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Friday, July 30, 2004
Chuck Olson from Blogumentary (who I met at the Keegan's mixer last week and found to be a genuinely nice guy) responds to my assertion that there is a dearth of good non-institutional blogs on the Left. He's compiled a list of Lefty blogs meeting his standards:
Democracy for Minnesota BushOut.TV Blog of the Moderate Left Minnesota Liberal Chris Dykstra Minnesota Progress Space Waitress (according to Chuck, Minnesota's best left-leaning blog last year, easily on par with the Northern Alliance.) DFL Blog Moderate Republican Minnesota Politics Let's Fight Secret Farm I was not aware of most of these. So that does disprove part of my theory, that these things don't exist at all, because the mainstream media already satisfies the Left's need for political expression in the public forum. However, on the existence of "good" lefty blogs, I'm still not convinced. I've scanned through these and will need to do a more thorough read before final judgment is rendered. (And I encourage our blog readers to do the same, and let me know what you think.) But my first reaction is incredulity. These are the best they've got? The correlatives for the Northern Alliance? The best I can say is that these may be Northern Alliance blogs in proto form. That is, everyone is, or at least writes, like they're much younger than we. High school to college age I surmise. And to quote Jonah Goldberg on youth, they are .... ...at the bottom of the learning curve and, consequently, they try to power their way uphill with passion instead of wisdom. As Oscar Wilde observed, "In America, the young are always ready to give those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience." If the Northern Alliance were all were writing blogs 10-20 years ago, I suspect you'd see lots of similarities in style with these. In fact, given the radical pasts of many Northern Alliance members, you might have seen the identical opinions expressed as those linked above. (Maybe that means some of these folks are Northern Alliance members of the future?) One of the blogs mentioned by several sources as a 'must read' is something called The Game. A blog we've actually featured on Fraters Libertas. Back in February we noticed his charming take on the upcoming election with a Bush = Hitler Photoshop creation. (He appears to have since removed this post from his archives). At the time, I exchanged a few emails with the guy who runs The Game and his response was that he thought the photograph was funny, it was effective in changing people's voting behavior, and that he wasn't sure using genocide as a punch line was really all that big of a deal. And maybe for the left it isn't, since The Game is reviewed as "totally hilarious" by its blogging admirers. I recognize the possibility that I may have blinders on with regard to our own efforts. And that maybe I'm being too hard on these folks based on political differences alone. (It's possible, though not likely). But if we really are as bad as this, I have to seriously reconsider my efforts here. And consider getting on some anti-hallucinatory medication. Chuck reminds me of one star on the Left that deserves mention, Cursor.org. Although it's done locally, its ambitions and subject matter are national in scope, as is its influence, I suspect. I disagree with its perspective and analysis, but its linking is comprehensive. It not only steers traffic to the most prominent left leaning news cycle commentary, it finds stories and perspectives I don't see anywhere else. It's very well done and updated every week day, proving that talent and commitment tend to breed success, no matter what your political beliefs are. Labels: Blogs-Local
Brooklyn blogger Ken Wheaton discovers the invisible hand of Sammy Haggar once again manipulating the Presidential election like a puppet master:
God Bless Druge ... For making this audio available of DNC Convention Director Don Mishcer using--GASP!--the F word in reference to a lack of balloons. Holy F*CK! Is that funny or what? But here's the million dollar question. That's Van Halen playing in the background, right? Does the DNC realize that Sammy Haggar contributed to Bush/Cheney? Labels: Music, Politics-National (02-04)
With the sound of streaming. Or at least they will be tomorrow from noon until 3pm when the Northern Alliance Radio Network hosts the first annual Patriot Picnic at the picturesque Estates of Diamond Bluff. If you live in the Twin Cities area and would like to partake of an afternoon of food, fun, and free-wheeling talk radio frivolity come on down and join us. Here are directions to the Estates of Diamond Bluff. You don't want to miss this one. I hear that Hindrocket from Power Line grills up about the best damn weenie this side of Sheboygan.
If you aren't lucky enough to be able to attend the affair in person or pick up the powerful Patriot radio signal, you still can catch a piece of some of this summer's hottest action. Yes, at long last the NARN has its internet stream up and running. Simply click on this link and you'll be connected to the best talk radio show exclusively featuring a group of bloggers in the land. And for those of you Labels: NARN (04-05)
I don't know about you all, but I was appalled that the dems would have Larry Flynt introduce John Kerry last night. For shame democrats! For shame!
Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
On Monday of this week, the Star Tribune reported on "Camp Wellstone":
As the Democratic National Convention opens today in Boston, Camp Wellstone is capitalizing on the new political energy on the left. As delegates and hordes of media and lobbyists began overtaking the city Sunday, Camp Wellstone concluded its 34th camp in a downtown hotel, seeking to shape a new generation of politicians and citizen-activists. Since the camp went national last year, nearly 4,000 people have graduated, including about 50 who, like Pulkrabek, are running for office this year. The camps often have waiting lists, as was the case in Boston. "We weren't sure if there was going to be a huge demand or market outside of Minnesota," said Jeff Blodgett, Wellstone's former campaign manager and now the executive director of Wellstone Action, which puts on the camps. "We thought it was the right thing to do, and the right way to pay tribute to Paul, but it turns out there was a huge market for this." Funded by: Students pay $50 ($35 for those with low incomes) to attend the three-day training camps. Blodgett said 15 of the camps have been underwritten by America Coming Together (ACT), a pro-Democrat group that's working to defeat President Bush in 17 battleground states. Wellstone Action received $372,500 from ACT and organized camps in several swing states, including Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan. Around these parts it is not uncommon to see cars sporting bumper stickers asking "What Would Wellstone Do?". The answer apparently is run Camp Wellstone: He said the camps are not about "worshipping Wellstone," but rather advancing the model of political action that Wellstone taught and practiced. "I also feel like this is what he would want us to do," he said. It is impossible for me to read this story and not think of The Simpson's Kamp Krusty. Especially the Kamp Krusty song. Hail to thee, Kamp Krusty, By the shores of Big Snake Lake. Though your swings are rusty, We know they'll never break. From your gleaming mess hall, To our hallowed baseball field, Your spic-and-span infirmary, Where all our wounds are healed. Hail to thee, Kamp Krusty, Below Mount Avalanche. We will always love Kamp Krusty, A registered trademark of the Krusty Corporation, All rights reserved! And since we all know how much the Wellstone crowd loves songs, I figured I'd work up one for Camp Wellstone based on the Kamp Krusty ditty: Hail to thee, Kamp Wellstone, By the shores of High Tax Lake. Though Paul's ashes are sown, The Green Bus has no brake. From your smoke-free co-op, To our hallowed children's school, We follow Paul's true mission, One world under socialist rule. Hail to thee, Kamp Wellstone, Below Mount Airplane Crash. We will always love Kamp Wellstone, A never-ending fantasy of the Democratic Party, Unhinged from reality! Labels: Music, Politics-Local (04-05)
Another Thursday night. Another trivia title successfully defended. Six in a row if I'm not mistaken. Okay, this one wasn't quite so easily defended. But defended it was. For trivia is like boxing or golf's Ryder Cup. If you wish to dethrone the champion, you must beat them outright. In the event of tie, the championship is retained by the one holding the title going in.
Last night there was a three way tie for first place. Initially it appeared that we had indeed been usurped from our rightful throne, and there was much carrying on and celebrating by those jealous of our past successes (no doubt lefties exhibiting another form of class envy). But upon further review, it was discovered that a careless error by a publican who really ought to have his eyes examined (among other things) had cheated us out of a answer that was indeed correct (Clintonesque parsing of words aside). And so we finished tied with two other worthy opponents. We raise a glass to Charming Wonderbuns and his squad. In their first appearance at Keegan's trivia night they came very close to doing what other pretenders to the throne have only dreamed of: knocking off the vaunted Fraters trivia team. So close they could taste it they were. But the sweet chalice of victory was not to be raised to their lips last night. For the mighty Fraters team once again pulled one out. Labels: Trivial Pursuits
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Hugh Hewitt reports from Boston:
He was holding forth on the perils of being a French journalist in 2004 America. I was buying my 20th small pizza--a necessity... A necessity? Sounds like those Adjustable Waistband Dockers are going to be coming in real handy. Real soon. Labels: Ralphie
Has the Star Tribune editorial board taken the first step on their long road to recovery? Yesterday, they opined on Sandy Berger:
Democrats immediately accused Republicans of leaking news of this long-running investigation to embarrass Democrats and to take a little publicity away from the imminent release of the 9/11 commission report. But there is no good evidence that Republicans were the leakers. Indeed, the most creative suggestion was that the information came from a Democratic source who is a rival of Berger for the post of secretary of state in a Kerry administration. Last week, in the immediate aftermath of the first news of Berger's pilfering, the Strib editorial staff said this: Based on a leak from the Bush administration, the news media are reporting that Samuel Berger, national security adviser for President Bill Clinton, is being investigated for removing highly classified material from a secure government reading room. Berger was using the information to prepare for his appearance before the 9/11 commission. The investigation started last October and was referred to the FBI last January. Moreover, the FBI has yet to interview Berger, indicating the investigation remains in early stages. So just why is this making news this particular week? Many in Washington, including such respected nonpartisan observers as David Gergen, think there is only one reason: The Bush administration is trying to detract attention from the 9/11 Commission final report, due out Thursday. This is: 1) another instance of the White House using insider information and manipulating the media to its own political ends, and 2) an indication the administration is seriously concerned about what the final report will contain. To those of us on the outside it's been obvious for years, and now it appears that the Strib editorialistas have finally stopped denying the truth themselves. They are nothing more than an arm of the Democratic Party. Something tells me the next step won't be easy for the Strib, what with that whole "higher power" thing and all. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Dear John,
After all you've been through in the past year, losing in the primaries and being unable to win reelection to your own Senate seat, I do hate to bring more uncertainty into your life; but I've noticed that since being named John Kerry's new best buddy, your Two Americas stump speech and your new commercial now include a challenge to voters that goes something like this: "If you don't think John Kerry is a leader, just ask the men who served with him in Vietnam. They'll tell you he's a leader," or words to that effect. Well, OK, John, why don't we do just that? Let's ask them. At a press conference in Washington this past May, an organization called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of former sailors who served in Kerry's unit in Vietnam, presented a letter to Kerry signed by more than 200 of his former shipmates calling on him to release his military records so that the truth about his abbreviated tour of duty, his spurious wounds and his undeserved medals could be revealed to the American public. Not surprisingly, this event and this organization were totally ignored by the major media, as they continue to be to this day. Did you catch that press conference? No? Never heard anything about these ol' boys at all huh, John? Well, listen up, Senator. If you visit their website, Swiftvets.com or a sister site, Wintersoldier.com, you'll see some choice quotes from those fellows who served with your new best buddy. From Admiral Roy Hoffmann, his former commanding officer, come such phrases and characterizations as: "Contempt for the military and authority?." "Arrived in country with a strong anti-Vietnam War bias and a self serving determination to build a foundation for his political future?." "Aggressive, but vain and prone to impulsive judgment, often with disregard for specific tactical assignments?." "A loose cannon?." "Bugged out of Vietnam?." and finally, "Not fit to command." I'll bet you a Florida precinct that any good trial lawyer would consider someone of Admiral Hoffman's stature an unimpeachable witness, wouldn't you? Loose cannon? Bugged out? Not fit to command? I'm not causing you to have any second thoughts here, am I, John? Hmmm? Now take a listen to retired Navy Captain, Charlie Plumly, who had Kerry, "under my command for two or three specific operations before his rapid exit." Plumly is even less charitable to your new bud than the admiral. His quotes on Kerry's service include these colorful expressions, "Devious, self-absorbing, manipulative, disdain for authority, disruptive." And then he gives us this little jewel, "But the most common phrase would have been requires constant supervision." Boy that's a comforting thing to read on the resume of the guy who wants to control the world's greatest nuclear arsenal, isn't it? Makes it a little more understandable why your buddy was willing to swallow a Republican as his number two in command, doesn't it, John? You do have to give him credit for knowing he needed a more experienced hand like McCain watching out for him. Sounds to me like what he really needs is Dick Cheney, hear me, John? Then there's Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, now deceased, Chief of Naval Operations at the time of Kerry's service, who said, "With Kerry's large ambitions, his career in Vietnam will haunt him if he were ever on the national stage." Oh my, and just look at who's up there on that stage with him, bringing up that career at every opportunity. Hey, John, as a trial lawyer you've got to know some good investigators. Why don't you part with a few thou and check some of this out? I mean this could take the expression, "egg on your face" to a whole new dimension, know what I mean? The Swiftvets website has several testimonials from others who served with your buddy and none are laudatory. On the contrary, they are replete with refutations of John Boy's claims in his book, "Tour of Duty", ranging from emotional denials of the war crimes Kerry depicts there to ridicule of his wearing that leather flight jacket on the campaign trail and claiming it brought him luck in Vietnam, "No one wore such a jacket in 90+ heat." You sure you want to keep bringing this guy's service record up in every speech, John? I know it's easy for someone who never served to be a little overawed, but good grief, even a weenie liberal lawyer ought to be able to figure out you don't wear leather jackets on jungle patrols, you know? And what's with this flight jacket business anyway? What was John Boy flying over there? Sure as hell wasn't a supersonic F-102 interceptor like George Bush, now was it? But of course! Why didn't I think of it? That jacket could explain the minor nature of his award-winning wounds; kept all that nasty flak and flying lead from really hurting him instead of just breaking the skin, you know? Guess that's why he calls it his lucky jacket. But I gotta tell you, Man, speaking of breaking, I'm sitting here breaking out in a sweat just thinking about it. I mean, jungle fatigues were hot enough; but leather? With fleece lining? Whew, man, that's hardcore! Well, I guess I am going have to admit this, John. In this regard, you're right; there are Two Americas: there's the America that believes your buddy wore a fleece lined, leather aviators jacket in the jungle; the America that will mindlessly heed your impassioned challenge to listen to the bought and paid for endorsement of the half dozen or so enlisted crewmen your buddy has shanghaied into his campaign. Then there's that other America, the one out there waiting for the media to let us hear the more than 200 voices of those who served well and honorably, both officers and enlisted, who are telling the truth about your good ol' buddy. Somehow, some way, I believe, I pray, that will happen. And even if it doesn't, what those truth tellers are saying has relevance for you, John. Think about it; your oh-so-affectionate, backslapping partner bugged out on them and then libeled and slandered them viciously to serve his own political goals. So you might just want to consider this, Senator: if you guys lose in November there will be Two Americas all right. And you can bet your biggest contingency fee anyone Kerry can blame for costing him the goal of his life sure won't be part of his America anymore. Talk about getting a "Dear John" letter. Think, Johnnie Boy, think. Didn't your ol' Daddy ever teach you nuthin' bout leopards and spots? Russ Vaughn 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division Vietnam 65-66 Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
I golfed yesterday. Dreadful score, but had fun. The little cutie in the jean cutoffs that I should not be looking at came around to sell me beer. It was humid and I was incredibly thirsty but all they had was Bud. Not being a big fan and sounding like a fey little yupster I asked if there was anything else. "Mich Golden Lite" she said, enthusiastically. So I took the Bud and I'll just say this: while it is de rigeur to diss Bud (I do it regularly myself) anyone who says that a really cold bottle of Bud doesn't taste damn good on a hot day is full of garbage. It reminds me of a guy I know who insists that there is not one item on Friday's menu he finds palatable--not a simple cheeseburger or a chicken sandwich or an order of ribs--nope, it's all awful. And that is all garbage.
