Local Races and How You Can Contribute

The Pitch: Minnesota residents are allowed to donate $50 per individual ($100 for married joint filers) to any state candidate and the State will refund your donation to you. It's free money to the candidate of your choice. With that in mind, based on suggestions offered a few weeks ago, I have identified 5 House and 5 Senate races which would benefit greatly from your contribution. These are all either DFL seats which are in jeopardy or else seats where there is a good chance of a DFL pick up. Also remember, you are free to donate more than $50 per person, but anything over that amount is non-refundable.

How it works: Send your check to the address listed after the candidate of your choice. The candidate's committee will send you a receipt in the mail. Fill out this form and mail the form and the receipt to:

Minnesota Political Contribution Refund
Minnesota Department of Revenue
St. Paul, MN 55146-1800

and the State sends you your money back in a couple of weeks. You win, your DFL candidate wins, and that means the State wins. What could be better?

The dollar figure after each candidate's name is their current cash on hand as of August 21st.

Now, off to the races.

HOUSE:

Denise Dittrich (47A - Champlin) $2,432
(v. John Tomczak-$4,135)

Craig Flynn-Treasurer
Dittrich Volunteer Committee
6108 115th Ave. N.
Champlin, MN 55316

Dittrich is a DFL incumbent in a Republican leaning district. She is probably the number one target of the MNGOP this year, as demonstrated by all the ink they've been spilling trying to smear her through her husband. Note-Dittrich's campaign site is down right now. I'll change the link above when the site goes live again.

Andy Welti (30B - Rochester) $15,716
(v. Bill Kuisle-$25,691)

Andy Welti for State Representative
RR 2 Box 17
Plainview, MN 55964

Welti is an incumbent who won his seat with a very narrow victory in 2004. Rightly or wrongly, Rochester is often viewed as a Republican stronghold, but it has been trending back to center and center/left candidates lately. This is a good place to help continue that trend. Bonus points to this race: helping to increase Dem. turnout in the 1st District helps Tim Walz for CD-1.


Melissa Hortman (47B - Brooklyn Park) $1,185
(v. Andrew Reinhardt-$3,432)

Melissa Hortman Campaign Committee
8710 Windsor Terrace
Brooklyn Park, MN 55443
(or go here to make a paypal donation: http://www.melissahortman.com/donate)

Hortman won a narrow victory for this seat in '04. The district is fairly evenly divided.


Maria Ruud (42A - Minnetonka) $15,454
(v. Bill Cullen-$8,720)

Maria Ruud Volunteer Committee
mail the check and the completed form to:
Deb O'Connor, Treasurer
1815 Timberline Trail
Minnetonka, MN 55305

Ruud won a very narrow victory (less than 1 point) in a district which is almost evenly split. I've downgraded this one slightly due to Ruud's current money advantage.


David Bly (25B - Northfield) $4,931
(v. Ray Cox-$22,902)

The David Bly Campaign
211 N. Lincoln St.
Northfield, MN 55057
(or go here to make a paypal donation: http://davidbly.com/index.php/interact/donate/)

Cox won the seat narrowly in the last cycle, but has a large money advantage. Bonus points: DFLers who vote for Bly also get to vote for Coleen Rowley.


SENATE:


Ann Lynch (30 - Rochester) $19,937
(v. Scott Wright-$16,031)

Lynch for Senate
P.O. Box 7111
Rochester, MN 55903

Following Sen. Kiscaden's retirement this is an open seat and one the DFL needs to hold. As stated above, Rochester used to be solid GOP territory, but is now trending blue (or purple, anyway) Bonus points: Helps Tim Walz in CD 1.


Kathy Sheran (23 - Mankato) $26,441
(v. Andy Piepho-$16,291)

Sheran for State Senate Committee
317 North Borad ST.
Mankato , MN 56001

An open seat in a toss up district. Piepho is behind in the money due to a primary fight, with that behind him he will likely challenge Sheran hard. Bonus Points: 1st CD.


Sandy Rummel (53 - Shoreview) $18,219

(v. Mandy Reiter-$24,723)

Volunteers for Rummel Committee
2697 East County Rd. E - Box 286
White Bear Lake, MN 55110

A strong candidate DFL candidate running against a very conservative Republican? Sounds like a good race to support to me, even if this district leans GOP. Bonus points: Much of this district lies in the hotly contested 6th CD.


Dean Johnson (13 - Wilmar) $38,950
(v. Joseph Gimse-$25,262)

(Dean) Johnson Volunteer Committee
PO Box 996
Willmar, MN 56201

Johnson is a very good politician with high name recognition and a solid money lead. Still, he represents a generally Republican leaning district and there will likely be a lot of money spent trying to unseat him this year, so this race remains on the list.


Andrew Borene (41 - Edina) $33,602
(v. Geoff Michael $69,099)

Neighbors for Borene
P.O. Box 24741
Edina, MN 55424-0741
(or here for paypal online donation: http://www.andrewborene.com/contribute.htm)

Beloved of many local bloggers and (from what I hear) all around good-guy Andrew Borene is in a very expensive race with GOP incumbent Michael. Once a solidly GOP district, the fightin' forty first went for Kerry by a narrow margin in '04 so things could be looking up. Still, this race has to be considered the longest shot on this list.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A huge shout out to the sadly defunct Minntelect blog, from which I culled much of this information. My hat's off to you. Even with your pioneering work, this post took many many hours to write. I can't imagine if I could have gotten it done without your research.

Prepping for the 5th CD Endorsement One Attack at a Time

It's nearly time for the Star Tribune to give their pre-primary endorsement for who should take over congressman Martin Sabo's seat, and the campaign rhetoric has taken on a feverish pitch.

Ag, from Truth Sufer, provides a letter he received from an Ember Reichgott Junge supporter:

Her endorsed DFL opponent, Keith Ellison, has had limited political experience in the Minnesota House... While he shares Senator Reichgott's positions on key issues of importance to DFLers, we have not heard him renounce the aspects of Islam that are anathema to our American belief system, such as death for apostasy and the subordination of women.

Ag shows what a letter would be like if he were to twist it around to try to paint Junge in the same mold:

While she shares Representative Ellison's positions on key issues of importance to DFLers, we have not heard her renounce those aspects of Christianity that are anathema to our American belief system, such as calling for the death of all homosexuals or limiting free speech for women.

Keith Ellison has had to weather many attacks since he was endorsed by the DFL.  But none have been as vicious as the most recent attacks.  After a bit of investigating, Dan Weinand has a good (although not ironclad) reason to believe that the Ostrow campaign was behind the latest release of documents, while JD at MNPublius gives a greater look into the veracity and facts of the alleged events.

It's two weeks until the primary, and there's a very strong chance that the 5th CD winner will be the one who keeps his or her hands the cleanest.

The scariest headline I've ever read

Do I have to explain why? I sincerely hope not.

Here's the headline:

To stop terror, track everyone in U.S.

Not Quite "Happy To Pay For a Better Minnesota"

but possibly the closest they can come on the right:

"Happy To Pay For More Jail And Prison Space"

What do you think, should I start printing the bumper stickers?

An Open Response to Chad the Elder

He asks, I answer.

Short answer is this:

It's the difference between

pol i tics (n.)
1. The art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs.

dem a gogu er y (n.)
impassioned appeals to the prejudices and emotions of the populace.

The longer answer is this:

It's perfectly acceptable to talk about what you (as a politician) have done or are going to do about terrorism. It's not acceptable to yell "TERROR!!" at people and assume that answers everything.

Or, using some current examples, it's politics for a candidate for federal office to discuss their plans for catching Osama Bin Laden. It's demagoguery to call a candidate "Osama's Candidate" and assume that explains everything.

To put it even more plainly:



Trying to imply that Patty Wetterling is somehow connected to Saddam and Osama (or that they are connected to each other is demagoguery.

To talk about how FEMA failed New Orleans and how to prevent such disasters in the future is politics.

If Democrats wanted to sink to GOP levels of demagoguery it would look something like this:

[ad begins with black screen]
dah-DUM!


dah-DUM! dah-DUM!



dum-DUM-dum-DUM-dum-DUM!!!



[Fade to black]

[Fade in to:]



[Voice Over]
"Last year, this country was struck by a terrible blow. Republicans claim we had no way of knowing this was coming. Now that it's here, they have no plan for preventing future strikes. They are more concerned with tax cuts for their rich friends than protecting this country from another hurricane strike."

[Fade to black]

[Fade in to:]



[Voice over]
"This year many more deadly hurricanes are waiting. Preparing to strike our unprotected borders while Republicans debate the estate tax."

[Focus down to:]



[Shock sting, then voice over]
"but you don't have to live in fear."

[Quick cut to:]

[Voice over]
The Democrats have a plan to prevent hurricanes. Vote Democrat this November.
[end]

That would be demagoguery. Saying "something went wrong with FEMA and we need to fix it" is politics. Saying "Here's our plan to fix the situation in Iraq" is politics. Saying "CUT N' RUN! CUT N' RUN!" is demagoguery. Starting to see what I mean?

Before the usual trolls come out of the woodwork: I'm not saying Republicans always engage in demagoguery, or that Democrats never do. But I will say that there is a lot more of it coming from one side than the other.

Maybe the Old Farmers Are Right

We've been hearing a lot lately about The Old Farmer's Almanac predicting a very cold winter this year, and I'm starting to think it may be true.

I've been hearing a lot of geese lately. I'm not sure if they are going south already - in all honestly, it looked like they were heading east, and I don't know what evils that portends.

But what really has me convinced is that a mouse moved into the house already. We had a few mice last winter, and a few weeks of traps and nasty little pellets took care of them.

This weekend we met Supermouse. For three days he has licked the peanutbutter off the traps and went merrily on his way.

A wily one, that Supermouse. This morning at 7:30 he was offered chunky peanutbutter versus creamy. That chunk was his downfall. By 8 am it was over, and we were the victors.

He will be getting a hero's funeral in a few minutes, once I finally work up enough nerve to pull him out. I will say a few words about mighty Moby Mouse and then inter him in his final resting place (the trash bin outside).

Rest in peace, Mr. Moby.

An Interview with David Bailey

Within a matter of one month, Coleen Rowley's congressional campaign staffer David Bailey has quickly become one of the most publicized staffer in local politics.  From "Double-Agent," to "Dirty Trickster," Bailey has now been on the receiving end of numerous John Kline campaign mailers and press releases, all of them focusing on events that happened before Bailey even joined the Rowley staff.

Is this a new low in politics, and does this mean nothing is off-limits?  Bailey answers our questions...

Q: We've seen you referred to in various mailings from the Kline campaign as "senior staff," "Research and Communications Director" and "top issues advisor." What exactly is your role for the Coleen Rowley campaign?

I'm on the org chart as 'Director of Earned Media'.  So ironically, Kline's recent attacks have made my job much easier.  In reality, I'm mostly just a writer.  I write and edit copy to be released, and I'm the principal author on the campaign's weblog, The Blotter.

Q: Earlier in July, a member of John Kline's campaign staff was accused of anonymously posting to pro-Rowely campaign sites, precipitating the Kline campaign's argument that Rowley was the first to begin attacking staff as a leg of the campaign itself (see Bratlie press release). Are those accusations valid, and if not, how do these instances differ?

Actually, on August 1, the Rowley campaign delivered a letter to John Kline's office calling out three instances of questionable behavior by Kline's staff.  One was the instance of anonymously commenting on DumpJohnKline to which you refer, and the other two were instances in which John Kline's staff had written what we felt were excessively hostile letters to the editor.

But to my knowledge, the first instance of explicitly calling out a staff member came in mid-July, when Ms. Bratlie publicly accused me of having written a letter to ThisWeek Eagan without identifying myself as a member of Rowley's staff.  Her accusation was false; I had written the letter before joining Rowley for Congress, but it was published after I joined.

Putting aside the question of 'who started it', I think the difference is pretty clear.  Rowley for Congress called attention to public statements members of John Kline's staff had made about the campaign.  But they're attacking me based on things I said and did months or even years before joining Rowley for Congress.  So the difference is that we're calling attention to public statements they've made about the campaign, while they're publicizing things that were never part of the campaign.

Q: Does the Rowley campaign have a stance as to what issues/people are and are not 'fair game' in her run for office? Where is the line between campaign issues and mudslinging?

There's no set policy.  Everyone on Rowley for Congress understands that we're campaigning against John Kline based on his record over the past four years: his support for the occupation of Iraq, for privatizing Social Security, for Medicare Part D.  Anyone who looks at the campaign web site or blog, or who's met Coleen knows that's where our focus is.  It has honestly never occurred to me to raise an issue about anything Kline's staff may have done in his or her personal life, and I'm pretty sure it's never occurred to anyone else on the Rowley for Congress staff.

The clear delineation is based on the issues.  The posts I write on The Blotter are fair game.  Coleen's public statements are fair game.  Discussing John Kline's record for the past four years in Congress is fair game.  Mailing out fliers containing wild-eyed distortions based on things I said or did months and years before I joined the campaign is not fair game.  I'm fairly certain John Kline and his staff understand this distinction; they're just ignoring it.

Q: Has the increased media attention recently had any effects on the Rowley campaign?

