Truth Surfer

Well it's here...the report that was suppose to resolve America's role in the the Iraq war. Unfortunately, it's a muddle as the rest of the Neo-Con's pipedreams of being greeted by cheering Iraqis...The much touted Iraq Panel led by James Baker chokes on offering any specifics: no specific dates, numbers, plans or details. As Hirsh spells out: "This meant that somehow, in ways they could never spell out, the Israeli-Palestinian issue would be resolved after democracy was achieved in Iraq. Now Baker's thought seems to be that the road to Baghdad goes through Jerusalem. This is just as silly as the earlier idea. Take this down: the road to Baghdad goes through Iraq." American can't seem to grasp that Iraq will determine it's own future. We are no longer in a position to dictate actions or terms. It will be what it will be and our involvement on any level but humanitarian is criminial. It's what lead us into this mess: "What's happening ...

Bush started this war without a plan. None of the Republicans in Congress ever asked for a plan. Now, every day, American soldiers and Iraqi citizens pay a price for their incompetence. But, Bush and the GOP is acting like none of this is his fault. They want us to believe it’s the fault of al-Maliki or Iraq itself. But the civil war, the deaths, the break down and destruction of infrastructure is wholly the responsibility of Bu$hCo. Blaming the Iraq government, prime minister, the different sects or others is akin to blaming the victims. This is Bu$h’s legacy… That said, I have a long rant on my take of what is going on and what America needs to do. Briefly, we’re chest deep in the tibia river. Going forward is certain death as the river is too deep to stay on the current course. Staying or not backing out of the river will not get us where we want to be. It’s time to leave. The War in Iraq has failed by any standard. There were no WMDs, it didn’t bring democracy or freedom and we too...

What would Jesus do? Instead of reducing poverty and global warming: The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America, which has long served as a model for activism for the religious right, has stepped down, saying the group resisted his efforts to broaden its agenda to include reducing poverty and fighting global warming . Would he fixate on a conservative right-wing agenda comprised of issues like abortion and same-sex marriage? Which one really helps families?

Iraqi Kid Runs For Water A thousand different ways to be an ugly American.

Smile and enjoy the holiday and warm weather. Watch The Bush Turkey Connection. Minnesota Turkey facts: 250 turkey farmers 600 turkey farms Minnesota produces more turkeys than any other state... over 46 million each year! The only major meat animal native to North America is the turkey. Over all the U.S. produces 155 million turkeys a year (not counting Bush et al!). The turkey is a variety of the pheasant. A male turkey is called a tom, and a female turkey is a hen. Only tom turkeys gobble. Hen turkeys make a clicking noise. A large group of turkeys is called a flock. Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. 45 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas, and 19 million at Easter. About 675 million pounds of turkey is consumed in the United States on Thanksgiving Day. The costume "Big Bird" wears on Sesame Street is made of turkey feathers. Abraham Lincoln's son, Tad, had a pet turkey. When it was suggested that the bird might make a fine holiday dinner...

A group in Abu Dhabi where Papa Bush delivered a folksy leadership speech whooped and whistled in approval as members directed hostile comments to Bush 41 about 43. “We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world" Papa 41 told the audience how deeply hurt he feels when 43 is criticized. Papa stated that 43 is working hard for peace… But peace isn't shock and awe, lying, wiretapping, torture, or death… This is what we’ve done in Iraq for peace! Month after month, year after year of deaths. 3709 in October… This isn’t peace, it’s madness.

WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price -- teaser trailer Now that the home team has won… The Evil Empire of Wal-Mart seems to be busy back peddling .

Never forget the price for this 2003 turkey dinner... Since war began (3/19/03): 2350 dead in combat Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) ( the list ) 2729 dead in combat Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 2043 dead in combat American Wounded Official Estimated Total Wounded : 21077 22000 - 100000

Not much left to laugh at! Don’t eat the sushi in Piccadilly! No more bragging rights! If marriage is between one man and one women, then this is wrong! And if marriage is sacred, what gives with this ? Look , the world is still almost flat, to them. Franken is running against Coleman and he'll win big. Nothing official yet, but it's happening or my name is truthsurfer (okay point taken!). Nobody should be loudly praying on a plane unless it's losing altitude and death is imminent. In that case, exceptions are okay. However, it appears that this was more a case of fear mongering.

