tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164947122012-01-10T03:35:32.126-06:00American Dissent is about the Ideals America stands for. "Truth, Justice and The American Way" as Superman would put it. It will also be about other random things that come up and how they relate. It will also include the occasional "puff piece" like movie reviews or good meals because those too are part of America.Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-54066584152647699852012-01-10T03:16:00.003-06:002012-01-10T03:35:32.135-06:00

So I made the mistake of going to take a look at RedState (if you're reading this don't, you'll want to go shoot some crackers), and here's what I found. "Darrell Issa gets clever against SOPA, Internet Sales Tax Looms" First, us liberal HATE SOPA, we're also not a fan of the Internet Sales Tax. Gee, we agree with the loonies, but no we don't. They don't like it because they're talking sales

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-67238107406687408462011-07-10T17:51:00.003-05:002011-07-10T18:43:30.827-05:00

I have a few questions for the GOP and their followers.When has a tax cut created jobs, and when has a tax increase killed them?When you force the government into a budget lock, and there are TRILLIONS of dollars held by private citizens, what do you think the markets are going to do when people can't cash that paper?When the securities industry downgrades the rating of that paper, and the Social

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-91617470810133269832011-04-25T00:41:00.007-05:002011-04-25T11:16:26.685-05:00

A few days ago I became aware of a situation at my alma mater, noted here. A member of the Women's Studies faculty sent a response to an email from the College Republicans touting "Conservative Coming Out Week" that consisted of three words. "FUCK YOU, REPUBLICANS."That's quite an angry response, and would seem to be either a very poor decision or something close. So I went looking for the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-30512949736310996902010-12-10T20:30:00.002-06:002010-12-10T20:35:05.879-06:00

As it states in the general topic heading, I said I would do the occasional puff piece on movies or good meals. Unfortunately, I haven't been to a movie in a year or out for a good meal in even longer. I haven't been been able to afford one since the GOP and their litany of supply side lies and deregulation horseshit crashed the economy.And I was one of the lucky ones and didn't get laid off.

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-90273732180109438752010-12-10T19:57:00.003-06:002010-12-10T20:30:04.532-06:00

It seems the White House thinks the "deal" is a good one. It is nothing of the sort. In order to get a few random members of the disloyal opposition on board, the deal guts what the rich pay, and manages to increase what the poor pay.Mr. President, for someone who has such a way with words, you don't seem to know jack shit about numbers, and the clowns you have surrounded yourself with show

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-25409886571180476842010-12-02T18:59:00.004-06:002010-12-02T19:20:05.784-06:00

Last week, Mr. Akin said a few things, and I think they need to be commented on."It might be helpful to think back and say, there’s more to Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims."Yeah, like how if the indians didn't come and bail their asses out they would have starved to death (or at least been an earlier version of the Donner party)."They were a group of people who were willing to change the system,

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-26367195750201572902010-12-02T18:48:00.003-06:002010-12-02T19:21:10.087-06:00

Today, the man from Arizona said, "We think they're mature enough to fight and die. I think they're mature enough to make a judgment on who they want to serve with and the impact on their battle effectiveness."That sir, is the same argument used to keep blacks, hispanics and jews out of units. Now I don't think the senator has a secret flap in the back of his closet where he stores the white

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-43503859776991035502010-10-31T01:54:00.004-05:002010-12-02T19:21:43.634-06:00

It's Saturday morning and the "I Know Jesus!" shows have started. I have news for you. Jesus spoke to me, or I may have been that drunk, or I may have taken that many painkillers or it could be some combination of all of those, but the bottom line is, Jesus is screaming in my head at the top of his lungs, "You couldn't find second base with a flashlight!"And I fully get that. Jesus wants us to

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-39195922738596029212010-10-12T21:05:00.006-05:002010-10-12T21:37:17.868-05:00

Earlier today I was going through things I was reading on Facebook (I do that) and the following comment."I see much more hate on the Dem and leftist side than anywhere else, anywhere. In fact, I expected the personal attacks on me to be happening by now since I didn't agree. That's the way it rolls nowdays. The re-educations camps can't be far behind."My response on Facebook was:"Hate from

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-72983937956314885962010-09-27T00:15:00.008-05:002010-09-27T01:38:02.058-05:00

Disclaimer: I'm going to recommend people shooting themselves here, so if you are considering doing so for reasons not listed below please call someone and talk to them. If the person you call yells at you, says you're the "Spawn of Satan," but you haven't raped or killed anyone, it means you called the wrong person, you need better friends/relatives (both of which are available), don't kill

