Group says it's time Reagan bumps Olson off the road

[mac56]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4950511.html

Among the petitions being offered to visitors to the Minnesota State Fair this year is one calling for the renaming of Floyd B. Olson Memorial Highway in honor of the late President Ronald Reagan.

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota launched the effort Thursday, saying Minnesota should move beyond the legacy of Olson, a Depression-era figure who embraced socialism, and honor "the president who utterly defeated communism."

- snip -

Olson carried the Farmer-Labor Party banner to three gubernatorial election victories in the 1930s, despite being branded a Communist by political rivals. He pushed for state ownership of utilities, iron mines, grain elevators and other industries and said: "I do not mind being called a 'red.' ... I would prefer it to the term 'yellow.' "

- more -

[Krupskaya]

1. I put this in the MN folder

I freaking hate the Taxpayers League. They are pure evil. And this is one of their dumber ideas.

[dflprincess]

18. Floyd B. Olson and the Farmer Laborites

are the ones responsible for turning Minnesota into the progressive state it has been (until recently). No wonder the Taxpayers League wants to erase all memory of them.

There were some great letters in today's paper about this. Here are two:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/563/4951954.html

Follow their example

David Strom of the Taxpayers League has a great idea with his plans to rename Floyd B. Olson Memorial Highway after Ronald Reagan.

Let's begin the process of assimilation now by erasing all of the icons of the past so that Minnesotans may worship the only true ideology, that of conservative Republicanism -- following the example set by Lenin and Stalin when communism was being implemented in Russia.

*****

Rewriting history

The Taxpayers League's proposal to destroy statues and strip recognition from former Gov. Floyd Olson highlights the league's extremist agenda. David Strom's bizarre and out of place anti-Communist rhetoric, combined with his desire to wipe clean part of our state's history, reminds me of some other famous politicians: Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco come to mind.

[LTR]

2. Hell, I just call it Highway 55

I'll bet most people don't call it the Olson Highway.

[redqueen]

3. "the president who utterly defeated communism"

What are these people smoking? :eyes:

I hope this idea isn't popular.

[iamjoy]

8. What About China?

Isn't China communist?
Over a billion people living in China.
Oh yes, and they have nuclear weapons.

What about North Korea?

What about Cuba?

[LibDemAlways]

4. Coincidentally....

the Reagan Library and tomb is located on Olson Road in Simi Valley, CA. No one is proposing renaming it either - although the "Ronald Reagan Freeway" is nearby. However, no one calls it that. It's simply the 118. If the repukes had their way, every kid born in the US would be required to have "Reagan" tatooed on his ass.

[chaumont58]

5. I used to live in Simi

Not far from Madera Road, which becomes Olson Road. When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was that it is about the Reagan Library. Small world, eh.

[LiberalFighter]

20. I would love to see every damn Repug with "Jackass" tattooed on their ass

[struggle4progress]

6. "... I am not a liberal. I am what I want to be -- ..."

... I am a radical. I am a radical in the sense that I want a definite change in the system. I am not satisfied with tinkering. I am not satisfied with patching. I am not satisfied with hanging a laurel wreath upon burglars and thieves and pirates and calling them code authorities or something else."

Floyd Olson (1934 Farmer-Labor convention)

from http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/8713/

[LTR]

7. Sure, put a Reagan Highway in a state that never voted for him

Minnesota and DC were the only ones that went for Mondale in 1984.

Here's an idea - why not rename it after Mondale?

[Thor_MN]

9. There will other highways by the time it's appropriate to name something

after Walter Mondale.

As far as naming ANYTHING after Ronald Reagan, I think we need to roll back *'s executive order undoing the post-Nixon laws that specify unsealing presidential papers after 12 years. Not until we have been able to fully see what a president did while in office are we really able to decide if it's worth naming something after them.

So to the nut cases who want to name 55 after Reagan, I say wait until after his papers are unsealed. Hopefully, sometime next summer the scholars can start telling us if we should name highways or outhouses after Mr. Reagan,

[LittleWoman]

10. I suppose they will also want to rename

Floyd of Rosedale after Reagan also. Note: this is the bronze pig football trophy that the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa play for at the end of the Big Ten season. We can't have anything take our minds off the adoration of Saint Ronnie. They could show highlights from some of his movies on the scoreboard at halftime instead of the usual marching bands etc. The Taxpayers League should, as we used to say in Minnesota, take a long walk off a short dock.

[UTUSN]

11. Let's Just Call This the United RAYGUN of RAYGUNica

and be done with it.

[Morning Dew]

12. And we still can't get a major road named for MLK

in this state. They've even gotten as far as renaming at least part of Concord in St. Paul for Cesar Chavez, but nothing decent for MLK.

What a bunch of fuc*tards, that section of 55 runs past one of the poorest sections of Minneapolis. Sure, rub the faces of the po' folks in another Reagan monument - those idiots even want to rip down the Olson statues.


INFURIATING.

[SemperEadem]

13. Communism isn't defeated

China, Cuba, North Korea are still communist. Reagan didn't defeat shit.

[leesa]

17. And why should it be defeated?

[daleo]

14. How about a private corporation doing the rename to Reagan thing

Since the right wing loves him so much, how about:

- General Motors could be renamed Reagan Motors.
- International Business Machines could be Reagan Business Machines.
- Xerox could be Reagox, and photocopiers could be Reagancopiers.
- Exxon could be Reaganon, their gasoline could be re-branded as "Reagan Juice".

And so on. It wouldn't cost taxpayers a cent, it wouldn't affect the current names of public structures and it would be a chance for corporations to really show their love for Reagan.

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota could start the ball off by calling themselves the Reagan League of Minnesota.

[IndianaGreen]

15. I renamed my toilet the Ronald Reagan Crapper

that way I think of Raygun everytime I take a dump!

We should rename every landfill, waste dump, and Port-a-johns after President Reagan!

[0007]

16. Shit! I thought they were talking about Ted Olson.

Why would the Minnesota taxpayer want a road named after Reagan? They are a Democratic state for crying out loud. They've never voted for a repuke in a general election.

[struggle4progress]

19. Excerpts from some recent LTTE:

... So few people know the amazing story of Gov. Floyd B. Olson and the success of the Farmer-Labor Party in the 1930s in transforming Minnesota into the forward-looking state we have today ...

... Let's begin the process of assimilation now by erasing all of the icons of the past so that Minnesotans may worship the only true ideology, that of conservative Republicanism -- following the example set by Lenin and Stalin when communism was being implemented in Russia ...

... Why not pick a highway in a Republican district, one with heavy traffic? ...

... The Taxpayers League's proposal to destroy statues and strip recognition from former Gov. Floyd Olson highlights the league's extremist agenda ...

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4951954.html