I say we look behind door number 3!? But somehow we need to get this football home. I say we just 'GO': The Pentagon's closely guarded review of how to improve the situation in Iraq has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out, according to senior defense officials. Insiders have dubbed the options "Go Big," "Go Long" and "Go Home." The group conducting the review is likely to recommend a combination of a small, short-term increase in U.S. troops and a long-term commitment to stepped-up training and advising of Iraqi forces, the officials said

When I read this my thought was perhaps I woke up in a Dune novel. But no, the Army of al-Sunnah Wah Jama is real as the Mujahideen Shura Council. Which brings several thoughts to mind…but for now, let’s have a game of 'spot the meaning', shall we? Lashkar-e-Toiba? Russain Amish A leading Pakistan-based militant group fighting in Kashmir Rouge Scientologists who refute Tom and Katie’s marriage. Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) Communists An all women ‘soft terrorist’ group in Kashmir valley A town in the Punjab region Hizb-ul-Mujahideen? Amish Largest terrorist group operating in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Pakistan Brother to the Mujahideen Shura Council Muzaffarabad? A Hindu Sect An area in Pakistan What you call burnt muffins Lashkar-e-Jabbar? A group that stages attacks in Kashmir Stalinists A character in star wars Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) Communists An all women ‘soft terrorist’ group in Kashmir valley A town in the Punjab region Wahabi Winner of the Kentucky derby Official pu...

It's Friday which makes me a 'ray of sunshine'. Have a great weekend but first some smackdowns... Who says that newspapers are dying? Well maybe if they report the news instead of making up fruity trash that panders to Minnesota's monkey queen. The MN Strib went that extra mile in crowning Bachman... "Instead, she's [Bachman] arrived in Washington as a ray of sunshine in a gloomy GOP establishment stunned by a storm of voter discontent that gave both houses of Congress to Democrats." --When I read Carville's call to replace Howard Dean I got mad and wrote a lengthy retort. But then I realized anyone with a brain wouldn't believe his hacking...so here's the very short version of my rant: James Carville is a boneless bat faced shrill that couldn’t direct traffic out of a high school parking lot. His armchair 'Emanuel' venom against Howard Dean’s phenomenally successful 50-state strategy is nothing short of ludicrous. Those of us workin...

October was National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. What's that you say, you missed it? So did most of us because for the most part, the media chose to ignore the issue. That makes the media coverage of Minnesota's Rep. Mark Olson arrest this week for domestic abuse even more ironic. Mark Olson, a Big Lake-area legislator recently reelected to his eighth term, was charged with fifth-degree domestic assault for hitting his wife (forcing her to the floor). Instead of using it as an opportunity to educate the public on the epidemic level of abuse in America (and Minnesota), the media has instead made it into just a problem for Olson his political party. But it’s a lot more than just another story. Not when domestic violence accounts for over 25% of the crimes reported in Minnesota yet we know that 80% of all domestic abuse goes unreported. The story of Mark Olson is played out everyday over and over again in Minnesota’s homes. Given Olson’s past aggression against a women an...

Will American's Change Course? We haven't been able to depend on John Kline to be truthful and honest with the public regarding Iraq. Watch this video and listen to what the military has to say. "A war shouldn't be about a way to make money."

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the potential next chair of a key national security subcommittee, calls for congressional hearings into how and why America invaded Iraq, and demands “accountability” for those who led America into a “war based on lies.” "Rumsfeld may no longer be secretary of defense, but he made decisions based on lies that took people to their deaths. He has to be held accountable—secretary or not.” I'll be honest, Dean was my guy and still is but Dennis has worked his magic on me. And really, I've never met a Kucinch supporter that I didn't like...really.. It’s our Lott in life… More of the same from the GOP leadership! The KKK must be very happy… Video -WMP Video -QT "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." While I couldn’t agree m...