Well, of course the political season is heating up and so there's increased interest in the race anyway.  Nevertheless, I'm told that there's been an increase in volunteer signups, requests for lawn signs, and web traffic.  The prevailing view on our side is that Kline's attacks have backfired and demonstrated to everyone Coleen Rowley's resolve and unwillingness to back down, which obviously helps us.

Q: Rather than sending out press releases on campaign staff workers, what issues would the campaign prefer to be focusing on?

A: Coleen's priorities are comprehensive ethics reform, responsible redeployment from Iraq, and universal health care.  If you search around for recent statements from Kline on any of these issues, it immediately becomes clear that he doesn't want to discuss them.  No doubt this is the reason he's spent the last few weeks focusing on me.

If you can't beat 'em, smear 'em

Kline flier slings more mud at Rowley campaign aides

Two things about this story struck me. First was this line:

"Kline, running for a third term in a race that has become one of Minnesota's nastiest and most personally acrimonious..."

Of course, the story doesn't assign blame, but it's pretty clear where blame lies. This race is nasty and acrimonious because Kline has made it so. Kline and only Kline has slung personal insults. Heck, Kline is the only candidate in my memory to have sunk so low that he's lobbing insults at his opponent's staff.

The closest Rowley has ever come was the Col. Klink incident earlier in the year. A bad choice and in poor taste no doubt, but clearly meant in jest and for which she apologized. Other than that incident she has run a clean issues driven campaign, exactly the kind of campaign that everybody claims to want. Kline has run the dirtiest campaign of any Republican in this state. Before it's over, I fully expect this race to top the sliminess of Kennedy's '04 campaign in which he tried to draw a link between Patty Wetterling and Osama Bin Laden.

I guess I can't blame Kline, however. If I had a record of voting with Bush 95% of the time, a 0% rating from the Disabled Veterans Association, an "F" on education and 0% on the environment, I'd probably run away from my record as well.

The second thing was this:

"The ad also calls into question Rowley's support from liberal donors..."

This seems like a strange line of attack, considering the tens of thousands of tainted dollars Kline has received from the now defunct ARMPAC of Tom Delay and other questionable sources.

Also, did you know that Kline's PAC has sent money to Katherine Harris' election committee? You know, this Katherine Harris:

Harris ignited a furor with her Witness interview. She sounded a fervent evangelical tone, saying that God "chooses our rulers," that voters needed to send Christians to political office and that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws."

Speaking to Witness editors, Harris said:

"If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."

So remember that, Kline donors. When you're asked to give money to Kline you might actually be giving money to people like Katherine Harris instead. Also, using Kline's own standards, can we assume he supports everything Harris says? I eagerly await his campaign's response....

I Cry Your Pardon, Gunslingers

I know I've been letting the site down over the last week or so. It's been an incredibly busy time at work, and at home I've become engrossed in Stephen King's Dark Tower books (I'm almost done with Wizard and Glass right now). I had read the first two books in high school but put decided to wait until the series was finished before picking up the rest. I had forgotten how engrossing they could be.

But that's no excuse. So I promise some good stuff over the next couple of days, including the long awaited local races post where I'm hoping we can some input from everybody (especially Minntellect, if he/she is still out there) as to which state races we should be paying more attention to.

Where's Gary?

For those of you readers who go way back, you'll know that I've always had a love/hate relationship with KvM, who, back in the early days, was the reason I started blogging. I found him a worthy adversary from the wrong side of the aisle, and enjoyed his viewpoints quite a bit. Although he was often wrong (heh!) he was clever and an excellent blogger who tried to make fact-based posts as often as possible. Did he twist the facts? Oh yeah, but I'm sure he'd say the same about me.

For the most part, I slowly weaned myself of Dvk when it became KvM. The addition of First Ringer made for some of the most substantial, well-written posts I've had the pleasure of reading (and disagreeing with, of course). But as the posting numbers began shifting to an "all Triple A all the time" blog, I stopped seeing it as a quality source for news from the other side and a vitriolic, desperate spin machine.

I get to see Republican press releases in other realms, I don't need to go to the blog to read the same thing.

I still peruse KvM when I want an easy post off of some low-hanging fruit, but for the most part I find myself reading it less yet being happier it exists. Honestly, Triple A is possibly the best thing that happened to the Klobuchar campaign since the Republicans picked Mark Kennedy for their candidate.

But it may be time to call the whole thing off. They officially jumped the shark today by posting the new Zogby numbers not only as "Kennedy gaining momentum" even though he dropped in the poll, but started touting Zogby numbers as if they hadn't been spending all of their time pushing how absolutely awful Zogby was as a poll.

The cry of desperation? The result of an obvious case of split blog personality? Maybe both. But Gary was a quality blogger who for some reason appears to have been put on time-out as if he hadn't been eating his vegetables or making his bed every morning. When Gary starts posting again, rather than limiting his comments to occasional peripheral "Gary" endnotes on other contributors' posts, they might be a blog worth fighting against again.

Brain Fry

The blog has ben off this weekend, as smartie and I melted our brains in Friday night's trivia match. I don't feel horrible, as we had 16 correct, which was only 3 questions out of second. And third.

As always at Keegans, I had more fun out on the back porch once the trivia was over than in the bar itself, including chatting with Lileks for more time than I ever would have imagined. It almost made me feel guilty that I haven't read a word he's written since that day two years ago that they put an editorial of his in the commentary section.

On the other hand, I've never read anything Keillor has written either.

We'll be back on Monday, as I have wooed smartie with a bottle of wine into watching the emmys with me tonight. I told him we can flip to football during the commercial breaks.

If you need a serious blogging fix before then, be sure to travel over here.

KvM Practices the Push Poll

So many choices to choose from! How can I decide!?!

Wonder where they came up with that sort of one-sided polling...

How the Powerliberals Spend a Friday Night

Tonight, the powerliberals are going into the lion's den, and we intend to come out winners...

Coupled with the Lovely Miss Tild and our favorite conservative, the Crazy Uke (take that, Lileks!), "3 Kommies and a Kapitalist" are planning to take the prize, despite the fact that we're only in 4th in the odds.

Come down to Keegans and cheer us on, if you have a hankering to...

(Seriously, please do. We're the only three liberals in the bar otherwise.)

Keegans - 8:30 tonight, competition at 9

Entry fee (for us, not for the audience) and anything else they hit us up for goes to Soldiers Angels, proving liberals do support the troops even if the war was based on a lie.

Plan B available OTC

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota plans Free Emergency Contraception Day in celebration.

"Mr. President, Can I Have Sprinkles?"

How Michele Bachmann Spent Her Presidential Visit

I have never been in the Presidential limousine before so I was a little unsure what to do when the limousine stopped at the custard stand. I wasn't sure if I should exit with the President or get out of my side of the car. Karl Rove told me I would exit out the door on my side after The President steps out and someone would open the door for me. I could not believe I was discussing what flavor of custard to order with the President of the United States!

President Bush was so incredibly engaging with the servers. He actually stuck half of his body through the order window and asked, "Can anybody get some custard here." It was fun to see the excitement in the people's faces when it dawned on them that President Bush was in the same line to order custard. People were whipping out their cell phones to call loved one to say, you will not believe who is here. Everyone wanted to get their picture taken with him.

Always the mom, I thought, we need napkins. I asked the President if he had a napkin and he said no. So, I had to quickly grab napkins. I cannot imagine dripping custard in the Presidential limousine.

President Bush and I did share our custards with Governor Pawlenty, Senator Coleman and Karl Rove. Every bit of custard was gone well before we arrived at the Jundt home!

Or, as Paul puts it, Miers incarnate.

Now that is cold

From Down With Tyranny:

Well, Minnesota ain't all that progressive. There has been a right wing infestation the few election cycles, that put Norm Coleman in the US Senate, made a neocon the governor and made the GOP majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives. There is a Democratic majority in the state Senate, but just barely. The Bush administration has been real hot on finishing making Minnesota red-- Bush and Cheney seem to be in this state more than Jesse Ventura was while he was pretending to be governor.

Despite the chill, a nice interview with Keith Ellison is in there, too.

Media Memo

I was just watching the 5:00 news on Channel 11. Toward the end of the broadcast they ran a heartwarming story about President Bush meeting with Hurricane Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella. Apparently just a random guy who wanted to thank the president for all his great work there. The story was laid out in a completely straight forward, gee isn't he just a man of the people, one of us kind of guy.

It's not true.

I thought it seemed a little fishy, so I did a little checking and sure enough-staged photo op.

So, memo to the media, I know you're all anxious to avoid cries of "liberal bias" but that doesn't absolve you of the need to research stories that show Republicans in a good light.

She's Not Afraid to Walk into the Lion's Den

According to her campaign blog, Coleen Rowley has finally convinced John Kline to debate her. Not on neutral ground, however. The (first) Rowley-Kline debate will take place at 5:00 this Friday on The Jason Lewis show.

Kline has thus far avoided Rowley's offers for a second debate to take place on Air America at a time of Kline's choosing.

I have no doubt of Kline's courage. His military career was exemplary. So why is he so skittish about debating Rowley that he has to make sure the deck is stacked in his favor before he'll meet her face-to-face?


hat tip to: Blog of the Moderate Left

Pot, meet kettle

Jeff Johnson holds press conference to say Hatch has too many press conferences:

Minnesota Monitor's own Sara Reller was able to attend the live press conference of Republican Attorney General candidate Jeff Johnson's press conference at the State Capital today. A small gathering with few media present, Sara called in with a report one can easily title "Much Ado About Nothing."

It turns out that Mr. Johnson did not in fact file an ethics complaint against Mike Hatch, rather, a member of the Minnesota Republican Party did. However, Johnson took the opportunity to call this press conference to discuss "integrity of the office."

Johnson told the audience he would like the AG office to have "the same stellar reputation it had 20 years ago under Democrats," referring in his speech to former AG Skip Humphrey. He said that the AG's job is to protect people from criminals and have "full integrity," and that he wants to protect the young children most of all.

During his press conference, he also stated that current Attorney General Mike Hatch calls too many press conferences, then stated that he has been running for a year and a half on the integrity in office issue to justify his calling for the conference today.

Despite stating that he had "a litany of allegations" to challenge Hatch with, Johnson did not bring up any examples of specific allegations to the press.

To summarize, Jeff Johnson held a press conference to speak about integrity of office based on an ethic complaint he did not file, referring to no specific issues of ethical violations despite a "litany" of such occurrences allegedly at his fingertips, while chastizing the current AG for calling too many press conferences.

You Tube a Go Go

I usually avoid linking to something that everyone else and their mother has linked to, but damn this is catchy....

Tuesday Bits and Pieces

President Bush came to town to talk healthcare transparency and got right to the heart of the matter as only he can:

So one of these days, you're going to have all your medical records on a little key that you can then plug into a computer, and all of a sudden, information is at the provider's fingertips, which makes the system a lot more efficient, which means less costly, but also saves on medical errors.But the problem we face is that the -- we've got to develop a standard language. Medicine is a fairly complicated -- got a complicated dictionary, let's put it that way.

Not everyone in the area was happy about the visit, including those who had been invited to the event:

There are only a handful of homes along Bracketts Point, big homes with big lots sweeping down to big water where big boats stand ready. But as far as Hannaford had heard, only two of her neighbors were hoping to see the president.
"I don't know anybody who's going," Hannaford said, nodding toward the end of the leafy peninsula that juts out into Lake Minnetonka between Smith and Browns Bays.
The protest signs were made by Hannaford's daughter, Mary Connolly, a high school senior. "We Believe in Global Warming" one sign said. "You Should, Too," said the second.

The cops wouldn't let Mary put up her polite signs until they could verify that she lived on Bracketts Point. Their heads probably are still spinning. A protest on the point.

As for the $500,000 raised at this event, I find myself looking back at the $1 million raised when Kennedy was visitied by the President last December and wondering, "Does this mean the president is only half as appealing now?"

Gil Gutknecht won his battle to stay on the ballot, but Judge Alan Page was struck by the fact that there is a different standard for non-major parties than for those with major party status.

He may be on the ballot, but that doesn't signal the end of his troubles....

Rep. Gil Gutknecht is moving up in the national charts, and that's not necessarily good news for him.

Gutknecht, R-Minn., is involved in the 39th hottest House race in the nation, according to the latest rankings by National Journal. In its previous ranking, the face-off against Democrat Tim Walz was considered the 46th hottest in the country.

It's getting hot in here indeed...

Guess Who's Coming to the Healthcare Roundtable?

Watching the healthcare roundtable on KSTP. Pawlenty, Coleman, Kennedy, Ramstad and Kline are all in attendance and were just pointed out by the President, for those of you wondering who would show and who would distance themselves.

Oh, who are we kidding? We all knew Kennedy would be there....

Bush in Town - People Hospitalized

As reported on KSTP, President Bush has just arrived. Earlier this morning there was a notice of irritating fumes that some described as perfumy, others as peppery, possibly coming from something tossed into a trash can in the area. 19 people were taken to the hospital.

A security checkpoint was closed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Tuesday after security officials complained of irritating fumes.

This happened a few hours before President Bush arrived, so I'm sure it had nothing to do with my last post.

