But first, let's start with the prognostications.
The Democrats have more or less won the United States House. They have at least a 30 seat lead that does not include any of the tossups. So, get ready for Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Remember that she will be third in line, behind President Bush and Vice President Cheney, in order of executive power. I know many of you neocons out there are shaking in your boots and pooping your boxers. My advice to you is this: stop listening to the propoganda that your side is vomitously spewing out and listen to what she has to say. It may suprise you and if she follows through on her ideas, they have been way too long in coming.
The Senate, on the other hand, is a different matter. It's going to come down to Missouri, Tennesee, and Virginia. All three of those races are virtually tied. If all the rest of the states sit where they are right now, it will be 49 Democrat and 48 Republican without those three states. So, if the Dems take 2 out of 3, they have the majority. Remember if the end up tied at 50 a piece then the Vice President has the tiebreaking vote. Does anyone out there want Dick Vader to have even more power than he already has?My prediction is that it will be Missouri and Virginia with Tennessee staying Republican. Clairie McGaskill (D) is running against the biggest horse's ass known to man, Jim Talent (R) in Missouri. I have a few readers in Missouri. Please vote for Claire.
If Jim Talent is the biggest horses ass, then George Allen (R-Virginia) is the biggest douchebag known to man. I have a couple of readers in Virginia as well. Please vote for James Webb and send Allen home for good. Allen's racism, misogyny, and outright psychosis is enough to show how unfit he is to be a leader....not to mention his unwavering support of Bush Co's horrifying national policies is terrifically nauseating.
I like Harold Ford in Tennessee but I just can't see a Democrat winning here. Nonetheless, if you live in Tennessee, get out the vote for Harold!
For an exact breakdown of all of the races I urge you to check out Electoral Vote. Com. This site has all the latest polls, maps, and tons of links to informative articles on the election. Now onto my official endorsements. Each name is hyperlinked to that candidates web site so you can check out their information.
For the US Senate, Notes From the Front officially endorses Amy Kolbuchar. She is one of the best candidates to come out of this state in years. Check out her website for her positions on the issues....all of which are dead-on right.
For District 1, NFTF endorses Tim Walz. How about a 24 year veteran of the Army National Guard weighing in on Iraq?
For District 2, NFTF endorses Coleen Rowley. Scroll down and read my previous post about Coleen.
For District 3, NFTF endorses Wendy Wilde aka MOM. I know this Jim's district but y'know he voted for the Iraq War and still believes that it is a good thing to be there. C'mon, folks, that's just despicable.
For District 4, NFTF endorses Betty McCollum.
For District 5, NFTF endorses Keith Ellison.
For District 6, NFTF endorses (with a loud cheer) Patty Wetterling. This is the tightest race in the state. Please vote for Patty and return some sanity to this district.
For District 7, NFTF endorses Collin Peterson.
For District 8, NFTF endorses James Oberstar. Congressmen Oberstar recently took a tour of his district to hear what people had to say. He found that most of his constituency wanted President Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld fired. Cool.
And I thought I would save the best for last. In the contest for Governor of Minnesota, NFTF officially endorses...Peter Hutchinson! Yes, yes. I know all of you are wondering why I am not voting for Tim Pawlenty aka W of the Northwoods.....Hee Hee. Just kidding.
Seriously, though. Why is Markadelphia not getting behind his liberal pal Mike Hatch? Well, the answer is simple: Attorney General Hatch went after Medica a couple of years back and decided to try to have my good friend's dad, who is on the board at Medica, thrown in jail. So, it's personal between Mikey and me. I think he is a dick.
And I think Peter Hutchinson is a great guy. His ideas are bright and, most important, independent. Thank God!
So, there you have it. My official predictions and endorsements in the most important election of our time. Folks, get out there and vote. Let's see the same size voter turnout that we saw in 2004.
It's time to take back our country!!
20 comments:
I did listen to what Pelosi has said on an issue or two.
