Republicans uniformly opposed, calling it a gift to teachers.  (These same people never seemed to object to Trillions to two wars or corrupt governments we shore up.)  Obviously, education is not a priority for those folks.  Or, in the words of George W. Bush, “Is our children learning?”  Enough said.

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     ALEX RODRIGUEZ has been the recipient of so much undeserved attention during his quest for 600 career home runs that it makes one nauseous.  I have nothing against him because he’s an egomaniac, have great reservations about him because of his well-documented romances during his marriage, but most of all don’t understand how fans (well, I understand Yankee fans because winning to them transcends good taste) can overlook his admission that he used illegal substances on the way to this home run mark.

     On the other hand, Jim Thome, now with the Twins, has been an exemplary ballplayer, and human being, while hitting 578 home runs in a career marked with class and social conscience.  Yet Thome, in a medium city market, doesn’t get the press he deserves.  And he was robbed of yet another home run in Chicago by umpires who obviously couldn’t read the videotape.

      Commenting on the proposal, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated, “Thank heavens!  They will have to make great strides to learn English as it should be spoken, but it’s long overdue.”  Elsewhere,there was a movement to force New Englanders to give up their speech patterns which distort such words as “cah” and “Hahvad” instead of car and Harvard,  while another movement is afoot to force Southerners to abandon their drawl, “Yu’all undahstan?”  Meanwhile, on the West Coast, dozens of Valley Girls threatened suicide.

     Tim Pawlenty…once again on the cutting edge… of stupidity. 

     Blakely just finished a 6-month suspension for unethical conduct, removed from the bench for taking a $63,000 discount from the lawyers handling his matrimonial case while steering substantial business to that same firm.  A judicial review board felt he should be removed from the bench.  The Minnesota Supreme Court, over a dissent which felt his discipline should have been greater, suspended him from the bench for six months, from October to March of 2010.

     Doesn’t a jurist who is proclaiming “respect for the rule of law and rejection of political influence” and who asks for “trust and confidence” in his duties on the bench owe the voters of his district the truth and a candid explanation?  Anything less is deceptive, misleading, and unworthy of the bench!

     These minimum wage earners get only $5.25 an hour from employers in the typical small restaurant, and Emmer wants that reduced by the amount of their tips.  Less than minimum wage is???? how much?  This is the same man who won’t disclose his income, the same man who took $$$thousands of per diem money from the Legislature in addition to his salary, the same man who supports Pawlenty in cutting health care, etc., etc.  GIMME A BREAK!

     Emmer cited a visit to a restaurant in St. Paul where the owner claimed some of his wait and bartender staff groos over $100,000.  I.R.S.  - are you listening?  And thus this one restaurant must be making a fortune, even in this staggering economy. Hello, again, I.R.S.   Of course, they must all be receiving health care as well, right, Tom?  This man is living in a fantasy world!

     It’s also nice to know that he bases his opinion on one visit to one restaurant.  Sort of tells you what sort of governor Emmer might be.  He’d make Jesse Ventura look like a Rhodes Scholar, and Tim Pawlenty as the nation’s leading economist.  And how large is the deficit, by the way, Tom?  A man who picks on the little people, those at the bottom of the economic ladder, and who makes a statement like his, is a moron!

      The remark attributed to Marie Antoinette is that when told the people were starving and had no bread, she replied, “Let them eat cake.”  Tom Emmer:  The 21st Century Marie Antoinette!

We are still fighting two wars (let’s not get into the lack of wisdom for Iraq), one of which has been going on for nine years, our military — the finest, bravest and generally youngest — are fighting and dying, and as I write this somewhere in this nation two soldiers are knocking on a front door to tell parents that their child will never come home.  Yet Emmer had the temerity to state, a few months back, “You can’t be a Democrat and love freedom.”  Discounting tens of thousands who have fought and died for this country, been wounded, seek political office to make things better for all Americans, who have read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and know what it stands for.

Buzz!  A bell just went off!  Disqualification for crassness and stupidity.

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FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE…In a time when too much information is withheld by our political candidates, you are left to wonder why Matt Entenza and Tim Emmer (and possibly Tom Horner) chose not to make financial disclosure of last year’s tax returns.  The people are entitled to know the who, what, where, and why of the finances of the people who seek to lead them.  What, if any, influences affect their personal income.  If Mark Dayton can come forward, and Margaret Kelliher willing to join, it should be a matter of course.  Or, in the negative, a personal failing.