....bought two shirts at Walmart yesterday. Aren't I cool? I'm going lowbrow and proving who the coolest one of them all really is! Actually, it's more of an experiment because truth be told the shirts were pretty nice and one was ten bucks, the other seven. I want to see if the shirts are really THAT much worse than shirts that cost 30 bucks or more. The verdict is still out, but it could be a new paradigm of cheapness for me that I look forward to. The Doubtlessette has really hipped me to the world of bargain shopping and Walmart plays a big role in that. I went around looking to see if they had a shirt that just said WALMART on it to piss off the lefties, but didn't find any. I guess the people who shop there don't share my fascination with rubbing it in the noses of the NIMBY lefties. ...I've about had it with preening dems who seem to think they have us on the run now because of Michael I Hate Myself, America and Especially the Jocks That Made Fun Of Me In High School Moore's 911 and the convention., Edwards, etc. Got an email from a friend filled with petulant, teenage lies about "Haliburton" and Bush and the house of Saud and just snapped. I wrote back personally attacking the one who sent it to him as basically a homosexual since his name was Mitchell (hey, no offense Mitch, that's an entirely different kind of name). I said that when I think of a Mitchell I think of a spoiled Boston Brahmin kid with short trousers and one of those big multi-colored suckers like Monty Burns had as a child, chiding his nanny "Higher! Higher!" as she pushed him in the swing. I said worse, too, which was unfortunate because it turned out Mitchell was his dad, or as he put it his "Father." No one ever said I was a nice guy.
Follwing is reader feedback regarding yesterday's post about the dearth of good blogs with a liberal orientation. First, this from James Phillips:
Reading your post entitled Attack of the Clones, I was struck by two salient facts. First, I have had too much to drink tonight to truly comment intelligently. Second, and possibly more importantly, it occurred to me that today's conservative blogs (that would be you) are the successors to the Revolutionary handbills that gave rise to such trite concepts as free speech and assembly. So why aren't there good liberal blogs? For the same reason King George III did not have handbills. He already dominated the dissemination of information. Still strikes me as odd, maybe ironic (hopefully not in the Alanis "I don't know what Ironic means" Morrissette" sense) that notwithstanding that fact that the GOP controls the Presidency, Senate and House, we still must think in terms of "revolutionary" rhetoric in order to get our message out. Fraters Libertas as founding fathers (blogging fathers)? I like the sound of that. James Phillips should drink and email more often. Also, this from our Al Franken Show listener, Rick: I myself would like to find some quality blogs to give myself some counter balance. So far I have failed to find any that are sufficiently interesting and simultaneously truth-based to make it worth my time. I don't know if this is because such blogs simply don't exist, or because my conservative nervous system simply rejects them like an incompatible organ. Were someone like James Lileks, Mark Steyn, or Hugh Hewitt to recommend a good lefty blog, I'd force myself to read it, just as I strap myself down to listen to Al Franken. Labels: Blogs-Local
Ruminator Books permanently closes this week, ending a 30 year run as a St. Paul institution of radical thought and politics. This past Sunday the Pioneer Press did its farewell feature on the store, called "Ruminator founder ready to turn a page in his life".
Given the media and Mac-Groveland interpretation of this story so far (that the failure of Ruminator represents the failure of American culture), it's gratifying to see Ruminator owner Dave Unowsky have a moment of clarity on the true nature of his problems: Unowsky admits he made three major costly decisions. "The first was pulling the textbooks out of the store and putting them in a satellite store. The second was buying an expensive computer system I didn't have the staff to run. The third was opening a store in the Open Book building (in 2000). That was bad timing. Now, that area of Minneapolis is going to be home to the new Guthrie and lots of housing.'' It's a tale old as commerce itself. Bad business decisions and bad luck stuck him in a hole. But it turns out, even those factors didn't provide the kill shot. That came from the landlord of his property. Which greedy, unfeeling capitalist is that, you ask? None other than Kofi Annan's alma mater: By 2002, Unowsky was out of cash, and the business went into a downward spiral. He found an anonymous investor who was willing to do whatever it took to get the store back in the black, and from January to June of this year, the store was on track to being profitable again. But in the end, lawyers for Unowsky's investor couldn't reach agreement with Macalester, and the college withdrew from negotiations in June. Yes, Macalester College, that bastion of socialism and free speech and free thinking (but not free tuition, annual cost = $24,902). Those heartless bastards pulled the plug, even though Unowsky was able to work out a deal in the private sector to survive. Or maybe they killed him because of that reason? I've been a little surprised that there hasn't been more wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Ruminator's demise. I think these circumstances explain at least some of the muted reaction. Because if it was an evil, entreprenuer landowner putting the stake in Unowsky's heart, instead of the liberal's precious Macalester, I suspect there'd be sit-ins and love-ins and die-ins staged until the local government was compelled to subsidize the place. But that doesn't mean some of the aging hippie constituency aren't still up in arms. For instance, noted local author (noted by someone, I've never heard of anyone reading her) and puffed up peahen Carol Bly was quoted last month as saying: "If America hadn't gone totally junk culture, totally commercial, bookstores like Ruminator wouldn't have any trouble at all," Bly added. "David would have done just fine at the tail end of the 19th century. You can't sell Shakespeare to someone who comes in looking for a discount paperback copy of 'Reagan's OK, You're OK.' " Whoops - looks like Carol didn't get the memo on this one. It wasn't our totally commercial junk culture. It was, using her words, that totally commercial, junk college on Snelling and Grand. I'd like to think somewhere tonight Unowsky is laughing at Bly and her superficial, blithering analysis. (That is, when he's not crying over the commercial implications of carrying her books like a lead weight around his neck for the past 30 years.) Final bright spot to this dark story, Unowsky's comments on the Pioneer Press editorial board's talent for economic analysis: "I laughed when I read a Pioneer Press editorial that said I was done in by market forces," he said. "The first superstore opened in Roseville in 1990, and by 1998 there were 22 in the Twin Cities. But our sales went up each of those years. So the problem wasn't the chain stores." Are you listening new Pioneer Press publisher Par Ridder? A radical leftist bankrupt bookshop owner is laughing at your newspaper's ability to provide insight into economic matters. Sounds like a mandate for change to me. Labels: Business
More evidence continues to pour in that the Van Halen concert last Thursday in St. Paul was not overly influenced by Democratic party politics. First, Scott writes in from Oklahoma:
Saw the mighty VH in Oklahoma City just three days ago. Same story. No left-leaning backdrops in the land of oil wells and JC Watts. I too only witnessed "Carnal Knowledge" era pics from the Right Now video. It helps to remember that Sammy Hagar was an outspoken proponent of the original Gulf War and told that leftist MTV reporter Kurt Loder that he was a Reagan Republican in a 1991 interview. As for the show... Dry Run kicked ass! Well, Scott always has been a sucker for a good tambourine and ululating song. Next, Jim Styczinski has been checking the donor databases and reports: Intrigued by the Van Halen controversy, I went to my second favorite web site, Political Money Line, and ran through the members of Van Halen. The only hit is Sammy Hagar: HAGAR, SAMMY R. MR. 7/11/2003 $2,000.00 NOVATO, CA 94948 F.W.O. INC./ENTERTAINER -[Contribution] BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC Finally, the irrefutable proof. Star Tribune music critic Chris Riemenschneider hated the show and the kind of people that showed up to watch it. Excerpts of his review: Turns out, an eight-year hiatus was the best thing that ever happened to the Sammy Hagar-fronted Van Halen. It made them a little bit dumber. Thursday's two-hour concert by the '80s guitar-god band at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center was such a macho, fist-pumping, nostalgia-riding affair, it mooted all the endless debate over how Hagar compares to original VH singer David Lee Roth. The 14,722 fans on hand were excited enough -- and in many cases, intoxicated enough -- to be happy with either version of the California-reared group. The fun almost seemed forced in parts. Once feuding, the band mates did so many bear-hugs, hiney-kicks and hand-holding gestures, their beefier, ball cap-wearing fans could've feared something less than manly was going on. When a reporter resorts to whiny, gratuitous stereotyping like this, you know it offended his liberal sensibilities. Labels: Music
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Many people wonder why there aren't any good local blogs from the Left. By that I mean smart, well written, and regularly updated blogs featuring commentary on politics and culture in general. Any examination of the local scene will show, by far, the weight of quality amateur Internet editorializing on these subjects falls on the Right.
I think the primary reason for this disparity is that the mainstream media already adequatley presents the perspective of the Left on these matters, every single day, over and over again. Numerous media outlets employing hundreds of professional, highly educated journalists to articulate their exact feelings on politics and life. So, there is no motivation for amateurs to take up the cause. On the other hand, conservatives who have come of age in this town over the past 15-20 years have been universally frustrated by the monopoly on news coverage enjoyed by the Left. And pre-Internet, there was no efficient means of countering the biased media. You read what they wrote, complained about it to your friends and family, wrote letters to the editor which may or may not be published, and in the end, you had to helplessly live with it. But, with the advent of the Internet came the potential to counter the mainstream media and to have the chance to share these unedited and unfiltered views with a mass audience (whether that's 50 people or 50,000). My original blogging impulses were exclusively motivated by being fed up with the absolute nonsense that regularly goes on within the news coverage of both the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune, to say nothing of the "hopelessly imbalanced, increasingly shrill and often just simply inaccurate or incomplete information" on the editorial pages. (The latter description courtesy of Governor Tim Pawlenty.) And since no one else was doing it in the mainstream media, it seemed like a good way to invest my time. (And it still does.) Until there is more balance evident in the mainstream media, I'd expect the serious blogosphere to continue to have a decidedly right wing tilt. However, there is a source that continues to spawn dozen of blogs, nearly all of them liberal in orientation. Not coincidentally, that source is the mainstream media itself. Locally, there is the City Pages (the local free alternative weekly), which has its 30 or so Babelogue blogs, nearly all of which are extreme left wing in perspective. Both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press have started getting in the act too. From their pathetic attempts to do news cycle linking to their dating blog, all are written by liberals who also happen to be newspaper employees. Today I ran across the latest attempt by the mainstream media to blog, the Pioneer Press's Webb Blog. It's written by their Washington correspondent,Tom Webb, and this week he's at the Democratic National Convention. Like any newspaper reporter, he's officially non-partisan, just reporting the straight facts ma'am. But never fear, he does revert to typical media form. This is his commentary today, describing the appearances of 6th District DFL candidate Patty Wetterling and Republican Senator Norm Coleman at the convention: Wetterling spoke at the Minnesota delegation breakfast, delivering a calm and quiet speech that was decidedly low on partisan bombast. "I do believe together we can carry this forward and restore hope in our lives," she said. The partisan blasts will today come from U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who will be roving from TV camera to TV camera to undermine the Democrats. You won't have to tune into C-SPAN to catch Norm. No matter what station you're following, he's likely to turn up. There hasn't been a successful mainstream media sponsored blog in the Twin Cities yet. I find it hard to believe that condescending, sniffing elite Tom Webb is going to be the first. Those needing their sniffing condescension fix already read Nick Coleman. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Yesterday, when I read this piece in the Strib business section by Ronald M. Bosrock of St. John's University, which purports to show how the war has weakened the U.S. economy, I was prepared to roll up my sleeves, get out my hammer and anvil, and give it a thorough working over.
But upon further review, I realized that another member of the vaunted Northern Alliance of Blogs was much better qualified to get medieval on the article's hindquarters than I. And so I requested that King at SCSUScholars take a whack at it. Today he delivers in a thorough and timely fashion: Defending one's own property and people, to the contrary, is exactly the one thing for which government can and should legitimately tax and spend. Who chooses to invest in an economy that is threatened by terrorism or invasion? The rest of his opinion is the usual laundry list of what we should and should not concentrate on, building ties. I ask, what kind of ties are built when you need to ask the permission of your neighbors to defend yourself? Labels: Economics
Do you get the impression that maybe, just maybe, Vox Day is not a big Bill O'Reilly fan? He's certainly not the only one.
Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Next month for old New York City she sails.
As Saint Paul has already noted, our saltiest Northern Alliance colleague, the esteemed Captain Ed has received his media credentials to attend the 2004 GOP convention in New York. He'll be representin' the Northern Alliance as a credentialed blogger. Stop by and wish Ed luck and drop a little something in his tip jar. Labels: Blogs-Local
Yesterday I passed along a reader's account of the Van Halen concert in St. Paul last week, specifically regarding some perceived anti-Bush shenanigans by the band. Today I got this conflicting account, from Steve S:
As an avid reader of Fraters, I was a bit stunned to read the piece you posted yesterday regarding the VH concert and the guy's friend who witnessed Pro-Left Bush Bashing by one of the greatest rock bands of all time. I don't know where he got the 'shrooms he was doing, but I was at the Xcel Energy Center last Thursday, and it never happened. During the song "Right Now," there was a video playing during the song. Most of it was the original video shot when the 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' album came out some 12 years ago. A few pieces were new, and it included bits of soldiers and helicopters and, yes, even of Bush and Cheney. But the message was clear to those of us drug-free and sober enough to remember: support the troops. That's it. No stance left OR right. It's incredibly disappointing that some jackrat would go purposefully looking for something like that at a concert. It's one thing if an entertainer hangs themselves, see Pearl Jam, Dixie Chicks, etc., it's another make-up something that never happened. Note to this Dave guy: next time actually go to the concert and lay off the drugs/booze when you do go. At the very least, get your facts straight from somebody that WAS there. Whom to believe? The third hand account yesterday or this second hand story today? I'll let you decide, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are elements of truth in each. Perceptions can be tricky things. Tune in later today for the debate on whether or not the group that opened for Van Halen on Thursday was a 14 man Syrian band called Dry Run. This whole debate does emphasize the importance of first hand observations when reporting the news. (Becaue I trust no one's biases like I trust my own.) Something our friend Ed Morrissey is going to be providing in late August. That's right, Captain Ed, live from Madison Square Garden! He's been credentialed as a blogging journalist for the Republican convention and we look forward to his reports on Captain's Quarters and on Northern Alliance Radio. Congratulations Ed. Labels: Music
I didn't watch the Democratic rave last night. From the reports of the key note speeches that I've read today, it sounds like they must have had buckets of Ecstasy near the podium to fuel the lovefest. Al loves Bill. Jimmy loves everyone. Hil loves Bill. Bill loves Bill. And of course, now they all love John.
No, instead I was watching baseball. Watching your first place Minnesota Twins apply a little hurt to the White Stockings of Chicago by virtue of a 6-2 beating. A beating that was highlighted by Torii Hunter absolutely destroying White Sox catcher Jamie Burke in a collision at the plate in the eighth inning. This picture doesn't come anywhere near capturing the violence of the impact, and, to fully appreciate it, you need to hear the sound of Burke being knocked silly:  It was a beautiful thing. And after the play, Torii still had a little something left for the bitter South Side fans in Chicago: Hunter was booed by fans after his play and jawed with a couple fans while standing in the on-deck circle in the ninth, leading to one fan being taken out of the park by security. "Someone started talking about taking my life," Hunter said. "Don't be scared. I was hoping he would come on the field so I could whup his butt. That's a free butt-whupping." Butt-licking in Boston or butt-whupping in Chicago? I think I made the right call. Labels: Baseball
Monday, July 26, 2004
Our Al Franken listener, Rick, reports on today's antics on Air America:
No time today to dredge up material for a proper Al Franken Report. I had dash off to meet the wife for lunch and caught only few minutes of the show on the car radio. It was good thing too. For the segment I caught was Al Franken interviewing Garrison Kellior on the DNC Convention floor. It was like sonic NyQuil pouring through the car speakers. Fortunately I pulled into a parking space before collapsing asleep at the wheel. Citizens beware, when MPR and Air America collide, there's no place for your consciousness to hide. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Breaking news has appeared on the Minneapolis Star Tribune web site (registration required). Their top story this hour relates a distubing tale of a possible terrorism plot conducted by a number of Syrian males on a Northwest flight from Detriot to Los Angeles.