My phone is so tapped now

I've been naughty.

(Should be safe for work, unless you work in the oval office)

How to make me happy

awwwwwwwwwwwww yeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Interesting Article in The Timberjay

For any energy policy geeks out there. Will the "clean coal" plant Sen. Coleman earmarked into the new energy bill as a boon to Minnesota actually prove to be bad for the state? Here are some issues that need to be considered:

Mesaba Energy Project-more information needed before determining if proposal is good for Minnesota

What's the value of 100-200 permanent jobs on the Iron Range? Some would no doubt call them priceless, and advocate anything that offered good paying employment in the region.

But we all know that everything good comes with a cost and smart consumers know to look before they leap. We wouldn't buy a new car without knowing the price tag and we sure as heck shouldn't buy a power plant without understanding the full implications of our decision.

Unfortunately, that appears to be what the Legislature, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Sen. Norm Coleman have done with Excelsior Energy's proposal to develop a series of large coal gasification power plants on the Iron Range. While even critics agree that coal gasification has tremendous promise as a way to burn coal with far fewer emissions than conventional power plants, those stack emissions are just one piece of a complex and incredibly expensive project that will have implications not just for employment on the Iron Range, but for Minnesota's energy future.

Read the rest.

As Long As Everyone's Talking About the 5th

I recently came across this Strib letter to the editor from September of last year. All I can say is, "heh."

Reagan's legacy

As a Democrat, I would like to add my support to Rep. John Kline's effort to put President Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill (Star Tribune, Sept. 17). I think we should make them collectors' items and only issue 33,442,554,240 of them.

Why 33.4 billion? Simple; that is the number of $50 bills it would have taken to pay off the $1,672,127,712,041 increase to the national debt that took place while Reagan was president.

Mike Erlandson, Minneapolis;
former state DFL Party chairman.

A John Kline Two-fer

Kline should stop attacking, start explaining

It is very obvious that Rep. John Kline was a Marine. He is using "shock and awe" tactics to flood our mailboxes and paper tubes with vicious attacks on Coleen Rowley.

I know he has a 6-to-1 money advantage over the Rowley campaign, but I would rather he spent it to defend his pro-Bush voting record than to smear an honest opponent.

JAMES DOOLEY, APPLE VALLEY

I think Kline's voting record (something like 98% with the administration) would cost an awful lot to defend. Unless of course you're perfectly happy with the direction Bush and Kline are taking the country in...

Also, I missed this one last week:

Eat those words

Published: August 14, 2006

"If you're talking to me in eight or 10 months, and we're not starting to see ... actual troop withdrawals, I'll be shocked."

-- Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., after visiting Iraq in November 2005. Two top Army officers testified in Congress this month that they cannot reduce troop levels at this time.

A Question About Health Care

One reason I've heard for opposing universal healthcare coverage is that "If everyone has coverage they will go to the doctor all the time for every little problem and that will overwhelm the system and make care worse for everybody."

I've had health insurance my entire life. I rarely visit the doctor. Since reaching my teenage years I've probably averaged less than one visit per year, excluding emergency room visits (which are already covered for everybody anyway). Even when I only have to pay $10 to visit the doctor, it's still not something I relish doing and so I only go when I really need to.

I realize that I'm young and relatively healthy so my results are a little skewed, but even allowing for that, is my healthcare usage really that unusual? Are there people out there now who visit the doctor every other week for this or that minor ache and pain? Or is this just a made up worry? Something to scare folks away from the idea of universal coverage? Because frankly, at the moment this objection strikes me as about as honest as saying that "we need to repeal the estate tax to save the family farm".

Rowley Responds

I don't normally post up press releases, but I thought this one was worth sharing:

Rowley Responds to Kline Attack Ad #2, David Bailey to Remain with Campaign

On the controversy surrounding John Kline's recent mailer and David Bailey's role with Rowley for Congress, Coleen Rowley, DFL candidate for U.S. Congress (MN-02), issued this statement:

"John Kline may want to run against David Bailey, but he's not. He's running against Coleen Rowley, and if his attack mailers are any indication, he's running scared right now. He's also running away from his record of support for the disastrous debacle in Iraq, for the Medicare Part D program which is dropping at-risk seniors down the 'donut hole', and for privatizing Social Security," said Rowley.

"David Bailey has made valuable contributions to the campaign, and he will continue to do so. I welcome input and advice from people with a variety of views. This necessarily means I will disagree with both my supporters and staff on certain issues at certain times. But at the end of the day, Coleen Rowley decides what Coleen Rowley stands for, period. And as a 24-year FBI agent who fought organized crime, I emphatically and unequivocally oppose legalization of all drugs, especially methamphetamine, heroin, and crack cocaine," said Rowley

"Now that I have had to answer the ridiculous, scurrilous charge that John Kline indirectly leveled against me, I would like some answers from him. Does he agree with yesterday's ruling that Bush's surveillance of innocent Americans without oversight is unconstitutional? If he is in Congress in 2007, will he push as hard for Social Security privatization as he did in 2005? What does he say to seniors who are falling into the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' and are now responsible for 100% of their prescription drug costs? And finally, what is his plan for bringing the American occupation of Iraq to a successful conclusion? Please be specific," said Rowley.

"When I'm in Congress, I won't hide from questions, even hard questions from my opponents. My track record shows I stand up for what I believe is right, even in the face of overwhelming adversity. And one thing I pledge right now and for as long as I'm in politics: I will never stoop to smearing an unpaid staffer on my opponent's campaign --- or anyone else --- for political gain," said Rowley.

Yes please. Can we talk about some issues in this race instead of these ridiculous sideshow tactics?

Mr. Kline, what do you think should be done about Iraq?

Mr. Kline, do you feel Medicare Part D has been successful in helping seniors?

Mr. Kline, how has the energy bill benefited you constituents?

Mr. Kline, what do you think about the NSA wiretapping program?

You know, issues. The things your campaign seems determined not to mention.

Inequality Rising

Da Wege has posted the entirety of Paul Krugman's Op-Ed today. It's definitely worth a read.

And by the way, if the NY Times wants to know where you got your Krugman from, it wasn't me. Okay?

Kennedy Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

Eric Black at The Big Question was discussing the unprecedented traffic he received yesterday. The traffic was caused by a discussion about the David Broder article which mentioned that the "bottom had fallen out" for the Kennedy campaign. What caught my eye was this:

Of course I don't know the identity of the highly-placed Minn GOP source who told David Broder that polls show the bottom falling out from under Mark Kennedy's Senate bid. But I assure you the source was referring to internal Republican polling, not the month-old Minnesota Poll. [my bold]

Now it all makes sense why Kennedy's people heaped such scorn on the Minnesota Poll showing Klobuchar with an almost 20 point lead but wouldn't release their internal polling data to refute the "biased" MN Poll. Their polling showed similar results!

Nick Coleman, You're On Notice

I can tolerate a lot of insults, but this is beyond the pale:

Here's what a political convention will bring: Protesters, police, Zell Miller, prostitutes, barbed wire, government snipers, sniffer dogs, Hillary, barricades, bomb threats, bums, bloggers and Bill O'Reilly.

I can tolerate being lumped in with bums and hookers and other riff-raff but I will not tolerate being compared to Bill O'Reilly!

Falafel is for eating.

That is all.

(And happy Friday, everybody)

Drug Wars

A Rowley campaign staffer supports the same decriminalization as a John Kline endorsed conservative group does.

I wonder if Rowley is intending so send out a misleading scare mail as well? My guess is she has better things to do with her money.

More drug talk here. And a new response to all this nonsense here (warning - satire ahead).

Update on the Ahmadineblog

Apparently, the Iranian President's blog is actually a digital trap. Visitors from Israel are subject to having a virus installed on their system when they attempt to navigate around the page.


Also, our crack Powerliberal team of investigators have been working around the clock on that site and we finally have a translation for you.

Those two mysterious symbols on his site that have caused such discussion can be translated thusly:

(squiggly line) Heh.
(diferent squiggly line) Indeed.

Wow, he caught onto this blogging thing fast!

Update: Apparently I don't have the "Axis of Evil Language Pack" installed on my browser, so the symbols do not appear correctly in the joke above. You'll just have to imagine them.

Buddhofascism?

Who knew such a thing was even possible?

Pro-war Buddhist monks in scuffle

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- A scuffle broke out Thursday between saffron-robed monks and anti-war demonstrators at peace rally in Sri Lankan capital.

About six or seven monks from a right-wing Buddhist faction had stormed the stage during a peace rally attended by about 1,000 people in the capital, Colombo, shouting pro-war slogans, an AP reporter at the scene said.

Overhead at the rally: "Screw nirvana, it's time to kick some ***!"

Mark Kennedy's Wishful Thinking

Looking through candidate Kennedy's "Right Kind of Change in Washington" plan is a little like looking through a conservative Christmas list. And it has about as intellectual heft.

This is what we mean when we talk about "Credit Card Republicans". Long lists of tax cuts and new spending with no suggestion of where the money's going to come from. To be fair, I agree with a lot of Kennedy's individual proposals (heck, most of the good ones were cribbed from Democrats anyway) but taken as a whole they're nothing but a big lump of (increased debt) coal.


Kennedy proposes the following new tax cuts in the next six years:

• Make the [Bush] Tax Cuts Permanent
  
  
• Prevent New Taxes on Our Farmers, Like the Misguided Sugar and Dairy Producer Taxes
  
  
• Permanently Eliminate the Death Tax
  
  
• Using Tax Incentives to Attract Math and Science Professionals to the Classroom
  
  
• Expand Tax-Free College Savings
  
  
• Temporarily Suspend the Federal Gas Tax to Lower Prices at the Pump, While Holding the Highway Trust Fund Harmless
  
  
• Promote Wind and Solar Energy by Making the Current Tax Credits Permanent
  
  
• Offer Tax Credits for the Uninsured to Purchase Health Insurance
  
  
• Make Health Insurance Premiums Tax Deductible
  
  
• Stop the Raid on the Social Security Trust Fund
  
  
• Prevent a Social Security Payroll Tax Increase
  
  
• Increase Access to IRA's and Allow Increased Tax Free Contributions
  
  
• Make Sure that the Concurrent Receipt Penalty is Appropriately Phased Out
  

Kennedy also proposes the following new/continued/increased spending:

• Fully Fund Upgrades to Upper Mississippi River Locks and Dams
  
  
• Fully Fund the Federal Government's Share of Special Education Dollars
  
  
• Permit Federal Grants to Help Pay Our Best Teachers More When their Students Achieve
  
  
• Allow Federal Grant Money to be Used by States to Implement Teacher Competency Testing
  
  
• Fully Fund the Low Income Heating Assistance Plan
  
  
• Double Funding Again for Health Research
  
  
• Protect our Natural Habitat by Doubling Wetland Funding Through the Wetlands Loan Act
  
  
• Reduce the Threat of Invasive Species by Funding an Additional $5 Million, a 500% Increase, for Eradication and Containment
  
  
• Fully Funding Defense and National Security
  
  
• Increase Pay for Our Service Men and Women
  
  
• Build on the Record Veterans Funding Increases of the Past Six Years Over the Next Six Years
  
  
• Ensure Full Funding for First Responder Equipment and Training
  
  
• Fully Funding the Bryne Grant Program [anti-meth program]
  
  
• Guarantee Continued Funding for the Bullet Proof Vest Partnership Program
  
  
• Ensure Clean and Safe Drinking Water by Increasing Federal Funds to Clean Water Programs to One Billion Dollars by 2010
  
  
• Pass the Great Lakes Restoration Act to Give States Block Grants to Reduce Pollution in the Great Lakes
  
  
• Complete the Northstar Corridor
  
  
• Make Rural Roads Safer by Investing in Highway Repair and Safety Improvements
  

After all of those promises to debit money from the federal budget Kennedy must have a pretty whizbang plan to create some credit for the Feds, right?

Kennedy proposes increasing government revenue/cutting spending by:

• Hold the Line on Spending by Passing the Line-Item Veto, a Balanced Budget Amendment and Earmark Reform
  
  
• Prohibit the Government from Paying Social Security Benefits to Illegal Immigrants and Others who Use Fraudulent Social Security Numbers
  

Wow, quite the revenue generator there.

Also, Balanced Budget Amendment? You are in congress. A congress entirely controlled by your party. Are modern Republicans really so addicted to a "cut and spend" philosophy that you need a BBA to reign you in? It's not hard to see how we ended up hundreds of billions of dollars in debt under this kind of wishful governance. Cut revenues, increase spending...and the funding will (hopefully) take care of itself. If not, China will soak up our debts for a little longer, right China? Right?

Thursday Bits N Pieces

In case you stopped checking, the New Patriots appear to be back at work. I hope they stay.

Bluestem has the wiki response to Gil tweaks:

Welcome to Wikipedia, Congressman. It has been brought to our attention that you, and or your staffers, have tried to ammend the article of yourself at Wikipedia. I would like to draw your attention to our policy on editing entries about yourself. Also, I would like you all to understand that we need to have a ballance view on our articles. While I am sure that you are a good Congressman, but the edits that you or your office has done has been considered self promotion and were removed by another one of our editors. If you have any more questioms, please, talk to me. Thank you.

