Month: February 2008

Goodbye Molnau

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

Goodbye Molnau. We are looking forward to throwing your boss out at the end of his term, too. Good riddance. As I’ve written about in the past, I absolutely noticed a deterioration in MNDot long before I ever heard the word “Molnau”. Add the bridge collapse, the shady business deals (she sold her farm to a developer for 6 times its market value 8 days after pushing through a bill that expanded Highway 212 to better service that area) and a damning legislative auditor’s report, this is an obvious step to take.

The Righties will argue that it is a witch hunt and all of that. They will protect their guy. But the fact is, if you believe in accountability and responsibility then the person at the top of the chain gets axed when things go shitty. Now it looks like Pawlenty’s failure of leadership (“new new taxes”) has led to a large looming budget shortfall. Luckily, thanks to some reasonable Republicans, his veto of the transportation bill was overrode.

I really wish Amy Klobachar had run for governor instead of senator. She’s a great senator but she would have been a great governor as well. We need some smart, experienced person who puts real executive leadership in front of a partisan ideology.


Goodbye Molnau

Ralph Nader

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First of all, I think Ralph Nader is right about just about everything. I agree with his politics and viewpoints. I think that the stranglehold that corporations have on our government is decidedly anti-American. I’m a capitalist and I enjoy free markets. But our government should not be for sale. That should be obvious.

I also think Ralph Nader should not worry about harming the Democrats. We need more choice in politics, not less.

My bitch with Nader is that he seems oblivious to political strategy. By that I mean, in the 11th hour when it is clear that he has no chance in hell of being elected, he should move his support to a candidate that can win. Idealism is a great thing but effective idealists need to be pragmatists as well. In 2000, the day before the election, Nader should have dropped out and asked his supporters to vote for Gore. His idealism got us further from his objectives, not closer. You are not being very smart if you undermine your own goals because of your idealism.

So Nader, yes, please run for President. Shake things up, get your agenda across and get a real liberal agenda on the agenda. But when the 11th hour comes, be practical.

Ralph Nader

Balance the budget, bitches!

Michael Koppelman2 Comments

The US government has run deficit budgets for 31 out of the last 35 years. That is ridiculous. Check out this graphic showing the budget deficit from 1961 through 2005. So Ronald Reagan, hailed as the greatest Republican president in recent history, ran up the debt. Both Bush’s ran up the debt. Nixon, Ford and Carter ran up the debt. The only president to run a surplus budget since JFK was Bill Clinton. (Here’s another graphic showing the same thing.)


WHAT THE FUCK!

George W. Bush grew the budget by 1 trillion dollars during his 2 terms. He inherited a surplus and will be handing Obama a deficit. The war does not come close to explaining this.
I’m a self-proclaimed raging liberal and I think it verges on criminal that we allow these administrations to spend future dollars. While I understand that there are smart and legitimate reasons to occasionally run a deficit, it has become business as usual in Washington because we are governed by a bunch of pussies who preside over an electorate that is too stupid to realize that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

We have to raise taxes AND cut spending. We should balance the budget every single year. I just heard that by 2040 every dollar the US government takes in will go to social security, medicare and servicing the national debt. Does that sound sustainable to you?

I know most Republicans have already distanced themselves from Bush, but if you needed more proof of the utter disfunction of the Republican party, here it is — they suck at managing the budget and yet they claim they are fiscal conservatives. Bull. Shit.

Let’s see if Obama can get us out of this mess like Clinton got us out of Ford/Reagan/Bush’s mess.

Balance the budget, bitches!

I-35 — A holy road to the insane

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I heard this story mentioned on NPR and if you do a Google search you’ll see it was on a lot of national media.

They call it the “Highway of Holiness.” Others call it Interstate 35.
Evangelicals throughout the Midwest, from Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minn., have been praying at 24-hour prayer rooms for a month for Interstate 35 in order to “light the highway.”

…The scriptural basis for the new movement comes from Isaiah 35:8, which reads, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.” Because of chapter 35, believers say the highway mentioned must be Interstate 35. In addition, a number of people in the “Highway of Holiness” movement claim to have had prophetic experiences that involve Interstate 35.

Now there is a phrase for this: COMPLETELY FUCKING CRAZY. I was appalled at how “respectful” everyone was being about this. This is insane. You are insane if you believe that Interstate 35 is written about in the Bible. This sort of quackery should be ridiculed and these people evaluated for possible institutionalization. They should be arrested for abusing their children with this insanity. The last thing we should treat this tripe with is respect.

I-35 — A holy road to the insane

Google getting more evil

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

I randomly clicked on the Photos tab on my iGoogle home page and got redirected to http://picasaweb.google.com/. As the page loaded I noticed my Downloads folder jumping up and down and lo’ and behold, Google was kind enough to auto-download their terms of service for me!

Google Terms of Service

Welcome to Google!

1. Your relationship with Google

1.1 Your use of Google’s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google.

In this day and age of malware, viruses and trojans, someone thought it was a good idea to download things to people’s hard drives without permission. L.A.M.E.

Not to mention some fleet of fucking lawyers are whinging to Google that they should even consider something this stupid.

Google, just letting you know that I hereby do not accept your terms of service. Please feel free to prevent me from accessing your services. By continuing to allow me access to your services you are agreeing to MY terms of fucking service, which I am under no obligation to disclose to you.

Google getting more evil

Two drivers, one death

Michael Koppelman, Leave a comment

From the Star Tribune:

Their vehicles collided head-on Monday afternoon on snow- and slush-covered Hwy. 14 in Winona County, killing the 17-year-old Stiehl, the State Patrol said today.

As for the Rusert, 54, of Utica, Minn., he had “no apparent injury,” the patrol report said.

Airbags deployed in both vehicles. The patrol described both cars as severely damaged.

This is a pet subject of mine. How could any intelligent person drive a car in snow and slush covered roads and not wear a seatbelt? There is no rational reason to ever not wear a seatbelt. Driving is the most dangerous activity you participate in.

Two drivers, one death