Tag: Tim Pawlenty

Jun 07 2011

Glued to the Weather Channel While the World Burns

Following the weather is beginning to feel like revisiting the Biblical plagues. Tornadoes rip through Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma — even Massachusetts. A million acres burn in Texas wildfires. The Army Corps of Engineers floods 135,000 acres of farmland and three million acres of bayou country to save Memphis and New Orleans. Earlier in the past year, a 2,000-mile storm dumped near-record snow from Texas to Maine, a fifth of Pakistan flooded, fires made Moscow’s air nearly unbreathable, and drought devastated China’s wheat crop.  You’d think we’d suspect something’s grievously wrong.

But media coverage rarely connects the unfolding cataclysms with the global climate change that fuels them. We can’t guarantee that any specific disaster is caused by our warming atmosphere. The links are delayed and diffuse. But considered together, the escalating floods, droughts, tornadoes, and hurricanes fit all the predicted models. So do the extreme snowfalls and ice storms, as our heated atmosphere carries more water vapor.  So why deem them isolated acts of God — instead of urgent warnings to change our course?  

Feb 20 2010

CPAC generates some New Talking Points — Will Dems respond in kind?

You got to give the Conversatives credit.

They know how to make the most of an Opportunity. They know how to rally their members.

AND Conservatives know how to boil down their Ideas into simple Talking Points, that they can easily repeat, and easily pawn off on their Independent friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

Short, sweet, and to the point.  Agree, or Disagree, one thing about Conservatives — you always know where they stand. And you usually know Why, too.

As this year’s Conservative Rally CPAC, winds to a close, some New Talking Points have emerged.

Question is, Will Dems sit idlely by, saying “Oh that’s nice. Good for them,” or will Dems take note, and respond forcefully, factually, and with good humor, to the “War for Hearts and Minds” that is about to take place?

Oct 24 2009

Pawlenty says Minnesota will Opt Out of Public Option if he has his way

     Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Today on ABC’s Top Line, co-host David Chalian asked Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) if he would “opt-out” of the public option for his state if the measure passed. Pawlenty dodged: “Well, I don’t know if we would opt out but I personally would like to opt out because I don’t like government run health care.” But Chalian persisted, and ultimately, Pawlenty said that he would oppose the public option for Minnesota:


CHALIAN: But you would lead a charge in your state to opt out if that was an option available?

PAWLENTY: I think so because I don’t like government run health care.

ThinkProgress.org

     Sorry Minnesota. Looks like your Asshat Governor wants you to buy for profit insurance and like it, if you can afford it.

     More, with analysis and my take on the Faux Reform that is the Opt Out Cop Out below the fold.

Nov 13 2008

Spat upon by Hippies

You probably think I mean the myth that real soldiers got “spat upon by hippies” don’t you?  Well, I was a semi-real soldier (or would that be a real, semi-soldier, since I was in the USAF) who was stationed in Northern California in the 70’s, and spent much time in the great hippie bastion of San Francisco where I was treated….well, I really wasn’t treated any particular way, generally I was either ignored or accepted after some conversation.  Like “Do you like the new Quicksilver Messenger Service album or something like that.  Hell I even stood in line on Thanksgiving ’76 around winterland with the longhairs waiting to get into the Last Waltz and we all shared what we had….

No, the guy that got spat on wasn’t a soldier for his country, he was a Soldier for Reagan.  Now he is governor Tim Pawlenty, but back in the day he “passed out brochures for him [Reagan], on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota and got spat on by hippies”