I'm going to assume Tony Garcia got Hacked.

Why I'm very happy that my next flight in NOT on Northwest Airlines...

NEW YORK - Bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. advised workers to fish in the trash for things they like or take their dates for a walk in the woods in a move to help workers facing the ax to save money.

The No. 5 U.S. carrier, which has slashed most employees' pay and is looking to cut jobs as it prepares to exit bankruptcy, put the tips in a booklet handed out to about 50 workers and posted for a time on its employee Web site.
Click to learn more...

The section, entitled "101 ways to save money," does not feature in new versions of the booklet or the Web site.

Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said some employees who received the handbook had taken issue with a couple of the items. "We agree that some of these suggestions and tips ... were a bit insensitive," Blahoski told Reuters.

The four-page booklet, "Preparing for a Financial Setback" contained suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."

The booklet was part of a 150-page packet to ground workers, such as baggage handlers, whose jobs will likely be cut after their union agreed to allow the airline to outsource some of their work, Blahoski said.

Prepared with the help of an outside company, the booklet encourages employees to manage their money better and prepare for financial emergencies.

"If you have saved some money, pat yourself on the back -- you deserve it," the booklet reads. "Take out only what you need and spend prudently."

"Insult? Meet Injury..."

Oh, ouch, Gil:

Last January, Coleman sought to soften his political past from "liberal" to "activist" in the entry for him in the online encyclopedia. Biden tried to tone down references to a past accusation of plagiarism.

Now Gutknecht, in effect, tried to expunge a reminder of a 12-year term-limit he imposed on himself in 1995.

Page histories available on Wikipedia show that Gutknecht's office tried twice -- July 24 and Aug. 14 -- to remove a 128-word entry on him and replace it with a more flattering 315-word entry taken from his official congressional biography.

In both cases, the original entry -- including his term-limit promise -- was restored within hours.

Arrests at the Don't Ask Don't Tell Protest

Andy has the story:

Four people were arrested at 6:30 pm at the Roseville Army National Guard recruiting office after they refused to leave in protest of the US Military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Three of the four arrested were among those that tried to enlist in May, and were denied the ability to serve because of their sexual orientation.

Pawlenty and "No New Taxes"

All you need to know about whether or not Pawlenty has kept his no new taxes pledge is contained in this graphic from today's Strib:

It's hard to ignore the almost 1:1 correlation between declining LGA and increasing property taxes. You can argue that cities should have simply cut their budgets to make up for the shortfall. But...

Quibble all you want about "green roofs" and other less pressing concerns, as this graphic makes clear 50% or more of Minneapolis' budget is dedicated solely to public safety (and that's after drastically cutting a large number of cops during the last couple of years).

The State promised to support for local governments and for education and both of those areas have been raided by Gov. Pawlenty causing massive double digit property tax increases statewide, shifting the tax burden down largely onto the poor and middle class. I for one think it's time to bring a little honesty back to State government.

They're Number One!

Okay, actually MN CD1 is #36, #39.

Up 7 spots in a month? No wonder Gil is acting scared...

Make him even more scared, get Walz on the Netroots list.

Updated number. Hey, at least I got the math right!

rew vs Nature

I win.

Sadly, the audience was less than impressed.

The New Terrorist Plot - The Panic Attack

The story of the morning is that of the diverted plane that landed at Logan.

Watching Fox News (so that you don't have to)I got to see the story grow from a woman having a panic attack (they swore she was just creating a diversion) to the report of the screwdriver, vaseline, matches and a note "written in two languages" regarding Al Qaeda. From the point in which the alleged vaseline story came across the AP wire, Fox began to scroll the illegal substances in their running banner.

The Fox view? Fox would like to remind you that the denial of the items are "probably true," although there are many reasons the airline would like to cover it up (bad security screening, an insider getting them on the plane for her, etc.). And the fact that they diverted to Logan, who has the best terrorism team, shows that it must be a cover-up.

And the right thinks the lefties have the monopoly on conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: I just switched to CNN. The woman was 60 years old, something I didn't hear on Fox. So much for letting Grandma keep her mouthwash.

Something about the estate tax

Charlie has an excellent post up this morning about what a partial repeal of the estate tax has meant for charities. Go read.

Because I hate just linking without a "value add" of my own, here's an additional point about the estate tax.

Myth 7: The estate tax constitutes "double taxation" because it applies to assets that already have been taxed once as income.

Reality: Large estates are comprised mostly of "unrealized" capital gains that
have never been taxed; the estate tax is the only means of taxing this income.

Puff Post

Hard day, so here's some fluff:

CJ was at the new Punch, I guess.

A Punch in their face

The arrival of Punch on Hennepin may sound the death knell for Pizza Nea.

Because this stretch of real estate is not exactly Italy, how many trendy pizza places can this part of town support?

"We expect a hit on sales temporarily," said Mike Sherwood, who owns two Pizza Neas. "We have some loyal customers. We were in Northeast going on four years; took a chance on the neighborhood before it was fashionable."

While the pizza is very similar, Sherwood said, the difference is that he has waiters, while Punch is "fast casual." A Punch staffer at the Lake Street store said that only St. Paul's Punch has waitrons.

Allow me to take a moment to say, "screw you, Punch." I spent two years living a block from Nea, who has probably the best pizza in Minneapolis. I tried Punch once. It tasted burned.

Saturday I dropped by Nea for lunch with a friend, where we had amazing bruschetta and a fantasic pizza with goat cheese, dunried tomatos and peppers. The place was still having a healthy lunch crowd, mainly of families out with their younger children.

While we were eating, Mr. Sherwood actually stopped by or table to see how our food was, and thank us for coming in rather than going to the competitor down the street. I explained to him that Smartie and I would come in regularly when we lived close, often getting takeout insalata and a pie to have while we watched movies, or would stop in for their two pizza and a bottle of wine Tuesday Night special. He was touched and said that those were the reasons he loved being in this neighborhood.

Who stops by to see how your meal is at Punch?

On a nicer note, I'm watching the Miss Teen USA Pagent. I feel like a huge geek, but just like the Oscars, I'm ashamed but I can't help but watch. And yes, I still root for Nebraska. Not that she ever gets in, but I still send the love. Besides, how can you resist a show judged by B-list star Melissa Rivers and Some Guy Who Plays A Character on "Days of Our Lives"?

UPDATE: Woot - Nebraska's in! I've never seen Nebraska make it into the finals of any pagent before. But can she beat North Dakota? This is the most Midwestern pagent I've ever seen with Montana, Kansas and Michigan, too. No New York or California. I bet half the country just turned it off.

UPDATED AGAIN: Nebraska's out. Kansas and North Dakota still in. That was quick.

FINAL UPDATE: Third place isn't bad, North Dakota. You were way smarter than Montana.

There is unrest in the forest...

Anyone out there know anything about trees? This tree has grown up in our backyard this summer and I have no idea what the heck it is. It started out this spring as a tiny sapling maybe a foot high and it's now over my head so whatever species it is it grows fast.

Here's a picture of the whole tree:

The leaves are rough and the edges curl up. Here's a couple close ups of the leaves:

Any ideas?

What Does Bachmann Have Against the 6th?

In June she holds a fundraiser with Cheney in a home on Lake Minnetonka (outside of the 6th).

Now we see that her August 22nd fundraiser with President Bush is going to be held in...Stillwater? St. Cloud? Blaine? Nope. Wayzata. (Also not in the 6th, for non-Minnesotans)

To add a little salt to the wound the money raised by this upcoming fundraiser isn't even going to her campaign committee (which actually is headquartered in the 6th). Instead it's earmarked for something called the "Bachmann Victory Fund" which is apparently located in DC. What, Minnesota's not good enough for you, Michele?

It's a good thing Rove deigned to set foot in Bachmann's district, because it's starting to look like none of her other backers will.

why conservatives shouldn't be trusted with civil discourse

Because they get somebody you've never heard of to make a dumb statement. Then they immediately and hysterically extrapolate from that that EVEYONE THEY DISAGREE WITH AGREES WITH THAT STATEMENT AND MUST BE STOPPED.

And then their ditto heads nod sagely.

The only step left is to throw out the words "strawman" and "ad-hominem" against anyone who disagrees with them and then call it a smug self-satisfied day.

Call it the "Ward Churchill Process".

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

So Kline has retreated in the face of a potential defamation lawsuit?

Truth Surfer has the story.

You have to wonder, with investigators likely to hand down charges soon, why Kline would apologize. After all, the ultimate defense against libel is the truth. Is he really that nervous about negative press? So much so that he's willing to back down on statements that seem to be supported by the evidence? An odd move, and one that I think points up an interesting difference between Kline and Rep. Murtha. Both old and distinguished Marines, but only one willing to go to the mat for the truth.

Update: Coleen Rowley responds to Kline's apology.

(h/t Curly Tales of War Pigs)

How Does This Make Sense?

They're doing everything but press-ganging people into the military:

Misconduct by military recruiters cited

WASHINGTON - Military recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young troops to the battlefield, congressional investigators say.

Grueling combat conditions in Iraq, a decent commercial job market and tough monthly recruiting goals have made recruiters' jobs more difficult, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. This has probably prompted more recruiters to resort to strong-arm tactics, including harassment or criminal means such as falsifying documents, to satisfy demands, GAO states.

At the same as they're kicking out increasing numbers of gay soldiers:

Military's Discharges for Being Gay Rose in '05

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 - The Defense Department discharged 726 service members last year for being gay, up about 10 percent from 2004, figures released by a gay rights group show.

The group, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. A spokeswoman for the Defense Department, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed that it had released the information.

What's the message here? That it's more acceptable to the military to have soldiers who are potentially physically or mentally unfit to serve than to have perfectly healthy and willing gay soldiers? I know prejudice runs deep but this goes beyond simple ignorance. This is crazy.

Will the Right finally join us in calling for an end to the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy? Do it for the good of the armed services, even if you care nothing for the social justice issues involved.

Kennedy v The Speak & Spell

I know Republicans would never use news of the terrorist arrests in London to try to score political points, so I'll just chalk up KvM's post (and the WSJ's editorial) of this morning to ignorance:

Let’s emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs. [this was a quote from the WSJ]

Many of the same surveillance practices chastised by the Democrats were what actually stopped this plot. During the very same rally the DFL was heralding Amy Klobuchar over, John Edwards said the following.

‘I also want to live in an America where we’re not giving up liberty in the name of freedom‘

If Edwards had his way, the tools used to stop this attack would be out of the hands of those who need it.

In truth, the New York Times wouldn't have needed to get a hold of it. If terrorists were really curious about MI5's methods they're right on their website. Notice how they take great pains to point out that they seek warrants for every activity and even have links to the relevant sections of the British judicial code which govern their activities. Why, they seem to actually be working within the law instead of actively trying to flout it. What a concept!

Remember, too, that England does not have a Bill of Rights. MI5 has a much greater latitude for domestic action than US intelligence services, but-here's the important part-they don't treat that as an excuse to ignore the law. I know this is a hard concept for KvM and others on the Right to grasp, but just because you can exercise power doesn't always mean that you should.

I've largely avoided posting on these arrests both because I didn't want to make a political issue out of a law enforcement action and because it often takes weeks for the facts to come out on something like this. Were that this caution was shared.

Update: Glenn Greenwald agrees and says it better than I.

A Public Service Announcement from Broken Nails

VERY Good Advice:

While we are at it, go and register to vote if you haven't, if you've moved, if you think Mary [Kiffmeyer] doesn't like you.

Tuesday Bits and Pieces

More about the Gil Lawsuit:

Gutknecht has always chosen to submit filing petitions when running for Congress to highlight his fiscal conservatism and has never before been challenged on the basis of when petitions were signed.

As Vox pointed out - like many fiscal conservatives, it's more inportant to look fiscal than be fiscal. When paying people $10 an hour, what are the odds that it was cheeper than paying the $300 filing fee? (Note: Vox has heard but not confirmed this rumor, so we put it in MDE landfor now)

Suprising to no one, Kiffmeyer says he's completely in the right (ha!), but others who have dealt with campaign law aren't so sure.

David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University who also teaches elections law at the University of Minnesota Law School, disagreed with Kiffmeyer's interpretation. He said he believes the section of the law in question refers to both nominating petitions and to petitions filed in lieu of a filing fee.

"I think Gutknecht's in trouble," Schultz said.

But Guy Charles, a co-dean of the law school, said Gutknecht's candidacy looks less vulnerable under a subsequent section.

"That section does not contain any restrictions on when you can gather the signatures," Charles said. "The only thing it requires is that a number of signatures be collected. It's an argument Gutknecht could make, a good-faith argument."

If petitions for Gutknecht signed before the July filing period are thrown out, Weinblatt said only 290 signatures would remain - far short of the 1,000 signatures required to file for election as a U.S. representative.

Ollie Ox has much much more on this, as well.

Speaking of Lawsuits, I guess the one against Kline worked.

Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline apologized Monday to the Marines under investigation in the killings of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, last November, saying that statements he made about the case were taken out of context and that he did not mean to imply the Marines were guilty of wrongdoing.

Kline issued the apology as part of an agreement with lawyers for Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who alleged Kline had damaged Wuterich's reputation.