Kudos to the Star Tribune for being right on top of this important and truly chilling story. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
From Joe Wierzbicki of Move America Forward !:
The Democrat National Convention is about to begin in Boston. And you can bet there will be more than a few irresponsible individuals who will be allowed to address the convention delegates (and a national television audience) with a 'bash America' message in an attempt to further undermine support for the war on terrorism. To that end, the group "Move America Forward" (who I work with) are launching an ad blitz. Ads urging support for our troops and the war on terrorism will flood the news channels in the Boston media market, nationally on CNN and on Fox News in the Washington DC media market. I encourage you to view these ads--and let us know what you think of them.... good, bad or otherwise. Tit meets tat. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Tom e-mails to propose that we throw Hugh over and adopt a new talk radio host:
Linked through to Laura Ingraham's site from your post. A click on the picture of her dog got me to her photo page. The first picture is Ingraham very businesslike in the handling of a what appears to be a fine crafted over-under shotgun. She was "hunting" clays in Minnesota of all places. (So Mitch Berg and the unmarried members of Fraters may be able to find a good conservative woman at Mills Fleet Farm after all.) Contrast this with pictures of Ralphie in the outdoors...a rented sled come a cropper in a pine tree, pouting over a split lip, etc. I believe it is time to change loyalties. I'm certain Laura might make you her sports reporter and won't ask about Bartolo Colon. While it is undoubtedly true that Laura Ingraham pursues more manly activities than Hugh, has a bigger Adam's apple, and probably would not ask silly ambush questions when we called the show, we can't bail on our man Hugh. He may well be a clumsy Dockers-wearing, athletically-challenged nerd who listens to folk music, but damnit he's OUR clumsy Dockers-wearing, athletically-challenged nerd who listens to folk music and we ain't gonna give up on him. Not without our Ralphie. Labels: Ralphie
The beat of musicians straying into left wing political causes that is:
MoveOn.org is co-sponsoring an album featuring powerful and political songs -- most of them unreleased until now -- from some of the best artists around. It's called the "Future Soundtrack for America." For a donation to MoveOn PAC of $25 or more, we'll make sure you get the album before it hits the record stores. These donations will make a real impact, allowing the PAC to run ads that counter the Bush campaign's negative attacks on Kerry and present a vision for how our country ought to be. The album features a pretty amazing line up of artists: Blink-182, Bright Eyes, David Byrne, Laura Cantrell, Clem Snide, Death Cab for Cutie, Mike Doughty, The Flaming Lips, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, Ben Kweller, The Long Winters, Nada Surf, OK Go, Old 97's, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, They Might Be Giants, Tom Waits, will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all featured. In addition, the family of Elliott Smith contributed a mix of "A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free," a song from Smith's as-yet-unreleased last record, and the first release of new material since his death in late 2003. Together, the songs present a passionate rallying cry for all of us to take our country back. Mike Doughty's song "Move On" hones in on the passion that drives all of our activism, singing "I love my country so much, like an exasperating friend." Tom Waits' contribution is a heartbreaking song about a letter home from a soldier in Iraq. R.E.M. takes on Bush and the war in Iraq, and They Might Be Giants (whose John Flansburgh pulled the project together) revisit a campaign song from the Presidential campaign of 1840. The album is a joint project between MoveOn.org and the good folks at Music for America and Barsuk Records. MoveOn PAC has purchased a large quantity of CDs from Barsuk Records to give away to PAC contributors. Country music's starting to sound better and better... Labels: Music, You Got Your Politics In My ...
It has been reported that Saddam is whiling away his time in solitary confinement writing poetry and gardening. It seems that one of his completed works of poesy refers to his arch-enemy, George W. Bush.
By virtue of some unprecedented cooperation between the deposed dictator's jailors, the U.S. intelligence community, the American military and an Iraqi prostitute (thanks Fatma, you're the best!) a copy of that poem, actually a Haiku, has been delivered to Fraters Libertas world headquarters. So, without further ado, I give you...Saddam's first Haiku: Bushes I used to fight with Bushes Now, I must trim them Why so many bushes...why? Very moving words, indeed. Labels: Iraq
Phillip from Ahwatukee, Arizona passes on this letter which he submitted to the editor of the Arizona Republic (no word on whether it was published):
I have a full-spectrum flyer in my hand titled, "Gay Pride Discounts on America West." The handbill offers a 10% discount through September 30, 2004 if I fly an America West flight to any of these "Gay & Lesbian events": Reno Pride, Southern Decadence in New Orleans, Gay Day Tampa Bay, Dallas Pride, Gay Days in Los Angeles, North Carolina Pridefest/Raleigh Pride, Halloween in San Francisco & New Orleans. My "online source for air fare discounts" may be found at americawest.com/glbt (which I'm told stands for "gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender.") I well-up with pride over this selfless act by my "Hometown Airline." I can't WAIT to call and claim my 10% discount to religious events like Promise Keepers, Pastors Conferences, and family weddings. This heart-felt love for all people will certainly extend to the Red-heads of our nation, followed shortly by the height-challenged. Oh my, I'm concerned that the Airline will grant 10% discounts to Islamic Fundamentalist Terror organizations to select training camps across our incredibly tolerant land. I'll just skip those flights, or better yet, perhaps they'll recognize even MY special interest: the "I'm Too Stinking Afraid to Fly on Little Old Peanuts" (IT'SAFLOP). You know, it would just save us all a lot of trouble if America West would simply give us ALL the 10% discount fares. Perhaps there would be one less hometown boycott (can I say boy-cot, or isn't that PC?) Thank you for allowing me to speak as freely as the more vocal of our country's special interest groups. I guess this IS still America. Sometimes, I'm not so sure. Labels: Culture
Derek from Freedom Dogs provides us with another account of dissent not being crushed. This time at the Van Halen concert in St. Paul last week:
I had 3 friends attend the Van Hagar concert in St Paul on Thursday night. I said before he went, 'Dave, let me know if they pull a stupid stunt like Ozzy or Rondstat. It seems every one thinks they must jump on the lefty bandwagon.' Sure enough, my friend Dave reports that on the very last song they had on the big screen a montage of flashing imagery with "Imagine Peace", pictures of war, and pictures of Bush/Ashcroft and "no more lies", "peace, not war", etc. Yawn. Dave said he, along with about 50% of the audience, stopped clapping and there was very little effort to get them to come back for the predictable and planned encore. Another pitiful member of the conformists who think they are non-conformists. Of course, these artists have a right to say whatever they wish. But for Van Halen to compromise the artistic integrity of "Hot for Teacher" for political posturing is profoundly disturbing. Labels: Music, You Got Your Politics In My ...
Last week our rock and roll correspondent, Chad O, reported his chagrin at discovering the First Avenue concert billed as "Rock for Democracy" was actually a dedicated fundraiser for the John F. Kerry campaign.
He bought his ticket before finding this out. But like a good rock and roll soldier, Chad went anyway, and files this report from the front lines: Sorry for the delay on the review of "Rock for Democracy". Busy work week and just trying to get my thoughts together on an altogether less than spectacular evening of music are to blame. For the most part, the people in the crowd were only paying attention to the stage when a band was playing so I'm guessing the majority of the crowd was there not because it was a fundraiser for MN DFL and John Kerry but rather because they wanted to see some music. Probably 20% were sporting a button or t-shirt espousing the typically profound thoughts of liberals. One shirt had mention of Haliburton on it, I wasn't able to catch the smaller print. One said "F*ck Coleman", (without the asterisk) ... very classy. I was going to ask her if her shirt was meant for Norm or Nick but I don't think she would have gotten the joke. (Saint Paul's note - unless it was Laura Billings wearing that shirt. She definitely gets the joke - she's married to it). Of the 20% in the audience for political purposes and not music, the world would have benefited if they had chosen to put their ticket money towards shampoo and/or deodorant. A little soap never hurt anyone. The musicians in general stayed away from the political statements. I got to the show about 9pm (doors opened at 7pm) and left by 11:30 pm. The sound was horrible, whenever someone was on stage just talking, you couldn't understand a word they were saying. They had a video screen up that showed a Wellstone video. I think it may be time for them to moveon.org on the whole Wellstone thing, but that's just me. Here are two reviews of the show ... one with photos, including Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stage diving. (SP - Apparently Rybak's position is 'yes' to stage diving, but smoking is far too dangerous an activity for bars. Speaking of dangerous, Rybak may wish to heed the advice given by the reviewer next time he leaps off a stage head first: Next time you may want to flip over on your back to protect, the uh, giblets, you know.). In the review it mentions that Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum said that "we need to vote that Bush motherf*cker out of office". (SP - and the reviewer's comments: "it felt like a relief, like laughter finally come after grief. Amen, brother Dave, Amen." Somebody dropped the MF bomb, phhhhhew, that feels better.) What's truly unfortunate is that of all the talented bands in the Twin Cities during the 90's, Soul Asylum was the one that made it big. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. At least none of the bands I actually enjoy said anything that would cause me to stop enjoying their music. The left can have the Honeydogs and Soul Asylum as far as I'm concerned, I never liked them anyway. Labels: Music, You Got Your Politics In My ...
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Thanks to everyone who came out the Keegan's mixer last night. The unofficial head count was about 60. And according to the approving Keegan's publican: "they all drink".
This contributed to the lively, and almost entirely nonpartisan, conversation throughout the evening. It was a great time meeting all the Minnesota bloggers, contributors, and readers in attendance. I dare say this much amateur Internet editorializing talent doesn't exist in any other region of the country. As such, it might make sense to somehow loosely formalize this affiliation for the synergistic promotional opportunities. Perhaps this is the dawning of the Minnesota Organization of Blogs (MOB)? Hmmmm. We'll give that some thought. But for now here is a list of some of the folks I ran into last night. Some of whose blogs I've never read before, but scanning them this morning I realize there are all sorts of interesting things happening out there. (Because, remember, they all drink.) Check 'em out. If I inadvertently left out anybody, send me an email and I'll add you to the list. Fraters regular contributors The Warrior Princess, Man from Silver Mountain, and Jim Styczinski. King Banaian from SCSU Scholars Douglas Bass from Belief Seeking Understanding Mitch Berg from Shot in the Dark Captain Ed from Captain's Quarters Cathy from Cathy in the Wright DC from Brainstorming Bob Davis from The Bob Davis Show on KSTP Flash from Centristy Sarah Janecek from MN Politics Scott Johnson from Powerline Peggy Kaplan From What If? John LaPlante from Policy Guy James Lileks from The Bleat Chuck Olson from Blogumentary Dave Polaschek from Dave's Picks Jay Reding from Jay Reding.com Shawn Sarazin from The American Mind Odin Soli, the erstwhile Plain Layne Margaret and David Strom from Our House Bill Tuomala from Rocks Off Thorley Winston from Tacitus Chumley Wonder Bar from Plastic Hallway And a special thanks to Keegan's Pub, for their fine accommodations and generous hospitality. UPDATE: The Elder adds that logo designer extraordinaire, Derek Brigham and Eric Jorde from the newly launched Freedom Dogs were also in attendance. Labels: MOB
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Yesterday's column by Nick Coleman was a shout out to his working class brothers:
An ad hoc group of young labor activists who have been energized by studying the "Teamster Rebellion" of 1934 have organized a commemoration of a time when Minneapolis almost came apart at the seams, its class structure shattered by gunfire and carnage. Called One Day In July: A Street Festival for the Working Class, the event will be held from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday on the site where Bloody Friday took place and will be one part block party, one part rock concert and one part consciousness-raising. "The 1934 strike shaped everything else that happened across the country," says Kieran Knutson, a 33-year-old union member who was raised in Minneapolis but who learned the story of the Teamsters Union's origins only in recent years. He and the other organizers say they admire the militancy and the innovative tactics of the 1934 strikers, who, in the end, prevailed, turning Minneapolis into a union town. "Our generation hasn't necessarily seen a lot of inspirational stuff from the labor movement," Knutson says. "But this story is very inspirational. And it all happened right here, in our fair city." More information on the event is available here. Does this mean that Nick won't be joining us today at Keegan's? Saint Paul will be devastated. SAINT PAUL ADDS: I am devasted. But in tribute to Nick Coleman's proletarian performance at the Bloody Friday Festival, we will be having a round of Bloody Mary's at precisely 7 PM. Keegan's. Be there. Labels: Media-Local (02-04), MOB
Friday, July 23, 2004
As reported earlier today, state Representative Phyllis Kahn was caught stealing Republican campaign literature up in New Hope. A strange story to be sure. If this act was committed by any elected official it would shocking. But this isn't some anonymous backbencher. Phyllis Kahn is a House member with 32 years tenure. She's in the DFL leadership, serving as the ranking minority member of the Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Policy Committee.
Among the politically sober, she is a figure of some ridicule, due to her authorship of such proposals as: ... during the 1999 term... a repeal of the state's sodomy laws. Four other state representatives withdrew their names from the Kahn-authored bill legalizing prostitution, adultery, sodomy and bestiality after facing pressure from conservative groups including the Minnesota Family Council. And ... Kahn has also come under fire for proposing that 12-year-olds be granted suffrage. Even members in her own party conceded that the 63-year-old DFLer stood alone on that issue. But among the Democratic faithful in this state, especially women, she is a beloved standard bearer, an absolute hero. And now, maybe, a future convicted criminal. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen. Powerful and connected elites like Kahn rarely have to face the same justice doled out to the common folks. The very fact that Hennepin County District Attorney Amy Kloubechar had to recuse her entire department from the prosecution, because of her close relationship with Kahn, tells you all you need to know about her friends in high places. Sadly, I think she's destined for a slap on the wrist. Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
'Cause you won't be able to at bars in Minneapolis much longer:
There will be no smoking in bars and restaurants in the state's largest city beginning March 31. The Minneapolis city council approved the smoking ban Friday on a 12-1 vote, culminating several months of debate in Minneapolis and several other cities around the state. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope on this issue. But I do have one question: what the f*** is wrong with these people?!?! Seriously, with all that's going on the world today, you feel so strongly about imposing your views on other people's ability to smoke in public that you HUG EACH OTHER after your "victory"? Get a frickin' life. And stay the hell out of mine. Labels: Nanny State
While Googling for pictures of Catwoman for my post below, I came across the following line from a fan site dedicated to the 60's Batman TV series:
Aunt Harriet was written into the series to counter the rumors that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were gay. The series producers felt that a female aunt would "round out" Wayne Manor. Two guys run all over town in tight colored underwear with bright silk capes and spend an inordinate amount of time alone together in a cave with their...experiments...drive a flashy car and turn down obvious sexual advances from an incredibly hot woman in a tight black cat suit and the fact that they live with a frumpy clueless woman is supposed to round them out? The only way Aunt Harriet could round these guys out is if she was a transvestite with a mask fetish and a gerbil farm. Labels: Television
In the days of my youth I lived and died by the syndicated reruns of the 60's live action Batman series. I remember one particular morning when I pitched a holy hell-fire fit when I discovered that my brother, too sick to go to school, would get to watch the morning reruns of the show...without me. Mom decided that I was too hysterical to handle school but I had to spend the rest of the morning banished to my bedroom. There was no Batman for me that day, my friends. I was devastated.