Let’s take GITMO for example. I heard Nancy Pelosi make what may be the most foolish statement any public official has uttered in a long while. Pelosi called for the closing of GITMO in order to give us "a clean slate in the Muslim world." But the foolishness of Pelosi's comment resides not in the error of her position, but rather in her fantasy of a "clean slate." While that concept may have some applicability in some areas, there is no such thing in international relations, as anyone who has studied history for five minutes knows. And the idea of a clean slate with Muslims, a group with whom the west has clashed for something like ten centuries, is particularly idiotic to the Crabmaster. Some of the Muslims from whom Pelosi would like to receive a clean slate are still upset about the reconquest of Spain. And then there's the small matter of the existence of Israel.
Pelosi's comment also reveals the self-hating belief held by so many that Muslim antagonism towards the U.S. is our fault. If only we would avoid stepping on the Koran, all would be well. The last democratic president had, as part of his foreign policy, running around the world apologizing for past U.S. wrongs real and imagined, and trying to help Muslims in the Balkans and in territories occupied by Israel. But instead of a clean slate, we got the rise of al Qaeda and ultimately 9/11.
In short, I welcome her presence on a national stage. Yeah, take it back and give it to her, I beg you.
You endorsed Ellison? Bwahahahahaha. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as a law student at the University of Minnesota, Ellison helped bring speakers to campus who railed against Jews, Israel and often white Americans - attacks that had little to do with black empowerment. In 1992, Ellison appears as speaker at demonstration against Minneapolis police with Vice Lords leader Sharif Willis following the murder of Officer Haaf by four Vice Lords gangsters in September of that year. In 1993, Ellison leads demonstration chanting "We don't get no justice, you don't get no peace" in support of Vice Lords defendant on trial for the murder of Officer Haaf. Ellison attended a Gang Summit in Kansas City with Willis.
And you call George Allen a racist?
Seems like you just endorsed one.
I don’t think you democrats want your former candidate Kerry uttering anything about much these days right? "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
He didn’t just piss off neocons either.
Whatever one may think of neocon policies, he clearly identified those who are "stuck in Iraq" as people who didn't "study hard...and make an effort to be smart." This is the same guy who came home from Vietnam and accused our troops of being war criminals, using Ghengis Khan tactics, and cutting off ears. You bet your arse he slurred the military because he’s done it before. Today, Iowa Democrat Bruce Braley canceled his scheduled campaign event with Kerry.
Don’t accuse me of changing the subject – your whole post was about democrats, just as mine is.
My whole post was about Democrats...almost....because I don't really like Mike Hatch. So you are wrong on that one.
Kerry was talking about George Bush, not the troops, so you are wrong on that one. Kerry cancelled the event with Braley as well as an event here with Tim Walz because he doesn't want the campaign about him. He wants it to be the issues. Gosh, there's a novel idea.
And while we are on the subject of dumb ass fucking things to say..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRY_BOYeySc
I think that video is infinetly more revealing than Kerry not being to tell a joke. I find it quite hypocritical of you that your slam Kerry for what he said and not for what Bush said. But hey, that's our country now. Free passes for neocons....hyper-critical focus on "liberal traitors." Keep having fun in your world of delusion and doublespeak. Because the real traitor here is the man who hasn't managed to actually capture and kill the two men responsible for the 9-11 attacks. Your little paragraph about the rise of Al Qaeda is pure fiction. Go back and read BLK's posts. That is why Al Qaeda is around.
George Allen is a racist. Why don't you read about Keith Ellison from the "non-Republican propaganda talking points" view? He himself has admitted saying some things he has regretted and has changed his mind about Farakhan. Y'see, Crab, that's what HUMAN beings do. They admit their mistakes. It is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.
We should close Gitmo. You and I both know what is really going on down there and it is disgusting. Oh, but wait. I forgot. Peace is achieved only through killing and torturing people. You should really stop and listen to yourself sometimes and the people you are supporting. People on the left may make mistakes somtimes but show me how their mistakes are responsible for 600,000 lives lost.
Thought about you and the Cards win - Congrats - your blog was heartwarming. Let's see, David Eckstein . . . MLK . . . clutch hitting . . . rights movement . . . when you crap, do you see it as Democat, or Republican.
And speaking of Democrap, the issue with Kerry, to me, isn't -what he said -, it's that he said it at all. Again, wait long enough, and the Dems will screw it up all on their own. It's fatalistic - we come to expect it. Bad joke or not, it shows poor judgement. We can question the leadership of the current party, but, show us an option that isn't more of the same. I challenge Barak Obama to step up and condemn the comment, and take the risk of party fallout, in the name of leadership - that would impress me. Instead, we are fed Kerry's response; "yea, it was a joke gone bad, but" . . . then grandstand for fifteen minutes on the same old Bushbash. No . . ., it was a joke, at the expense of our highly educated, all volunteer, dedicated and patriotic citizen soldier, gone bad - and no buts. Jokes, tell much about the teller. And the teller is a party figurehead, and that party has alot to lose right now. Bottom of the ninth, two out, score tied, and Kerry hangs a slider to Albert Pujols.
Some would argue that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "mistakes" and that threats and diplomacy should have been options - hey, we beat them back didn't we? What was the count on Truman's head? KFK and LBJ were also convinced and resolute about their policy and decisions concerning the "spread of communism" - what was count there?
Actually, I'm disappointed that Kerry canceled the events. It shows the typical "no balls" attitude of too many Democrats. He should be out talking to people about how fucked up Iraq is.
"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask
President Bush."
is what Kerry was supposed to say but didn't say it clearly. He wasn't criticizing the troops. Pull your heads out of your asses people, c'mon!
Be sure to tell the American Legion, Harold Ford Jr., etc who have called for an apology. Besides, if he was about GWB, I thought that this mentality was sweeping the nation? I would think that if it is sweeping the nation that dems would want Kerry by their side. Does Kerry want it to be about the issues or does Walz not want to be seen standing next to Kerry?
I never said John Kerry was a traitor...I said he came back from Vietnam and accused our soldiers of being war criminals...which is a fact - no opinion there...you've seen the testimony. You are the one who uttered the phrase "liberal traitor". Freudian slip I presume.
You can comment all you want on Allen as long as you have the KKK Grand Dragon from West Virginia Robert Byrd still in the Senate.
Ellison may have admitted his mistakes from back then but in August of this year he went to a CAIR function in Florida. Who heads up CAIR? Why Nihad Awad of course...a man who publicly declared his enthusiasm for Hamas..."I'm in support of Hamas movement". In an August 19, 2006 interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Awad rationalized suicide terrorism by suggesting it's really about fighting injustice. He refers to the writing of author Robert Pape on the subject: "He found out that it [suicide terrorism] has more to do with occupations and fighting injustice than religion".
No matter though - anything negative that is said must just be republican talking points.
No, I don't know what is going on down at GITMO. You don't either. I give our troops the benefit of the doubt.
Mark, it might be personal between you and Hatch, but there's no question that health care executive compensation is completely out of control.
Lots of people can't get health care because of the cost. A significant portion of that cost is paying execs hundreds of millions of dollars for finding better ways to weasel out of paying for medical insurance claims. People without health care have died, who might have lived had they been able to afford it.
Ergo, people have died so that rich corporate execs can get even richer.
That number might not be huge, but it's undeniably greater than zero; hundreds of thousands of more people could have coverage if executive compensation was a tenth of what it is -- which would still make all those execs multimillionaires every year!
How many people have to die so that CEOs can have three summer homes instead of just one?
I'm glad someone is going after runaway corporate greed. If they were Enron execs you'd be cheering Hatch on.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
This just in....In a cost-cutting move designed to save the job of sexually frustrated columnist Katherine Kersten, the Minneapolis StarTribune has announced that it will no longer be publishing their tired, predictable political endorsements. Instead, they will save the cost of newsprint and ink and they will begin to simply refer all readers to NFTF for the same predictable endorsements. Unnamed sources at the paper state that they expect these measures to "ensure Ms. Kersten will continue to have a venue for offering her undigestible tripe while, simultaneously, making a dent in the multitude of sections in the StarTribune that people don't bother to read because they already know what will be printed."
When asked to expand further on the nature of Ms. Kersten's sexual frustration, the source refused to elaborate, offering only "C'mon, look at her."
The source from the newspaper flatly denied insinuations that the elimination of tired, predictable endorsements was an indication of cracks in the "cling to pointless mantras and positions" facade of the liberal-leaning rag. "If that were true," the source countered, "would I still be sporting my 'Al Gore is your real President' button?"
Indeed.
Hey anonymous, who did the Star and Tribune endorse for the 3rd District? And while we are on the subject of that "liberal rag," please demonstrate to me,through a series of examples, how the Strib did NOT fall asleep between the years 2001 and 2005 by not taking Bush Co to the mat for all the rotten shit they have done in the last five years. Keep on believing that the media is liberal and while we're at it...I have some land in Florida that looks much better in person than it does on the brouchure...
Crab, John Kerry did say those things after he came back from Vietnam. He was right. There were people in our armed forces who committed war crimes. He also said a great many other things about Vietnam all of which turned out to be true. When you get back from your trip, you and I need to sit down and watch "Two Days in October," a gut wrenching film (which John Kerry is not in at all btw) about how fucked up our government and our country was at the time.
If your accusations about CAIR are true than why do they have this on their web site?
http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=169&theType=AA
So what if Ellison went to a CAIR function? Harold Ford went to a Playboy party. Does that mean he is a public fornicater now?
Kerry apologize? Neocons crack me up. Deomcrats grow some balls, speak truth to power and...they are traitors and need to apologize for the "wrongs" they have done. Democrats say nothing and cower in the corner and it's "See, look at the lily-livered liberals. They can't speak up."
Karl Rove has done a great job with his mass brainwashing. Joseph Goebbels would be proud. After all, it was him who said:
"Propaganda is a means to an end. Its purpose is to lead the people to an understanding that will allow it to willingly and without internal resistance devote itself to the tasks and goals of a superior leadership. If propaganda is to succeed, it must know what it wants. It must keep a clear and firm goal in mind, and seek the appropriate means and methods to reach that goal. Propaganda as such is neither good nor evil. Its moral value is determined by the goals it seeks."
Personally, I feel better that organizations like CAIR are out there. Their hard-hitting efforts, such as organizing this petition, are truly what we need to protect us. Combine this petition with a strongly-worded condemnation from the UN and that's a 1-2 punch that no terrorist will be able withstand.
I suspect The Strib didn't "take Bush Co to the mat" because their editors haven't yet removed the lunacy filter from their PCs. Just a guess.
John Kerry (once again) proved exactly what kind of leader he would have been. Thank the Lord for keeping him out of the office. Only a nitwit like him drops the ball like he did the week before the election.
I'll take a look at that land in Florida. Nothing in Miami, I hope. Too many undesirables in Miami.
Yeah, thank goodness Kerry didn't win. And while we are at it, let's thank God Gore didn't win...or at least let's thank him for conceding an election he won. Think of the horror...
A comprehensive plan to reduce global warming....a universal health care system...an education plan that actually takes into consideration that people learn differently...a rapid repsonse to Katrina....scientific progress in stem cell research....a focused defense of our country....an intelligent approach to combat terrorism...and even (gasp) real support for our troops that defend us everyday.
Yes, thank goodness that a President Gore or President Kerry were not in office to carry out these fiendish plots against us.
Thank you, anonymous, for reminding us all that we need to stay the course and vote Neocon this Tuesday. After all, we are much safer without a man who makes a mistake during a speech....
Love the anonymous posters. That did crack me up, though. I had essentially the same reaction when I read your endorsements. Not sure why you didn't just save the space by saying "My endorsements? Take one guess."
What little respect I had for Kerry (and believe me, it was very little) went out the window with his so-called apology. The man doesn't even have the nuts to look people in the eyes as he apologizes for his mistake. Instead, he takes the pansy way out by sending an email. This is a guy I'm supposed to want representing my country?
The night-sweats over a Nancy Pelosi-led House have already begun. From your list of "fiendish plots" above, I find half of them to be bogus and the other half to be dubious goals. But I sure look forward to the opportunity to be robbed blind to pay for them.
I want you to actually log how you are being "robbed blind" by the Democrats. Classic neocon propaganda. Bush has spent more money than any Democrat ever has. Take a look at Ms. Pelosi's first 100 hours plan and tell me what you don't like...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100600056.html
Who is being the fiscally responsible one now?
Don't start in with the political name-calling again, Markadelphia.
What part of Pelosi's "100 hours" strikes you as being free? None? Well then, explain how people of wealth aren't being robbed blind. "We must share the benefits of our wealth beyond the privileged few" is a rally cry for people to start spending my money without my permission. I'm particularly irritated by that when it's done under the guise of all of the well-intentioned, popular-sounding, but almost impossible rhetoric that Pelosi lists. Raising the minimum wage (to an unsustainable level for many companies). Broaden funding for stem cell research. Negotiate drug prices for Medicare patients. Breaking the link between legislation and lobbyists. You tell me what parts of that I should like and be willing to pay for?
Hardly my idea of fiscal responsibility, particularly in light of her other agenda items.
Alright, so what would you do differently? Clearly, our current government has a problem with spending and my guess is that they have been doing it without your permission for the last six years.
I can't believe you are against breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation. That benefits both sides.
The biggest error people make in viewing the Democrats is that they view them with 20 year old glasses. Those days of fiscal irresponsibility are over...that is, of course, if the Democrats want to maintain power.
Before I forget...PL, I received your not-so-subtle reprimand. From this point forward I'll call myself Good2BMe. But I'm not going to register on the site. I get too much junk crap as it is.
Markadelphia, fair enough. What would I do differently? Eliminate the items on the Democratic platform that are really there to serve political gain. Increased federal funding for stem cell research, for example. Higher minimum wage. Universal health care. All are topics that serve the Democrats in a moral high-ground sort of fashion. How can you argue with wanting to ensure that everyone has health care? But the fact is that each of those items is better served being market-driven and not legislated. Legislation will cost money, and it's people like me that will end up having to pay for it. I don't agree that the days of Democratic fiscal irresponsibility are over, since there are a number of big money items on their agenda.
When you say "our current government" I am assuming you are referring to the federal government? Because the people I support locally have taken steps to curb spending. Yet, purely for political gain, they are lumped together with the national party figures.
I am not necessarily opposed to breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation. I just don't believe there any such "action" can be taken, so what's the point of it being on the platform. As long as a small group of people make policy decisions there are going to be lobbyists. I'm not aware of any historical government that suggests otherwise.
I don't have the benefit of the education that apparently you and others that post on this board do. After high school I served in the Navy and, after that, I started up my own business. These days I run two businesses that put food on my family's table and, thankfully, allow me to support the causes that I feel are most important. My church. Charities. Scholarships for college-bound kids. I also am fortunate to have the time to be a mentor to kids. I do these things because I was raised to believe that if you are fortunate enough to be successful you should share your good fortune. That's a message I try to pass along to the kids I mentor. I do these things without hope of reward or fanfare. But I also expect a certain level of gratitude for what I do as opposed to an expectation. And I am resentful of the fact that others, like yourself and the candidates you support, take the attitude that you know how my money is best spent. You criticize successful businessmen yet you utilize the tools they have provided to air your criticism. You talk of the candidates on a first-name basis as if you are their peer, yet you enjoy the luxury of arm-chair quarterbacking. I suppose that being in that position makes it very easy to see what is right for everyone. But from where I am sitting, knowing that a higher minimum wage will mean either letting some employees go or passing along the increase 1:1 to my customers, I have an entirely different perspective. I'm not saying my perspective is any more right than yours, but the negative consequences of Democratic control - a likely wage hike and certain reversal of tax cuts - are very real to me, the people who work for me, and my customers.
If fighting against those things by supporting the Republicans makes me a bad person in the eyes of Democrats, then I'm happy to disappoint them. I doubt those who benefit from my success would agree with that assessment.
good2be, Hey, you have a name. Cool. You shouldn't get any junk by simply registering a monkier on this site.
Let's look at the health care thing first. Mitt Romney got it right in Mass. He reasoned that taxpayers were footing the bill anyway for the uninsured so why not start a voucher program whereby private drug companies are still in the loop and make money. The state has ended up actually saving money in the last year and a half which means that taxpayers have saved money which means that, if such a program were used in a national model, YOU would save money and not foot the bill.
For more information on this, I urge you to go here..
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=pressreleases&agId=Agov2&prModName=gov2pressrelease&prFile=gov_pr_060501_healthcare_waiver.xml
Mitt Romney is a Republican, btw, and opposes gay marriage and is a very social conservative. This would be an example of how I can find common ground with someone who I have many differences with. This also proves my other point about how if Republicans would start behaving like human beings by initiating things liek this, than I might vote for them.
While we are on the subject of being human beings, I find your comments about minimum wage to be insensitive. Take a look at what our current Treasury Secretary, Henry Pauslon, had to see about the current economic situation in our country...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0803/p03s03-usec.html
I have started writing a column about this for a future post...probably after the election. Any way you cut it, people are working harder for less. The Rich-poor gap graphic at the end of this column is appalling and quite frankly embarassing compared to the rest of the world...who we are supposed to be "better" than...
Anyway, I liked your post. It feels good to debate a fiscal conservative again...someone who I would call a "sane" Republican. You might find this hard to believe but I actually agree with some of what you say and can see the other side. The one thing I have always loathed about Democrats is their ability to wasted money.
So Markadelphia, let me see if I've got this straight. (Apparently I'm insane, so I can't be certain of anything these days.)
Is it your contention that small businesses, heck, even medium-sized businesses, will continue to foot the bill for health coverage for their employees when they have the option of paying 1/2 the cost as a "penalty" to the state? They're going to do this out of the goodness of their hearts?
If (when) they don't, that will push countless individuals to the necessity to purchase individual (or near-individual) insurance, likely at a higher rate and of a lesser quality than what their employer used to offer. Granted, the insurance companies could come through and provide quality products through the "connector"....we'll see, though, as there is little financial incentive for doing so.
Some estimates (NEJM) place the cost that will be pushed to an average wage-earner at 20% of their income. Even if those estimates are high, 10% of income would be a great deal of money to demand people to start paying, without a corresponding wage hike. As we've heard often enough, including in your last post, people are working harder for less. You are now advocating chewing up 10%+ more of their money?
Massachusetts also already has a significant lump of money set aside to subsidize health care. Other states do not. Massachusetts has a relatively low count of uninsured as compared to several other states...Texas has almost twice as many. So let's be careful about hailing this as any sort of national model.
Here's a resounding endorsement from two scholars at Harvard, both of whom are advocates of massive health-care reform, btw:
Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, Professors of Medicine at Harvard University. "That plan [Dukakis's] imploded within two years, and Massachusetts' new health reform legislation looks set to repeat that disaster."
If you are going to mandate insurance coverage for everyone then why not just take insurance out of the loop completely and go for the single-payer model?
First of all,,
Maybe your friends Dad belonged in jail.
Everyone said Ken Lay was a nice guy too..
Second..not a good enough reason to help Pawlenty get another term so he can screw the little people for 4 more years.
PL, I agree with some of your points...let's table this discussion for now and I will write a column about uhc in the coming weeks and we can get into it again. This thread is getting pushed down on the page due to the election tomorrow and others may want to read it as I think it is very informative so let's revisit it in a week or so...
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