Here's how I see it...

We need a viable multiple-party system in the United States, but this will never happen without serious campaign finance reform that both limits the duration of a campaign as well as the money allowed to be spent, not to mention strict rules and perhaps even banning of issue ads by outside interest groups. But, can real campaign finance reform happen without a viable multi-party system?

The other issue we have is a silent majority of citizens, sitting on the sidelines, watching the crazies take over the country, all the while thinking, "That's crazy. No one will listen to them."

Really, GOP? Really?

As long is this is the way they behave in the face of moderate plans, what can possibly be done?

"Senate Republicans weight resolution condemning Obama's stand on debt talks"

Condemning what? That he has the gall to put a return to previous tax levels into the plan? That he is trying to be reasonable in the face of Grover Norquist hysteria about taxes?

I tell you what, having to live in Minnesota in the United States is not very promising right now from a reasonableness perspective.

p.s. Where have all the moderate republicans gone?

Minnesota shut down

"Republicans don't want less government. They want more of their kind of government." - John Harrington, in the Star Tribune

"We broke in for free." - Vandals at Afton State Park

Three fires set at Governor Dayton's former home.

"How far will Republican lawmakers go to protect millionaires?" - New York Times editorial

There is no way NOT to click on a link with this headline.

Shakespeare was a pothead, says anthropoligist.

"A South African anthropologist wants to exhume Shakespeare's remains to determine if the literary giant was a pot smoker."

Is this going to lead a breakthrough in literary studies that will revolutionize the way that Romeo and Juliet is taught to dozing and horny ninth graders? Will performances of Hamlet sound like the turtles in "Finding Nemo"? Will stoned freshmen put down their copies of "Dark Side of the Moon" and turn off the "Wizard of Oz" in order to pore over the pages of Othello and King Lear for references to doobie?

Should costumers put Lady Macbeth into dreadlocks and hippie skirts? Clearly, A Midsummer Night's Dream is rife with the ganja (I know a bank where the wild thyme blows/Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows/Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine/With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. All weed.).

But what about Titus Andronicus? Coriolanus?

Well, it may take some time (and a lot of snacks), but I am sure that our nation's youth will sort it all out.

Mrs. Bachmann may be an American... girl, but...

Tom Petty does not want her to use the song.

Thanks, Tom.

Not this again

After a lecture from my day care provider about behavior they brought on themselves, the last thing I need to hear is an economic plan from a deluded presidential candidate about how the economy is on the wrong track, and the way to fix it is with corporate tax cuts and cuts to the inheritance tax. Speaking about behavior they brought on themselves. Haven't we already tried this route, and wasn't it the same route that contributed to the mess we are in now?

I don't get it. Whenever they are presented with a problem, no matter what the problem is, or even if they are presented with a not-problem, it's always the same solution. Tree in the road? Chainsaw. Bridge out? Chainsaw. Rockslide? Chainsaw. Potholes? Chainsaw. Smooth sailing? Chainsaw. Chainsaw, chainsaw, chainsaw.

Someone needs to take away their power tool.

Just Read It

Matt Taibbi strikes again...

"In her runs for Congress, Bachmann discovered — or perhaps it is more accurate to say we all discovered — that a total absence of legislative accomplishment and a complete inability to tell the truth or even to identify objective reality are no longer hindrances to higher office."