The Minnesota Critic

I guess it was obvious, but Republicans are now on the record hating peace. They're against a department that would develop policies ranging from international conflict-resolution to reducing domestic abuse.

It's established fact that Republicans love war and are so eager to start them that they'll lie to peace-loving Americans in order to justify their wars. But even I didn't think they were as bad as to support domestic abuse.

Minnesota GOP Executive Director Bill Walsh called the idea an "unreasonable approach to dealing with the problems of the 21st century, including international terrorism."

Uh-huh. And the Republicans have proven their incompentence in dealing with international terrorism.

You want moral clarity? Consult Bill Maher and his New Rules:

Is George Bush purely evil? Of course not. And that's what's so evil about him. He doesn't twirl a mustache and smirk and cackle. Well, he doesn't twirl a mustache. He's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. Wherever he goes, he stirs up such a humongous mess it can only be cleaned up by Halliburton. But he is not pure evil.

Because evil is a chain. Did any one person doom New Orleans? No, it's a chain. People vote for a corrupt leader; a corrupt leader puts unqualified cronies in high places, and when those cronies fuck up, evil gets done. The devil didn't fly up from hell and knock a hole in that levee. The levee just didn't get built because the money for it went to rich people's tax cuts and pork projects and corporate welfare.

Evil isn't "Salem's Lot." It's Trent Lott. This week, an ailing American bald eagle was found to be dying from mercury poisoning. Republicans immediately tried to blame it on the eagle's lifestyle choices. But it's worth noting that also this week, the White House threatened to veto limits on mercury pollution. Now, pure evil would be if George Bush sat around the White House saying, "Let's poison eagles!" And even I don't believe George Bush would do that.

Cheney would do that. And even he is not pure evil. Dick Cheney doesn't hate poor children and caribou. They're just in the way.

Bottom line: some people think Satan is real and some people think global warming is real. If you think stopping gays from doing it is more important than the ice caps melting, the boogeyman is you...

How bad is the covert Republican mayor of St. Paul, Randy Kelly? He is so horrible, that he got only 27% of the vote in yesterday's primary. The Green Party candidate got 19%, fer Chrissakes! The good people of Saint Paul know something about floods and they've seen in New Orleans how Bush-loving, government-hating Republicans treat flooded cities and you know what? They want absolutely no part of it.

No surprise, then, that they are so enthusiastic for DFLer Chris Coleman that they gave him 52% of the vote.

That sentence was uttered by rapper Kanye West's during NBC's "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" telethon. But NBC's viewers didn't hear it because the corporate media giant censored West.

The truth hurts.

This man is dead

This woman is dying.

This is the price of misrule.

Photos courtesy Star Tribune.

It ain't just me.

The editorial pages of perhaps the most conservative newspaper in the country, the Union Leader of New Hampshire, blasted George Bush for his complete failure in response to Hurricane Katrina:

"A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease...The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

Anyone who does not agree is simply, pathetically blinded by their partisanship or foolishly, willfully blind.

Snipers are shooting at hospital vehicles, the old and infirm are dying outside the Convention Center with no help in sight. New Orleans is indeed in anarchy.

From watching Fox News, you'd never guess the magnitude of this catastrophic tragedy. According to Fox, there are only some house fires and looters in New Orleans--not black, poor people dying like flies because their government has failed them.

Thank God for CNN's Jack Cafferty, who, apparently, is the only journalist in America with enough guts to tell it like it is: A complete and abysmal failure by the Bush administration with it's most fundamental obligation, the protection of its own citizens.

It took George Bush two whole days to come back from vacation to deal with Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath.

• FEMA has thus far been AWOL.
• There is widespread looting and lawlessness in New Orleans.
• A massive public health threat looms.
• The death toll may reach the thousands.
• The scope of human suffering and tragedy is staggering.

And what does Bush do? Calls a press conference, two days too late. These are Americans suffering, Mr. President. Get to goddamn work!

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer opposes a proposed Code of Integrity " that would bar formal partisan activity by the office," the Star Tribune reports.

Just why the far right wing conservative Kiffmeyer opposes such a reasonable measure is a bit of a mystery. Could it be because she wants to be sure she can be partisan in the future, just as she has in the past? Such as in 2004 when she attended a campaign even on behalf of Laura Bush.

It's no secret that Kiffmeyer has politicized a formerly neutral office. She has, for example, stocked the office with far right wing staffers from organizations such as the radical right wing fundamentalist Christian organization Minnesota Family Council.

Kiffmeyer should support Integrity in election activities, not oppose it.