As young as I was at the time, the whole campy, kitschy, self-parodying aspect of the show was way over my head but I do remember thinking that something was oddly intriguing about that Catwoman character (the Julie Newmar incarnation, not the Eartha Kitt one...holy hideousness!). I wasn't able to figure out then what is so eye-poppingly obvious now what exactly that quality was. I'll let you be the judge. Meow indeed. That said, there is another more subtle aspect of Newmar's Catwoman that makes her portrayal extra appealing...she was a villain. Guys like bad girls. I suppose even 8 year old guys do at some level. They're exotic, dangerous and even a little scary. Catwoman had that in spades. Batgirl, on the other hand, did not interest me in the least. Batman and Robin took care of the crime-fightin', dammit! They didn't need help from some do-gooder teenage tomboy. Besides, she took screen time away from the chick in the skin tight cat suit. Given the history I have with this fetching feline felon, when I noticed a review of the new Catwoman movie in today's paper, I felt I owed it to myself to at least read it since the chances of me actually seeing the film are wafer thin. Imagine my surprise upon discovering that Halle Berry's character...is a crimefighter. That just ain't right. They've gone and thrown the whole bad girl image down the tubes with this thing! I mean how can that be sexy? Uhhhh...never mind. Labels: Misspent Youth, Movies
A reader, wishing to remain anonymous, sent in his recent correspondence with Senator Mark Dayton, regarding the debate on the marriage amendment to the Constitution. It's an interesting look at Dayton's position on this issue, the accuracy of his preparation, and also at the nature of legislator-constituent communications.
First, our reader sent an email to Dayton asking him to clarify his position on gay marriage. To which he received this response, which appears to be a form letter (if only because it's entirely coherent, a marked departure from Dayton's normal style): July 19, 2004Here are the relevant excerpts of Dayton's July 13 Senate floor speech during debate on the proposed amendment (which ultimately failed to pass): ... in the entire New Testament, there is only one reference to same-sex relationships, in Chapter Two of Paul's Letter to the Romans. Jesus Christ does not mention them even once in any of the four Gospels. Instead, His overriding instruction was to love thy neighbor as thyself. That was his Second Great Commandment, which superseded all the rest. Jesus also warned several times to beware of false prophets. How could they be identified? He said that they spread hate, instead of love. Our reader's response: July 22, 2004I want to reiterate, this was not written by me, despite the stylistic similarities of calling Dayton a deceitful fraud who cannot be trusted in a position of power, then offering best wishes on his election in 2006. Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
You know what they will do:
State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, a 32-year veteran from Minneapolis and a key figure in the DFL House caucus, was stopped by New Hope police earlier this week after a citizen complained that she was removing a Republican House member's campaign literature from doorsteps and replacing it with a DFL opponent's material. The case has been referred to the Anoka County attorney's office for possible charges, officials said. Kahn could not be reached for comment, but she issued a statement to local media in the northwestern suburb. It said she "made a mistake in picking up a few pieces of (Rep.) Lynne Osterman's campaign material, which was done without direction from anyone." On Thursday, one of Kahn's aides hand-delivered a letter to Osterman offering "apologies for picking up a few of your lit pieces." Kahn wrote that she was "interested in seeing what you were saying. I'm sure it will have little effect on your campaign but I know it was wrong and I am sorry." No word if Kahn stuffed the literature in her pants, socks, or perhaps even a more sensitive place. Laura Billings will no doubt have complete coverage forthcoming. Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
On this morning's Laura Ingraham show, I caught an interview with the woman Ted Rall has described as a "house nigga". One thing's certain: she's no Sandy Berger.
Thanks God she's no Sandy Berger. Labels: Foreign Policy, Media-National (02-06)
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Exactly where is Hugh going anyway:
More from the Ricky Mountain state tomorrow. And what's really on his mind when he's blogging? Labels: Ralphie
This Saturday 5:00PM.
Keegan's Irish Pub & Restaurant in Minneapolis. Everybody will be there. How about you? Labels: MOB
Enough with the "flattery" already. Jim noticed a striking similarity between these two posts:
From today's The Kerry Spot on National Review Online posted 7/22 12:20PM: A little bird in Republican circles points out that John Kerry was not the first choice of the celebrity guests at this year's Democratic convention. Ben Affleck, star of "Phantoms" and "Gigli", gave $2000 to Wes Clark and $1,000 to Dennis Kucinich. Bon Jovi, who avoids mockery because he is from New Jersey, gave $250 to Dick Gephardt. Chevy Chase, who last got laughs in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," gave to $2,000 each Clark and Gephardt. All of these celebrities eventually gave money to Kerry, but only when he was well on the way to winning the nomination. From Fraters Libertas posted 6/29 5:45PM: Jim e-mails to observe: While reading the New York Times article on John Kerry's recent Hollywood fundraiser, I came across this sentence in the twelfth paragraph: "Mr. Kerry, as he is happy to tell you, has longstanding friendships with James Taylor and Carly Simon, as well as with Mr. Affleck and Matt Damon, but he lacks the cachet of Mr. Clinton in these parts." I decided to check Neighbor Search to see how much money these wealthy and famous longtime friends donated to John Kerry. I came up with nothing for the singer James Taylor, however Carly Simon's only donation was $1500 to Howard Dean. Ben Affleck donated $2000 to Wesley Clark and $1000 to Dennis Kucinich. Not a dime to John Kerry. Matt Damon gave $2000 to Dennis Kucinich. Again, nothing to Kerry. All three will no doubt donate the full $2000 to Kerry, but it is interesting that Kerry seems to have been the second or third choice of these supposed longtime friends in the Democratic primary (assuming the NY Times story is accurate -- a risky assumption, I admit). Aren't there laws against this sort of thing? Get your legal pads ready and your pencils sharpened boys. I think we've got some briefs to file. In our briefs of course. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
First it was Katherine Jean Lopez ripping off the Elder in the Corner, now Laura Billings is ripping me off in the pages of the Pioneer Press. When are these girls going to get together, start Sorority Libertas, and drop all of this journalistic pretense once and for all!?
Today, Laura Billings continues her exploration of underwear as social commentary. Here's an excerpt from her Q & A column with anonymous readers. (I suspect Billings made them anonymous because she's making them up entirely, or because she has evidence the readers composed them in the underpants.): Q. You mentioned that there are lots of patterns for knitting or crocheting thong panties. Could you share what you know? The charity knitting group at my church is always collecting interesting patterns. A. There are dozens of such patterns on the Internet, but I think you could create your own just as easily. Try this: CO 3 stitches, and knit in SS for approximately 10 minutes. Finish by attaching piece to chain-stitched hip girdle. That's it. Imagine how many darling stocking stuffers you could make for friends and clergy this holiday season. That last line looks suspiciously like this commentary featured on Fraters Libertas, way back on July 2nd. In a Q & A column of my own, I responded to the Golden Girl's inquiry about whether we actually write inside of our underwear: So, as his confidence increased and his skills improved, the Elder moved from withering social commentary in his underwear to blistering satirical comments in his dress shirts, then to topical limericks in his hat bands, and then finally to the Web site you know and love. For dedicated fans of the site, I'm proud to announce that the Elder will soon be offering commemorative editions of the first issues of Fraters Libertas, in their original format. It's the perfect gift for the blog reader in your life and they make great stocking stuffers. Underwear = stocking stuffers? You're telling me Billings just happened to come up with that brilliant concept independently? Come on, this is Laura Billings we're talking about. And according to inside media sources, we know Billings (and her husband Nick Coleman) are obsessive Fraters Libertas readers. As such, I accuse her of plagiarism and call for her immediate resignation. And if editor Anders "Andy" Gyllenhaal is finally ready to hire the real underwear deal, I'm prepared to hear his offer. Incidentally, Laura had another segment devoted to underwear in today's column. A college girl wrote in defending the wearing of thong underwear against Billings previous scolding. Laura's response: A. You make a strong case for evolutionary fashion theory, but I'm still with the creationists at Fruit of the Loom. Good job using your college education to weigh in on an important issue of the day. Your mother would be proud - even if she were horrified by what you're wearing. That's a little harsh I think. Especially given the fact that Laura Billings has now written about underwear in FIVE columns in the past two weeks. I wonder how proud her mother is that she's using her college education to weigh in on this subject over and over and over. Or how proud her surrogate father figure (Nick Coleman) is? Or how proud her editor is? (Andy, how much more of this can you take? Seriously, call me, I'm standing by.) Labels: Media-Local (02-04), Newspaper Newlyweds
Michael e-mails with news from another nanny state:
You know, I moved away from Minneapolis for an education about five years ago, and I thought I left a lot of the over-regulating/control every aspect of my life aspect of that state behind me. But when I read your post the other day about Bloomington's (where my folks still live) new smoking ban, I couldn't believe that this is considered a new thing up there. I figured Minneapolis/St. Paul, Edina, Eden Prairie and the rest of those upscale suburban neighborhoods would have passed this sort of thing long ago. Especially since I remember in Edina you couldn't order a drink before you ordered dinner. But I digress - the reason I'm sending this is because Lincoln, NE (about 45 minutes south of Omaha) passed a smoking ban there - in a college town nonetheless - in some sort of smoke-filled-back-room secret legislative session. Omaha followed with public hearings a few weeks later but is yet to make any move. I can't believe that Nebraska--about as red a state as can be--is moving closer to acting along the lines of Nurse Bloomberg in NYC faster than those in Minnesota. I leave and the next thing that happens is Norm beats Walter Mondale (Walter Mondale?!) and Pawlenty gets in...maybe I should think about moving on back once I'm done with school. In the meantime, count me confused...Keep up the good work. Labels: Nanny State
Tim from Colorado shares my concerns about the Hewitt media saturation campaign:
I read the title of Hugh's new book, simply abbreviated as "IINCTCCCTDIEEAWYLDOI" and wondered why such a long title. Now, coupled with your observation about Hugh popping up everywhere, kind of like Jared from the Subway commercials, I think it's all part of a bigger plot by Hugh. In fact, if you say the title of Hugh's book backwards it sounds something like "I know everything. You will become part of the California collective. Bestow upon me meaningless titles. Bring me my snowmobile." Or something like that. Our only defense may be to wear aluminum foil skull caps so he can't tell what our real thoughts are. I plan on ensconcing myself in tin foil. His satellites are everywhere you know. Labels: Ralphie
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
The Star Tribune editorial board reacts to the Sandy Berger (mmmmm...buurr-ger) story:
Based on a leak from the Bush administration, the news media are reporting that Samuel Berger, national security adviser for President Bill Clinton, is being investigated for removing highly classified material from a secure government reading room. Berger was using the information to prepare for his appearance before the 9/11 commission. The investigation started last October and was referred to the FBI last January. Moreover, the FBI has yet to interview Berger, indicating the investigation remains in early stages. So just why is this making news this particular week? Many in Washington, including such respected nonpartisan observers as David Gergen, think there is only one reason: The Bush administration is trying to detract attention from the 9/11 Commission final report, due out Thursday. This is: 1) another instance of the White House using insider information and manipulating the media to its own political ends, and 2) an indication the administration is seriously concerned about what the final report will contain. Just for fun: How many outright misstatements of truth can you find in this piece? Distortions of the facts to fit an agenda? Conclusions based on nothing but wishful thinking? They're melting folks. Meeelllllllting................. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Yesterday, at NRO Kathryn Jean Lopez asked:
Anyone ever sue the New York Times for "All the News that's Fit to Print"? No, but I did propose this on Monday: In a related story, the Northern Alliance of Blogs has announced that it is asking the FTC to order The New York Times to stop using the misleading motto "All the news that's fit to print" since the paper clearly has not lived up to that promise for some time now. Monday. The day before Tuesday. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Question: If you show up at a campaign appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney using the alias "Mega A. Bux", dress up as a "Billionaire For Bush", and dance around like a fool to protest the event are you:
A. A shrill political hack doing whatever is necessary to defeat President Bush B. A non-partisan citizen activist concerned only with improving voter participation If you answered A you are a sane, well-adjusted individual with the ability to objectively gauge reality. If you answered B you are Meighan Stone, Minnesota Communications Director for America Coming Together, and you need to come clean. And probably take a shower as well. From a letter to Ms. Stone or Bux or whatever the hell she's calling herself today (there is video available as well) from MN GOP Communications Director Randy Wanke: In your letter to the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 5, you repeatedly insisted that your organization is "non-partisan" and concerned only with improving voter participation. You have tried to reinforce that illusion through other media as well. For example, during a KARE 11 television interview earlier this month, you attempted to portray ACT as a non-partisan organization concerned only with registering new voters. But during the Vice President's visit to Minneapolis last Saturday, we witnessed the true partisan nature of ACT when you -- or Mega A. Bux -- and several ACT activists dressed up as "Billionaires for Bush" and danced about the sidewalk in front of the Minneapolis Convention Center protesting the Vice President and the Bush Administration. Your performance on Saturday had nothing to do with educating or registering voters. As you can see by the enclosed video, which we are also sharing with the media, you were playing the role of a partisan attack dog dedicated to the defeat of President George W. Bush in the upcoming election. In sharp contrast to your partisan attacks and protests at Republican events, ACT is working in coordination with other liberal 527s to elect Democrat candidates. As a matter of fact, when ACT shows up at Democrat and Kerry campaign events it is not there to protest. Rather it is there to register new voters and to mobilize support for John Kerry. For example, on June 12, ACT took part in a massive voter mobilization campaign that was clearly coordinated with the DFL Party's "barnstorming" activities on that same day. Those activities were also coordinated with AFL-CIO union officials. Doesn't sound partisan at all does it? Heck no. She's just trying to inform the people, register voters, and encourage civic participation right? This is the latest example of a trend that I've noticed of late. Liberals unwilling to be identified for what they are or who they support. What gives? If your cause is so just and your candidate so great (stifle laughter) why not come on out and say it? Shout it from the mountaintops sister. You hate President Bush and you support John Kerry. So be it. Are you embarrassed? Ashamed? Do you think the American voter needs to be deceived in order to cast a ballot for John Kerry? Aren't you the supposedly the party of openness (getting harder to stifle laughter) and honesty (barely able to control laughter)? Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. You're not affiliated with a party are you? You're "non-partisan"... [Editors Note: The Elder was unable to complete this post as he fell violently to the floor when gut wrenching spasms of laughter overcame him. He is still giggling deliriously at this time, and doctors have recommended that he be treated with two hours of the "Best of Al Franken Show" STAT in order to completely quell his laugh reflex.] Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
Is Hugh Hewitt? As unlikely as that may sound, it is the almost inescapable conclusion one draws if you've been tuned into various media outlets this week. Besides his own show, which runs for three hours every day, Hugh has recently "graced" the Today Show, the Dennis Miller Show, and every local talk radio show with more than seven listeners between Key West and Kirkland, Washington. He also appeared on "Raybuse on the Right" here in the Twin Cities this past Saturday.
This afternoon I flipped on the Dennis Prager show only to discover that Hugh was shamelessly shilling his book there as well. Is there no escaping the Hewitt media bombardment? Are we on the slippery slope to networks devoted to "all Hugh, all the time"? Is this just a bad dream? Is so, somebody please wake me for I don't know how much more I can take. Do not adjust your dial. He controls all frequencies. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Labels: Ralphie
After engaging in some Sandy Berger jokes this morning with the in-crowd at my workplace, I decided to do a visual gag with the receptionist. Upon retrieving a large Fed Ex from the mail area, I stashed it half way down my pants and made my way toward the front desk. (FYI--I discovered the experience to be not at all displeasing, which may be another, more base motive for Berger's actions.)
