Corporate Democrats at Netroots Nation

Netroots Nation is supposed to be an annual gathering of progressive bloggers and activists, although quite a few corporate Democrats showed up to crash the party.

Although Hillary Clinton, who voted for the unjustified Iraq War and voted for free-trade agreements that shipped American jobs overseas as a U.S. Senator from New York, didn't show up at Netroots Nation herself, the Ready for Hillary SuperPAC, an organization seeking to convince Hillary to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, did bring their bus to Netroots Nation.

One corporate Democrat who did show up at Netroots Nation was Mary Burke, the likely Democratic nominee for Governor of Wisconsin and a supporter of charter schools and corporate welfare. In fact, Burke participated in a panel discussion about women running for public office at Netroots Nation. Another corporate Democrat who made his presence known at Netroots Nation was Chuck Schumer, the #3 Democrat in the U.S. Senate from New York and a shill for Wall Street interests who want to deregulate the financial industry in this country.

I find it disturbing that corporate Democrats have managed to infiltrate a supposedly progressive convention. Also, it's a shame that there there are few truly progressive conventions in this country, in fact, the only one I know of is Fighting Bob Fest, which is held annually in Wisconsin.

Sheila Kihne: Continuing Michele Bachmann's legacy of embarrassing Minnesota

Sheila Kihne, a far-right Republican running against incumbent Republican Minnesota State Representative Jenifer Loon, is one of the most vile candidates I've seen run for public office. Prior to running for public office, Kihne was a conservative political blogger, and she wrote some downright nasty blog posts, including one where she shamed women who get married while pregnant:

On a blog she discontinued in 2009, she wrote that President Barack Obama was leading the one-world-order communists and demanded that single mothers be denied formal wedding ceremonies. 

“Don’t you think that if you’re having a baby — and you’re not married — that you should forego the shower?” she asked. “I also think that if you get married — and are knocked up — you should get married quietly. At a courthouse, at a private home.” 

Kihne specifically said that there should be no dancing or dinner for prospective brides who are pregnant. She acknowledge that “I’m seen as very cold-hearted with this issue and it’s caused a couple of big arguments in my family,” but insisted on standing her ground against “the idiots in Hollywood who make it look ‘cool’ to tote a baby around sans daddy.”

For Sheila Kihne to suggest that women who are getting married while pregnant shouldn't be allowed to have the kind of wedding ceremony they want to have is downright offensive and shames women who have children out of wedlock. Also, shaming women who get pregnant out of wedlock is going to do absolutely nothing to decrease the percentage of women who get pregnant out of wedlock.

If you live in Minnesota State House District 48B (which is based in the Eden Prairie area in suburban Hennepin County), and you think that Jenifer Loon has been a terrible representative, Sheila Kihne would be an even worse representative, as Kihne would carry on Michele Bachmann's destructive legacy of embarrassing Minnesota. Thankfully, there is a DFL candidate (for those of you not familiar with Minnesota politics, the state Democratic Party in Minnesota is known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) running in Minnesota House District 48B: Joan Howe-Pullis. You can learn more about Howe-Pullis's campaign here.