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-36352678401247431442009-12-29T01:14:00.002-06:002009-12-29T01:20:40.356-06:00

Seriously? This round of air bombers (and Richard Reid, the last round of "shoe" bomber) were trying to use PETN explosives? Not to throw shit on their attempts, but let's get real. PETN is what is used in detcord. It's a great explosive, but brutally hard to make go boom. Shit, I'M better at it than these jackasses.This is not to help these dolts but really, find something that goes small "

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1150252877954755402006-06-13T21:26:00.000-05:002006-06-13T21:41:17.973-05:00

So Ann Coulter put her foot in her mouth. Again. In a big way. Again.Nothing new to that story of course. Her previous book was a defense of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy and he's probably the one person more in need of an unmarked grave than Lincoln Stern. This time she lashed out complaining that there isn't a response to the greiving widow being brought out. And I thought about that and went,

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1147413836607376672006-05-12T00:47:00.000-05:002006-05-12T01:03:56.616-05:00

Surprise! It's not about politics this time! That would be an easy target and appropriate to the title, but no, it's time for a puff piece.I just got back from Poseiden, the new Wolfgang Petersen movie. I'm not quite sure how to grade this one. First, the theater was largely empty (at 10pm on Thursday night I can see that) so that whole "crowd experience" thing was missing. The movie itself

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1145602470552942852006-04-21T01:36:00.000-05:002006-04-21T01:54:30.573-05:00

So it appears there is some random woman in Georgia who happens to be on a school board there and seems to think it is an imperative to see that Harry Potter is not included in the school library.Welcome to Hell. I don't mean a metaphysical I've died and gone Hell, I mean a very real Hell. This is a place where ignorance and stupidity are the rule. This is a place where people are barred from

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1139699904015757072006-02-11T16:46:00.000-06:002006-02-11T17:18:24.216-06:00

I decided as a mental exercise to see who made the most apt comparison to our current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and my first thought was Franz von Papen. For those of you who don't know who Franz van Papen was, he was someone who popped up in Weimar Germany, and was vice-chancellor under Hitler. The idea was that they would give Hitler the job, but the real power rested in the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1139458026738274562006-02-08T17:45:00.000-06:002006-02-08T22:07:06.836-06:00

So here's an idea being touted, the Health Savings Account. People take money, earmark it for health care, and it becomes tax deductible. By some unknown method, this is supposed to help the rates of Medicare/Medicaid spending and health care in general.It will do nothing of the sort.Let's start with who is going to create these. Creating such an account in the first place means it is not

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1135215734467771342005-12-21T19:25:00.000-06:002005-12-21T19:42:14.480-06:00

Here's a very simple thought for the day. I absolutely do not want religion taught in schools. History of them? Fine, maybe, but anything that promotes one versus another, or anything of the sort, no. I have a very simple reason for this.As a recovering Catholic, my religion is personal. I don't buy into what the pope says, I think he's wrong a lot of the time, but I had some respect for

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1133251410116894982005-11-29T01:39:00.000-06:002005-11-29T02:03:30.130-06:00

Now to get my obvious disagreements out of the way, I am a Vikings fan. I have been for probably better than thirty years, and think Freddie Zamberletti is the best thing to ever happen to the NFL. This is a complete aside, but Fred Zamberletti has been the Minnesota Vikings team trainer since Day One and to the best of my knowledge still is. That's close to 45 years now, and while he doesn't

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1132253167533773802005-11-17T12:32:00.000-06:002005-11-17T12:46:07.546-06:00

I miss the good old days of junk email. It used to be I would open my email box, and there would be an acre of crappy spam, it was irritating, but sometimes entertaining. "MILFs want to suck you DRY!" I mean hey, I'm a guy, I'm single, I like getting laid just as much as the next guy. Not that I'm about to give my credit card information to some dump so I can stare at bad porn, that'd be dumb

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1131599229571788502005-11-09T22:48:00.000-06:002005-11-09T23:16:24.776-06:00

Once in a great while someone does something intended to have one result, but the actual one is something completely different. It is entirely possible such an error was made in Kansas yesterday. The Kansas board of education passed new standards which are intended to weaken the teaching of evolution. The standards they adopted are anything but.Basically what they said was, that it should be

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1131317228955603952005-11-06T16:18:00.000-06:002005-11-17T12:46:45.143-06:00