Minnesota Rep. Mark Olson, a Big Lake-area legislator recently reelected to his eighth term, has been charged with fifth-degree domestic assault. The drill with most of these criminal politicians is to check into an alcohol rehab center for a few days then release a statement about personal responsibility. "I strongly believe that I am an alcoholic and have accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and other behavioral problems," Foley, a Republican, said in a statement, Roth told the AP. But as most people who deal with domestic violence can tell you, by the time the police get involved, it’s been going on for some time. I personally always felt that domestic violence doesn’t stem from drugs, alcohol, or even other stresses but from a lack of respect and trust in your spouse. The rest is all window dressing. And yeah, a bully is a bully and the rethugs have a lot of them.

Are the voters in Connecticut mad? “Lieberman, a Democrat who won reelection as an independent, also said he wants to be called an Independent Democrat.” Hmm, an independent Democrat ?! I don’t think so…more like an independent opportunist: “…because I retained my seniority, I become a committee chair, but also I want to continue to work to bring the party back to its historic traditions of strength on national security, foreign policy, and innovation and progress in domestic policy" And of course he did it all because he’s a democrat! “And, and I must say, and with all respect to the Republicans who supported me in Connecticut, nobody ever said, 'We're doing this because we, we want you to switch over,' "

From Marc Baber (Truth in Voting) on voting fraud: "So, the Democratic victory was no mere "Thumping" as Bush described it. We smited them. We devastated them. We completely overwhelmed, stomped, creamed, killed, slaughtered and trounced them. We beat them so bad, they couldn't even win by cheating. Yes, indeedy, we sure did. Oh, yeah. Big time. But, make no mistake, they're still cheating. There were at least 30-40 different cheating tactics used in 2004 and they weren't just invented in 2004-- no organization can build such a smoothly operating racket overnight. What we're up against has a measure of business-as-usual to it, developed over decades of corrupt "worst practices" that may take another decade or two to expose and stop. " Read the whole post here . If we're going to keep electing Democrats, we're going to have to stay ahead of the cheating.

Waiter, I'll have the crow ala carte. "After voters gave Republicans “a thumpin’” at the polls, handing Democrats control of both houses of Congress, Bush banished his contentious defense secretary; invited the presumptive leaders of the new House and Senate to lunch (would-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pasta; the president ate crow, a Bush aide joked);" Funny...sad, pathetic, funny

And because I think, I'm Democratic! Oh yeah, have a great weekend. You Are 60% Democrat You aren't a full fledged Democrat yet, but it's likely the party that fits you best. You probably consider yourself an independent Democrat. You usually support the party, but you also think for yourself! How Democrat Are You? What? You mean to tell me that the ‘party of personal responsibility’ would stoop so low as to collect tax payer government funded unemployement . I’m shocked! (okay not really) As CL says: Hard-core conservatives who have spent the last year telling us that the economy is robust are now having to get in line side-by-side with those "lazy, entitlement queens" they've maligned. How bad are those socialist programs now, kids? Terrorist. They’re not just non American anymore. Ribbit, Are we cooked yet? Where's the wassabe? Should we go or should we stay? The evangelical Christian community is pissed at the GOP for not having fulfilled their p...

FIrst I want to state that I am very pleased with the outstanding victories here in MN and across the nation. This was an Historic Victory, we won the State and National House, we won the State and National Senate, and we all should be proud for the work we did to ensure this very needed course correction. We still have problems though. If government were an orchard and politicians the farmers, people like Tim Pawlenty and George W. Bush are the types of orchard farmers that do not understand how to prune their trees in a way that yields a healthy crop, they have actually given up on proper conservation and don't believe we need healthy trees at all, and have embraced the ideology that the only way to prune a tree is by its roots, and if that means the trees die, who cares - they only get in the way of the strip mall that they want to put there anyway. Our infrastructure, our cities, and our health will continue to be under attack from them and their administrations, but now we ...