Some fun from Countdown:

Olbermann: "Bush administration officials now trying to claim that the Vice President was unaware the British terror arrests were imminent when on Wednesday of last week he suggested that Senator Joe Lieberman's defeat in the Connecticut primary would encourage terrorists, even though by then the President had already known for about 72 hours of the arrests. The notoriously press-shy Mr. Cheney interrupting his summer vacation to tell reporters in a conference call that voters who supported Ned Lamont's anti-war candidacy might, quote, 'embolden the al-Qaeda types who want to break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.' This from the same man who also said the insurgency in Iraq was in its last throes.

Out of the mouths of conservatives....(alternate title, "you're lips, republican's ears")

This endorsement should give pause to each and every single conservative within the borders of Minnesota. Kennedy may not be as strong of a conservative once in the Senate as he is being packaged up to be; Kennedy's actions are being dictating by things other than principles; without being guided by principles Kennedy has fallen into the goal of 'make the opponents lose'; Kennedy seems to be sticking his finger in the air to make decisions...be it to prove he can cross the aisle, etc.

Beware...for you have been forewarned. Not by me, but by his own actions and his own positions. I'm just the messenger.

11th Ave on "Don't Ask Don't Tell":

The Appleton Post-Crescent asked it's readers what they though about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). The response was overwhelmingly to abolish the flawed policy. Ten out of 13 letters supported abolishing DADT, including a number of veterans.

Some Quick Thoughts After One Quarter

Well, that's one quarter of Vikings preseason football down. It's a pretty small sample to go on, but here are some quick impressions.

Special Teams-ug. Dropping the opening kickoff and then allowing a long return on the first kickoff to Oakland is not a good start. Couple that with the lack of any strong returns and it looks like this is one area that is going to require a lot of work both offensively and defensively.

Offense-Solid, but unimpressive. Chester Taylor looks decent, but not likely to light up the score board. Koren Robinson looks good. Brad Johnson looks okay, passes on target and fairly moble. I'll have to see more of this unit before making too much of a decision.

Defense-Definately the bright spot. Good pressure on the QB on pretty much every play. No long runs allowed. Tight coverage on all the receivers. Good marks all around. All of Oakland's points in the first quarter can be chalked up to special teams not defense, and as a Vikings fan that's not something I'm used to writing.

Etc.-The new uniforms look pretty sharp, I have to admit. A little busy, maybe, but they certainly look good in the usual longer shots. Not enough plays to say much about the coaching yet.

However they do this year, I'm happy it's football season once again! Go Vikes!

Couple of updates after the 2nd quarter-Should have mentioned the lack of Vikings penalties, that's always a good sign. Also, Tarvaris Jackson looks very good so far...

A New Blog to Watch

This is just crazy.

Yeah, you read that right. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, now has a blog. It can be found here:

http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/

The server is down right now due to heavy traffic, but this could definitely be an interesting trend. Are there any other world leaders you would like to see start a blog?

MNCR v MDE

Powermatch Tonight

We Couldn't Agree More

From today's letters to the Strib:

Get back to the issues

It's only August, and I'm already tired of all the politics of distortion -- I'll bet other voters are, too.

The race between Rep. John Kline and DFL candidate Coleen Rowley must apparently be a lot closer than the pundits think, or the charges and countercharges wouldn't be boiling.

This election shouldn't be about accusations of political dirty tricks. It should be about the direction America will take in Iraq, about whether every American should have the right to basic health care, about whether a senior citizen should have to decide between buying groceries or filling a prescription.

Let's all dial down the rhetoric. Voters should challenge both candidates to participate in a series of debates where they lay out their separate visions for our country. Let the best vision carry the day.

CHARLES SMITH-DEWEY, LAKEVILLE

Let's take a look at those issues Mr. Smith-Dewey mentioned.

WAR IN IRAQ:

Rowley says:

We MUST change Bush's disastrous course! We must stop blindly following this administration and act on the advice of a growing number of non-partisan experts, including our most astute Mid-East scholars and retired military officials, who have developed consensus around a plan for orderly, phased withdrawal from Iraq and redeployment of American forces accompanied by certain steps. The following "withdrawal plus" plan outlines some general but necessary steps which, given some flexibility in implementation, now constitute our best option for stabilizing and exiting Iraq:
A Withdrawal-Plus Plan for Iraq

1. Public disavowal by President Bush of any interest in permanent American military bases or controlling Iraqi oil or other resources;

2. Graduated withdrawal of American troops, initially to more consolidated, defensive positions/locations, but ultimately from all of Iraq. Some forces should be redeployed to regional positions to respond quickly to emergency scenarios and/or terrorist developments;

3. Simultaneous initiation of an independent peace process to engage in talks with the various Iraqi groups opposed to the occupation, including insurgents and sectarian militias, to continue seeking a political settlement of their issues. This would involve enlisting the services of a peace envoy, independent of the occupation authorities and preferably under Islamic Council, Arab League and/or U.N. auspices, to engage in mediation/conciliation efforts among the three Iraqi factions. The Sunni faction, specifically, must be assured of appropriate power sharing and/or obtaining their appropriate share of the oil proceeds which are not located in the geographical territory traditionally inhabited by the Sunnis. A U.S. imposed reconstruction will not work. Iraqis must come together to form a functional government, negotiate peaceful settlements of their disputes, and ultimately determine the fate of their country;

4. Involvement of Iraq's neighbors, all of whom have strategic interests in ensuring that the violence in Iraq does not spill over into their own countries, must be sought and obtained. Neighboring countries should be asked to assist in securing Iraq's borders and to assist the efforts of an independent peace envoy in stabilizing Iraq; and

5. Humanitarian funding and assistance for peaceful reconstruction from the U.S., Great Britain and other coalition countries must be channeled primarily through Iraqi contractors where possible. Since we invaded Iraq, we have a responsibility to the country's reconstruction. Withdrawal of troops does not change that. Our continued economic assistance should, however, be put under direct control of the peace envoy and linked to further progress in the peace process.

HEALTH CARE:

Rowley says

I agree with a growing number of physicians -- the American Medical Student Association, the American Public Health Association, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Institute of Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American College of Physicians- American Society of Internal Medicine -- and with the American Nurses Association who say it's time for the federal government to provide for universal health care coverage. Like the late Senator Paul Wellstone, I support leaving the specifics of achieving this objective to each state.

A flexible national mandate would encourage states, like California, which is currently considering creation of a single-payer, universal health insurance system, to move forward and perhaps serve as model legislation for other states. Minnesota, which has more of its citizens covered than many states, could proceed with improvements as it sees fit. Ideally, systems could be designed to cover everyone with comprehensive necessary care, increase quality and reduce errors, lower administrative and other costs, and preserve doctor choice.

You can read more about these and many other important issues on her website.


On these issues Kline says...nothing?

Kline has very little in the way of "issues" or "plans for the future" on either of his websites. See for yourself here or here. From his past record, I think it's safe to assume that Kline strongly backs the administration and their current war planning. As for health care, all we know for sure is that Kline voted in favor of Medicare Part-D.

Who has the vision and the command of the issues? I leave that up to the voters of the 2nd District to decide.

A Few Cents Short of A Dollar

I recently watched 9/11 conspiracy phenomenon "Loose Change". It was suggested to me by someone at DL last Thursday (I didn't catch his name) and I had also seen several references to it on the web. Since I'm an X-Files loving, healthy skepticism of my government having, wants to explore all possibilities kind of guy I thought "what the heck," I'll see if there's any merit to these conspiracy theories.

There's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

Wow. I encourage everyone to watch the video (available here) who has any doubts about how crazy you have to be to believe this conspiracy nonsense. Anyone needing a point by point refutation is invited to go here (and another good one, albeit not related to the film, is here). Or you can watch a real-time debunking of the movie here (click on the video link on the left menu to get to the debunking)).

Since the above-linked sites have done such a good job refuting the video in its specifics, I'll just mention a couple of general problems that jumped out at me:

1. Factual Errors. I'm not a scientist of any stripe, but even I could spot a couple of major factual errors in this video. My favorite (and one that made me laugh out loud) was the claim that fire from upper floors of the WTC couldn't have come down elevator shafts to scorch lower floors because the elevator shafts were sealed "air tight". Since I don't ever recall hearing about people who suffocated while riding the elevators, I'll assume some air was allowed into the elevator shafts.

2. Intentionally Misleading Use of Quotes. The strategic use of quotes taken out of context to make them say something other than what was intended. For example, the Pennsylvania county coroner for the area around Shanksville is quoted as saying, "I stopped being coroner after about 20 minutes, because there were no bodies there." Which the video takes as proof that there were no passengers aboard the plane, when in fact the coroner meant simply that remains were not identifiable (his full statement can be found here).

3. Conflicting Theories. Rather than making a cogent argument, the filmmakers seemed to just throw out every half-baked theory and unexplained loose end as "proof" of...something. What they don't exactly seem to know. Was Flight 93 supposed to have been shot down by the military? Or was it supposed to have been a drone aircraft empty of passengers? Was the Pentagon hit by a cruise missile? or an old military aircraft? Or something launched from a helicopter? All are suggested as possibilities, even though the evidence for one would naturally exclude the other possibilities. Such conflicts between pieces of "evidence" are ignored.

4. The Conspiracy Itself. Finally, is that last big issue that frequently pops up for conspiracy fans. The sheer size and complexity of this conspiracy would require tens if not hundreds of thousands of willing participants. These include not only nearly every ranking employee of the federal government and the military, but also nearly every member of the involved state and local governments, air traffic controllers, scientists, the FBI & CIA, rescue workers and media outlets, not to mention all of the numerous random bystanders/witnesses, etc. (the flight that hit the Pentagon flew over a busy DC freeway and all the people on that freeway saw it...are they in on it too? Or were they all government sp00ks?) The recently busted London plane bombers had a group of 25 and they couldn't keep their plot quiet. Are we to really believe that out of these thousands upon thousands of people none has had second thoughts (or just gotten boastful) in the last five years?

In summary, then, if this video is the height of the 9/11 theorizing, I think we can safely lay those theories to rest.

Although I personally think Loose Change does a serious disservice to those who died that day I'm not going to get too angry at the people who made this video nor those who believe it. I'm willing to believe that the conspiracy theorists honestly believe they are doing the right thing and exposing "the truth". So, to them I say please take a moment to think this through. Read some of the above-linked refutations of the video's claims. You do a disservice to yourself and everybody when you naively swallow this kind of garbage. There are enough real problems in this world without having to invent new ones.

Throw Down in My 'Hood

Mitch tells me there's a new guy running for office in my neighborhood:

Barry's a very sharp guy who cares a lot about Northeast Minneapolis. Diane Loeffler - a nondescript DFL apparatchik who has to all appearances never had a job outside of government (let me check on that), currenty[sic] holds the seat. That needs to change.

If you live in 59A, you need to contact Barry and help out; if everyone converts a neighbor or two, this could be a great race. And if you don't? Well, visit his donations page; running a local race against a cog in the DFL machine is not just a battle against the candidate, but against the whole money machine that keeps the DFL in charge of the inner city.

Go, Barry!

Well, Mitch got her there, she sure sounds like a "cog":

Diane's career has been spent in public service. She has worked as a budget and policy analyst on education issues for the State of Minnesota, on city finance and tax issues for the City of Minneapolis and the League of Minnesota Cities, and in Human Services, Health and Training and Employment for Hennepin County. She currently works for Hennepin County in health care policy analysis on issues of services to seniors and persons with disabilities, health promotion and protection, and how to ensure more persons have access to affordable and effective health coverage.

Diane's volunteer time has been spent in making a difference in Northeast Minneapolis. There she has led efforts to save a local library, address ground and air pollution, improve housing, develop youth programs, and actively been involved in Central Avenue and riverfront redevelopment, park planning, and crime prevention. Project by project, year by year DianeÂ’s demonstrated her dedication to not just talking about problems, but leading efforts to address them.

I wish Barry the best of luck - this is going to be a tough neighborhood for him to get traction in. We had 95% voter turnout last election and over 80% of them cast ballots for a Democrat. Of course, he isn't giving away his party affiliation on his website, so maybe he thinks that might help him out.

"Good Boy"

I cannot praise Spot more today. A pup of extensive knowledge and unusual analyzation, he has managed not only to offer excellent advice on the AG race, but also explain the threat of breast milk, and the wily timing of the terrorist apprehension.

I don't normally post three things by one blogger, but Spot has had an excellent weekend. Someone should buy him a kong.

Monday Bits N Pieces

An "unprecedented shift in authority":

At the meeting, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican and the outgoing NGA chairman, described the provision as one that "violates 200 years of American history." Governors see it as part of a broader effort by the federal government to diminish the sovereignty of the states.

Via Vox Verax, a whole lot of Republican Congresspeople break their "Contract".

Evil Bobby writes to Gil (hey, that letter's not that Evil!)

Tom gets pithy, and writes a new campaign bumpersticker.

He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.

That Ben Franklin sure was a smart one.

And best post title of the day comes from my favorite ladies....

"iPods Keep Teens from Saying NO"

Kelley Endorsed for AG

See here here here and here for details.