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I got a letter from Newt Gingrich (where was he possibly misled into thinking there is something I agree with him about) in which he’s “been told that you are an American who agrees with me that God should not be driven from the public square.”  Actually, there’s some truth there…God should not be driven because God should not be there in the first place!

Newt (preaches God but tells his cancer stricken former wife that he’s leaving her for another woman) claims the ACLU and “left-wing judges have been outlawing God in our culture.”  Wrong again, oh pious and holy one!  No one outlaws one’s God — just recognize the separation of church and state in the Constitution that you right-wingers are forever quoting.  In this massive 7-page epistle, Newt digs down to spew all the prejudices that have driven a wedge into the political fabric of this nation, and ends up requesting $35 for his DVD.

Newt, don’t hold your breath!

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APOLOGIES…are meaningless unless there is a shred of sincerity to accompany them.  Over the past several years we have endured dozens of insincere apologies from people who have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, or who have embarasses their associates, familes, businesses, etc.  Thus, the CEO of BP expressed regrets for the worst environmental disaster on record, Rep. Joe Baron and countless other legislators for their intemperate remarks about the President or opponents, Gen. MyCrystal as well, and on and on.  Apologies without any remorse, offered in a monotone demanded by ones peers or superiors (or in BP’s case, “to the little people), are no more than an insult to the intelligence, meaningless and offensive.  They don’t make everything go away;  it’s not all better now that it’s off your chest.

But then again, there are the Rush Limbagh’s of the world who are incapable of even that.                  

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T-PAW AND FORESIGHT…Last evening, on a light rail train headed for Target Field and jammed so tight with riders that you had to take turns inhaling and exhaling, I though back to conversations I had on Access with then-House Legislative Leader Pawlenty, and his steadfast opposition to the planned light rail.  It was just a boondoogle he thought, a way to waste hundreds of millions of dollars.  Of course, the proof is in the commuter pudding — light rail has been tremendously successful, profitable, a solution to chaos on the roads, and new corridors are on the horizon.  This didn’t stop Tim from cutting the ribbon with his million-dollar (but not raise taxes) smile, and taking the first ride.  Did he pay the fare?  Call Bachmann!  Like some many of T-Paw’s money-saving solutions, he could not have been more wrong.  Again and again!

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THE KAGAN HEARINGS…The right-wing will go out of their way to attempt a disqualification.  In her first day, Kagan said she would take a measured approach to reviewing cases.  Wouldn’t it have been great to hear Sen. Sessions of Alabama reply, “Yes, but that’s what Roberts and Alito said, and they both lied through their teeth”?

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THE POPE… is enraged by the conduct of authorities in Belgium who raided church files, detained bishops and opened a crypt in their sexual abuse investigation.  The Pope described the conduct as “deplorable.”  Too bad he didn’t use such strong language when speaking of the priests who preyed on young boys for sexual gratification.

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PROTESTS AND ANARCHY…Even Canada recognizes the right of free speech, but when the G-20 world leaders met there in June, met by the usual protestors, the opposition turned violent (as it inevitably seems to do these days) and ended up with police cars being burned, store windows smashed and generalized bedlam.  That is not protest — that is anarchy, and has no place on a civilized society;  it’s certainly to way to may your point as a protestor because it’s counter-productive and only results in those who might be sympathetic to your cause against your methods.

     Get over it, right wing conservatives…he’s black, he’s President, he’s smarter than you are, and his vocabulary, rather than “Just say No!” is “Yes, we can.”  And despite your bigotry and negativity, he’s actually trying.

     As the Louisiana and southern coastlines endure the B/P disaster, where are those McCain, Palin, Steele, and right wing voices who only a week ago were in the chorus of “Drill, Baby, Drill?”

     For a movement that offers as its mantra “Less Government Intervention” in our lives, where are the voices opposing the new Oklahoma law requiring vaginal exams for women seeking abortions?

     Those “fiscally responsible” conservatives who opposed the stimulus and the TARP bailout — why have they been so quiet as 80% has been repaid already, with interest, and a profit of $22 billion for the government?

     Is there a more pathetic figure than John McCain, who has taken what little credibility he had left, opposed everything he supported, supports everything he opposes, and denies positions which he took in years past, all well recorded, i.e., immigration reform?

     When Phil Gramm and the GOP led the charge to repeal Glass-Steagall and other financial regulatory reforms, how much in campaign contributions did they receive from the industry and its lobbyists?  Multi-millions, and how silent they have been since the bottom fell out because of little or no oversight, which ruptured our financial system and almost caused another Great Depression.  Yeah, tell how how government has no duty to regulate…