And outsiders run amok in almost every campaign

The other day I wrote about Credo Mobile, "the only phone company with a progressive agenda", "A progressive SuperPac?"  I questioned whether they would request donations or use profits to make contributions.  It matters not, they are trying to influence elections where they have no vote, just like those other bad guys.

They have added Michele Bachmann to their target list, "Dem super-PAC adds Bachmann to target list" Cameron Joseph, The Hill, 2012-08-23.  I don't care for Michele Bachmann for a laundry list of reasons.  But whether she stays in office or not is for the voters in her district to decide, not people who have no right to vote for or against her.  Think of my objection as an extension of the prohibition against foreigners contributing to U.S. campaigns.  See "Illegal political contributions from multi-national corporations?"

Following Michele Bachmann's reasoning about ancestry leads us to...

Michele Bachmann claims that an aide of Hilary Clinton, Huma Abedin, may have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.  I'll let you try to follow this path with

"McCain defends Clinton aide against allegations", Associated Press, Donna Cassata, 2012-07-18  and other sites
"Michele Bachmann Lies About Her Own Family History To Sound More Iowan", Chris Rodda, Dispatches from the Creation Wars

I guarantee if you are not a lawyer or a historian, your mind will be boggled by all the twists and turns.

However, using her own reasoning, how can we be sure she didn't support the German Occupation of Norway?  After all, Quisling was a Norwegian.   And when you go back seven generations in a country the size of Norway, just about everybody is a cousin at that many levels.

Her last name is Bachmann, a German name.  How do we know her husband is not a cousin at some level to officials of the Nazi Party?  For example, Christian Bachmann, a major in the Waffen SS, or Erich Bachmann, a lieutenant in the Waffen SS.

Many have accused Bachmann about being a neo-Nazi.  That is a bit of a stretch, and even if true, I doubt that her current beliefs come from her ancestry or family relations.  She was probably shaped by the current version of the Republican Party as much as she is trying to shape the Party.

Oh, wait a minute!  George Seldes in the "The Great Quotations" gave a couple of quotes from Adolph Hitler about business.  Since those quotes seem to parallel Michele Bachmann's thinking, she must be a Nazi.  But I can't find my copy of "The Great Quotations".  Besides, I saw some indications on the Web that Seldes wasn't always accurate in his quotations.

The moral: it is bad thinking to put too much into a single quote and it is bad thinking to write too much about a simple idea.

An interesting truth-telling blog or two or three

This morning's Star Tribune had an article on Karl Bremer, who writes the blog rippleinstillwater . He digs into government records better than some politicians and lays out the facts. One current entry is on the proposed Stillwater bridge and its actual costs. Another is that he and two others have written a book on Michele Bachmann that is selling better than Bachman's own book on herself, at least in Stillwater.

Bremer has a sidebar of "leftyblogs" that gives a list of current blog entries from a long list of "progressive" blogs. I wondered about adding this blog to the list, but I decided I didn't meet their condition of entries mostly on state politics. As I said about my Reader Weekly "Party of One" column, I write what I damn well please.

I did like leftyblogs definition of "progressive": "progressives generally believe in the power of people to organize themselves for the improvement of society, through government and other institutions." Now who could argue with that. Probably not even corporations that fund "grass-roots" organizations for the benefit of themselves.

One of the interesting ads this morning on the sidebar of rippleinstillwater was for the Scott Walker campaign. It was not there this afternoon. Was that because Google AdSense rotated ads? Or did the Walker campaign pull it because it was on a Minnesota blog? Can't be that. Walker takes money from every state (just as do the people we like). Or did the Walker campaign pull it because too many people clicked it who had no interest in contributing, thus costing the campaign and putting a couple cents or a couple of dollars in Bremer's pocket? We'll never know, but I hope Bremer did get a bit more revenue because of the ad.

Two dollars a gallon gasoline? No way!

Michele Bachmann claimed sometime ago that if the oil companies were allowed access to Gulf oil that gasoline would be two dollars a gallon. Wish does not give in to facts.

Gulf oil costs about $60 a barrel to produce: "Deep Gulf drilling thrives 18 mos. after BP spill", Jonathan Fahey, Associated Press, via Yahoo Finance.

Oil is now about $100 a barrel. The drillers will expect at least $66 a barrel ($60 plus 10% profit), but then the resellers will expect over $72 a barrel. I don't know how many buyers and sellers there are before the oil gets to the refinery, each expecting to make some profit, but let's stop with the $72 a barrel price.