In all honesty, I'm glad they endorsed, which is why I didn't put up the "no endorsement" blog the rest of the lefties were doing. I feel that although many of the bloggers had good reason and justifications, for the politicians it was simply a political move - the two who were not going for the endorsement did so because they knew they were not likely to be getting it, and wanted to push for no endorsement not for the "everyone needs more time" reason, but to try and push Kelley down in the race. That's fine. That's politics. But don't coat it as "I'm doing it for the benefit of the voters," when you really mean "I'm doing it for the health of my campaign."

I wish all three candidates, endorsed or non-endorsed, the best of luck and look forward to voting for one of the three in September, and again in November. Because the tuth is, we get to vote for whomever we want, regardless of who is endorsed, and I'm going to be spending my time until then deciding which one best meets the goals of what I want in a candidate.

Will Gutknecht Be on the Ballot?

From the Strib...

A voter has challenged the validity of First District U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht's campaign over a technicality, filing a lawsuit that alleges the six-term Republican congressman improperly filed his candidacy paperwork.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday with the Secretary of State's office, asks that Gutknecht's name be removed from the ballot because he used signatures that were collected outside of the July 4-18 filing period. The signatures were on a petition in support of his candidacy.

A real issue or a gotcha story? I did a quick google search of the person filing the complaint and can't find anything, so if he has a very rich partisan background it's very well-hidden. If it were a democrat who had invalid signatures, I'm sure there would be some who would ask, "If a person has no regard for the law, what would make you think he can uphold it in the House?"

I guess we just wait and see if it has legs...

From the In Box - Rowley Demands Return to Issues

Coleen Rowley for Congress



For Immediate Release

Contact: Terry Rogers

Phone: 507-664-3850

August 11, 2006

Rowley Denounces Kline Mailer, Calls for a Return to the Issues

This week, Kline for Congress distributed a campaign mailer to second district voters that accuses the Rowley campaign of "playing dirty tricks" while declaring "We can't trust her in Congress." As evidence, they allege, "A senior staff member of Coleen Rowley's campaign tried to hide his identity to infiltrate Congressman John Kline's campaign."

"It simply never happened. The claim is flat out wrong," said Coleen Rowley, DFL candidate for Congress (MN-02). "Rowley for Congress had no involvement whatsoever in the alleged incident. To say that we did is a lie."

The Kline mailer was sent to homes in Apple Valley, Eagan, and possibly beyond.

"John Kline's misinformation campaign is yet another diversion from what really matters – the issues," said Rowley.

"Does Kline distribute literature that informs voters how he'll lower prescription drug prices, how he'll make college more accessible, or how we'll ease our pain at the pump? No. He distributes mendacious literature that accuses me of 'dirty tricks,' relying upon patently false information to smear my campaign, my staff, and my character," said Rowley.

"I believe voters deserve more than baseless accusations and mindless finger pointing. I want to debate the issues that matter most to the second district, and I've repeatedly challenged Kline to do just that. We live in a country with real problems, and our leaders have been asleep at the wheel for too long. It's time for real leadership in Washington, not another faceless politician who seeks to dodge his record at all costs," said Rowley.

AG Race Live Blogs

We've had people commment and email asking about if we are liveblogging the DFL AG endorsement tomorrow. We actually decided to take the day and help out our firends who had a baby recently, so we are going to be at home for the day (plus we have afamily reuniion on Sunday, which make our weekend pretty short.).

For live coverage, got to MNCR or Publius. I will do updates while the baby naps as well, but they'll be coming from there.

If you want my snark, come here. There's probably a reason I didn't do the blog for no endoresment. We'll see if I still feel the same by the time it is done.

One Last Look at The Kline Affair

Fact Check

According to the press release:

In a deliberate attempt to misrepresent himself, your Research and Communications Director, David Bailey, entered John Kline's Congressional District Office and tried to make an anonymous cash contribution to Congressman Kline's campaign. He did not give his name or identify himself as a supporter of your campaign for Congress.

Star Tribune

At the time, Bailey was a Rowley volunteer and a blogger who criticized Kline. Rogers noted that at the time of the alleged incident, Bailey was not on Rowley's campaign.
[snip]
Kline spokesman Marcus Esmay said Bailey gave his real e-mail address and his real address, which was subsequently used to learn his connection to the Rowley campaign.

Press Release

Clearly trying to hide his identity as one of your strongest supporters, Mr. Bailey told me that he would like to volunteer for our campaign and requested to be placed on our mailing lists. Mr. Bailey then opened his wallet and began to withdraw cash to make a campaign donation in order to imbed himself in our campaign. I informed him we did not accept cash donations at which time he hastily left the office.

Facts:

John Kline's Congressional Campaign website does not have a sign up for a mailing list. It does not provide press releases. It does not have an email with which to contact the campaign. It does include a place to volunteer, although it does not give a choice to be added the to mailing list. It does give a place to contribute to the campaign. There is no place in the Kline website for any person to do anything besides volunteer or contribute money to the Kline campaign.

Press Release (same as above)

...David Bailey, entered John Kline's Congressional District Office and tried to make an anonymous cash contribution to Congressman Kline's campaign....

Fact:

Anonymous cash contributions are allowed up to $50 according to the FEC. Bratlie did not mention how much Bailey offered, only that "we did not accept cash donations."

And finally, a letter to the editor from today's Star Tribune:

We recently received a Rep. John Kline mailing claiming a Mr. Bailey was a Coleen Rowley operative trying to gain John Kline's secrets. The fact is that he was trying to get on Kline's mailing list.

After reviewing the Aug. 10 Star Tribune article, it would appear that Kline is falsely portraying what happened as well as laying a case for guilt by association on Rowley.

Friday Bits N Pieces

Some blogroll changes have been made. Be sure to check out new Drinking Buddies Blue Stem Prairie, Blank-Out and Stooge. Yes, I know some of them should have been updated a while ago, but it hasn't even been two years yet, and updating the blogroll is already becoming cumbersome. I hate to see what it will be like when we're doing this site when we're 60...hopefully by then I'll be able to make changes with the power of my mind.

From a Strib editorial today, "Bush talks about 'war,' but it's more of a police action." Sadly, "Enduring Police Action on Terror" doesn't have the same sexy ring to it, although at least then we'd finally have an EPA the Republicans would get behind.

Good news from PZ - "We Beat Turkey!"

Phoenix Woman has a breakdown of voters in the Lamont/Lieberman race and this analysis...

In other words, if it wasn't for Lieberman's locking up the backing of most of the big unions early in the primary, back when Lamont had just started his challenge and was still polling well below twenty percent, the race wouldn't have even been close.

Finally, last night Smartie and I were discussing the whole "$100 donation per married couple is reimbursed if donated to a state candidate" thing. We realized at this point it would be foolish to not donate, since it would be given back to us, but we live in a very safe district, and aren't sure who we should give the money to. What would be the local race where we could do the most good? We are open to suggestions in the comments.

Thanks?

Many papers have pointed out now that Mark Kennedy has thrown his support to Joe Lieberman.

Are any of these intrepid press release reporters going to contact Joe and ask him if he wants it?

I Guess Their Money's Still Good

In Minnesota, Mark Kennedy can't do enough to distance himself from the Bush administration.

When he's back in Washington, however, things are different.

From a story discussing the role of lobbying and money in American politics in the Albany Times Union:

Rep. Mark Kennedy, a Minnesota Republican running for an open Senate seat, had a fundraising lunch on June 15 with White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten at the Oval Room.

A Mark Kennedy fundraiser with Bush's Chief of Staff? Gee, I wonder why we never heard about that?

Hooray for Ellison

Ellison calls for Watergate-style hearings on Bush administration

Rep. Keith Ellison called Wednesday for Watergate-like congressional hearings into what he called the expansion of executive authority by the administration of President Bush.

The Minneapolis DFLer made the announcement on the 32nd anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon. "They had a Congress that was willing to ask the hard questions and hold the executive responsible," he said.

Ellison called "unacceptable" an expansion of the executive branch's power during the Bush presidency.

He stopped short of calling for impeachment, saying a body of evidence first must be accumulated through hearings.

It's an interesting hypothetical-if we had the current rubberstamp congress in office in '73-'74 would they have passed a law legalizing Nixon's actions? After all, we were at war and he was only trying to protect the country and if you don't have anything to hide what are you worried about anyway? Only a Communist would think otherwise.

Over at, Kennedy v. The Weenie Roaster they are simply aghast that someone would suggest congress exercise its oversight authority. How dare he??? I guess we know what to expect from the candidates they favor, then. No accountability, no oversight, and more of the same failed policies we've been seeing since 2000. If you want a change in the direction this country is headed, the choice is clear.

More Sloppy and Irresponsible Blogging from Minnesota Democrats Exposed

Minnesota Democrats Exposed is really digging at the bottom of the barrel to find something to post. He's so desperate to attack Republicans Democrats, he's decided to cite U.S. Codes that do not in any way apply to the overblown and misleading press release provided to him by a desperate Kline campaign.

Only in the conservative blogosphere is trying to receive mailings from a Republican campaign that you don't agree with illegal.

(This is an "If I were MDE" post, inspired by Sponge)

Update: Don't you hate it when you screw up a parody post?

Thursday Bits N Pieces - Futurama

Minnesota Politics sees into Katherine Kersten's future:

Katherine Kersten will write a kolumn about how Joe Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut at the hands of Ned Lamont shows that the Democrats have been taken over by left-wing crazies. She will fail to cite one single piece of evidence demonstrating that Lamont is indeed at the far left of the party, except for his belief that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq, a belief shared by the majority of people in this country.

She will try to make this local by interviewing some local right-wing blowhard about the race.

Larry Sabato sees into Minnesota's senate race's future:

Republicans grouse that Kennedy would be 10 points ahead but for the war. They still think Kennedy can win, but [Larry] Sabato [professor of politics at the University of Virginia] now gives Klobuchar the edge.

ILC assumes oil companies can see into the future, just a little:

Oil will hit new records as both OPEC members and Western oil field operators tighten supplies in the coming days. This is likely to benefit tank farm owners... my guess is that BP has prepared itself to make a few $$$ on the predictable price inflation that would occur after their annnouncement they are closing the Prudhoe Bay fields (8% of U.S. production) for pipeline repairs. They've probably known they would do this for several months.

(yes, the link is worksafe)

Dumpbachmann has some questions for Bush for when he comes to visit "The Bachmann" in the not too distant future. A gotta say, I don't know where "The Bachmann" came from, but it's kind of catchy. "Do you support 'The Bachmann' and all that She stands for, so help you God?" "I do." "Long live 'The Bachmann!'"

And does Andy see the future? Or does he just really need a puppy?

'DFLers' Will Get You Killed If They Have They Way and Win

(Don't like the tittle? Too bad, they will get us killed if they get in charge of our National security.)

Kline-Rowley: the MSM Chimes In

Kevin Diaz from the Star Tribune reports:

Kline spokesman Marcus Esmay said Bailey gave his real e-mail address and his real address, which was subsequently used to learn his connection to the Rowley campaign.

"It doesn't sound like a very secretive operation when you leave your e-mail and address," Rogers responded.

Esmay said the incident might have ended there. But he said the Rowley campaign recently complained about Kline volunteers writing letters to the editor and participating in non-campaign web sites.

Diaz has an otherwise good article, but misses the main point. Again, Bailey did something before he joined the Rowley staff, Kline has his volunteers doing it from his campaign headquarters.

Those are in no way the same thing.

The Accused Rebuts

David Bailey gives his version of events here.

So to summarize, here are the mis-statements and/or outright lies in Ms. Bratlie's letter:

1. I was not a member of Coleen's staff when I visited Kline's office in February. Although Ms. Bratlie couldn't have known that at the time, she certainly knew it when she wrote her accusatory letter.
2. I did in fact leave both my name and address with Ms. Bratlie, contrary to her accusation.
3. I made no attempt to misrepresent myself. I was a constituent who wanted information, and who wanted to make a campaign donation, and that's exactly how I represented myself. While it's true that I only wanted to make a donation in order to get on Kline's mailing list, I had to resort to this tactic only because all of my previous attempts to get answers from his office were met with silence.
4. I never said I wanted to volunteer for Kline's campaign.
5. Contrary to her assertion that I "hastily left the office" after my donation was refused, I stayed for at least another five minutes, trying get answers to my questions.
6. In her letter, Ms. Bratlie asserts that the Rowley campaign "introduced the actions of staff as an issue", when she herself was the first to do so by falsely accusing me of dishonesty in my letter to ThisWeek.

Update: Sponge asks the right questions:

Are campaign staffers really campaign staffers before they join the campaign? More importantly, are campaigns who sit on information for over 5 months and then use it in an intentionally misleading, incorrect and contextually-void manner liars? If not, what are they?

Calling Shenanigans on the Kline/Rowley Fight

MDE posts a press release from the Kline campaign calling dirty "double agent tricks" on Rowley's campaign. Of course, the press release doesn't state when the alleged incident occured.

Wege posts a rebuttle from the accused, stating that despite Kline's campaigns attempts to infer otherwise, he was not working for the Rowley campaign when he entered the headquarters.

MDE retorts with alleged laws that were broken, however, since Bailey wasn't a staffer, we have to assume these refer to the Kline campaign, since only one campaign was paying staffers when they were misrepresenting themselves.