That MN's Insane Duet: Bachman and Kline are cast as Sandman and Venom in the new Spiderman 3 movie? In Spider-Man® 3, based on the legendary Marvel Comics series, Peter Parker has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. As Spider-Man basks in the public's adulation for his accomplishments, Peter becomes overconfident and starts to neglect the people who care about him most. His newfound self-assuredness is jeopardized when he faces the battle of his ife against two of the most feared villains ever, Sandman and Venom, whose unparalleled power and thirst for retribution threaten Peter and everyone he loves. Watch the Trailer . That gas price went up the day after elections? Crude oil, which accounts for about half the price of gasoline at the pump, rose past $60 a barrel in New York futures trading. That bolstered the stance of analysts who had been predicting that retail fuel pr...

UPDATE: AP reports that Rumsfeld’s replacement will be Robert Gates , a former CIA Director (1991-93) and National Security Council official. He is currently the President of Texas A&M University. An Oldie but goody: President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain with him until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most-vilified members of his administration. “Both those men are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them,” Bush said in an interview with The Associated Press and others. .

Centrisity brings up some scary but real points when he talks about the balance of power: Joe [Liebertman] pledged to caucus with the Dems, and I only hope he honors that pledge. Regardless of what he does, there is a Chairmanship for him. But there is another scenario that is even more intriguing, and that has to do with the future of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. President Bush seems to have as much power in determining the balance of the US Senate as Cheney would if it were 50-50. With the tumult that has surrounded Rummy, culminating over the last several weeks, The President has a Win-Win option before him. Fire Rummy (or accept his resignation, same difference) and appointment Joementum to the post. This allows for the GOP Governor to appoint the replacement, and what do you know, 50-50 and Cheney breaks the tie. We now know the Rumsfeld is out, so did Flash nail the scenero? If so, then the fat lady is gonna sing and soon with Bu$h schedule to speak any time now.

It's a start for the new Democratic House and soon to be Democratic Senate...

The front yard of Governor Pawlenty (awful), Anderson (Awada), and MDE just got a whole lot bluerrrrrrrrr. In CD2: Coleen Rowley was a long shot even from the start for a number of reasons but….John Kline’s days are numbered. We’ve shown we can make in-roads in CD2 by picking up several new seats in the MN house and senate. So what was once red is now a violet and will be blue shortly. This race will come down to (a) money, lots of it to fight off Kline's sleezy negative campaigning (b) committment, from the old guard politico (3) a candidate with Coleen's credentials: strong in NS issues, ethical, and supportable by the grassroots. Coleen says she won't run again, but in life, things can change. Here’s the gains from tonight: MN HOUSE Democrats in CD2 have added 6 seats! David Bly in 25B Sandy Wollschlager in 28A Shelley J. Madore in 37A Sandra Masin in 38A Will Morgan in 40A Carla Bigham in 57A Kept: Joe Atkins 39B and Patti Fritz in 26B MN SENATE Democrats in CD2 have ad...

Get your family, neighbors, friends and drag them out today to vote. Ask them to support their values and community by voting Democratic. Ask them to be an American Super Hero!

I will be helping the DFL today in the Get Out The Vote efforts all day. I encourage all of you to do the same. We will achieve an historic victory if we all come together tomorrow and seal the deal. Good luck and go get'm and thanks for everything everyone does to ensure this win! VOTE DFL!

You won't find this yet on any "Professional" Media Outlet, but the MN Supreme Court has ordered Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer to respond to the complaint filed against her last week. It is outragious that this story is not making it into the local media outlets. Again, MNCR has a good post up about it. Mark Ritchie's response: To make it harder for battered women and tens of thousands other people living in residential facilities to exercise their most fundament right - to vote - is just unconscionable. The people Minnesota should not have to petition the Supreme Court to compel our Secretary of State to do critical parts of her job. Whether the Court again orders her to make changes, or she does it in response to the petition itself, it is just not the way to do business. We can and should do better.