Anyway, I walked down the hall, put on my Berger face, adjusted the package (so to speak), turned the corner, and ..... found out the receptionist was on a break and someone else was filling in. Someone not in on the joke. Someone who's now filing a harassment complaint against me with the EEOC. Proving once again, sometimes prop comedy is no laughing matter. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
If you relied solely on the Star Tribune for your news, you probably would have been surprised to pick up today's paper and read an editorial by Joe Wilson, in which he weakly attempts to defend himself. Because you would likely have missed the recent revelations that have pretty much discredited Wilson in the eyes of most reasonable people (including the Washington Post). Stories on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Butler reports that called Wilson's veracity, and even his competence, into serious question rarely appeared in the paper; if they did they were buried deep inside it.
Now that Wilson has been exposed and the building blocks of the left's "Bush Lied!" facade are crumbling all around them, the Star Tribune editorialistas are stomping their feet, holding their breath, and pouting like spoiled four year olds. Today's editorial, ridiculously titled Iraq, Niger/There was no uranium link is their latest temper tantrum. It offers nothing new to refute the most recent information that has emerged linking Iraq and uranium from Niger, nor does it bolster Wilson's case in any way. Instead they rehash old arguments, whine about Republicans spinning the SIC and Butler reports, seek to narrow the justification for war, and reach conclusions that are in no way borne out by the facts. They are in serious need of a time out. Mitch has more on this at Shot In The Dark. Labels: Iraq, Media-Local (02-04)
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Fresh off an award winning ballroom dancing performance, James Phillips, head of the Fraters Northern California Research Group, provides some background on the gal who found nothing funny in a Powerline post about Syrian musicians:
Maybe I am the only person who does not know who the humor impaired Erika Linden Green is, but just in case, is this her? While we can't be absolutely one hundred percent certain James, I think it's safe to say that it is. It turns out she has something in common with the NARN. They really will give anyone a radio show these days, won't they? If the Big Trunk is interested in making amends, James has also provided us with her Amazon Wish List. Meanwhile, Rick, in command of the Fraters Southern California Research Group, has been doing a bit of his own digging (presumably clad only in his underwear as the Fraters Dress Code requires): Erika Linden Green ain't all bad for a nut. She belly dances and bugles across America. Interesting combination to say the least. Let's see you try to match that Mitch. Of course, I don't literally mean "see" in this case. My personal favorite finding is this link which explains: When Erika is not designing, she can be found telling other people how to live their lives. Other people like the guys at Powerline. Labels: Terrorism
Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies and get them out of the room, because today is a Laura Billings column day. And the notorious Biscuit Queen of the Pioneer Press doesn't disappoint. According to her column today, she found herself caught in a traffic jam out by the airport last Saturday. And her first reaction was:
Did another guy take off his pants in the security check? TA DA! Yes, that's one, two, three, four mentions in her column in the past two weeks of someone dropping their pants. An unprecedented mark in Twin Cities journalism history. Congratulations go out to Billings, her husband and mentor Nick Coleman, and the Pioneer Press for this ground breaking work in editorial excellence. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, she's not referring to me this time. Although I can't specifically account as to the state of my pants at that precise moment, I can assure you I was no where near the airport on Saturday. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
In response to my post on the lack of minority friends among whites in the UK, Ann of Ann's Fusebox (er...interesting URL) breaks down the numbers and comes to the conclusion that:
Segregation can result even when the people are all tolerant and seek diversity. Read the whole thing. And while you're there ask her why we're on the "Visit Almost Daily" section of her blogroll. Almost? Labels: Culture
When the news broke last night about Sandy Berger and the "misplaced" documents (hey Sandy, is that a classified dossier in your pants or are you just glad to see me?) my initial reaction was that people were making far too much of the story. Yes, he probably broke the rules. And yes, if it was Condi Rice the mainstream press would be all over it like lonely bloggers on Plain Layne, but I was willing to give Berger the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's got a bit of the absent minded professor in him I thought, and honestly was not aware of his illegal actions.
But today after reading this post at Captain's Quarters I'm beginning to have doubts: For my money, that's at least one "inadvertently" too many, and that is not a literary criticism. Perhaps this explanation will fly for those who have never worked around classified documents, but since I spent three years producing such material, I can tell you that it's impossible to "inadvertently" take or destroy them. For one thing, such documents are required to have covers -- bright covers in primary colors that indicate their level of classification. Each sheet of paper is required to have the classification level of the page (each page may be classified differently) at the top and bottom of each side of the paper. Documents with higher classifications are numbered, and each copy is tracked with an access log, and nowadays I suppose they're tracking them by computers. Under these rules, it's difficult to see how anyone could "inadvertently" mix up handwritten notes with classified documents, especially when sticking them into one's jacket and pants. Furthermore, as Clinton's NSA, Berger would have been one of the people responsible for enforcing these regimens, not simply subject to them. The DOD makes these rules crystal clear during the clearance process at each level of access, and security officers (which Berger clearly was) undergo even further training and assessment on security procedures. "Inadvertent" and "sloppiness", in the real context of secured documentation, not only don't qualify as an excuse but don't even register as a possibility. As Ed goes on to say, it's far too early in the game to tell what Berger's motives might have been, and perhaps there is nothing sinister about what he did. But his original excuse about "sloppiness" doesn't seem to hold water anymore. More from Ed on this story here and here. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
It's getting too hot to sell a cold one in Iraq:
BAGHDAD -- It's becoming harder to buy a beer here. At least five stores selling liquor in the Ghadeer district alone were blown up by Islamic militants in the last week, prompting other store owners to close or to stop selling liquor. Wake up people! They're going after beer. BEER! Tell me again about how we're not at war. I don't know about you, but when I get home tonight I'm gonna crack open a cold un'. Otherwise the terrorists will have won.
Bloomington OKs smoking ban:
The Bloomington City Council early today approved the Twin Cities area's first citywide smoking ban, a move some say could lead the way for other local ordinances. Public comment on the ordinance went until about 11:30 p.m. Monday; the council's 6-1 vote came 75 minutes later. The ordinance will take effect Sept. 1 in public places and workplaces. Smoking also would be prohibited within 25 feet of entrances, exits, open windows and ventilation intakes. The smoking ban will take effect March 31, 2005, at restaurants, bars and gambling venues. Outdoor patios can be split evenly between smoking and nonsmoking. Bloomington is a large southwestern suburb of Minneapolis and is viewed by many as a leader among the various communities in the Twin Cities area. Now that they've passed a smoking ban, we can expect others to follow. Minneapolis and St. Paul have already been talking about enacting such freedom-limiting measures already; although the effort in St. Paul was stopped by Mayor Randy Kelly. He also says he will not recognize an absurd ban on smoking in public parks recently passed by the St. Paul Park Board. That attempt at coercive government control of peoples' lives for dubious public benefit was so egregious that even a big government liberal like Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow was moved to weigh in against it, as Mitch noted earlier today. No word yet on the subject from Captain Red. He may be too busy celebrating the news out of Bloomington. In related news the Northern Alliance, applying the same sort of logic that supports a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, is petitioning the Bloomington City Council to ban loud music in all bars and restaurants. The medical evidence that loud music is harmful to you health is indisputable (ask anyone who has spent any time at First Avenue about that-if they can hear you that is). People who work at bars and restaurants have no choice but to be subjected to this health risk. And the resulting medical costs are borne by all of us through higher insurance premiums and increased public spending to cover these costs. Besides shouldn't my wife and I be able to go out and enjoy a pleasant dinner without being subjected to someone else's "secondhand music"? If you want to listen to loud music, why not just do it in the privacy of your own home? That would still be allowed under our proposed ordinance. At least for now. Labels: Nanny State
Monday, July 19, 2004
The boys at Powerline have apparently touched a nerve with some humorous comments about a real Syrian band who may or may not have been involved in the Annie Jacobson flight scare hubbub last week. Reading the account conjured up the following scene in my head:
Erika Linden Green : [threateningly] The American Arab Anti Discrimination League isn't all smiles und sunshine. Big Trunk: [recoils in mock horror] Oooh, the American Arab Anti Discrimination League is mad at me. I'm so scared! Oooh, the American Arab Anti Discrimination League! [hiding behind Hindrocket] Uh oh, the American Arab Anti Discrimination League is going to get me! Erika Linden Green : Stop it! Big Trunk: Don't let the American Arab Anti Discrimination League come after me. Oh no, the American Arab Anti Discrimination League is coming after me. Erika Linden Green : Please stop the `pretending you are scared' game, please. Big Trunk: [brief pause, then resumes] No! They're so big and strong! Erika Linden Green: Stop it, Mr. Johnson. Big Trunk: Oh, protect me from the American Arab Anti Discrimination League ! The American Arab Anti Discrimination League ... Erika Linden Green: Mr. Johnson, STOP IT! Labels: Terrorism
Just polished off Hugh Hewitt's latest literary effort. Unless you've been hiding under a rock or living in a cave for the last three weeks (did anybody tell Osama?) I'm sure you've heard about Hugh's book. He hasn't exactly been shy about promoting it so far, and it sounds as if the real blitz is only just getting started. If you're at your local Barnes and Noble and you notice a bespectacled, silver-haired shock jock in Dockers with a goofy smile coming at you with a stack of red books, I recommend that you find the exit immediately.
Of course I did not have to shell out any lucre for my copy, although I hesitate to describe it as "free". Considering the mountains of abuse that Hugh has heaped on me and my good name in the last year, I feel that the book is the minimum that Hugh owes me. Reparations! I demand reparations! I don't agree with all the points that Hugh makes in his book. He's more willing than I am to trade principle for power; the Toomey-Specter race for example. But overall it's a concise, thoughtful examination of the reasons that people should support the GOP in the 2004 election, along with concrete examples of what that support should entail (it's much more that just voting). He isn't afraid to take the occasional jab at fellow conservatives either. In fact I believe that this particular line may very well be referring to a fellow talk radio host on Hugh's same network: While self-proclaimed experts on borders and quotas and culture rant away, voting citizens hear these rants as appeals to racists instincts, even when they are not intended that way. My only quibble with Mr. Hewitt's effort, other than the matter of his referring to our blog as "annoying", is that he is too quick to dismiss those who support third parties: Greens are useful only as a bleeding device on Democrats, and Libertarians only as a bleeding device on Republicans. Both Greens and Libertarians are good for chuckles, but it is an absurd choice to ally oneself with one or the other and marks the self-declared Green or Libertarian as a naive and beside-the-point political nonentity. There's no point being involved in politics unless you are an active Republican or Democrat. If you are an independent or minor party candidate, you have no say in things. Nor will you in your lifetime. I don't substantially disagree with Hugh's assessment of third party supporters. And I concur with his view that: ...if you walk away from politics because you can't have everything your way, you are helping the people win who are least like you and most opposed to your views. But we can't afford to just write them off so cavalierly. I'm speaking of libertarians here. When it comes to the Green party; I say the more, the merrier. Go Greens. What I'm worried about is losing votes of disaffected conservatives. And what we can do to convince them to vote for Bush. This past Saturday night, Atomizer was hosting a party at his new abode. Late in the evening, after the keg of Summit had been hit early and often, we got into a debate with an intelligent, articulate, well-read friend of Atomizer's (no, that's not an oxymoron) with views that would be described by most as conservative. For the most part he supports the actions taken in the war against Islamist militants and agrees that Bush's tax cuts have helped stimulate the economy out of recession. But he's not voting for Bush in November. He's pulling the libertarian lever instead. We went round and round with him on this decision. How a vote for the libertarian candidate was a vote for Kerry, how you could never find a candidate with perfect views to fit yours, how this was the most important election in years (at least since 1980), how you needed to weigh the most important issues and vote on them, how Bush could actually win the state this year, etc. etc. All to no avail. The reality on the ground for me and, I suspect many others who read Hugh's book, is that there are not many Democrats out there whom I can persuade to vote for Bush. Those few that I know are pretty hard core lefties and not likely to come over. On the other hand, I know a number of folks whose political views are much more closely aligned with the GOP than with the Dems, but are either wavering on Bush or already committed to voting for a third party (usually either libertarian or constitutional). These are the people we need to influence. The question is how. What are the killer arguments that can sway them to vote for Bush this November? Is it too late for a supplemental chapter Hugh? Labels: Politics-National (02-04), Ralphie
MoveOn.org is now asking members to sign a petition urging the FTC and Congress to stop Fox News from using the slogan "Fair and Balanced":
A free and independent press is vital to democracy. Political partisans cannot be allowed to falsely represent themselves as journalists. That's why we believe: "The Federal Trade Commission and Congress must act to prevent Fox News from using the deceptive and misleading trademark 'Fair and Balanced.'" You can now ask the FTC to order Fox News to stop misleading consumers. The FTC's job is to protect consumers from deceptive advertising on the part of big media companies. Please enter your name, email address, zip code, and your personal comment below. We'll deliver these messages to the FTC and to other political leaders. In a related story, the Northern Alliance of Blogs has announced that it is asking the FTC to order The New York Times to stop using the misleading motto "All the news that's fit to print" since the paper clearly has not lived up to that promise for some time now. If you go to MoveOn's web site you will see that they have a video clip of Bill O'Reilly which they appear to believe solidifies their case against Fox. The problem is that O'Reilly is not a journalist. He's the host of a show that offers opinions on a variety of social and political issues. In fact the clip that MoveOn is so worked up about features the word COMMENTARY in big letters at the bottom of the screen. On second thought, I'm going to check into the possibility of the Northern Alliance suing MoveOn.org for false advertising. They've been promising to "move on" for some time now, but don't seem to be going anywhere. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Tim from Colorado e-mails to inquire:
Would you please clear something up for me? At the top of your blog, the quote by Laura Billings says "...lonely guys who write withering and anonymous social commentary in their underpants.". I assume she is talking about you and the others in the Fraters Fraternity, and maybe even Hugh, and not Michael Moore or Paul Krugman. Secondly, is she accusing you of writing things inside your underwear, or as you sit around in your underwear, you are writing? Or is it both? I just wanted to clear that up. Thanks for writing in your underwear and/or, in your underwear. For the answers to these burning questions and other matters relating to Laura Billings and underwear (talk about burning) you must read this as well as this. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
According to the results of a recent survey, that statement is not oft heard in the UK:
More than nine out of 10 white Britons have no or hardly any ethnic minority friends, according to a poll that reveals the continuing gulf between races and religions more than 40 years after the UK became a multicultural society. The Guardian has seen details of the survey, to be released this week by the Commission for Racial Equality. It shows that a majority of white people do not share the bonds of close friendship with their fellow black, Asian or Muslim Britons, meaning they may lack the empathy that close contact can bring. The CRE warns this leaves swaths of the population open to believing the worst of different ethnic and religious groups. The poll found that 94% of white people say most or all their friends are of the same race, while 47% of ethnic minorities say white people form all or most of their friends. More than half of white people, 54%, said they did not have a single black or Asian person they considered a close friend. The solution to the problem? Government intervention of course: Mr Phillips said integration could not be left to chance. He believed the government should fund US-style summer camp places for 16-year-olds where they can take part in activities with teenagers they would otherwise not meet: "In Britain we still don't know each other. We are not like Americans who do know each other but have made an active choice to live in a segregated society." No word on whether the kids would be bussed to these camps. My wife, who sent me the link to story, notes that it's no longer good enough that people can choose to be friends with anyone they want. They now must choose to be friends with the RIGHT people.