This could all be solved very simply if the Kline campaign would like to tell everyone when the alleged incident happened. As stated in the Wege post, David Bailey began working for the Rowley campaign on May 6th. If the incident was after then, there is an issue. If the incident was before then, it wasn't a shining moment, but the only candidate paying staffers who misrepresented themselves is John Kline.

When did this happen, Mr. Kline?

UPDATE: An MDE commentor states that it happened in Februrary - 3 months before Bailey began to work for Rowley's campaign.

Is it safe to say that Kline's people might have decided the race is competitive?

Drinking Liberally with Justin Adams

This week, Drinking Liberally is happy to have Justin Adams, an independent running for House seat 58A join us. From his website, Mr. Adams states:

I'm not a typical politician. My wife and I bought our house here in 2004, and we're hoping to have our first child next year. I take the 5 bus to work every day, where I make less than 30k.

You can read more about Mr. Adams at his campaign blog or just meet him in person at the 331.

Drinking Liberally
Thursday August 10th, 6-9 pm
331 Club, 13th and University in Northeast Minneapolis

Luther says "Just Say No"

asks for a no endorsement

Some Things to Think About

The lazy media line on Lamont's victory seems to be that "the Democratic party is being taken over by extreme left wing elements". Even ignoring the fact that Lamont is hardly extreme in any way, how does this story line explain Cynthia McKinney's defeat last night? McKinney is much farther to the left than Lamont and she lost to a centrist challenger.

Also why aren't we currently talking about how the Republican Party is being taken over by right-wing extremists? Centrist incumbent Rep. Joe Schwarz was beaten yesterday in Michigan by a large margin by a hard-line right winger in "a race dominated by a struggle over GOP principles that attracted more than $1 million in spending by outside groups."

So what's going on here? Is this a strong national current of anti-incumbency? Or is this proof that even in this information-saturated age politics is still largely about personalities? Are each of these races not indicative of any larger trend but a referendum on the individual candidates? Any thoughts?

Lowering the Discourse

Frist to barnstorm for GOP in August

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) plans to campaign and raise money this month for at least five Republican challengers and incumbents, according to a schedule released by his political action committee, VOLPAC.

...

At the end of August, he will campaign with Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-Minn.)

Does this mean Frist watched a video of Kennedy's commercials and saw signs of life in his campaign?

[I know, that joke was so 2005.]

Bits N Pieces - "Weenie" Edition

Black confirms Pawlenty didn't call Kennedy a weenie, he simply called people who act the way Kennedy is acting are weenies.

Lieberman is defeated in the primary, and some say blogs are to blame. Maybe he shouldn't have been such a weenie about the internets:

As a politechnical aside, Lieberman's defeat means that one of the Senate's most strident morality crusaders may be forced to retire. Lieberman has campaigned against violent video games, embraced a Web porn tax, and called for a .xxx domain. (He's also been supported by Silicon Valley leaders, probably more for his free-trading views than anything else.)

In Colorado, one primary goes on and on, and those conservatives really know how to throw a party:

9:48 p.m.
Lionel Rivera's campaign party is in full swing - though the 100 or so supporters are looking a bit anxious and as of a half hour ago the candidate had not yet arrived.

And the food? Good God. Chips 'n' salsa, an empty container of once was chicken tenders, cubes of cheese and crackers, and that's about it. Hardly representative of what what this downtown Colorado Springs institution is capable of. No offense intended, but somebody went the el-cheapo route with this one.

No cocktail weenies were served, however, and a candidate finally won once the absentee ballots were counted.

Bill Luther is skipping the AG endorsement convention. Infer what you will.

Smartie's Big Answer

Is Mark Kennedy a weenie?

It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.

Web "Scandal"

I'm watching Tucker Carlson currently, and they are still playing the whole "Lamont supporters sabatoged Leiberman's Website" junk.

God knows, this wouldn't make more sense:

Two posts down it's clear that Lieberman's website isn't suffering from a Denial of Service attack.

But now I have the definitive answer as to why Lieberman's site went down.

They are paying $15/month for hosting at a place called MyHostCamp, with a bandwidth limit of 10GB. MyHostCamp is currently down, along with all their clients.

Here's the deal -- you get what you pay for. My hosting bill is now over $7K per month. A smaller site doesn't need that much bandwidth, but if you're paying $15 because your $12 million campaign is too freakin' cheap to pay for quality hosting, then don't go blaming your opponent when your shitty service goes out.

Also, note later in the post, where they show that the attack site against Lamont on the same server was working, so it couldn't be a DoS attack.

So Hip it Hurts

Via Rake Via MnSpeak, we now have an "Overheard in Minneapolis."

I can't help but feel like I'm supercool for hearing about Overheard in New York months ago.

Then again, I did just say "supercool..."

The Problem With Minnesota Nice

What we're thinking: Thanks for screwing up our country now and for generations to come, Republicans. Thanks for getting us into a situation of endless war, crushing debt and declining stability. Thanks a lot for letting New Orleans sink. Thanks for dragging us into the whole Terri Schivao tragedy. Thanks for blocking stem cell funding and Plan B. You and your party have systematically undermined our constitutional system with your power grabs against the judicial branch, with warrantless eavesdropping and with the President's signing statements. The Jack Abramaoff and Tom DeLay era will go down in history as one of the most corrupt and cynical epochs of American politics. Your party controls all three branches of the federal government and still can't take responsibility for anything that happens. I can't wait to vote out each and every radical anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-middle class, war-lovin', deficit spendin' one of you.

What we actually say: Nice to see you, Mr. Mehlman. Hope to see you again in a couple years!

Tuesday Bits N Pieces - Kline and Rowley

Well, eveyone knows I love to jump onto an already full bandwagon, so, despite the fact that we don't have a Coleen Rowley blogad, we're going to get into the game today, too.


Sponge posts his Agent for Change Ad and makes the 10x10 suggestion. I'm always a more 2x4 kind of girl, but for this I'll make an exception. Even worse, I'm going to make it one of those nasty chain things that everyone loves to get for a link, so I'm going to do my 10x10 online. I tag Tild, Smithers, Blankout, PZ, Bobby, Spot, Flash, Tom, MNObs and of course THE WEGE. I won't know if you don't donate or let the chain die, but God will.

MNCR, who also is flying an ad, proves he's not a Towles (heh) and explains why he's paying some more attention to the race.

The Rowley effort has been lost in the shuffle, what with all the excitement surrounding the new AG's race, the Walz effort in CD1 becoming a solid pickup opportunity, and the impending women-only nuclear war in CD6. This should not be. Team Rowley has worked hard to update their website, incorporate a campaign blog, keep momentum moving, and build a ravenous volunteer army across CD2.

Interesting Kline Fact: Did you know that he was the Vice President of the Center for the American Experiment? Ah, yes, the Katherine Kersten years.(Sorry, no live link)

Copyright 2006 National Journal Group, Inc.
The Almanac of American Politics

2006

SECTION: MINNESOTA; Second District; Pg. 913

LENGTH: 1415 words

NAME: Rep. John Kline (R)Elected 2002, 2d term; b. Sept. 6, 1947, Allentown, PA; home, Lakeville; Rice U., B.A. 1969, Shippensburg U., M.P.A. 1988; Christian; married (Vicky).Military Career: Marine Corps, 1969-94 (Vietnam).Professional Career: Vice-pres., Cntr. of the American Experiment, 2001-02.

And a fun article he wrote during those days...

There is much talk of returning to Iraq to "finish the job." If we are victorious in these efforts, will the war be over? Who knows? Probably not.

Bush to Visit Minnesota in 2 Weeks

President plans Twin Cities visit, sources say

WASHINGTON - President Bush is scheduled to visit the Twin Cities on Aug. 22 to give a speech and raise money for state Sen. Michele Bachmann, who is running for Congress in the Sixth District, according to two Minnesota Republican sources.

Good to see that Bachmann, for all of her faults, is at least willing to stand by her man. Voters in the 6th-now you know. A vote for Bachmann is a vote for another representative who will be beholden to the Bush administration and a vote to continue Bush's failed policies.

On a similar note, I wonder where Mark Kennedy will be when Bush is in town? Somewhere out of the state? Out of the country? How much distance is enough to show that he's really really independent of Bush?

Michele Bachmann Anti-Education?

Here's the first few graphs:

Michele Bachmann states in the Stillwater Gazette July 24 that public education is "my No. 1 issue." If that's the case, Bachmann should explain why she has taken nearly $50,000 in campaign contributions from individuals who have signed the following proclamation of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State:

"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education."

The Alliance for the Separation of School and State is a leading national organization that advocates for an end to all public education. Not just a reduction in school funding, or getting the federal government out of education, or supporting school vouchers, but ending government involvement in education.

Go check it out over at Dump Bachmann.

Pawlenty Calls Kennedy a "Weenie"

He said it!

Republicans in some of the nation's most competitive races are asserting their independence from Bush and the GOP. Rep. Mark Kennedy, running for the Senate in Minnesota, has an ad featuring his son saying of him: "He's principled, independent." His daughter adds that he "doesn't do whatever the party says to."

[snip]

"I don't agree with President Bush on everything," says Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), who's facing a tough re-election campaign this year. "But you don't bail out on your friends just because they have a tough go." Pawlenty calls that a "weenie" maneuver.

Kennedy v The Crock-Pot

We've all had our fun laughing at the letter below. But I now I have a serious question...How far up the ladder does the crazy go? Because I thought trying to tie a moderate like Klobuchar to Michael Moore was going to be the craziest thing I read all day, that is until I went over to Mark Kennedy's Campaign Site. Put on your sunglasses folks, because something this crazy just might blind you:

The [Minimum Wage/Estate Tax] bill not only would have provided tax relief for middle-class Minnesota families, small business owners, and farmers but also would have provided critical funding for rural infrastructure needs.

Middle-class tax relief? Seriously? Seriously? How many "middle-class families" do you know of with 2.5 million dollars in taxable estate assets? Any? I know Kennedy's perspective may have been skewed by hanging around with all of his super-rich donors lately, but they're not what the rest of us think of as "middle-class".

As for the other part of this lunacy, the part about small businesses and family farms, this article is five years old but does a pretty good job explaining why this is all a bunch of hooey. To sum up in one sentence:

A Treasury Department analysis found that estates that included family businesses paid less than 1% of all estate taxes.

But aybe we should cut Kennedy some slack since he's not actually an accountant. Oops.

Update: Here's some bonus crazy from "Makeover" Mark Kennedy, who can't own up to his own voting record:

"The chief criteria for Minnesota voters is are you real? Are you authentic?" said Kennedy, a congressman. "To say you're a prosecutor, yet we can't find one case you've prosecuted, that does not seem to me to be the straight shooter Minnesotans expect."

Crazy Correspondence

Hey, Learned Foot, has the GOP brought out the special extra strong kool-aid for this election? Or is this guy just stirrin' up singles?

Election '06: What she isn't saying

In response to the July 29 letter "What his ad didn't say" about Mark Kennedy: Amy Klobuchar -- what a gal! Her family loves her.

She also has a radical left-wing agenda and will be a lap dog for Howard Dean and Michael Moore and their very flawed beliefs.

Mark Kennedy will be a wonderful senator and will help keep the United States on the right track.

G. NIM-RODD, DEEPHAVEN

Seriously, man, Michael Moore? Where the hell did that even come from?

They like contests, too!

Between the posts about how they still don't trust polling or lone sentences cut from articles that completely discredit everything on their website, Kennedy vs the Food Dehydrator has decided to join the cool kid crowd and offer a contest:

In light of the startling admission that Ms. Klobuchar has not prosecuted any cases since becoming County Attorney, and that her candidacy is predicated on her managerial abilities, (a talent highly disputed by her employees) KvM has decided to hold a contest.

Complete the following:

"CALLING YOURSELF A PROSECUTOR WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY AN OFFICE MANAGER IS LIKE _____ CALLING THEMSELVES A _____."

Submit your entry to Andy's email: andy *at* residual forces *dot* com.

We here at Powerliberal would like to respectfully suggest the following:

"Calling yourselfa prosecuter when you're actually an office manager is like KENNEDY V THE OSCILLATING STAND FAN calling themselves a NEWSOURCE.

Let me know when I should come get that gift card.

John Kline Gets Sued

Who would have thought they'd really add him to the lawsuit?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine suspected in the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, threatened to sue a second congressman on Friday for comments the Republican made about the case, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

A lawyer for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who filed suit against a prominent Democratic lawmaker and war critic, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, told Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota he too would be sued for libel if he did not apologize.

Attorney Mark Zaid said Kline's office had agreed to enter confidential settlement negotiations after receiving the letter. Kline's spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Glenn Greenwald has all the ins and outs.

Klobuchar/Kennedy no longer that competitive

post up on DFLSenate

Ken Mehlman's Address - update

September 11 - check
Activist judges - check
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and John Kerry - check, check and CHECK!

Check it out for yourself.

UPDATE: Blankout was going to go in and give us a report, but I guess he's not right enough.

Look Who's Campaigning for Lieberman

Hey, wait! Aren't you Republicans?

Oh No, a Righty's "Mocking" Us!