This has been written about in a few other blogs, but when is the MSM going to look into this? Joe at MNCR has the basic goods, so please check him out, and especially check out his post on this at Daily Kos, and give him a few recommendations to lift this story up there . The basics: * A. Secretary of State Kiffmeyer’s official website fails to adequately inform voters about statutory provisions enacted in 2005 regarding the verification of residency for same day voter registration for voters in residential facilities… * B. Secretary of State Kiffmeyer has failed to notify residential facilities about the statutory requirement that they submit a list of employees at least 20 days before the election, allowing employees to vouch for the residents… * C. Secretary of State Kiffmeyer’s official website provides erroneous information about the polling locations for 42 precincts. See attached Exhibit A… * D. Secretary of State K...

Top ten reasons to vote for Coleen Rowley.

It's ironic that hanging is also a crime against humanity. What exactly is the lesson we're showing?! Where's the christian/legislative outcry? Oh I get it, he's not Terri Schiavo . Are only certain lives deemed sacred? No matter how it was done, this will be how America will be viewed by Arab states, afterall, it was Osama Bin Laden that attacked us. Somewhere between the two extremes, there was another way. صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي‎

I thought it might be good to think of some reasons on why exactly Tim Pawlenty is such a horrible Governor and thus should NOT be reelected. I came across this wonderful post by James Clay Fuller entitled "Take gnarly Hatch over pretty Pawlenty" which should be a must read for every voter in Minnesota Here are a few excerpts on "Pretty Pawlenty" In 2002, Pawlenty intended to run for the U.S. Senate, but Dick Cheney telephoned and told him to step aside for Norm Coleman and he did. (Both Coleman and Pawlenty jump to orders from the White House as quickly and unquestioningly as a West Point cadet for a general.) Pawlenty then chose to run for governor. There always has been a strong implication that Bush/Cheney will provide something better for him at some point. From 1998 to 2002, Minnesota state and local taxes dropped. Since Pawlenty took office, and Republicans gained control of the Legislature, income and sales taxes of the middle class have increased substant...

The fact that this administration including Rep. John Kline (who recently slipped in a clause to remove federal oversight of the Iraq reconstruction), would allow a government website to contain nuclear bomb making instructions (pre-19991) shows just what depths this group of crooks will sink to for political power. They were willing to give away WMD to score a politcal point. This is not American leadership. We've had example after example of how Republican's have traded our security and safety for personal or political gain. Democratic Senator Chris Dodd blasted the government's Website as "irresponsible" and politically motivated: "The idea that you'd allow this stuff to go up without censoring it, looking at it carefully, just throwing it up and leaving it up there for March on, without knowing that you have material there that could provide our enemies with needed information for them to produce the kind of weapons that the article describes here is...

Bu$h and Congressional Republicans have been working with conservative Republican bloggers such as Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Minnesota's PowerLine's John Hinderaker to exposing classified information from Saddam Hussein's long-dead nuclear research program -- a program that was stopped dead fifteen years ago -- in order to pretend that Saddam was still running a nuke program in 2003. The Web site, “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal,” was a constantly expanding portrait of prewar Iraq. Its many thousands of documents included everything from a collection of religious and nationalistic poetry to instructions for the repair of parachutes to handwritten notes from Mr. Hussein’s intelligence service. It became a popular quarry for a legion of bloggers, translators and amateur historians including Hinderaker to use in trying to show evidence of WMDs. But in fact the website has now literally handed classified nuclear-bomb-making research to countries like North ...

