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The Fox News Bill O’Reilly is not content with merely reshaping the news, he now reshapes religious beliefs. O’Reilly’s new book, “Killing Jesus”, suggests that the point of Jesus was not saving sinners but rather saving us from taxation:
The basic argument of the book is that Jesus died because he interfered with the taxation-heavy Roman revenue stream. The reason the Jews eagerly anticipated the Messiah, writes O’Reilly, is, “When that moment arrives, Rome will be defeated and their lives will be free of taxation and want.”
Candida Moss is a professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. She continues in describing that in Jesus’s time, we had the perfect conservative government:
Even if Jesus’s actions had been all about taxes, he died protesting a skeletal taxation system that privileged the rich. Wealthy citizens were exempt from most taxes altogether, non-citizens paid a flat-rate poll tax regardless of income, the property tax was 1 percent, and the money from taxes was used to build roads and fund the military. It’s not like the Romans did anything obscene like tend to the poor.
So O’Reilly is condemning what is by modern conservative standards, a perfect taxation model. Wait, wait, there is more.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s show on CNN. Bachmann is known for her utter disregard for the truth and for looking bat**** crazy. Blitzer is one of the poster boys for what is wrong with modern journalism. He never asks the tough question, never fact checks and let’s Republicans spew forth whatever talking point they were there to push regardless of how obviously untrue it is.
Bachmann came with her Obamacare talking points. But Blitzer pretended he was an actual journalist who knew true from false and wasn’t going to accept her bull**** at face value.
What’s up, Wolfie? What changed? Did the criticism of Chuck Todd for his shameless admission that he’s worthless as a journalist get to you?
by Bill Prendergast on September 27, 2013 · 1 comment
I don’t believe there is such a thing as “essential human dignity,” because I have attended “open mic” nights at cafes and heard people singing their own original folk songs. But if you require further evidence of our degraded human condition, you will find it in “Bachmannistan: Behind the Lines” by Peter Waldron and John Gilmore.
The authors themselves don’t seem to understand how much they’re confessing about Republican politics, American conservatives, and the Christian Right. The authors don’t even seem to understand how much they’re confessing about *themselves.*
The chief source for events is co-author Peter Waldron, who directed evangelical outreach during Bachmann’s presidential campaign. Other Bachmann insiders also provided material (longtime Bachmann political advisor Andy Parrish seems to have contributed recollections appearing in early chapters.)
So when the authors recount ‘the scene where Michele and Marcus Bachmann are at home one night in their Stillwater, Minnesota bedroom’ — the scene in which Marcus Bachmann lays in bed looking on as Michele Bachmann stares at herself in a full length mirror, saying: “I am the President of the United States” — I feel fairly sure that that actually happened. (See the original illustration I have created to represent this scene, above.) I feel fairly sure that either Michele or Marcus confided ‘the claim she made to the mirror’ to one of their political allies, in the hope that this otherwise private moment would somehow impress the listener. Which is funny, given the fact that so many of us will find the image either entirely ridiculous or somewhat disturbing. …READ MORE
by Eric Ferguson on September 27, 2013 · 1 comment
Talking Points Memo dug up a memo Bill Kristol wrote 20 years laying out how and, what I found more interesting, why, Republicans should oppose Bill Clinton’s health care reform completely, no compromises, no making it better, offering no reforms except as talking points. This isn’t just an historical document for the health care fight of 1993-94, nor is it significant merely because Republicans used the same no-compromise strategy to try to defeat Obamacare. It’s significant for how it lays out why Republicans thought, and still think, the stakes are nothing less than the survival of conservatism.
Two things jump out: little mention of people with no access to the healthcare system (let unemployed people deduct the cost of health insurance without a word of how they pay for it with no income, and some regulatory fix for people with pre-existing conditions), and an assumption liberals don’t care about health care, but just want to use it to expand big government and make the middle class dependent.
