Category: Politics
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Transparency, My Ass
Quietly, in the dead of night, and out of the glare of public scrutiny, House GOP members voted to make significant changes to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). (Note: they have since rescinded their move after a backlash not only from the public, but also from their own speaker of the house and president-elect.) Now,…
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The Truth May Be An Alien
We Americans seem to like to think we’re all independent thinkers, capable of rationally divining truth from fiction. We take this assumption from our own viewpoints, thinking that “because I can tell when someone is stating a non-truth, everyone should be able to do so as well.” Yet, as everyone should agree, opposing viewpoints can cloud…
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Pardon Me, But I’ve Seen This Election Before
I hope that there are many of us in Minnesota who are watching the “Trump Train” and are shaking our heads. Except that we aren’t entirely shaking them in disgust–we’ve seen this show before, and we know how it reads from beginning to end. We’ve seen this before because way back in 1998, we Minnesotans elected…
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The Fault In Our Politics
I was reading piece online that, while intriguing, isn’t worth linking to here, but brought up an interesting point which can be echoed across the political spectrum in this country as we hurtle ceaselessly toward another glorious presidential election next year. The writer’s entire point was that they are totally turned off by politicians they’d…
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Strategery
As the officially announced candidate field on the Republican side threatens to top four figures and one mop of hair this week, I was struck by some interesting points: the Republican party believes in gang warfare. Now, I understand the whole concept of playing to your base in the primary campaign, and let’s face it,…
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Choices
Holy hell, this is a mess… Friends, I stand before you as one of about 27 people in the entire city of Minneapolis not running for Mayor, city council the park board or the school board. This position has come to be revered and celebrated, earning accolades and all kinds of mail asking for my…
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Is “I Told You So” Wrong?
I recall feeling this same way about leadership I’d supported all the way back in 1979 and 1980. Jimmy Carter’s presidency, so hopeful at the outset because we were communally digging out from the morass that was Nixon/Ford, had become a mess. Unable to move forward in any substantial fashion in key areas of the…
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Clarification
Welcome to 2013, kids. The bold future, the “brave new world” promised by the 21st Century. A time of amazing technology, great human achievement, and complete political gridlock. Our nation is in a “sequester,” having passed a budget plan nearly two years ago that forced upon the entire country budget cuts–which may or may…
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The Eyes–and Hands–Have It
The State of the Union address was last night–the one chance each year for the President to directly address the Congress and tell them just what he thinks. Or not. But I didn’t watch. I’d actually decided not to watch the speech because the messages and the images and the response were going…
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Tea Party Be Gone!
So after the election and the resulting apparent near collapse and all of the soul-searching that has gone on within the Republican party, one can find it easy to have forgotten about Karl Rove, the wunderkind who engineered the Bush(2) victories. After all, he was among those identified with the future of the party, and certainly,…
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Well Here’s Your Problem…
One fascinating part of watching the election this past year was the absolute bewilderment shown by the Republicans in failing to win as much as they expected…Or failing to win at all. They were clearly flabbergasted by the results and didn’t know what went wrong. The confusion began with the confidence of Romney’s pollsters…
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Afterward
On the morning after, people wake up feeling either elated or depressed, or for some, even sick. It’s not a new phenomena after elections, especially big ones, to have some sort of visceral reaction to the results, but what’s surprising to me is that people don’t see the long-term big picture: there have been those…
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Running
Ah, election night. It’s always been a big deal, but back in my youth, it was a lot of fun and quite an experience. You see, ages ago, in 1976, actually, my mom, in her deep wisdom, signed me up to help her work at the election headquarters for Minneapolis. Back then, voters…
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Progress
We all got an hour of sleep this weekend, or at least theoretically. It was offered up, at least. I did sleep for that extra hour, so I took advantage. The obligatory cat update offers up this gem: they found their way on top of the drop ceiling in the basement. Not once, but…
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Foot-In-Mouth
I figure you all could probably check out the pictures to the right if you’re looking for your cat fix. In the meantime, I’ll talk about the incredible ability of politicians to improperly speak their mind. The incredible knack that all politicians have these days of saying stupid things got me to wondering: is…