Taking a note from Joe at MNCR , I started to reach back into the cobwebs of my own memory to two years ago to what I was doing in that election. On election day of 2004 I was helping a GOTV center train doorknockers as they went out to encourage people to go vote. The energy in the room, in the entire state, was exhilarating. We knew we were going to win Minnesota, but only if we kept pushing, kept working hard all day. And we did. From 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. we sent out hundreds, if not thousands of people to knock on doors all over the state, we were on the phones constantly, and in the end, we won MN, but lost the Country. Minnesota rejected Bush and his policies back in 2004. Minnesota knew then what the Country knows now, that the Republican controlled government was on a destructive path and we had to try to change the coarse. We knew Iraq was a quagmire before the rest of the country, Katrina was not a surprise because we knew that the philosophy of the GOP wants to make gover...

The Republican standard operating procedure. Step 1; Avoid talking about any issue - because your party has been a complete failure on every issue Step 2; Wait for your opponent (normally Democrats), so say something unrelated to anything that you can spin against them Step 3; Call you buddies in the Main Stream Media (you know the ones the GOP owns) and tell them to talk about nothing else but the mole hills until they become mountains. Step 4; Wash, rinse, and repeat. The culture of corruption has not gone away, the Republican Party is still a failure when it come to issues that effect the common good, all of our families, the lives of our soldiers, and our standing in the world. So, please ask yourself when you come across the MSM and GOP over-built Mole Hills, is that who you want staying in power? We are not fooled, not distracted, and as resilient as ever to bring Minnesota values back to the leadership in this State, and representing us in Washington. Stand up and keep fight...

Bill Clinton speaks strongly for Mike Hatch in the final days of this historic election When you are afraid that your right to vote may be threatened, students don't keep quite. Here is a message that they are sending to Mary.

The number of questions about Mary Kiffmeyer just keep growing. Kiffmeyer accepted a $250 contribution from Peter Hafiz ( PDF ), the owner of Deja Vu -- the strip club (warning link contains pornography ). Again, from the party of “Family Values.” That doesn't sound like “family values”to me. ________ From a Mark Ritchie press release: Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer continues to misstate her record on Election Day Registration . Kiffmeyer challenged Mark Ritchie, the DFL candidate for Secretary of State, on his statement that she has been quoted attacking Election Day Registration in books and newspaper articles, and that she had promoted a change to a new system requiring voters to register to vote at least thirty days before the election. Kiffmeyer said, “That is absolutely not true, and you know better than that. And it is just that type of negative campaigning that is just plain wrong” In the Secretary of State debate sponsored by the League of Women Voter's and KSTP,...

From Representative Bill Hilty in the Duluth News : ...and Kiffmeyer no paradigm of voting virtue Here are the Top Ten Reasons Why Kiffmeyer Should Not Have Been Endorsedby the News Tribune (“Keep Kiffmeyer as secretary of state,” Oct. 30): 10) When she took office, Kiffmeyer replaced virtually all of the nonpartisan civil servant staff with partisan political appointees. 9) In 2002, when Senator Wellstone was killed, Kiffmeyer tried to stop local elections officials from sending replacement absentee ballots to voters who requested them. (Overruled by the Supreme Court). 8) In 2004, Kiffmeyer banned Independence Party candidates from the ballot despite their major party status. (Overruled by the Supreme Court) 7) In 2000, she published informational brochures with the wrong date for the DFL caucuses. Even after the DFL complained, Kiffmeyer continued to spread this misinformation. 6) Kiffmeyer tried to stop Hennepin and Ramsey Counties from distributing federal voter registration forms...

Let's Impeach The President Neil Young does it again, listing the reasons Bu$h should be impeached. I don't care what kind of 'deal' the so-called Democratic leaders have made, once we have control of the legislature back, I will use any means to make sure this idiot is impeached and branded for the what he is: a traitor to American values, a killer, a liar, and a dictatoral bully.

0lberman commentary on White House campaign tactics Long but well worth the listen. There's not much I could add to this but I can say, it has to end or America is gone. Thugs can't lead and it's up to us to vote them out.

Seeming to build upon past relationships with partisan hacks that like to manipulate elections this new ad makes a cut and dry look at how important the Secretary of State is to the integrity of our Government. Mary Kiffmeyer, Katherine Harris, George Bush, we have had enough! Vote Mark Ritchie!