administrative cost, of course. Unlike the right wing, I believe sickness requires a doctor...and not faith healing.

A wonderful bit of entertainment and truth at the same time:

http://www.mnblue.com/norm_coleman_weasel_meter

or where Norm's money comes from: