This past Friday, Almanac featured the two top finishers in last week's DFL preference ballot, R.T. Rybak and Margaret Anderson Kelliher. During that show, Rybak and Kelliher did little to encourage any other candidates into the top tier -- a heads-up race sounds like it's just fine with both candidates.
Contrasts were on display during Friday's Almanac, and so are parallels to the 2008 Democratic presidential contest. Those parallels go way beyond the candidates' genders.
No, Rybak-as-Obama and MAK-as-Clinton isn't just a matter of gubernatorial candidates sharing their presidential doppelgangers' chromosomal patterns. It goes to their approaches on the stump and their apparent strategies for winning the party's endorsement in April.
- I found this essay, on government and jobs, via the Institute For Policy Studies.
- A new survey indicates Americans support strong climate and energy policies. Posted at EurekAlert!(I'm compelled to note that results of other polls I've seen on these issues are all over the place.)
Getting into that whole weird area of Bible prophecy and curses on nations, et cetera (which is now playing a part in policy formulations in the GOP:)
The modern nation of Israel was created in 1948 with the cooperation of the United Nations. To millions of evangelical believers in 'bible prophecy,' the creation of a new Israel in 1948 "started God's prophetic clock ticking" again.
By that I mean, it was a signal that "as-yet- unfulfilled Bible prophecies about how the world will end" were going to be fulfilled, perhaps in our lifetimes.
The number of Bible-believing American Christians who accept this would probably astonish you if you don't already know it. To give you a rough idea: the "Left Behind" series of novels is a fictionalized version of "how post-Israel bible prophecy is going to play out." Total sales for the books in the series have surpassed 65 million copies. The "Left Behind" series is set in modern times/the near future because that's when fans of those novels and this theology believe that these Bible prophecies will be fulfilled.
So the nation of Israel occupies a very special place in the hearts and minds of American evangelicals who focus on "end times theology." According to some of the most popular interpretations of what is called "dispensationalist" theology, an attempt will be made by an invading power to destroy the nation of Israel--that attempt will be miraculously thwarted. Two "witnesses" (probably Moses and Elijah) will return to Israel and they will make themselves known to the world before they disappear again.
A popular world leader will appear, coming as a man of peace, and yes, he is--wait for it--the anti-Christ, and he will form a one-world government and there will be horrifying natural disasters, plagues and slaughter. And the Antichrist will desecrate the Holy Land, etc. before Christ comes back to beat him down, and create a new heaven and a new Earth. And, oh, yeah--many Jews will convert to Christianity.
You have probably seen television specials on all of this stuff on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel, etc. Dispensationalism has entered the popular culture and mindset, though it is not agreed upon or even believed in by many millions of Americans who identify themselves as Christian.
But to evangelical Christians who focus on the prophetic nature of the Bible (and believe that no Bible prophecy can ever fail to come true because all are God's word)--these prophecies about Israel and how the world will end are every bit as important as, e.g., the Sermon on the Mount and moral teachings of Christ.
Perhaps more so, because we have now seen (within the past century and nearly two thousand years after its destruction by Rome) the revival of the nation of Israel. Incredible, right? Surely proof that the other Bible prophecies relating to Israel and the world in Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelations will come true.
And this theology and its popularity explain a lot about a strange political romance that has grown up over the past thirty years: a romance between the evangelical conservative political movement here in the US, and those who believe that the United States must guarantee--by any means necessary--the continued integrity of the state of Israel as a Jewish nation.
And now you have the context in which to read the following, a statement by Michele Bachmann reported by the Minnesota Independent. Bachmann was speaking at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles last week:
I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is at it again. She repeated her stance that she would abolish social security and medicare if given the chance. ThinkProgress has the details:
Speaking to a small group of conference attendees and ThinkProgress during lunch on Saturday, Bachmann outlined how the Republican Party and its 2012 nominee must address the national debt. Bachmann referenced Glenn Beck, who falsely warned about a $107 trillion in supposed "unfunded liabilities" from Social Security and Medicare. She then called for a "reorganization" of entitlements where people "already in the system" would continue to receive benefits, but "everybody else" would be weaned off:
BACHMANN: Is the country too big to fail? No, the country can fail. We can, we're not invincible. And we're so close now to being at that point because the thing is, as Glenn Beck said last night, it is true. The $107 trillion that he put on the board. We're $14 trillion in debt, but that doesn't include the unfunded massive liabilities. That's $107 trillion, and that's for Social Security and Medicare and all the rest. You add up all those unfunded net liabilities, and all the traps that could go wrong we're on the hook for, and what it means is what we have to do is a reorganization of all of that, Social Security and all. We have to do it simply because we can't let the contract remain as they are because the older people are going to lose. So, what you have to do, is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don't have any other options, we have to keep faith with them. But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off. And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can't do it. So we just have to be straight with people. So basically, whoever our nominee is, is going to have to have a Glenn Beck chalkboard and explain to everybody this is the way it is.
Tom Smith is a candidate for the next St Paul Police Chief. The current St Paul Police Chief Harrington is retiring. St Paul police have a positive relationship with the St Paul community because of their community-policing style. Matt Bostrom, a current St Paul Assistant Chief, now running for Ramsey County Sheriff, taught me about community policing. Indeed the community relationships are so important to the St Paul Police that they call it the Bank of Trust. As an internal candidate from this same great community policing culture, Tom Smith also displays these really great values and characteristics.
Tom Smith believes that great police officers come from integrity, moral character and compassion. Tom believes in volunteerism and giving back. I especially liked Tom's description that the primary role of police was to be peace keepers. What sets Tom Smith apart is his comfort in a public role, for both traveling and speaking. Tom Smith places emphasis on transparency, on keeping the public informed through the media. And indeed, it is obvious that Tom has a gift of story telling.
From a long interview, I have created two videos. The first describes the heroes, the background and the experiences of Tom Smith. The second interview gets into the tougher questions of being police chief such as "How does one balance loyalty and accountability?"
Despite being snowed in, today Congress is taking up a jobs bill in Washington. Just in time for Rep. John Kline to promote his vision for pulling Minnesota, and the rest of the nation, out of the current economic stall and into something resembling actual economic growth. So what is this vision for rebuilding the American economy, and thus, the American middle class?
Why, it's to do nothing. Of course.
Despite the fact that health care expenditures threaten to eat up nearly two-thirds of our national budget, Kline advocates hitting the pause button on health care reform. Despite the fact that our nation's military is strained to dangerous levels, Kline advocates against repealing the odious Don't Ask Don't Tell policy that prevents thousands of Americans from enlisting and serving openly. And when it comes to creating a domestic policy that would create jobs and rebuild crumbling infrastructure like with the Stimulus package, Kline's response has been to, you guessed it, do nothing.
Now Kline has taken that do nothing approach one step further, parroting protectionist talking points as he gears up for reelection. His most recent mailer praises his efforts at protecting Minnesota's economy and jobs. If he was really interested in protecting the economy he would be advocating strongly for health care reform--and meaningful reform that actually provides expansive coverage and meaningful cost control and consumer protection guarantees since rising health care costs are the single greatest threat to long-term sustainable economic recovery facing this state and the nation.
Tackling health care reform is also a great way to build jobs. Health care compliance, administration, and servicing is one of the fastest growing employment sectors both locally and nationally and even groups like UnitedHealth and Mayo acknowledge that reform efforts will likely require them to recruit and hire new employees. If Kline were truly interested in protecting Minnesota's economy he would be working towards enabling growth in our strongest, and most dependable industries like health care.
This do nothing, wait and see approach serves only one interest and that is not the welfare of Minnesota. It is the obstructionist agenda of the Republican party. So in a sense, Minnesota does need some protection--protection from the likes of John Kline.
Gallup has Obama job approval, state-by-state, for 2009. Minnesota was at 61.5% approval. Note that this is job approval, which typically runs 5-10% behind personal approval. He was above 50% in a solid majority of states, including places like South Carolina, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
Interestingly - and you'd never pick up on this, from corporate media coverage - even his lowest approval (Wyoming, 41.6%) was well above what Bushleague's was, nationally, at the end of his term. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune will continue to print editorials (and, for that matter, alleged 'straight news' stories) calling HCR 'dead,' and the Obama presidency a 'failure,' of course.
This is a good opportunity to clarify something that's been bugging me, below the fold.
Local party unit conventions are underway -- this account comes from a Tarryl Clark supporter in attendance at the CU 18 convention this weekend:
As organized as they were there, [Reed supporters] didn't get a delegate, after creating 3 walking subcaucuses for Reed. We formed a Clark, MN reNew candidate caucus and got 2 delegates and 2 alternates. The 3rd delegate and alternate are undecided and we sufficiently blocked the strong Reed people from going to the convention.
It was pretty interesting watching the amount of resources put forth for 3 delegates. It was a nice practice run for the campaigns.
Most of the remaining DFL gubernatorial candidates were in attendance as well, and conventions with higher delegate loads are still to come. The chase is definitely on.
- The Cucking Stoolrighteously rips that ridiculous 'lets-eliminate-corporate-taxes' opinion piece in Sunday's Strib. (You can link from there to the Strib piece itself, if you must.)
- Across The Great Divide relays, and discusses, a suggestion as to how the U.S. Senate could be reconfigured. Interesting speculation, though speculation is all it is.
My preferred suggestion, perhaps slightly, and I do mean 'slightly,' more realistic, is one senator per state, the rest apportioned by population.
- An entertaining, yet at times nauseating (because of the subject matter) essay about anti-feminism, from Daily Kos.
- I originally linked this, from NationMaster, to show how prominently countries in the Mideast rank in per capita military spending. Then I noticed the United States isn't listed.
From Wikipedia, total U.S. military spending for 2010 is in the range of 880 billion to 1.03 trillion. As of about noon Sunday, the U.S. Census Bureau had the U.S. population at 308,637,538. 880 billion divided by 308.64 million equals U.S. per capita military spending of at least, based on the above, $2851.22/person. So, yeah, the U.S. is in a category all its own.
(Now I don't know if a person who still thinks the Vikings are going to win can be trusted with political advice. However, I have been pondering the advantages of Tom Rukavina as a running mate, who manages to make even non-supporters laugh and enjoy his company. - promoted by Grace Kelly)
As I bide time before the start of the Super Bowl I give you this NFL metaphor for the Minnesota DFL gubernatorial candidates as the county conventions and April state convention approach. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, the winner of the Feb. 2 straw vote, and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a very close second in the straw vote, control their own destinies. The only way one of these two are not the DFL endorsed candidate is if both of them flame out at the local conventions or destroy one another. We live in Minnesota, home of the Vikings, and we're talking about Democrats, which means that both of these things are possible.
So Rybak and Kelliher are the front runners. Every other candidate still has a chance but, in football commentator vernacular, they need some help. Matt Entenza has the ability to increase his payroll and marketing to help himself. John Marty, Tom Rukavina and Paul Thissen all need external help to some degree; Tom Bakk and Susan Gaertner need it to a larger degree. In most cases, this means that each of these candidates needs one or more specific other candidates to falter and drop before the first ballot of the state convention. Meantime, Mark Dayton, who's waiting for the primary, represents the metaphorical New Orleans Saints in the NFC championship game. The endorsed candidate could beat him. No really, they could. (Run it, Favre. RUN IT!) Don't read too much into the direct football to candidate parallels. I'm just imagining the "what ifs" for the Vikings this year.
MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty has until Tuesday to explain to the court why his unallotment was legal. Here's a brief article from WCCO's website.
Tomorrow, he's giving an address at a forum by the Institute For Emerging Issues in North Carolina. Its website is here. It is affiliated with NC State Univ., and apparently isn't overtly partisan.
Be warned. Ths year promises to be the most exciting work of IEI's seven year "think and do" history, and, as our capstone event, the Forum will push you to think in new and interesting ways.
I have no idea what the h. TBag has to do with thinking "in new and interesting ways," or, for that matter, 'thinking' at all. Don't they know his doctrine is failed Reaganism, with an ever-expanding helping of teabaggery? I'd be happy to give 'em a far more 'new and interesting' speech than Timmy will, if they pay my expenses and bar tab.
"The Republican's sinful selfishness has given our country a period of loose thinking, descending morals, an era of selfishness...Republican leaders not only failed in material things, they have failed in national vision, because in disaster, they have held out no hope, they have pointed no path for the people below to climb back to places of security and of safety in our American life."
Doesn't that sounds like something President Barack Obama might have said in the last year. The quote is actually almost eight decades old. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made that statement accusing the Republicans of creating an economy that helped a favored few to the detriment of the individual.
I'm not sure anything has changed in the last 80 years. Republicans have fought to protect corporate rights over the rights of individuals on a regular basis. I'm talking environmental issues, health issues, tax issues, labor issues, energy issues, and I could go on.
And who has "failed in material things" and "failed in national vision" over the last decade more in this state than Congressman John Kline? I know it is a toss up between Governor Pawlenty and John Kline, but Michelle Bachmann hasn't even reached the level of failure John Kline has.
John Kline recently sent out a mailing that states in bold, large letters "Congressman John Kline Protecting Minnesota's Economy and Jobs." I'd love to hear from him so he could tell me exactly what he has done to protect Minnesota's economy and jobs.
Wasn't he in congress supporting the economic and foreign policies that despite the recent upturn, still threaten to send us into a second Great Republican Depression? What has he done? He has joined the "NO" chorus on the Right opposing anything that might improve the economy or create jobs.
Apparently John Kline prefers to protect Minnesota's Economy and Jobs the same way Republicans did in 1929, by sitting on his hands and seeing what happens. I'll tell you what John Kline, I am no economic genius or any sort of policy wonk, but I know in the real world if you sit on your hands and refuse to do anything when change needs to occur, things are just going to get worse. Thanks for protecting us John Kline.
By Steve Quist
Original post at MNDem.wordpress.com
www.MNDem.com
Gallup has 
