Minnesota Makes News

Something to bounce the endless Iraq suicide-bomber stories and the Bush White House lies off the front page, eh?

In fact, our distinguished President George “WMD” Bush is about to step before the cameras and express his deep concern and heartfelt sympathies.

....And announce he’s pulling the plug on his Iraq War madness and bringing the troops home!

In an historic moment, Bush will tell the nation he will instead propose pumping the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars he’s been flushing down the Iraq War toilet into a bold new program to rebuild America’s infrastructure before it’s too late!

“America’s crumbling roads, bridges, subways and water treatment plants,” he will say to a stunned nation, “are a far greater threat to our beloved nation than Iraq ever was or ever will be. We must act before it’s too late and that means acting immediately.”

“And I’m also announcing," Bush will say, "that I’ve asked for and received the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Lying will not be tolerated any longer in my administration!"

Yeah, sure, dream on.

Instead, get ready for a political battle over who can convince the America people they care more about our nation’s infrastructure: President Katrina or the Democrats?

***Updated 11:30 a.m. ***

I was wrong.

President Bush only used the opening 20 percent, or 133 words of his "eloquent" 645-word Rose Garden speech to acknowledge the Minnesota Tragedy.  Told the TV cameras and the handful of reporters that he had phoned the governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis this morning, sent his prayers and expressed the view the feds should help the state rebuild "as quickly as possible."

Then he moved on to what he really wanted to use the national media spotlight for!

The remaining 80 percent of President Bush's remarks were devoted to using the bright lights of the Minnesota Tragedy to politically attack the Democrats for not passing his spending bills fast enough, just the way he wants 'em.

"If Congress doesn't pass the spending bills by the end of the fiscal year," said Bush, leaving Minnesota behind, "Cabinet Secretaries report that their departments may be unable to move forward with urgent priorities for our country...

"The plan I put forward would keep your taxes low and balance the budget within five years, and that is the right path for our country," said our Presidential Disgrace.

And everybody thinks this guy knows "the right path for our country," right?

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and check out the straight and honest remarks of Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy on Politico.

******************************************

[continued]

As you know, “Freyne Land” has always had a media link [column right] to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. And this morning the Minnesota memories are flooding back. Spent almost four years post-college on the banks of the Mississippi in St. Paul and then in Minneapolis [1971-74]. And yes, I was riding a bicycle back then, too. Great bike town. Things are pretty flat, and Minneapolis really is a “City of Lakes.”

A different time. Attended many a University of Minnesota “Golden Gopher” hockey game in the old Williams Arena. The joint was usually just about half-full.

In our modern American media “culture,” we never get any news out of Minnesota unless it’s pro sports or bad news like this Interstate bridge falling into the Mighty Mississippi.

P.S. Interesting letter-to-the-editor on the Star-Tribune site yesterday. About taxpayers funding new sports stadiums for billionaires, rather than...bridges.

Guess today's groundbreaking ceremony has been canceled, eh?

The groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Twins stadium should also include a memorial service for the local taxpayers...

It sure looks like [owner] Carl Pohlad and the Twins could have paid for the entire stadium project and had enough leftover to finance a few lakeside estates, an overpriced jewelry store and still made a handsome profit on their investment. In a period of crucial funding shortfalls for roads, bridges, libraries and crumbling public infrastructure, local government officials decided building a stadium for a billionaire was more important.

On Aug. 2, please indulge in a moment of silence for the local taxpayers. Hennepin County officials buried them long ago.

JAMES HAFNER, COON RAPIDS

Comments

[jpc]

Peter, i find it a little offensive that you would turn such a tragedy into a political jab at the President. Noting the tragedy and sending condolences would have been sufficent. As someone who has liven in MN I would have expected a little more class.

[sandy ward]

This was a preventable act of terrorism...the bridge had structual damage. I hope the people of MN make heads roll. I don't feel safe crossing some of our bridges.

JCP, the conscending republican, you should have been on that bridge, hahaha.

[bigbadbrad]

I don't have a problem with that. The newly long-range (replace equipment, train new soldiers to restaff the depleated ranks of Enlisted, NCOS, Commission officers, Long-term care for wounded, long-term disability, etc, etc, etc) estimated cost of this war has been doubled to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS (that's TRILLION, with a capital T, JPC). Peter is spot on, Sir. While we're chasing our tail in Iraq, critical infustructure around this country is being neglected or going unreplaced.
However, The twins and Viks need new statia. Minn. is not Boston or NYC. These thing aren't going to get done w/out public funds. In turn, These Stada pump millions of much need dollars back into the local economies. Dollars that create jobs, which create incomes, which are taxable. Said tax revenues can be used in part for infustructure repair among other things. That's over and above the local civic pride and sense of belonging that many citizens of a specific locale feel for their local team(s). You're "offsides" in that regard, Peter.