Local zinemaster turned blogger, Bill Tuomala is out with the latest edition of Exiled on Main Street, and I must say that it includes some very fine pieces. Most of the them feature beer as a theme, and you can never go wrong writing about beer. My favorites are:
Border Hopping Lay Me Low and When You're Out Of Schlitz, You're Out Of Beer Read them all and come on down to Keegan's Irish Pub & Restaurant to share a Schlitz with Bill (and many other writers of note) this Saturday at the inaugural social gathering for local bloggers and their readers. Labels: Blogs-Local
In honor of the return to the work week, I give you professional golfer Colin Montgomerie's thoughts on his job:
" ... anyone who says this is fun is joking and they're having a laugh," he said. "This is not fun, and this is not enjoyment. This is a job, and a horrible one ..." Happy Monday, from Fraters Libertas. Labels: Business
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Reginald Dwight has become the latest pampered pop star to whine about his inability to...whine.
In an interview for New York magazine, Sir Reggie claims that: ...stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of "bullying tactics" used by the US government to hinder free speech. He, true to form, offers no specific examples of these tactics but instead goes on to show his incredible ignorance with statements like this: "As of this spring, there have been virtually no anti-war concerts--or anti-war songs that catch on, for that matter," he said. Note that he's not complaining about the lack of anti-war songs just that no such songs have caught on. Which of the U.S. government's "bullying tactics" are we to believe is responsible for this? Reg goes on to say: "On the one hand, you have someone like Toby Keith, who has come out and been very supportive of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq ...on the other hand, the Dixie Chicks got shot down in flames last year for criticising the president. They were treated like they were being un-American, when in fact they have every right to say whatever they want about him because he's freely elected, and therefore accountable." Apparently, while Bush must be held accountable for his actions (and rightly so) wankers like Reginald must have free reign to say any hateful thing they wish without fear of that message being rejected by the American people. It ain't censorship, Reg. It's called good taste. The article concludes with this statement: Sir Elton is currently in New York playing a series of concerts. At these concerts (on American soil, mind you) Sir Reggie will have a captive audience of several thousand fans to whom he can spout any sort of nonsense he wishes. Sure sounds like censorship to me. Labels: Music, You Got Your Politics In My ...
A recent spate of documentaries with leftist sympathies offers an opportunity to witness the left's true beliefs.
Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me shows the left's view of personal responsibility. It's not my fault I'm an overweight and unhealthy: it's McDonald's. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and the enthusiastic reception it has received, demonstrates the irrational hatred that many on the left have for President Bush. And now The Corporation, which purports to psychoanalyze corporate culture, gives us a glimpse into what the left thinks of corporations: While the film mounts overwhelming evidence of the corporation's growing influence in all aspects of public life, Achbar doesn't think that corporations are invulnerable or invincible. The film alludes to the fall of institutions ranging from slavery to Stalinism, and demonstrates the power of activists and ordinary people to curb corporate misdeeds. Slavery, Stalinism, and corporations. All evil institutions deserving destruction in the minds of the left (although they didn't always feel that way about Uncle Joe). Ponder that one on your way to work tomorrow morning. If you're like me and many other Americans, you work for one of these evil corporations.
It's not easy to make a pompous celebrity blowhard like Sting come across as a voice of reason on political matters, but Annie Lennox manages to do just that in this interview with the singers who are touring together:
Sting, your record also had a lot of political commentary after 9/11. There was a lot of uncertainty that you expressed. Any thoughts about the political climate right now? It's an election year in America. Sting: I think it's an election year in the world. I think with America being the predominant power in the world, it's really that the power in America affects all of us, whether you live there or not. Personally, I think foreign policy at the moment is a complete mess. I'd like to see that dealt with in a much more inclusive way than it has been, and that's being polite. Polite and reasonable. You may not agree with Sting, but at least sounds like he's dealing with reality. Unlike Annie Lennox: Annie, how about your political sense? You continue to help out Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Lennox: We donated our income on our last [Eurythmics] tour to Amnesty and to Greenpeace. These are two incredibly important causes, and it was an opportunity to do that and to bring awareness to them. . . . I was very concerned when I came to America the last time, because I felt that everything was becoming increasingly censorial in the media. And that was very interesting because I thought, "Wow, America is supposed to be the land of the free." But I felt that was no longer the case when certain artists spoke out and gave their views and were absolutely lambasted for it. Are you talking about the Dixie Chicks, for example? Lennox: Yes, I am. It was interesting to watch, but it made you realize that it was no longer a place where one can really speak one's mind. "No longer a place where one can really speak one's mind"? Pssst...Annie. There's a "documentary" movie that came out a couple of weeks. You might have heard about it. The entire movie is really nothing more than a demented rant against the Bush administation and its policies. Can you please explain how this jives with your silly claim that America is "no longer a place where one can really speak one's mind"? To borrow a phrase from Laura Ingraham, please just shut up and sing. Labels: Music, You Got Your Politics In My ...
But Sarah Janecek makes a good argument for Republicans to see Fahrenheit 911 in this e-mail discussion with Eric Ringham, the Commentary Editor for the Star Tribune:
There's nothing to fear in "Fahrenheit 9/11." At the risk of making Michael Moore rich, every Republican should go see it. First, there are the laughs. I would have been disappointed if Moore hadn't brought up Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" at the first mention of President Bush's military medical records. Labels: Movies
Wes, our pal in Las Vegas, bring us news from Sin City of the opening of The Monorail :
Sadly, Leonard Nimoy was nowhere to be found. A "private-funded" monorail with stops a few hotels on the strip with the utopian promise of it eventually extending to downtown. To get there it will have to go through the most blighted section of Las Vegas. All hail modern drunk tourist transport! P.S. Forgot to mention that they are "fully computer operated" -- no human driver/conductor. Open the pod bay doors, Hal. Jonathan from MangledCat also weighs in on light rail: As you know, then Gov. Ventura actually came to our fair city a few years back (2001 I think) to investigate a light rail system. The Denver RTD has one which just surpassed it's tenth birthday and is currently expanding it throughout the metro area. Personally, I'm neutral on the subject. I've ridden it a few times and find it a nice ride, but the damn thing is empty half the time. I can't for the life of me figure out how (if) it makes money, then again, being at taxpayer expense, that's a moot point. It will be funded for life. What I find interesting is its accident rate, especially in heavily congested downtown areas. You know, those areas where this "thing" is supposed to do the most good. The proof is here: A decade of accident data for the 18.1-mile system examined by the Rocky Mountain News show that nearly all of Denver's light-rail collisions - more than 97 percent - happened in the short but congested 2.4-mile downtown segment, from the foot of the Colfax Viaduct to Five Points. Anyway, there is much more there to read, so please do so. The piece ends with these statistics:
Labels: Transportation
Saturday, July 17, 2004
In his column yesterday, Nick Coleman took aim at the scourge of racism. But the problem isn't that a black man was treated poorly. No, instead, the problem is that a black man was treated too well. Or more precisely, the wrong black man was treated well. Because in Nick Coleman's world, if you're black, you better be keeping it real. And Tiger Jack Rosenbloom isn't black enough for Nick Coleman (the pride of lilly white Mac-Groveland, incidentally).
The gentleman drawing the ire of Nick Coleman is Tiger Jack Rosenbloom. He was an elderly street character in St. Paul (deceased now), he lived in a shack off the Dale St. exit on I-94 and eked out a living selling wood chips and baseball cards and other assorted items. He was occasionally celebrated in the press for being interesting and cheerful to everyone he came across, despite his harsh life circumstances. There was a newspaper article or TV news segment on him once a year or so. In terms of notoriety, that's as far as it ever went. Outside of those in the media, Rosenbloom's family and a few in that neighborhood, no one in town really knew who he was or cared about him. He was just another person in a city of hundreds of thousands others. A nice guy, no different than you or me. But not according to Nick Coleman. Instead, this man was, and remains three years after his death, a significant part of this community. And his significance is an affront to Nick Coleman's burning sense of racial justice. The reason - Tiger Jack Rosenbloom wasn't pissed off all the time. And that's how a black man should act, according to Nick Coleman. Tiger Jack, a boxer in his youth, died three years ago at 94, having outlived Rondo (which was bulldozed for construction of Interstate Hwy. 94) and most of his contemporaries. After he died, his shack went on exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society, along with a cardboard cut-out of the man who came to personify St. Paul's black community. But that's the problem: The image of [the Rondo neighborhood] he left was a cardboard cut-out, a superficial and stereotyped representation of a complex community. "Superficial" meaning he was black and didn't publicly embrace a status of societal victim and he had a positive outlook toward life. And that's a crime in Nick Coleman's world. To support his views, Nick went out and found some angry black men that fit his stereotypical template and they endorsed Coleman's beliefs that blacks need to be angry victims of life and nothing more. First, an angry black professor at Macalester College: "Tiger Jack makes the white community comfortable," says Mahmoud El-Kati, a longtime professor of African-American history on leave from Macalester College in St. Paul. Although Tiger Jack was a "wonderful guy," says El-Kati, the image he left "is not a complex image; he's not stirring up anything or agitating or anything like that. He's not raising hell, as you could say about just about anyone else in those days. The Twin Cities has a very rich civil rights history, but if you're talking about the struggle, his name doesn't come up." Next, the suddenly angry former Police Chief of St. Paul, William Finney: "In person, Tiger would stop the Bojangles act and he'd talk to you and he'd have a great deal of wisdom," Finney says. "He was a shrewd businessman. But a lot of whites thought Tiger knew his place at a time when blacks were supposed to stay in their place. "Well, I don't know my place and I refuse to let anybody else define my place," says Finney. "We didn't accept that our place had to be in that small reserved area called Rondo, where blacks could only compete with blacks. We were defiant, and we wanted Tiger Jack to be defiant, too." Forcefully said by the newly defiant Finney. Because when he used to be the Chief, he was always very reasonable and professional in his rhetoric. And the people of St. Paul loved him. Now he's setting up straw men and firing them up with his words like he's Al Sharpton. I guess Nick Coleman brings out the best in people. It will be interesting to see how far Finney takes this new attitude if he runs for mayor next year (as is widely rumored). Nick Coleman (via Finney) expands on the problem of Tiger Jack Rosenbloom: The problem with Tiger Jack's fame, [Finney] says, is that it has obscured the achievements of black professionals who were Rondo's real role models, but whose names are unknown outside the community. Rondo produced doctors, pharmacists, undertakers and cops, Finney says. Yet it was Tiger Jack who came to symbolize Rondo. Coleman repeats the central flaw in logic of his entire column - the alleged fame of Rosenbloom. The truth is, Tiger Jack isn't famous. God love him, he's been dead three years and nobody thinks about him any more, except for the occasional desperate newspaper columnist looking for material. Tiger Jack isn't a symbol anything, except perhaps of a decent human being. If self-appointed racial consciences like Coleman would stop writing about him, he wouldn't have any fame at all. Then Coleman, Finney, and El-Kati could get back to being the Defiance Triplets without being tormented by the specter of a good natured, dignified, 94-year-old business man (or as Chief Finney describes him "Mr. Bojangles.") Coleman's contention that the larger community should know about the doctors, pharmacists, undertakers, and cops of the Rondo neighborhood is ridiculous as well. Except for those I'm related to, I can't name a single person in any of those professions from any neighborhood in St. Paul. Yes, those are solid, responsible jobs, essential to society, and important to the development of the middle class. Those folks, no matter what their race, can do their jobs, be good citizens, and the beautiful part is, nobody has to hold a parade for them to justify their worth. To expect everyone to care, just because these particular individuals are black, is racial patronizing at its worst. (Something I'd expect from Coleman, but Finney knows better than to get mixed up with this guy's agenda). To paraphrase racial healer Rodney King, can't we all get along, by completely ignoring each other? And Nick Coleman, can't we let Tiger Jack Rosenbloom rest in peace, without digging him up for cheap race-baiting column fodder? UPDATE: Steve Gigl has more on this topic. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
And we'll be there.
WHEN: TODAY 3:00pm-5:00pm WHERE: Bush/Cheney Campaign Headquarters 1445 Energy Park Drive, St. Paul (651) 645-5614 WHAT: "Celebrity" Phone Bank With The Northern Alliance Yes, the vaunted Northern Alliance (or at least Mitch Berg, Captain Ed, and myself) will be joining forces with the local Bush/Cheney folks to make some calls on behalf of the campaign as part of the W-ROCKS program designed to target undecided voters. We'll be leaving the sprawling AM-1280 The Patriot broadcasting compound in Eagan immediately after this week's NARN show, and cruising to St. Paul to lend a hand (and stretch the definition of the word "celebrity" to the breaking point). The dirty little secret of politics is that it's the dirty little jobs like this that often make the critical difference. We would LOVE to have anyone interested in helping the cause join us for a couple of hours and we strongly encourage our readers and listeners in the Twin Cities area to come on down. The more the merrier. Please let Mitch, Ed, or me know via e-mail if you plan on showing up. Thanks for your support. Labels: NARN (04-05)
Friday, July 16, 2004
It has been revealed that Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton blew close to half his inherited wealth to buy his senate seat. Dayton forked over a cool twelve mil in 2000 to gain entry into the exclusive senatorial club. But it looks like retaining that seat in 2006 will be out of the financial reach of the now strapped senator:
Dayton facing fund-raising challenge: Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton's 2006 reelection campaign raised $423,000 in the quarter ending June 30, increasing his cash balance to $284,000. But fund-raising by the freshman Minnesota Democrat, who used his personal fortune to finance his $12 million campaign in 2000, lagged behind that of other senators whose terms end in 2007. A Dayton spokeswoman said that his campaign drew 7,958 donors who gave an average of $49.72 during the quarter and that he has attracted 18,986 contributors in raising more than $1.3 million this election cycle. Duffy said that Dayton's report reflects "a pretty high burn rate" of his bankroll for a nonelection year. The report shows he spent heavily on consultants whose job is to raise money, including nearly $100,000 on telemarketing services. Dayton has said he lacks the resources to finance his own reelection campaign. Upon hearing the heart wrenching news of the money woes of the nearly destitute Dayton our own Saint Paul, a passionate chronicler of Dayton's strange political life, summed it up nicely: "The SOB only has between $6 and $15 million dollars left. You can't expect him to run for the Senate without some help from the little people." Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
Clay Calhoun believes that he's found a song just for me. Obviously he's never heard me attempt to carry a tune. This may be a job for The Man From Silver Mountain.
Labels: Music, Politics-National (02-04)
Update on the July 24 bloggers mixer at Keegans. Just announced, the beautiful and talented Jesse Green will be there.
Yes, it's been confirmed. She will be in our conversations. Bill Tuomala and I will be discussing her for at least several minutes during the course of the evening. If you'd like to join the conversation, RSVP now to party -at- northerallianceradio - dot - com The guest list is rapidly filling up with the best and brightest of amateur Internet editorialists from across the ideological spectrum and across the greater 13 county metro area (and beyond). And if you're reading this, we want YOU to join the fun. Don't miss your chance to get in. Sign up today and avoid the painful regrets invariably caused by indecision and awful life choices. Labels: NARN (04-05)
The Economist is one of my favorite magazines. It offers the reader a weekly look at a variety of issues (mostly economic and political in nature) in nearly every area of the globe. You get details on economic development and elections in countries that would merit nary a mention in the American media, excepting the outbreak of war or a natural disaster.