Any Republican urge to negotiate a “least bad” compromise with the Democrats, and thereby gain momentary public credit for helping the president “do something” about health care, should also be resisted. Passage of the Clinton health care plan, in any form, would guarantee and likely make permanent an unprecedented federal intrusion into and disruption of the American economy–and the establishment of the largest federal entitlement program since Social Security. Its success would signal a rebirth of centralized welfare-state policy at the very moment we have begun rolling back that idea in other areas.
… …READ MORE
Sen. Al Franken (DFL-MN) took to the floor of the US Senate to speak about repealing or defunding Obamacare. The House passed a continuing resolution (to keep the lights on at the federal government) that defunded it. The Senate passed their continuing resolution without the defunding language.
Obviously as a Democrat, he’s a supporter. But he makes a bunch of good points about what Obamacare will do for Minnesotans.
And, oh yeah, unlike virtually ALL of the Republican talking points on Obamacare, his statements are true.
The Minnesota Senate has settled a lawsuit with Michael Brodkorb for $30,000, far less than the former GOP spokesman was seeking…
“We are pleased to have successfully resolved this matter in the best interests of taxpayers and the institution of the Minnesota Senate,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. “This agreement permanently dismisses Mr. Brodkorb’s claims in their entirety while providing the limited severance pay that was offered to him before he commenced litigation against the Senate.”
Brodkorb was fired late in 2011 after then Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch admitted the two were having an affair. Both were married to other people at the time. Koch resigned her leadership position and then the interim head of the GOP caucus ordered Brodkorb be fired.
A longtime political operative, Brodkorb filed a wrongful termination lawsuit seeking $500,000. He argued that he had been treated differently than female staffers caught in similar romantic relationships with elected officials. Brodkorb threatened to bring those other relationships to light to prove his case, which had the potential to creating political and personal problems for current and former legislators.
The Senate’s DFL leadership was taking well-deserved criticism for not getting this dealt with.
I wish Brodkorb well, less for his own sake than that of his family. Koch, too, though I never bought for a second that she was some kind of victim in all of this.
Years ago, blogging about this topic, I made a practice of appending my posts with some hot ‘n steamy 70s soul. Just can’t resist bringing it around full circle.
In a move that will send right wing nut jobs into a denial frenzy, Forbes magazine released a list of the top business states entitled Best States for Business and Careers. This report ranks Minnesota as the 8th best place to work and do business. This defies their dogma that Gov. Mark Dayton is ruining our fine state.
The RWNJs continually wet their pants over the cost of doing business in MN. They shriek about how the high taxes are killing business. While Forbes ranks MN as 34th in terms of cost, our Economic Climate Rank of 9th defies their fear-mongering that fair taxation is going to stop the magical job creators from creating jobs.
Furthermore, Forbes results also defies their pearl clutching that raising taxes on the richest 2% will stifle growth. Forbes lists MN as 9th in growth prospects.
Minnesota’s overall rank jumped 12 spots on the strength of an improved economic outlook. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area is home to 62% of the state’s population. It also serves as the state’s economic hub, with companies such as Target, U.S. Bancorp, General Mills, 3M and Medtronic headquartered there. Minnesota has the second highest percentage of adults with a high school degree at 92.5%. With its good schools, low poverty rate and healthy populous, the state also scores well on quality of life measurements.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on right wing radio and couldn’t help spreading her Muslim Brotherhood infiltration conspiracy theory a little bit further.
She initially accused the Obama Administration of letting the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrate our federal government. She next accused Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin of having close ties the Brotherhood. When asked for proof by Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN), she accused him of having close ties with the Brotherhood instead of providing any proof.
Michele Bachmann last week told conservative radio host Lars Larson that “the Clintons have very close ties to people who have very close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.” But then again, she sees the Muslim Brotherhood under her bed at night.
The Congresswoman said, “We’re not talking about the Lutheran Brotherhood here, we’re talking about the Muslim Brotherhood.” Bachmann was alleging once again that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is a super secret Muslim Brotherhood agent.