[montpelier28]

Bravo Pat - that article was wonderful. Very proud of him. He said SIGNING STATEMENT, a fact of the idiot's administration that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. He makes his own laws.

[vermonter]

Sandy Ward's style of political debate is to openly wish that her adversaries would be killed. Nice. She's more of a reactionary fascist than the people she calls those names to.

"JCP, the conscending republican, you should have been on that bridge, hahaha."

[mataliandy]

Peter, i find it a little offensive that you would turn such a tragedy into a political jab at the President.

If the President hadn't tried to imply that the tragic after-effect of a Republican Governor's tax veto was the Democrats' fault, Peter wouldn't have anything to jab at.

Unfortunately, our President, master of "pin the blame on the Democrats," couldn't resist doing a little verbal CYA tap-dance on the watery graves of the dead. Through his callousness, the President invited any jabs he may get.

[jpc]

It just wasn't the place, could have taken the jab in a seperate thread and made the same point. Besides, blaming Bush for every problem is just getting old. The infrastructure was built half a century ago, and this bridge had been identified as a problem long before GW became president. Every President in the last 25 years has been neglecting the roads and Bridges, and you know why, because Congress, that's right the people who actually set the budget, don't provide the funds for proper maintenance.

And come on BBB, do you really think that the 1 Trillion spent on the war would have gone to fix roads and bridges, that Congress would have said well since we aren't fighting any wars at the time lets put a bunch of money into our crumbling infrastructure. No they wouldn't have authorized that money at all.

I don't even like Bush, as far as I can tell he out of touch with the people and traditional Republicans. He has hurt the party almost beyond repair, and doesn't represent the traditional Republican values. That being said I feel like I am constantly defending the man because every friggin person wants to pin everything wrong on the world on our President. A whole lot of this has been neglected for a long time not just the last 7 years. I'm not saying Bush is doing a good job, far from it, but he is not the cause of every single one of the world's problems. The real problem I have with this is if you keep blaming Bush for everything the real culprits walk away scot free, get re-elected and continue screwing things up down the road. Place blame where it lies.

[bigbadbrad]

Jpc, what is wrong with you? I never all that money would have been spent on infustructure. That monies gone now, where going to have to go deeper into dept and/or raise taxes (someother admin will have to fall on that grenade) in the future to pay for this folly. If we don't flush that money away, we could have spent it on a myriad of problems facing this country. Fix infustructure, pay down the national dept, national health care, not have to borrow that huge waste of money, you name it. I'll place blame for a complete and utter waste of that money exactly where it lies. This war of oppurtunity is the noe-cons baby, warts and all.
"traditional republican values"? your absolutely right, the so called neo-cons have lost complete touch with "traditional republican values" like small government, respect for the environment and the like.

[bigbadbrad]

Jpc, what is wrong with you? I never said all that money would or should have been spent on infustructure. That Capital doesn't exist anymore. We're going to have to go deeper into dept and/or raise taxes (someother admin will have to fall on that grenade) in the future to pay for this expensive folly in Iraq. If we don't flush that money away, we could have spent it on a myriad of problems/programs facing this country. Fix infustructure, pay down the national dept, national health care, not have to borrow that huge waste of money, whatever, you name it. I'll place blame for this complete and utter waste of blood and treasure exactly where it lies. This war of aggression and oppurtunity is the noe-cons baby, warts and all.
"traditional republican values"? your absolutely right, the so called neo-cons have lost complete touch with "traditional republican values" like small government, respect for the environment and the like.

[jpc]

"If we don't flush that money away, we could have spent it on a myriad of problems/programs facing this country"

Should have, could have, never would have......

[bigbadbrad]

Sweet Marie! Yes, yes, who knows! Blah, blah, blah.

[manoman]

This was a new low for Bush.

I don't recall a Bushcapade when the Big Dig tunnel roof fell in.

Too many democrats there I guess.

[manoman]

...cripes, the guy can't even go to one funeral.

[bigbadbrad]

We'll never know will we, like I said (and You didn't listen, JPC, that TRILLION DOLLARS is gone, gone, gone. It's not coming back. Kiss it good bye, OK JPC. This not a point that it is open for debate or interpretation, so take your "shoulda, coulda, never woulda's" and throw them out the window. I don't care what it coulda got spent on, it has to be raised NOW. It Don't you get it?!