This is something that has been bothering me for quite some time, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was until recently. In the run up to the war in Iraq, the administration was screaming, "Chemical! Biological! Nuclear soon!" at the top of their lungs to anyone and everyone. We now know that to be wrong, and the administration has been sort of saying, "Well we were wrong, but we could have

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1130302177018036322005-10-25T22:52:00.000-05:002005-10-28T02:46:59.860-05:00

John McCain seems like a decent guy. Served in Vietnam, probably would have prefered a vacation to some tropical paradise rather than a forced one in the Hanoi Hilton, and brought home an illegitimate child from the far east. Hadn't heard that one? Well that came from the Karl Rove playbook in the 2000 campaign. Anyway, he thought it would be nice if the rules that we agreed to follow under the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1130214986457624712005-10-24T23:11:00.000-05:002005-10-24T23:36:26.463-05:00

There has been some amazing activity out of Washington in the last few days. The lastest is from The New York Times disclosing that Scooter Libby found out about Plame from Vice-President Dick Cheney. It also appears that this was not disclosed to the Fitzgerald grand jury. That coupled with "Iceberg Judy" running into a heat wave out of almost every office in the New York Times, notably the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1129947616137490262005-10-21T20:33:00.000-05:002005-10-21T21:23:49.390-05:00

Today's comment put to me, well actually it was more like Tuesday, but I'll deal with it today, was "I think you're getting obsessed with the politics thing." So, as the thinking kind of guy that I am, I thought about this and my response is, "Jesus Christ! These bastards have sold the entire country down the river and you're NOT obsessed with it???"Now all kidding aside, the investigation of the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1129509248891333592005-10-16T19:14:00.000-05:002005-10-16T19:34:08.896-05:00

One more thing came out in the report from iceberg Judy, and that is the following:My recollection, I told him, was that Mr. Libby wanted to modify our prior understanding that I would attribute information from him to a "senior administration official." When the subject turned to Mr. Wilson, Mr. Libby requested that he be identified only as a "former Hill staffer." I agreed to the new ground

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1129488625628949132005-10-16T13:15:00.000-05:002005-10-16T13:50:25.680-05:00

Does anyone understand what the hell the New York Times is doing? I've been a reader of the Grey Lady as the nation's paper of record for about 20 years now, but what's going on here makes no sense at all. Judy Miller is the iceberg that has managed to sink the Times ship.How could one person manage to do this? Well to start with, the Times of late has not been exactly stable. The Jayson

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1129366037015627722005-10-15T03:02:00.000-05:002005-10-15T03:47:17.063-05:00

Over this past week we've started to see the results of the White House without Turd Blossom in control. Karl Rove may be the best pure political animal I have ever seen. He has no qualms about using rumor to slander anyone (do a google search for the terms John McCain wedlock for more on that little tidbit) and will do pretty much anything to get what he wants.Unfortunately for him, he ran

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1128582420325551902005-10-06T01:29:00.000-05:002005-10-06T02:10:20.700-05:00

Well, the NHL is back in action tonight. Did anyone really notice? Beats me, I haven't seen attendance numbers yet except for one game. Let's face it, hockey is not a big American sport. I grew up in Minnesota, and up there, hockey IS a big deal. The North Stars, playing out at the Met Center were a comparable draw to the Twins who played across the street at Met Stadium. Both Mets are now

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1128408388504092682005-10-04T00:43:00.000-05:002005-10-21T21:21:56.036-05:00

Harriet Miers is the stealth candidate. This morning "Fearless Leader" decided to send the name Harriet Miers to the Senate for advice and consent as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States. I have a few more fervent wishes than to see her nomination rejected, but not many. I thought about this for quite some time and based on what was known about her, and what I was seeing, was

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1127797531273882312005-09-27T00:05:00.000-05:002005-10-16T16:18:18.476-05:00

A few general observations on the Bush second term:Prior to the Clinton impeachment, the President was always referred to as "the President" or "President ," never, ever, as "Mister ." After the Clinton impeachment, he was alternated between "President Clinton" and "Mister Clinton" usually the second when they were discussing some legal woe. Mister Bush gets referred to once as either President

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1127634097134253382005-09-25T02:06:00.000-05:002005-09-25T02:41:37.223-05:00

No, today's rant isn't about NASA (although that is a topic that is still out there) this one is about the nightmarish evacuation of Houston. The plan was, Houston had been divided into three "groups" for evacuation. The outlying areas would be Group A, clearing the path for Group B in the closer areas to go roughly 8 hours later, and then Group C in the middle would go last.What moron came up