But at times this worldwide scope results in stories sorely lacking in depth and local perspective. Case in point is this story touting the economic boom that Minneapolis will experience as a result of the opening of our light rail line: But the proof of light rail's success will be as much around the tracks as in the cars. The Twin Cities Metropolitan Council predicts that light rail will spur the building of more than 7,000 housing units and 19m square feet of office space, almost as much as downtown Minneapolis has already. Mixed-use buildings are now rising fast in and around the light-rail stations. It might have happened anyway; but it looks as though the return of rail has given the Twin Cities something of a boost. Before I get to a couple of problems with these claims, let me first credit The Economist with a great title for this piece: "Onward Swedish Socialists". A new theme song for the DFL? Nah, not diverse enough. Trying to justify the existence of the light rail line by bragging up the "economic impact" in the areas surrounding the stations reminds me suspiciously of the efforts to claim that building sports stadiums will have a positive impact on the local economy. That hogwash has been thoroughly debunked by some of the best minds in the economics field. You also always have to consider the source. In this case the prediction for a rosy economic future for Minneapolis brought about by light rail is supplied by the Metropolitan Council. Even though the Met Council is now led by the reasonable Peter Bell rather than uber urban planner (ve know vat's good for you) Ted Mondale, it still has a vested interest in seeing light rail succeed, and will undoubtedly shill for it at every opportunity. And, to conclude that "the return of rail has given the Twin Cities something of a boost" is ridiculously pre-mature. The line opened this month for farg's sake. If there's been a "boost", I'd like someone to please point it out to me. It's similar to the stories splashed across the local media crowing about how many people used the light rail line in the first week, as if that was enough to call it a success and silence the critics. Keep an eye out for the stories in January about light rail ridership after six months. You'll have to look hard, as me thinks they won't be on the front pages anymore. There is also a mention in The Economist story of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, an organization led by our AM-1280 The Patriot radio colleague, David Strom: Supporters of the project enthused, in the usual way, about reordering the urban landscape and cherishing the environment. To its opponents, however, light rail epitomised an outdated urban liberal penchant for social control, dense living and an irrational Europhilia--all the sort of things that left-leaning Minnesota used to be proud of. The conservative Taxpayers League of Minnesota, which carries much weight with conservative Republicans (including the state's governor, Tim Pawlenty) pointed out that light rail cost far more than roads. Keep up the good fight David. The Swedish Socialists are still marching. UPDATE: King has much more on this topic. Labels: Transportation
Folks from the local GOP has been reading Garrison Keillor's new book about the joys of being a Democrat and they've pulled out a few choice quotes in their Hit of the Week. To paraphrase, Keillor says:
I didn't become a Democrat because I was angry. Then this tax subsidized bard of the prairie goes on to calmly, rationally describe Republicans as: "...freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads "...the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab-ass executives..." "...gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, Crips and Bloods of the boardroom." I'm kind of disappointed I don't see myself mentioned there. I come close on "shrieking midget of AM radio" (I'm officially too tall for that and I bellow more than shriek) and "jerktown romeo" (well, I do my best, but that sounds more like an insult Jesse the Body Ventura would have leveled at Jumpin' Jim Brunzelle during the glory days of AWA wrestling.). Maybe in the second printing Keillor can update that list with "lonely guys who write withering and anonymous social commentary in their underpants." For reasoned debate on partisan differences, ignore Keillor, pick up some Hewitt. If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It On Sale Now!! Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Joshua at View From a Height wonders if this is a case of "if it's close, they can cheat":
Associated Press FIGEAC, France -- Lance Armstrong finished ninth in Thursday's stage of the Tour de France and accused French reporters of trying to rummage through his hotel room in hopes of finding evidence of doping. ... The Texan said one reporter has been following the team for months, calling the conduct "scandalous." The France 3 investigative reporter in question, Huges Huet, confirmed he went to the hotel to talk to Armstrong aides about his teammates and chatted to the hotel manager for a few minutes. But he denied he sought access to the champion's room. That almost sounds like someone we know, doesn't it? Labels: Ralphie
Thursday, July 15, 2004
I discovered Odd Todd a few years ago. Now it seems that he's got a new series on Comedy Central starting some time next year. Great story. An unemployed guy spends his days creating clever cartoons for a limited internet audience and...presto...he's got a TV series. It's as improbable as a bunch of Minnesota bloggers getting together and starting their own radio show.
Check him out. And remember where you heard of it first. Granted, he's no Spongmonkey, but it's still funny stuff. Labels: Television
The Warrior Princess is back from Washington DC and checks in with her report on the barbeque event of the social season:
Anxious to get a glimpse of the surrounding grounds, my roommate and I scampered down the rock stairway, and unbeknownst to us, we scampered right through the middle of the receiving line of our esteemed host. Once we realized who we had just rushed by, we turned to find him smiling in our direction. Sheepishly, we introduced ourselves while shooting apologetic glances at the line of people we had just cut in front of. Shaking our hands, our host in Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts replied, "Ted Olson, pleasure to meet you." It wasn't exactly an enviable position. Though we had cut a good twenty minutes off time we would have spent in line, we also didn't have the benefit of spending that twenty minutes figuring out how we were going to make small talk with Theodore Olson, Solicitor General of the United States. It was a humorous beginning to an entirely enjoyable evening. Ted Olson's Federalist Society summer BBQ has become a Washington tradition. In its fledgling years, I've been led to believe it consisted of Ted Olson working a Weber grill, burning some brats, and entertaining about 20 distinguished guests. That number has since risen to a yearly attendance of roughly 700 guests, with Mr. Olson retiring his spatula in favor of a fully catered extravaganza complete with valet parking. The BBQ mixes raw conservative legal talent with seasoned judicial and political muscle in an afternoon of fun, food, and conversation. The young bucks included Federalist Society Chapter Presidents from 170 law schoolsacross the nation, a throng of Blackstone Fellows, and other Federalist Society members working in D.C. for the summer. The seasoned veterans present represented some of the best conservative and libertarian minds in the nation. Among the wise sages was cowboy, D.C. circuit judge, and author of "Judge Dave and the Rainbow People," theHonorable David Sentelle. Donning a very large belt buckle, a wide brim cowboy hat and with cigar in hand, conversation with Judge Sentelle was very entertaining. I told him my thoughts on North Carolina Basketball's recent coaching change, and he told me the story of sending his clerks to go "watch naked hippies running around the forest." Somehow, I don't think that tidbit of information was included in the job description. Kate O 'Beirne of the National Review prompted discussion about the "Kerry Catholics" that the Republican Party is highlighting at the National Convention and the state of conservatism today. And Blackstone Fellow Joshua Davey, though short on years, was long on experience as plaintiff in one of the most important religious liberty decisions to come out of the Supreme Court in the last five years. Havingspent a large amount of time last year hypothesizing about how the court would rule in that case, it was a thrill to meet the humble unassuming gentleman who started all the hullabaloo. The BBQ's most notable guest was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I spent last summer as a Blackstone Fellow with Professor John Eastman at the Claremont Institute, who was a former Clarence Thomas clerk. Professor Eastman had told me stories so I had an idea of what to expect, and Justice Thomas certainly lived up to his reputation. Justice Thomas is one of the nicest individuals I have ever met. The man has a grip like a linebacker. I almost cried uncle when he shook my hand. He sported a Texas Tech T-Shirt, which we learned was because he is a Bobby Knight fan. After exchanging pleasantries for a few minutes, I mentioned I had worked for Professor Eastman. He let out a belly laugh and told me with fondness that John Eastman was the only clerk he ever had with more gray hair than him. Before I proved to him I was a complete dork by complimenting him on his Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, other students joined the fray, and I made my exit. The BBQ was any conservative law student's dream event. I don't know if I'll ever be in the company of that many important people at one time again. Maybe I will. Perhaps someday I might even be counted as oneof the important people. If I am, and some poor schmuck nobody student wants to shake my hand, I hope I'll be as cordial and amiable to them as the individuals I met last weekend were to me. Great story, and never fear Warrior Princess, you shall be in the company of the intellectual elite again. Don't forget, you have a personal invitation to the upcoming amateur internet editorializers (aka "bloggers") mixer at Keegan's on Saturday, July 24. Sure, that other party had Ted Olson and Clarence Thomas. But we've got Mitch Berg and the Atomizer. Just wait until you hear their theories on Establishment Clause jurisprudence. Heck, wait'll you hear them try to pronounce "Establishment Clause jurisprudence." Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Anyone interested in attending Saturday's rally with Vice President Dick Cheney at the Minneapolis Convention Center should know that tickets are still available, but going fast. Call (651)645-5614 to secure yours today. No word yet if Cheney will be working any new blue material into his show.
Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Even the Infinite Monkeys have now jumped on the Hugh Hewitt book bandwagon. Baby, don't you wanna go?
Labels: Ralphie
If Laura Billings was a national journalism celebrity and Matt Drudge, during his Sunday night radio show, were to take notice of her recent change in editorial style, this is what he'd say:
"Owww! Hide your eyes, get the children out of the room! The Pioneer Press has been delivered! When are they going to start delivering this thing in a plain brown wrapper! Owww!" Her effort today marks the third column in a row Laura "Miss Demeanor" Billings has devoted to matters of the flesh. First was her fantasizing about what we on Fraters Libertas wear when we write about her (see the masthead quote for details). Next were her general musings on thong underwear, including a direct reference to her "biscuit" (Owww! It's Anders Gyllenhaal's Def Commentary Jam! Owww!). And today, we get her thoughts on airport security. It's tantalizingly entitled "A Nude Way of Approaching Airport Security", and includes this gem: By the time it was all over, they knew so many details of my life, I felt like I'd been asked to drop trou myself. I have to say, I'm starting to like this. A (relatively) young, blonde chippy writing about her unmentionables over and over and over again in the pages my local newspaper. It sure beats the hell out of her writing about how she misses the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. And for raw action, it beats the hell out of the Pioneer Press's amateur dating columnist, the moribund Ruby. It has been speculated that I am personally responsible for Laura's new raunchy style, due to my challenge to her last week (in response to her charge about our preference to write in our boxers). To quote myself: If Laura would start knocking out prose in her frilly underthings maybe Nick Coleman wouldn't be so cranky all the time. If I am responsible, then I'm glad. Hopefully it will give Ms. Billings additional job security when the Pioneer Press starts handing out the pink slips come September. (Just think of the metaphorical magic Laura conger up about not having a "pink slip" this Fall.) But I fear she's on the verge of pushing a good thing too far, as shown by this paragraph from today's column: Every square inch of my pregnant belly was gone over again and again by a female screener who apologized profusely for the duration of our encounter. If it made my fellow passengers feel better knowing that I wasn't packing a bomb under my maternity top, I was happy to submit. Weird fetishism. That's got to be her husband's influence. Labels: Newspaper Newlyweds
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Reader Rick remains vigilant on the Al Franken watch and he writes in with this revelation from his continuing investigation:
After some research, it is clear that the newly titled "Al Franken Show" is yet another derivative of someone else's creative work. The new Al Franken Show is clearly a rip-off of the Weird Al Show from 1997, which is described thusly: "The basic plot of this show was that Weird Al was coming to you from a split-level cave twenty miles below the surface of the earth, along with his pet, Harvey The Wonder Hamster. Each show would have a rather loose plot around which strange and weird things would happen." Underground, loose plot, strange and weird things happening? The parallels are striking. And can anyone seriously deny that the role played by Catherine Lanpher is modeled upon Harvey The Wonder Hamster? Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Joe Carter from the evangelical outpost has a spot on tribute to a man Joe describes as the "George Bailey of the media world". Be sure to read the whole thing.
Labels: Ralphie
Michael e-mails on a novel approach to light rail that's being tried in Omaha:
I grew up in Mpls and am now in Omaha. I still have family in Minnesota and have followed the boon of mass transit up there somewhat closely. Omaha is a town of just under 1 million but a private enterprise is starting work on light rail here in Omaha in the next six months. The city is jumping on board here simply because the company promises that no public money will be involved. I highly doubt this but am at least pleased that the govt. is allowing private enterprise to handle this. I'll keep you posted. I too have serious doubts if a one hundred percent privately financed light rail system can succeed. But if they do, more power to 'em. Beats the hell out of dropping eight hundred and fifty mil so we can have a train run from Target Center to Fort Snelling. Labels: Transportation
So I'm in my car at lunch looking for something to listen to. Mark Larson (ugh!) is filling in for Dennis Prager. Unlistenable. Rush is prattling on about how John Edwards is not qualified to be president. Boring.
Out of sheer desperation I turn to NPR. And discover that Talk of the Nation has William F. Buckley on as a guest. Score. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
On the way to work this morning I was exceeding the posted speed limit as I do almost every day on the particular stretch of highway I was traveling on. After enduring a difficult merge onto one highway, bumper to bumper traffic, erratic lane changes, and frequent braking for no apparent reason on my typical commute, I finally emerge from the congested chaos. The road splits and, on most days, a wide open stretch of roadway beckons. Beckons me to depress the accelerator and take advantage of the freedom of movement suddenly afforded me.
Today, I was clipping along about seventy-five miles per hour: a good twenty over the proscribed speed. For some reason, I happened to glance down at my speedometer, thought twice about the pace I was setting, and eased off on the gas pedal. Just then I rounded a corner and noticed a vehicle belonging to the local constabulary squatting on the median. And two maroon Minnesota State Patrol cars on the right side of the highway waiting to pounce on unsuspecting violators of our fair state's traffic laws. And TWO more troopers a bit further up, who had already nailed drivers who felt the need for speed on this beautiful summer morning. "Poor bastards," I muttered as I sailed by at a reasonable sixty-one miles per hour, "I feel your pain." Sometimes it's not about the gain, but about avoiding the pain. And I missed some hurtin' in my wallet by a whisker this morning. With a start like that, how can this not be a great day? Labels: Legal matters
Probably many of the same things as late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone would. That's the reasonable conclusion one could reach by comparing their ADA (Americans for Democratic Action) annual rankings, as the esteemed Professor Bainbridge has done.
Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
So Minneapolis is finally getting an Ikea store. I'm apparently supposed to be so excited about this stroke of luck that I should be spinning fast enough to generate my own magnetic field. Somehow, I have managed to keep my angular momentum at a manageable level.
If one is to believe the news reports from the past few days, thousands of people were lined up in anticipation of the store's grand opening this morning at 9:00. A warning was issued predicting that traffic on the roads around Ikea's Mall of America site would be catastrophically disrupted. Personally, I think a lot of this hype has been fed to the media by Ikea's PR firm as my morning commute took me within a half mile of the new store and traffic was actually flowing better in that area than it has in weeks. Nevertheless, the buzz about town recalls the manic behavior that surrounded every local Krispy Kreme opening in recent years. And this behavior confounds me. Why would otherwise normal people take precious time out of their lives to stand in line for hours just so they can be the first one on their block to stuff a glazed donut down their gullet or bring a box of furniture parts home only to spend the next three hours assembling it? I have nothing against Ikea's line of "cheap chic" furniture. In fact, having just purchased a new house, I will most likely be seen someday walking into the 300,000 square foot blue box warehouse that Ikea calls home to purchase several boxes of stuff I don't really need. Shortly thereafter, of course, I will be cursing at myself for making this decision (with some choice words thrown in for the Swedes responsible for the monster's creation) as I set fire to the pile of parts that I just couldn't piece together. The operative word here, though, is "someday". If past experience is any indicator, I've come to understand that most retail stores tend to maintain regular hours of operation. This means that while the grand opening may indeed be today, they will also be open tomorrow...and next week...and next month and, presumably, every day for many years to come. So, fer Chrissakes people, quit behaving like you're third world orphans who have just discovered a soup line every time the latest trend comes to town and attempt to act like rational human beings for a change. You're all making me embarrassed to be part of this silly human race. Labels: Culture
Rule number one when writing a letter to Mark Steyn, get your facts straight. Some poor, misinformed Irishman didn't bother to do so, emailed in to Steyn supporting the Joseph Wilson denials about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger, and gets properly eviscerated. It's all in this week's Mark's Mail Box.