[jpc]

Brad, I wonder about you, I listened ! I never said that trillion dollars wasn't gone. You are putting words in my mouth. I was simply refering to a comment you made, that you seem to deny making now even though it is right there in black and white. Seems to be a habit with you. The part you don't get, is the money spent on the Iraq "folly" was never there to start with, that money would have had to been raised regardless, which Congress never would have authorized. Yes now that means even more debt to incur on top of the money already spent in Iraq, that is assumining the government bothers to go ahead and fix the infrastructure, something every admin for the last 2 decades has failed to do. But hey, thank all the dems in Congress that keep writing the checks.

[bigbadbrad]

You know, you are so full of stuff and nonsense. the neo-cons are the biggest, false fiscal conservatives there are. For all their bluster about tax and spend liberals, nobody runs up huge deficits like Neo-cons, don't give me that baloney.
Don't take what I say out of context, don't parapharse what I say, don't lie about what I say. The part you don't get, sir, is that money is money that has to be raised regardless and now instead of meeting the vital needs of this country, it will be used to pay for this dog gone war. Don't commit the folly, then you don't have to fund it. Pretty simple and straightforward. When YOU (You, JPC and only you) pony up a TRILLION dolloars to get us back tozero, then I'll listen to what you have to say. Until then, please just let it go!

This is what I said Verbatum:

"The newly long-range (replace equipment, train new soldiers to restaff the depleated ranks of Enlisted, NCOS, Commission officers, Long-term care for wounded, long-term disability, etc, etc, etc) estimated cost of this war has been doubled to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS (that's TRILLION, with a capital T, JPC). Peter is spot on, Sir. While we're chasing our tail in Iraq, critical infustructure around this country is being neglected or going unreplaced."

There's nothing there "in black and white" that says every mother-loving dime of that trillion dollars of OUR GNP would or should be spent on infustructure. Not one word. That money comes off the top or it becomes even more crippling national dept, before any other services are rendered or any infustructure repaired or replaced, insuring that more and more of our annual budget goes to service the interest on that dept. Does anyone here rememvber the HUGE conomic downturn that happened after VIETNAM when we had to rebuild our armed services after that national policy adventure? Does anyone else have a sense of Deja VU about what's going on?

JPC, let it lie. If you don't like what Peter har to say in HIS BLOG, it is real simple, just don't read the damn thing. If the truth hurts that much, just ignore it, just like the bush admin.

[jpc]

You are unreal, bbb. Talk about simply ignoring the facts.

Here is your quote :
"If we don't flush that money away, we could have spent it on a myriad of problems/programs facing this country"

I simply said that yes we could have, but congress would not have, nor would the administration for that matter.

And quite frankly, you are the one that started this line of dialogue. I orginally voiced my opinion that Peter was wrong to take a political jab in light of the tragedy that occured. That's my opinion and if Peter doesn't like it I suppose he would tell me so. Just because I have a dissenting opinion on a topic, means I should comment on it? WOW...

[bigbadbrad]

Well, we'll never no how we could have spent that money now that it has been pissed away, will we?

Simple economics lesson: say I've got $2. I take one and wipe my a## with it, and flush it down the toilet. How many dollars do I have left? $1, right? Now, I've got $2 in expenses, Lil' JPC, what do I do? Looks like I'm going to have to borrow a dollar from My chinese and Saudi "friends" at 5% to pay my depts. Guess I can't fix the roof again this year, darn it! Oh well, everything will be just fine. I wonder about you ability to grasp even the most basic premise.

Its Peter's blog to make any political statement he wants. Tragedy? We all feel bad about the bridge. Whats the bigger tragedy? Iraq and the complete waste of money that it intails? The overall state of this counties crumbling infustructure? Are we supposed to spare your's and George's feelings because he is an incompetant, dishonest boob? I think not.

[jpc]

Brad, you keep bring up issues I am not even talking about, or debating. Example, I never said the money spent in Iraq wasn't gone, and that it puts us further in debt. I never argued that we wouldn't have to borrow or come up with more funds to fix the infrastructure. I never said the war wasn't a tragedy and I never compared which is a bigger tragedy. I made two simple points, both of which I am pretty sure you missed in your rush to attack me and bash the president.

[bigbadbrad]

I give up. It is like trying to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man. Where's that trillion, anyway?