If gasoline is current selling for $3.299 a gallon in Duluth MN, then $72 a barrel oil might, just might lower the price of gasoline to $2.38 a gallon ($3.299 x $72/$100). But oil is a fungible product and will go to the highest bidder, no matter where it gets refined. Considering that the above article states that world-wide deep-well drilling, not just Gulf drilling, will at sometime account for nine percent of world production, I would find it surprising that gasoline would sell for less than $2.75 a gallon in Duluth when that level of production is reached.

Maybe Congress could mandate that all Gulf oil be refined and sold only in the U.S. But isn't that government regulation hampering the free market?

What will get gasoline prices lower is decreased world-wide consumption, and that ain't going to happen soon.

Where's the praise for Obama on gas prices?

Here in Duluth, gas prices have been falling bit by bit from near four dollars last spring. Today I've seen $3.39/gallon. So, if President Obama was blamed by some for the high prices, where is the praise for the lower prices? See "Bachmann: I'll bring back $2 gas", Charles Riley, CNN Money, 2011-08-18

Actually, there are many factors outside the President's control for prices of anything. Would we want it otherwise? If the President could have such control over our economy, wouldn't we be getting into a dictatorship?

One of those factors is where fuel is sold, and I don't' mean within the U.S. According to today's Star Tribune, fuel prices might be lower if diesel oil and gasoline weren't exported to other countries.
"Fuel exports hit record, keeping gas prices high", Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times, 2011-11-12.  See either http://www.startribune.com/business/133720623.html or http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fuel-exports-20111112,0,7229614.story

Where's Michele Bachmann now on these exports? My searches on her name, fuel exports, and November dates didn't find anything obviously her opinion on these exports. However, her web site seems to be only drill, drill without any considerations of the consequences and without any mention that some fuel is exported.

Hurricanes - A message from God

In the middle of the night, God spoke to me again.  She said that Michele Bachmann was partly right; She had sent Hurricane Irene as a wake-up call to politicians to get busy on doing something about global warming.

Michele Bachmann, natural disasters, and messages from God

Huffington Post had an article "Michele Bachmann Says Hurricane Irene and Earthquake Are Divine Warnings To Washington", Jon Ward, 2011-08-29.

The quote is "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?'"

The article has an update that the campaign was claimed it was a joke.  The above article has a link to "Michele Bachmann: It was a joke!", Politico, Alexander Burns, 2011-08-29.

First, Burns wrote should any politician joke about such serious matters where many people have died and problems of recovery are still ongoing.

Second, consider how many supporters of Bachmann take her every word seriously.

Third, if God is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever present, why does God communicate in such obscure ways?  Shouldn't God be able to boom out in all the languages of the world any message God wants to send to people?

Oh, wait!  I hear a faint voice.  It's sounds tired and frustrated.  It's saying the same thing over and over again.  Ah ha!  It is God, and she says, "Nobody understands me."

Are Rick Perry et al. Christians or hypocrites?

Texas Governor and candidate for the Republican nomination for President led a prayer rally for "Nation in Crisis" that was attended by 30,000 people.  In his address, he read several Bible verses.  I wonder if he read Matthew 6:5-6, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.  Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward.  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Look who's buying Congress

Barbara Streisand wrote an interesting column on fair elections, "Elections Should Be Won -- Not Bought", Huffington Post, 2010-02-23.

She argues that "Under [the] Fair Elections [Act], candidates would raise a large number of small contributions from their communities in order to qualify for Fair Elections funding."

I wonder how many communities she lives in. I checked OpenSecrets for her contributions. Giving her address as California, she gave $1,000 each to Thomas Howard Geoghegan, John Hall, and Howard L. Berman. Looking these gentlemen up, I found that they are all Representatives. Geoghegan is from Illinois, Hall is from New York, and Berman is from California. Is she buying elections in New York and Illinois?

Closer to home, I looked up donations by ZIP code. I found that a neighbor gave two $500 contributions to Maureen Reed. I haven't heard of any Reed running for office in Duluth. No, she's running against Michele Bachmann in the Sixth District around the Twin Cities. I would dearly love to see Michelle Bachmann replaced, but I can't vote for either candidate. And if I can't vote for these candidates, is it fair for me to contribute to either?