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1127184342584055332005-09-19T21:45:00.000-05:002005-09-19T22:02:42.463-05:00

Rita Above you will see the current projection for Tropical Storm (and likely soon to be Hurricane) Rita. Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco and Mr. Shrub, I hope you are paying attention. Given current gulf conditions which haven't changed a great deal over the past three weeks, you are about to get hit by another major storm.It was a good move to delay people going back to New Orleans. After all,

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1127083371242193542005-09-18T17:14:00.000-05:002005-09-18T17:42:52.233-05:00

Once upon a time, there was nothing. Then God said, there needs to be something and made it all. This is creationism and it got chucked out of schools because it's not scioence, it's religion, and there is no place in public school for teaching dogma.So, the new version of this is, "Once upon a time there was nothing. Then somebody said there needs to be something and made it all." This is

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126978464828884582005-09-17T12:13:00.000-05:002005-09-17T12:34:24.863-05:00

Lat night Hugo Chavez said that the US is planning to invade Venezuela. Now I can see where this looks more than a little nuts, but...The first issue here is the attempted coup a few years ago. Was that us? Maybe, maybe not. Was it us that set the whole thing up? That's a different question. Did we get involved in trying to make it work? Yes. We're the ones who sent a plane down there to

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126843630441961962005-09-15T22:47:00.000-05:002005-09-15T23:07:10.450-05:00

For the past two years we have seen why the United States did not invade Iraq 15 years ago. It has nothing to do with our troops being wounded or killed, it is because Iraq in the cold war world was run by one strongman after another, holding the country together by force of will and force of arms. That meant oppression for the groups not in power, but that is nothing new around the world.Iraq

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126765824116570162005-09-15T00:37:00.000-05:002005-09-15T01:30:24.166-05:00

Today's topic: Health Care. Medicine in the United States costs more than in any other country in the world. In fact, the average for the rest of the developed western world (which basically means us, western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and maybe Japan) is about half the cost per capita. What does all of that money get us? It gets us one of the lowest life expectancy rates of the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126596002753526542005-09-13T01:19:00.000-05:002005-09-13T02:20:03.600-05:00

This past afternoon, Chief Justice nominee John Roberts had his confirmation hearings begin. From the transcripts, Mr. Roberts gave an introduction more like Mr. Rogers than what is normally seen from a nominee. I guess that will have to wait until the question and answer sessions over the next few days.Judge Roberts, in his remarks, made the comment that he saw the role of the judiciary like

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126510629514438562005-09-12T02:03:00.000-05:002005-09-12T02:37:10.513-05:00

I've spent enough time harping on just Republican issues, time to harp on a more general one, drugs.I am not going to say I'm in favor of drugs. I'm not, and I'm generally against drugs in sports. While I'm more against than either of those is the fact that drugs are illegal.If Johnny wants to smoke a bong, LET HIM!Why would any sane person think this? Here are just a few reasons. Since the "

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126369686830825722005-09-10T11:23:00.000-05:002005-09-10T11:28:06.833-05:00

Here's a little joke. Two rednecks are sitting on a porch drinking lukewarm Budweiser. The first one says to the other, "Damn fags want to get married! We gotta do sumpin' bout that!" The second one comes back with, "Yer right! We don't do something bout it, they'll be screwin' an havin' fag kids and take over!"Now putting aside the biologic problems with that whole train of thought, the

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126322272440353552005-09-09T22:08:00.000-05:002005-09-10T00:18:11.496-05:00

On August 26th, commissioner of the FDA, Lester Crawford, blocked making Plan B, also known as "the morning after pill" available over the counter. In response, Susan Wood, assistant commissioner and head of the Office of Women's Health resigned in protest. Somewhere in here, something is wrong. Plan B originally showed up in France as RU-486 in 1980. It has since undergone decades of

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126236019355976292005-09-08T21:16:00.000-05:002005-09-08T22:20:19.370-05:00

More than any other issue, the well being of America is based on economics. Not crazy muslims flying airplanes into buildings, not hurricanes wiping out homes and cities, not gay marriage or abortion, Money. Capital M, Money. Tom Clancy may be a bit of an odd bird in some of the things he writes books about, let's be real after all, Jack Ryan almost saves the pope? But he was dead on in his

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16494712.post-1126155137565003382005-09-07T23:50:00.000-05:002005-09-08T02:30:28.940-05:00

"This is not a time for finger-pointing or playing politics," - White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Sept 1 2005. "Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said." Washington Post, Sept 4 2005. "

Mike Nhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469168831796375625noreply@blogger.com0