Because anyone that’s a Muslim must have ties to the Brotherhood. Just like all Christians have ties to murderers like Dr. Tiller’s killer.
Republican State Senator Sean Nienow has long been an outspoken opponent of the Affordable Care Act and its Minnesota health insurance exchange incarnation, MNSure. Nienow sits on MNSure’s Legislative Oversight Committee, and has been talking loudly about all the problems he finds with MNSure’s pending start-up next month.
Yesterday, Nienow popped off in response to a press release from Democratic State Representative Joe Atkins in which Atkins touted MNSure’s lowest in the nation rates:
Given the corporate-dream-come-true contents of the proposed legislation, the knee-jerk reaction could be that nothing would be a good thing. Well, maybe. But we’re unlikely to get anything much better for at least a few more election cycles, and farmers themselves would appreciate some certainty. (I’m talking about the elements other than the House’s vicious proposal for SNAP cuts, which of course can’t be allowed to happen in a purportedly rational, civilized society.)
House leaders said they were working with their Senate counterparts toward a new five-year farm bill, just days after the House pushed through a bill that would slash billions of dollars from the food stamp program.
But with only a few days left before the farm bill expires at the end of the fiscal year, and with a fight over the debt ceiling looming, few lawmakers see any chance of getting a new farm bill done. Last year, Congress voted to extend the current farm bill, which was passed in 2008. Although the bill expires Monday, most farm programs will continue until the end of the year because such programs extend through the crop year.
Speaking of farmers:
Goaded on by small-is-good gospel, plenty of people have adopted a Manichean view of modern US farming: large, soulless corporate enterprises on one side, human-scale, artisanal operations on the other…Reality is a lot more complicated. While there are plenty of mega-corporations in the food industry, they rarely do the actual farming themselves.
A USDA study released in August found that 96.4 percent of US crop farms are “family farms,” or “ones in which the principal operator, and people related to the principal operator by blood or marriage, own more than half.” That number doesn’t leave a lot of room for corporate farmers, does it?
…So what’s going on here—why is the perception of “corporate farming” so widespread when actually almost all of the country’s food is being grown or raised by family-owned operations?
It might have something to do with the fact that corporate agribusiness is indeed very real—it’s just that it has carved out the most profitable parts of food production for itself, while leaving the dirty, uncertain work of farming for others.
The reality is that farming itself is generally a terrible business. There’s much more—and much easier—money to be made by selling farmers the raw materials of their trade—like seeds, fertilizer, or livestock feed. And there’s also plenty of money in buying farmers’ output cheap (say, corn or hogs) and selling it dear (as, say, pork chops or high-fructose corn syrup). (Mother Jones)
The State House has passed a bill that would raise the state minimum wage to $9.50/hour and index it to inflation so $9.50 in today's dollars is worth an equivalent amount in next year's. The State Senate is dragging its feet, insisting on legislator pay raises *first*. Tell them to get off the sidelines, stop dragging their feet, and help raise up the working poor!
The Fox News Bill O’Reilly is not content with merely reshaping the news, he now reshapes religious beliefs. O’Reilly’s new book, “Killing Jesus”, suggests that the point of Jesus was not saving sinners but rather saving us from taxation:
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s show on CNN. Bachmann is known for her utter disregard for the truth and for looking bat**** crazy. Blitzer is one of the poster boys for what is wrong with modern journalism. He never asks the tough question, never fact checks and let’s Republicans spew forth whatever talking point they were there to push regardless of how obviously untrue it is.
Sen. Al Franken (DFL-MN) took to the floor of the US Senate to speak about repealing or defunding Obamacare. The House passed a continuing resolution (to keep the lights on at the federal government) that defunded it. The Senate passed their continuing resolution without the defunding language.
Seriously, you guys, seriously, hopefully 
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on right wing radio and couldn’t help spreading her Muslim Brotherhood infiltration conspiracy theory a little bit further.
Given the corporate-dream-come-true contents of the proposed legislation, the knee-jerk reaction could be that 
