I grew up reading comic books wanting to be a superhero. Comics taught me that those who speak the truth are heroes, all the rest are liars.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Tilt-A-Whirl: The State Ride?

26Day copy

52 kindergarten students from Jefferson Elementary School, in Faribault, Minnesota wrote a letter to their legislators requesting that the Tilt-A-Whirl be made the State's official amusement ride.

The Tilt-A-Whirl was invented in Faribault by Herbert Sellner in 1926.

All you want to know about the Tilt-A-Whirl

State Representative Patti Fritz, who represents Faribault, introduce a bill that would do exactly what the 52 kindergarten students asked (Click here to read Rep. Fritz's comments about this legislation. )

Senator Dick Day (pictured) has a companion bill in the senate, however he is waiting to see where the bill goes in the House before introducing it to committee. "I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it," Day said.

My guess is that Mr. Day is focused more on a different kind of ride...
Maybe a ride to the 2008 general election, where he could be facing incumbent Tim Walz (D) for the 1st Congressional District's seat.
A funny irony is that Faribault, MN is actually in the 2nd Congressional District - so the question begs to be asked:
Will Faribault be a city without a State Senator due to a lack of interest? (fairly or unfairly - you know residents of Faribault will be wondering)

(source: Faribault Daily News, Thursday, March 29th edition)

Monday, March 26, 2007

GORE for President!!

ALPRES
With former Vice President Gore's popularity as of late, one has to ask "Why not?" A search on the web comes up with many crusaders, whose purpose is to get All Gore to run for President in 2008, again one must ask "Why not?"

The reasons are numerous why Al Gore should give it one more try. Can you imagine what the last eight years might have been like with President Gore over Bu$h?

Let's explore:
1. www.algore.org
2. www.electgore2008.com
3. www.draftgore.com (you have to listen to the song "Run Al Run")

Are you with me?

Well then you'll need some "Gore for President" stuff:
www.cafepress.com

You know the Republicans FEAR Gore - especially since they've already started attacking him!

The only question left is.....

Who will be his running mate?

( Stay tuned )

Friday, March 23, 2007

Who Speaks For the Abused Children?

The very organizations and people who should be protecting our children instead have banned together to defeat legislation that would protect our children.

Democrat Rep. Joe Mullery, chair of the public safety/cilvil justice committee has joined with church hierarchy, school boards association, and day care associations to oppose legislation that would allow victimes of child abuse to bring civil suit. Defeating this legislation also continues to put children at risk to child abusers that have yet to be exposed.

Earlier this week leaders of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Northerneastern Minnesota Synod(ELCA), the Minnesota Childcare Association and the Minnesota School Boards Association opposed child sexual abuse prevention legislation from moving gorward in the House of Representatives. Leaders of these organizations said Minnesota should continue to limit the ability of victims of childhood sexual abuse from suing their organizations.

According to the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network, "An institution is only going to be held accountable if it knew, or should have known that its employees were molesting children." Which makes you wonder why these groups would oppose it.

It's a sad day when organizations put their own self interests ahead of those they've been entrusted to care for within the community. It's even a sadder day when that self interest could protentially endanger the children they are entrusted to care for from further abuse.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

New Math? When Civilians Don't Count

As General Tommy Franks, who commanded the US forces when they first entered Iraq more than four years ago, declared, "We don't do body counts'. Unfortunately, that's part of the ongoing problem; While the United States is showing disdain for counting the Iraqi dead, they are more than aware of the continually rising numbers.

Our refusal to count the Iraqi dead, especially those by U.S. operations, demostates why there’s been a sharp erosion of support for Americans among the general populous. It's also goes a long way to explain why we find ourselves involved in yet another war quagmire. We may not count Iraqi civilians deaths, but they do.

Every child that took a stray bullet from a U.S. gun, every bombing that was meant for us but took their family members instead, and every intentional killing by whatever side because of our occupation has etched a mark on the Iraqi population's hearts and minds. They've come to see our war as one of foreign military occupation and intervention that is destroying the Iraqi community and taking their lives.

Poverty in Iraq has worsened acutely during our invasion and occupation. Those who were already surviving on the margins due to years of deprivation have sunk further, and the children of these families have recourse to no nutrition, no health care, no education, no present, and no future. They have lost friends, family, homes, education, health, and spirit. Many are now living on the streets, turning to crime or getting involved in fighting itself. But they still know how to count.

Next time you hear how 'the surge' is already making Iraq safer, remember this…yesterday in Iraq: At least 46 killed in another bloody day of U.S. occupation in Baghdad elsewhere 32 "extremists", 10 policemen killed in Fallujah armed clashes.

Not much has changed for civilians in Iraq. We fool only ourselves with the success of the 'surge' in Iraq. While we’re staying closer to our super bases, and posting more guards… Iraqis are still dying! Where’s the Iraqi freedom in our policy? Or doesn't that count?

Monday, March 19, 2007

Dreaming Of Serving My County

This is so painful to watch…and maybe the reason why everyone wants to pretend 'all is okay in Iraq' as it's too painful to see it 'as it is'. There’s a lot of Jessie MacBeth’s out there…more and more everyday.

"We just have to scare them first". Well I'm scared...
Since ‘Nam, I didn’t think it could ever happen again…I was wrong. You can’t set right anything when you lose your own soul. America has lost it's soul and our government doesn't care...and the American people don't care...this can't continue as it's maddness...

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Minnesota's National Guard Troops Deserve Pawlenty More Than A Clown

Note to Governor Pawlenty, next time...stay home or better yet, bring the troops home. If you really cared then your two day secret junket to Iraq would have been better spend visiting with your mentor and chief Mr. Bu$h... explaining how the Iraq escalation strategy is pushing our overstressed troops even further. That the only thing the surge will do is hurt our troops more.

Pawlenty said he planned the tax payer funded trip to Iraq after about 2,600 Minnesota National Guard troops learned in January that they would be staying in Iraq for as much as six more months. They had been scheduled to come home this month. He said he wanted to thank them for serving under difficult circumstances...(naturally his trip shamefully made a good PR and a photo OP!)

Given that 72% of the troops in Iraq are having to do multiple tours (Beyond the Call of Duty), wouldn't it have been better to allow the troops to come home then Pawlenty to go there? Especially now that the top military generals are saying there is no military win to the Iraq war?

And the multiple deployments and extended tours of duty are taking a serious toll on our soldiers. Two-thirds of Army brigades are “not ready for wartime missions,” and one Pentagon survey found that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from chronic shortages of armored vehicles, heavy weapons, and communications equipment.

In addition, an Army survey conducted last year found “U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder”

But instead of drawing attention to these very serious issues and risks, Pawlenty, smiles and jokes and then comes back to Minnesota...Tell me Mr. Governor, are you going to do that next year and the year after that and the year....well you get the picture...we all have for the last four years. Minnesota and it's troops deserve more than a nice guy clown as governor.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Same Day, Different Stories

Bu$h: It’s too early to judge the success of this operation, Yet even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs.”

In Iraq same day: suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Shiite religious pilgrims, “killing at least 130 people in one of the deadliest days of the four-year war.”

Shouldn't we be starting impeachment proceeding by now? This man is dangerous, a liar, and not fit for office.