If you give her enough rope...Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann gives her opponent a boost in donations

In case you missed Chris Mathews’ interview of guest Minnesota (Nice) Representative Michele Bachmann (Minnesota’s 6th District) on Hardball last Friday night, here it is. I hate to be the one to say it, but Congresswoman Bachmann has just set women back a decade with this interview. Evidently, the nice stuff was just window-dressing for the RNC, but the content of what she said perplexes me. Bachmann alleged that Senator Barack Obama and other members of Congress hold “un-American views” and she proposed a media investigation into "the views of the people in Congress [to] find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?" When are politicians going to stop the lies? You would think in this age of technology, with limitless information at our (dare I say Joe Plumbers) fingertips, politicians would stop blatantly lying about issues de jour.

Oh the Irony
One would think that after appearing on Tweety-Bird’s show and knocking it out of the park (or the exact opposite), Bachmann would have countless monies showered upon her, but the opposite is true, her opponent, Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg (someone I have never heard of but did receive a $25 pay-pal donation from the Bushido) raised 1.3 million dollars since Bachmann’s appearance on Hardball. Hmm, oh well, Congresswoman, you stay “nice” there in Minnesota.

Here is the link to Huffstutter’s article from the LA Times concerning the raining of donations for Bachmann’s opponent Mr. Tinklenberg. If you wish to donate to his campaign, you can do so by clicking here on this link.

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC & Feeling Minnesota Nice with Michele Bachmann!

Two of her fellow journalists were arrested and evidently this gray-lady of journalism was subsequently arrested as she checked on the status of her colleagues. For those of you college or law students taking Con-law thinking you have that self-evident First Amendment "right" to say or express yourself as an American, just remember, when in front of a line of po-pos with po-po sticks, your freedom of speech is quite arbitrary.



Feel the Love with Michele Bachmann's "Minnesota Nice"
But if you feel this is too one-sided of a look at the RNC, here's a video of Minnesota's Sixth District U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention-following Democrat Toby Keith's "Stars & Stripes". If anyone happens to know what pharmacutical she is on by all means leave me a comment, so I can get a script from Dr. Feelgood.

Imagine-Across the Universe, Reagan, Gorbachev, Rock and Roll and the fall of the Soviet Empire

Today is the anniversary of former Beatle, John Lennon’s death, ironically, a week after the anniversary of George’s death. In remembrance, I thought to add the trailer to the new movie, “Across the Universe”. I am not quite sure what’s the haps with this new movie: looks like a musical with Beatles tunes, and its’ probably one of those flicks you either love or hate, with no in between. That being said, I plan on checking it out this holiday season.

The Legacy
I was chatting with a red-rider friend of mine the other day and he made the remark, “Reagan won the Cold War between the US and the USSR”. To which, I must admit Reagan did play a part (as did the other presidents between Truman and Ronald Reagan) in stopping the spread of Communism. But there are other key players who led to the end of the Soviet Empire: Pope John Paul, Mikhail Gorbachev (probably the most influential leader with his granting of perestroika and glasnost) and of course, Rock and Roll. Indeed, the latter doesn’t seem to get the recognition as being a catalyst to help bring down the Iron Curtain, but when young kids in the Soviet bloc could tune their radios to the BBC and hear the latest Beatles, Credence, Stones, etc. a changing movement was happening, just as it was in the “free-world”. Which is something the “squares” just don’t get, change is bigger than one person, change takes sacrifice and an open-mind to change.

I was giving points to my sister Dani as I proofread her paper on interestingly enough, World Peace and one of the things I thought she needed to address was the universal characteristics of man-kind. As an example, I reminded her of the movie, The Long Way Around with Ewan McGregor, in which McGregor and his comrade “Charlie” ride their BMW motorbikes from England across Europe, through Asia, grab a plane to Alaska from Russia and then ride through Canada, and across the US arriving in NYC. And if there is anything that you should learn from this movie (other than the roads in Russia are rubbish and that America has the most dangerous roads in the world) is that the people across the globe are pretty much the same. We talked about the recent accord at the Annapolis Peace Talks (despite the past failures) to bring peace to the Middle-East between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And then she asked me the million-dollar question: what would it take to a lasting peace? My answer: for someone to give it a chance.

Michigan honors Bo and President Ford

In today's Rose Bowl, the flag will be at half-mast and the Wolverines will wear #48 (President Ford's retired number) and BO (in honor of recently passed Michigan coach Bo Schlembechler. (Photo compliments of parstimes.com)