Kevin has his panties in a bunch, so make this the official paintball sign-up sheet. I'm thinking weekend after Primary,when we all have a bunch of steam to blow off.

Minntelect Hangs it Up

I hate it when I just discover a blog and it goes away...

The One Where Shawn Towles Proves He's A Hack

Towles "published" a lovely hit piece on 5th CD Candidate Ember Reichgott Junge, filled to the brim with his usual lack of diction, understanding, and misstatement. Since it requires a log in, and no one deserves traffic for being a paid hack, I'll just take out the bits that matter. If you want to log in and get an account to see the whole thing, feel free to wade through all of his drivel.

"Remember Ember in September" is the rallying cry Reichgott Junge. She proudly boasts about her selection as the first DFL endorsed woman candidate for Attorney General in 1998. What she does not want people to remember is, she finished dead last in a three-way DFL primary.

First, I'm sure it never occurred to Towles that the Race for Attorney General may be completely different than a congressional race, given the completely different responsibilities the two positions have. Yet that is the least of his hackery.

Shawn's Chart

The gist of his argument is that Ember came in third in 1998, so no one likes her and she can't win.

With all of the criticism about the DFL being "so" liberal, how does a woman candidate in the DFL primary finish third? In 1994, DFL endorsed gubernatorial candidate John Marty, who had pledged not accept contributions over $100 and personally limiting his options, at least won his primary over Hatch and former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza and Reichgott Junge finish a distant third?

Towles includes Hennepin County numbers, where she actually came in second, then quickly dismisses them.

One key result we feel that should be reiterated is Reichgott Junge's bare second place finish in Hennepin County, especially since this was part of her home district and the principle focus of her targeting strategy. If you eliminate the precincts of St. Louis Park, Robbinsdale and Crystal her Hennepin County numbers place her in the mid-twenties.

The obvious question that should be asked is, so what? What does her standing in a race run nearly 10 years ago for a different position being voted on by a completely different population have to do with her current run for the 5th?

For fun, here's a map of Hennepin County. Note how much of it is in the 5th, and how much is not. Then note the cities that are in the 5th: St. Louis Park, Robbinsdale and Crystal, the same cities that Towles states we shouldn't pay attention to but were obviously her strong points.

Towles is an embarrassment to blogging. This is the second time he's tried to attack a 5th CD candidate, and probably not the last. At least Mike Erlandson is safe; he paid for a banner ad.

CLARIFICATION: I've had people confused as to whether I was insinuating Erlandson is paying Towles to do hit pieces on the competition, and I don't believe that at all. I believe Shawn will do a hit on anyone who he thinks will bring him traffic (as long as it's not someone paying for his services) regardless of the veracity of his facts. By purchasing a banner, I think Erlandson will be immune because Towle's revenue stream is the most important part of his site for him.

Watch out Ostrow, you're next...

Kennedy vs the Pasta Maker

Now, some people may think that Jambo's post regarding Kennedy vs the Bread Maker is a little harsh.

Myself, I find it to be the basis for a fun new game....

Enter your own "Kennedy vs The [insert your favorite small appliance] in the comments. Best efforts will of course be stolen for future posts, since we know there will be maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaany coming up before November 7th.

More on Kline

As long as we're on the subject of John Kline...

The MN GOP recently went ballistic about Mike Hatch using his office stationery for campaign purposes. Can I assume that Ron Carey will soon be reprimanding John Kline for using not only his office's stationery but taxpayer funded mailing for his campaign ads?

Lakeville Dad has a complete image of Kline's ad on his site.

I know, I know. It's okay-if you're a Republican.

Is John Kline About to be Sued?

This should be interesting.

Lawyer and blogger extraordinaire Glenn Greenwald was on the Alan Colmes show last night with Mark Zaid, the lawyer behind the recent lawsuit against Rep. Jack Murtha for comments he made regarding suspected Marine atrocities in Haditha.

Greenwald made the point that Rep. Kline had made comments similar to Murtha's, but was not named in the suit. Greenwald then asked why Murtha and only Murtha was being sued for defamation if that was the case.

Mr. Zaid said that he had been unaware of Kline's comments, but if Greenwald emailed him the comments he would happily add Kline to the suit.

Mission Accomplished.

Now we get to see if this is a ham-handed attempt at swiftboating Murtha or a real frivolous and misguided lawsuit.

Update: Greenwald is requesting that anyone who has additional quotes by Kline regarding Haditha to please email them to him and he will forward them on the lawyer. So, if anyone from the 2nd CD knows of any, send 'em in.

The Opposite of Liberal-Lingus?

GrrlScientist has some definitions from the top secret Republican-English Dictionary. Here are a couple of my favorites:

alternative energy sources n.

New locations to drill for gas and oil.


class warfare n.

Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.


voter fraud n.

A significant minority turnout.

This one from the comments is pretty good as well:

sound science n.

Science based on soundbites.

I had to wipe coffee off my monitor

After reading this:

Pawlenty warned that the others' proposals would lead to higher taxes, and he took credit for leading the state back into the black after a historic budget deficit.
"By the way, I'm not going to raise taxes," he said.

So how are your property taxes? Any smokers out there? How about anyone who has bought a fishing license or a hunting license or a marriage license or a car license in the last four years? Anyone have relatives in a nursing home? Anyone notice that all of these things have become much more expensive in the last four years?

My mother has voted straight ticket Republican her entire life. She won't be voting for Pawlenty this year. She thinks he's "a liar". I wonder why that is?

Speaking of Pawlenty and his fees, did you know that Minnesota now has the most expensive marriage license fee in the country? Other states have fees as low as $4, with a national average around $35-$40. In Minnesota it's $100. Some family values.

Thursday Bits N Pieces

Developing....

MNSpeak pub quiz wasn't a disaster, but probably wasn't my most shining of moments. We came in 6th out of 11, dropping from inches from 3rd in the final round. Sadly, the only things I seemed to get right involved Prince or MacGuyver. Bob got a banning smoking on international airplane flights question wrong, so that made me feel a little better.

Until Spotty has time to dazzle us with his brilliance, I'll just ask the obvious: "Didn't Republicans used to think that families raised children better than the government did?" Someone needs to remind Ms. Kersten of that.

And my weird fixaton with the IP Party appears to be getting worse...tomorrow I'm going to Tammy Lee's headquarters to see her new ads, and next Thursday we have 58A Independent candidate Justin Adams coming to Drinking Liberally.

I blame you, Fitzgerald!

How to Hack A Diebold Voting Machine

It's so easy there's now a one minute video explaining the process.

In the video he suggests it can be done privately enough in the polling place just by closing the curtains around the booth, but why take chances? When you really need a Republican victory just send the machines home with poll workers! How could anyone question the integrity of this system?

A Lie Repeated Often Enough...

Becomes the truth a Mark Kennedy campaign speech.

Mark "Makin' It Up" Kennedy is at again. This time at Farmfest:

Kennedy also tossed out manure as a campaign issue, saying several times that Klobuchar was endorsed by a conservation group that considers manure a hazardous waste.

"I am not endorsed by any organization that considers manure a hazardous waste," he said, prompting Klobuchar to reply, "I don't consider manure a hazardous waste."

Neither does the group, the League of Conservation Voters, it says.

Its spokesman, Chuck Porcari, said, "Any assertion of that type I can just call manure," he said when told Tuesday afternoon about Kennedy's claim. He called it "unfounded and ridiculous."

But the manure story wasn't Kennedy's only bullsh*t yesterday. There was this old favorite of the Right:

Kennedy repeated his desire to eliminate the estate tax, saying it especially hurts family farms passed on to succeeding generations.

The Strib article reported this straight with no comment about how ridiculous the claim is.

A quick Google search of "Family Farm +Estate Tax" turns up all kinds of sites explaining why this is a myth. Do you see any sites detailing a case of an actual family farm being hurt by the Estate Tax? Nope. Why? Because family farms are specifically granted large exemptions from the already high cap of the estate tax.

High cap, you say? Remember, despite all the 'Death Tax' hysteria the Estate Tax only affects 2-3% of all estates in the country. And of those only about 440 estates per year are made up primarily of farm or business income, and almost half of those 440 paid a tax rate of 1.6%. Not exactly an onerous burden. [source: FactCheck.org]

In fact, some groups claim that the pro-repeal folks are actually hurting family farms by blocking reform of the tax intended to benefit the people they claim to be speaking for. The National Farmers Union, for example, opposes repeal of the tax and advocates a reform much like Klobuchar's proposal.

Will anyone call Kennedy on his lies and distortions? I'm hopeful that the voters of this State will in November.

Update: Is anyone surprised that KvM has dived head first into the manure? Nope, me neither. I guess when you've been shoveling the sh*t for as long as they have it must start to smell good. (And that's the last cussing for today. I don't want this blog to turn into Norwegianity.)

Update2: Flash is also onto the Estate Tax BS.

N Pieces

Here are your promised Pieces:

Heck of a job, Brownie!

Recalling his showdown with Coleman at a congressional hearing after Brown left the agency, Brown said: "He came in there and started saying I didn't show any leadership. He kept chastising me. I said, 'OK, now ask me a question. Give me the specifics so I can respond to it.' And he turned and said, 'Well, I'm sorry. I'm out of time, and I've got to go.' He got up and left. What kind of man is that? If you don't have the guts to sit there and listen to my response and ask me questions about my leadership, then screw you!"

Drinking Liberally irregular John Forde sends this invite out:

Meet Brad Friedman of BradBlog when he is at the SPNN studio to tape
on 'Mental Engineering'.

375 Jackson, St Paul 55101
Saturday Aug 5
Green room hour 1-2PM
Taping 2-4PM
Drinking 4-6PM

How can we reward him for such generousity? Check out this link, and spam this invite to whoever you see fit.

Finally, another new blog, this one focused on North Minneapolis. My, that Paul seems familiar...

Wednesday Bits

You'll get pieces later, I'm about to go transit for a while...

MNCR says Dookie. I'm more of a poopy girl myself. But always good to see Kennedy step in it again, whatever the name.


Blank-Out unveils (okay, not realy, but I think it's really fun to see what a blog looks like in its inception stage, espeically when he's still talking to himself.)But be nice, he's not decent yet.

And the MNSpeak quiz is tonight. 10 bucks say one of the answers is "white belts." Smartie had to back out, so we're looking for one more player if you're interested.

More in an hour or so....

The obligatory Vikings post

(because it's probably the only way get Smartie back to the blog)

Seriously, can The Planet be too big? And what is the point of pre-season without Vikings Underground?

I'm still mulling over my backup team to cheer for (yes, I still love the Vikings, but I always pick a back up choice to be my competitive team). Last year was the Seahawks, but now it feels like it's been done. Maybe it's time to give the Rams a chance.

"Minimum WAAAAGE, YEAAAA!"

Consider this your financial nooner...

DFLERs:

[W]e must spread the message so that voters understand how the Republican Congress held an increase in the minimum wage hostage to protect their majorities and avoid alienating their base. Americans deserve a straight up or down vote on the minimum wage. Republicans have proven that we won't get one as long as they're in charge.

You're All Idiots

So, the easy trick is to attach it to the same bill carrying the first minimum wage increase in a decade. Anyone voting against the estate tax cut can be accused of voting against increasing the minimum wage in campaign ads. Pretty smooth, huh?

Of course, it doesn't matter that the House has let a minimum wage increase die in committee every year for the past 10, does it? That's effectively like not voting for it, but people wouldn't understand that. Too complicated. It's not like voting on American Idol.

Vox Verax

Let's give our wealthy campaign contributors a really BIG tax break and — oh, by the way — throw a few pennies to the poor idiots who have to work for a living. Wait, doesn't that increase the federal deficit? Ah hell, who cares?

They can make like a tree

but they forget to leave...

I get the intended metaphor, but it's even easier to see an alternative one: If you thought the party that led us into unending war and a record-breaking deficit can't change... you're right.

Tuesday Bits and Pieces

Tonight is National Night Out, and Smartie and my first one living in an actual neighborhoood. Sadly, I forgot to think of anything potlucky to make, so I think I'm going to spend the day baking banana bread. Thank all powers that be that it's no longer 102 and I can turn on the oven.

Quote of the day (I know it's early, but I already declare it such):

[Mark Kennedy's]suit coat flies a thumbs-up to the tax-free business class; the plaid says "howdy folks" to the Albert Lea types; the white t-shirts says "I need padding due to a muscle deficiency"; the dockers say "suburbs, you can trust me"; and the belt at belly-button level says "Urkel is not dead, he will return and I'll be ready."

Everyone's favorite commentor has his own blog now, and he'd better get it prettied up, because I'm linking it tomorrow. I'm giving him another day to work out his, well, I'd call it "birth pangs" but Condi kind of ruined that for me.

I think it was Evil Bobby who got me reading "Rapture Ready." I was looking through the numbers this morning, and I don't know what amazes me more; that even the RR crowd is starting to believe in global warming as a fact (#43) or that even those who think Jesus is about to deliver us into the end times think that liberals have a really good shot in the next election (#29).

Finally, this article kind of makes me want to reread "Dreaming in Cuban." I can only assume if something happens to Castro, the Rapture Ready Index is going to have some major number changes.