Read below for a great primer on the facts of the case and next time you find yourself in a hot tub with some liberal honeys and they sneeringly bring up some half understood talking point they heard from Dan Rather, you can eviscerate their arguments too. And this time without swearing. ----------------------------------------- You are dead wrong about the Niger/Iraq link. I only hope you have the integrity and honesty to face up to it when the full story emerges. The US, French and Italian agencies are all referring to the same original fake document whose origin may yet be revealed. You'll recall that the SSCI chose not to investigate the source of this faked document. Why would Iraq need uranium oxide when its nuclear programme was inactive and it already had ore stocks? Also, one of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine cited by the source is under the control of the French authorities. The Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory. Mark Webb Dublin ---------------------------------- MARK REPLIES: Sorry, man, but you're the one who needs to have the integrity and honesty to face up to your mistake. The idea that this all rests on one "faked document" is utterly discredited in both the Butler and Senate reports. By "faked document", you're referring to the papers delivered to the US Embassy in Rome by an Italian con man and which were rumoured by some to have been written by my National Review colleague Michael Ledeen. The idea that the intelligence communities of virtually every major western power fell for a single "faked document" is a red herring put about by the crapped-out hack Joe Wilson and eagerly swallowed by supposedly savvy "investigative journalists" like Sy Hersh. First, the "faked document" is really, as Christopher Hitchens puts it, more of a "forgery"--that's to say, "it was a fabricated version of a true bill". (A bogus four-dollar bill is a fake, a bogus five-dollar bill is a forgery.) The information in it was broadly correct. However, it's utterly irrelevant. The documents delivered in Rome are not those upon which the French, the British or any of the other European intelligence services made their conclusions. Second, as the Senate report explains in some detail, when the narcissistic Wilson declared those documents to be false because the names and dates were wrong, he had NEVER SEEN THEM. The CIA did not get them until eight months after his trip to Niger. Wilson was in no position to state whether the names and dates were wrong and none of his media groupies stopped giving him the full Monica long enough to ask him for any examples of names and dates. He now says feebly that he may have "misspoken". Third, as the Senate report also explains, Niger's government officials informed Wilson about an Iraqi delegation visiting their country in 1999 on a trade mission, and the Prime Minister of Niger told Wilson that he believed they were interested in purchasing uranium. Why else would a high-level Iraqi trade mission go to Niger? Niger's principal exports are: Uranium ore, goats, cowpeas and onions. You reckon Saddam suddenly had a yen for goat en croute in an onion glaze with a side order of black-eyed peas? As the Senate report confirms, Wilson's New York Times column deliberately misrepresents "what he found in Africa". Fourth, Iraq's nuclear programme was officially "inactive" but its inactivity was being monitored by the IAEA so its existing uranium stocks could not be used. If it had a little project in mind requiring uranium - say, involving certain groups with a certain animus against certain countries - it needed some uranium that would be off-the-books. Fifth, Niger's uranium mines are under a very loose French regulatory supervision, not "control". As I said in my column, it's exactly the sort of joint western intelligence agencies should be keeping an eye on. So you're the one who's dead wrong. Which is better than being dead and wrong. Which is where a lot of westerners in denial are going to be if they don't confront the reality of nuclear proliferation. Labels: Iraq
Hindrocket from Power Line was staying at the same hotel in Milwaukee as President Bush last night:
Also, the hotel clerk warned me that there would be dogs on the premises, so I should be sure not to have any drugs in my possession. (A rather odd warning to give a respectable, middle-aged lawyer, I thought.) Having worked alongside John on the Northern Alliance Radio Show for some time now, I gotta give the hotel clerk credit for her due diligence. It's the respectable, middle-aged lawyers that you really need to keep an eye on believe you me. Don't even get me started on the stories of the Jekyll and Hyde-like transformation of Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson that take place each and every Saturday afternoon. Labels: NARN (04-05)
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
President Bush is not the only famous person to visit Duluth of late. Why, just look who showed up there yesterday. Oh, the places he'll go.
Labels: Ralphie
In the four years that I've participated in the MS75 in-line skate, our team has faced a variety of unfavorable conditions. Sweltering humidity, scorching heat, driving rain, gusty winds, poor trails, and uncomfortable lodgings (try crashing on the floor in the hallway of a high school without air conditioning and see how much sleep you get) to name just a few. But nothing in the past compared with the challenges we encountered on the second day of this year's event.
The first day was rather unremarkable. We drove up to Hinckley, put on our skates and gear, and hit the trail about 8:50am. It was a bit foggy with a slight mist in the air at the start. But this burned off shortly and most of the day we were skating on dry trails. It was humid, but quite tolerable. There were no spills or major equipment issues during the skate that day. I lost a nut (cue Beavis and Butthead laughter) while cruising down one the long steep downhills, but was able to find a replacement part at the next rest stop. After we picked 'em up and put 'em down for thirty-eight miles we arrived at the County Fairgrounds in Barnum. We scarfed down a quick lunch and jumped on a shuttle bus which eventually dropped us off at the prestigious Royal Pines Motel near Carleton, our base camp for the evening. I was rooming with Atomizer, so naturally one of our first priorities was to secure some liquid refreshments. Luckily there was a liquor store within I even had a chance to make a special call-in appearance on the Northern Alliance Radio Show in the third hour. Sitting on the floor of a seedy over-priced motel, sipping a Lake Superior Kayak Kolsch, and talking about the imaginary sex life of a celebrated fictional lesbian with the creator of "Plain Layne"? It really doesn't get any better. In the evening we strolled over to the Big Bear Casino, where Atomizer dropped sixty bucks in less time than it took you to read this sentence. At least he wasn't bitter about it or anything. We had planned on putting on the feedbag at the casino as well, but a ninety minute wait deterred us from enjoying their buffet. Instead we dined at an Ember's near our motel. And it was...well Ember's. Not bad, but not particularly good either. It was a bit different from most of the Ember's that I've patronized here in the Twin Cities in that it included a full bar. Which helped make the food go down a little easier. Especially for Atomizer, whose "au jus" sandwedge didn't quite live up to his expectations. Thank God he's such a happy go lucky kind of guy who doesn't let such minor irritations get to him. Sunday morning came all too soon. Especially when my slumber was interrupted by the crash of thunder at around 5am. The shuttle bus was due to pick us up at 6:30am and I hoped that the rumbling I was hearing was but a passing fancy. Alas, it turned out to be an omen for the day ahead. By the time the bus pulled in to pick us up, it was raining. Not a hard pounding rain, but a consistent steady one. From the look of the clouds, we could tell it wasn't going to end soon. And it did not. There was one brief respite while we were eating breakfast back at the fairgrounds in Barnum where we would resume skating. An announcement was made that those who wished to not complete the skate could take a shuttle bus back to Hinckley. The idea of quitting never crossed my mind. Atomizer tried to casually entertain it as a possibility, but my threat to deliver a Patton-like coward-slapping right then and there quickly ended any speculation on the matter. We were going on. We weren't "sunshine skaters" who shirked our duty when the going got tough. We made a commitment to skate seventy-five miles and come hell or high water we were going to. Those of you who have not bladed probably can't appreciate the difficulty of in-line skating in the rain. There really is nothing worse than a wet trail to take you off your normal stride. Your wheels tend to slip and lose contact with the trail when it's wet, and that forces you into shorter, less productive strides. Which means more effort to cover the same distance. More effort, more energy, more pain in your already tired legs. Not fun. And so we faced the high water. When we hit the trail it wasn't raining. Ten minutes later it was. And we skated most of the thirty-seven miles to Duluth in rain, ranging from steady drizzle to wind swept driving downpours. I had a rain jacket, but it provided little protection from the onslaught. After a couple of hours skating in the rain, we were soaked to the bone. We could feel the water moving around inside our skates. Wet socks + wet feet = blisters and brother we got 'em. The rest stops set up every six to nine miles provide momentary relief, but if you stopped skating for more than a few minutes the chill set in. And so we kept moving on. By the time we reached the zoo in Duluth, the rain had stopped. At that point it really didn't matter that much, since the trail was so wet that we had to skate through puddles both deep and wide, and we were about as wet as we could get. We were just glad to be done. And to have finished with honor. My wife was on hand to greet me in Duluth. After packing up my gear, we hit Fitger's Brew House for vittles and a couple of hand crafted brews. We stayed overnight in the port city and enjoyed a beautiful sunny Monday walking around the boardwalk on Lake Superior. My comrades had to endure riding a school bus back to Hinckley after Sunday's "picnic lunch" at the Zoo. C'est la vie. Another year, another seventy-five miles of skating, another successful fund raising effort. It appears possible that we've broken our previous team record for pledges, although we won't know for certain for a coupla weeks. We can still accept and collect pledges up to a month after the event. Those of you who already have generously donated have our heart-felt thanks. Those of you still wishing to contribute can do so here. It may seem as if I'm been pushing MS75 fundraising this year. And if it's come off like a never ending NPR telethon at times, I sincerely apologize. But please understand that this is a very worthwhile cause. Research for Multiple Sclerosis doesn't get the attention of other more well-known diseases. It's not as publicized as cancer. It doesn't enjoy the political support that AIDs does. You probably aren't going to see a special on Lifetime about it anytime soon. It is a quiet under-the-radar disease that impacts many more people than you might realize. Nation-wide approximately 400,000 people have MS, including 7500 here in Minnesota. In the time that I've been actively involved in MS75 fundraising I've been surprised by the number of people that I've spoken to who have a friend or relative with MS. It's a frustrating disease that is still not very well understood. It's hard to diagnose. Hard to treat. Most of all, hard to live with. Spending a few hours skating in the rain was the least we could to try to help those who suffer from it. Labels: Good Works
David from Dallas e-mails with a look at the lighter side of light rail:
I thought this most recent accident involving the beloved light rail (number forty-nine!) was timely and hit awfully close to home. Has the Atomizer been in Houston lately? A MetroRail train struck a pedestrian downtown this evening, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries and stranding hundreds of commuters trying to get home from work. The article mentions no name, but the description - appeared to be intoxicated - sounded an awful lot like one of your crew, perhaps on a scouting mission pertaining to light rail. I also thought you would be delighted to learn that there are some upsides to the enormous boondoggle AKA "light rail." In the fair city of Houston, my birthplace, the not-even-six-month-old rail has managed to be involved in enough accidents with pedestrians and moron drivers to become comic relief for an entire city of nearly four million inhabitants. I have neither the time nor the inclination, but a Google search regarding the nightmare of our light rail project will reveal quite an interesting case to be made against such horrendous government expenditures and the ensuing dearth of riders willing to trade in their personal vehicles so they can ride back and forth between the Med. Center and downtown. There must be at least seventy five tourists a day that need to make that trip, not to mention all of the businessmen downtown that have doctor's appointments five miles away in the Med Center. That alone probably adds another twenty-five to the tally. However, I fear that it may be too late in the Twin Cities. Nevertheless, imagine the great fun it will be in reading the local fish wrap trying to spin the inevitable accidents and poor ridership in a positive light. Good times await. Good times indeed. David's e-mail also leads to the inevitable question: "Why don't they look?" Meanwhile an anonymous employee at a local newspaper that shall go nameless offers his own light rail tale: ...from my window I can see the Metrodome light rail station. I also sit next to a network printer. This printer attracts reporters who have to print every goddamn e-mail, web page and PowerPoint item they find and then complain about how slow the printer is. Additionally, the machine must also emit a powerful stupid-ray because it causes them to spew opinions while they wait for their waste paper. Normally, impulse control is my strong point. It has to be, I mean look where I work. But late last week, when a gaggle of babblers hovered at the printer first thing in the morning, I decided to lay some pre-emptive stink on them. I got up and loudly announced that with light rail costing about $100 million a mile, the next person to tell me a Lincoln Navigator is a wasteful vehicle now will know why I'm laughing so hard. I had a wonderfully quiet Friday. Labels: Transportation
We now go to Rick at our Al Franken desk for all the latest:
Here's the latest scoop. The O'Franken Factor is no longer the name of the show. Apparently Al finally realized that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Now it is just the Al Franken Show, though I would bet the ratings would be better had they named it "Cackling with Catherine". I really doubt that they can afford new stationary, so expect the old name to be floating around for a while. I only caught a tiny piece of the show [yesterday], only long enough to hear Al describe Richard Riordan as an extreme right winger. Didn't get to hear if he addressed how the Senate CIA report fingers Joe Wilson as a BIG FAT LIAR. The newest local advertiser is photoshop at Har Mar Mall that specializes in digitally altering your photos to add (or remove, I presume) people from your photos. George Orwell, call your office! I must admit Rick sent this scoop in yesterday and I neglected to post it until today. Now every lazy, half-assed news source in town is on it. Ah well, we still got the Har Mar Mall exclusive. Here's how Franken characterized the name change on his site: So, today, we will mark the program's continuing evolution by taking the nom de guerre, "The Al Franken Show." We have no longer linked our fate with the declining fortunes of Bill O'Reilly. We will not be dragged down with him. Does this mean we have given up making fun of Bill O'Reilly? No, it most certainly does not. In fact, we reserve the right to change the name back to "The O'Franken Factor," at any point for any amount of time. So, behave yourself, Bill, if you know what's good for you. And the rest of you, the bullies, the loudmouths, the America-haters who betray our values in your own self-interest, watch. Al Franken knows where you live. How do I know that? Because I'm Al Franken. Interesting for Franken to threaten O'Reilly, then immediately start denigrating on all those "bullies" out there, then threaten everyone else that disagrees with him as well. Bully, beat up thyself. And note his use of the term "America-haters"? Mark that down for reference next time he starts accusing anyone of questioning the patriotism of the Left. UPDATE: Reader Jim Styczinski has another suggestion for Franken's show: The Al Franken Show, a terrible name -- it breaks with the recent liberal tradition of basing titles on superior conservative sources. The ideal name for his show: FrankenLibertas. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Hugh Hewitt and the Minneapolis Star Tribune? Or more precisely, Hugh Hewitt and Star Tribune political reporter Bob von Sternberg?
Yesterday von Sternberg prominently mentioned Hugh's new book in a story on new releases for the campaign season. Today he once again references the silver haired voice of reason; this time in a piece on political blogs in South Dakota: On the ground in South Dakota, the race between Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Republican challenger John Thune has been running below most news media radar, but it sure hasn't in the blogosphere. Daschle opponents have set up at least three Web logs with the sole intention of smoking him out and helping defeat him. Most recently, last week they climbed all over a story in Time magazine, which reported that Daschle hugged Michael Moore, director of 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' after a Washington, D.C., screening. By the end of last week, Daschle had issued a statement saying he had never met Moore and had left the screening early so he could cast a vote in the Senate. The incident prompted conservative radio talk show host and columnist Hugh Hewitt to comment: "The influence of blogging on politics is nowhere more obvious than in South Dakota. Tom Daschle has long sold himself as a moderate to South Dakota voters, and has done so with the assistance of a very friendly local press. But now the locals get the news via a stream of serious reporters trawling the national press and Internet sites for the real news on the hyper-partisan Daschle." The Hugh Hewitt/Star Tribune relationship: it appears that there have at least been contacts, could there be collaboration as well? Labels: Media-Local (02-04), Ralphie
Local rock fan and Fraters reader Chad O. has been duped. By John Kerry and local rock shrine First Avenue no less. Here's his report on an upcoming, deceptively titled show:
On July 18th, there is a show at First Avenue being billed as "Rock For Democracy". The Flops, Iffy, The Honeydogs, Golden Smog, The Jayhawks, etc. are expected to play. My friends and I go to a lot of local music shows so seeing this many good local bands in one place was an appealing opportunity. Now comes the rub, what was being billed as "Rock For Democracy" is actually a fundraiser for John Kerry. Unfortunately, they already got my $60 for tickets so I am planning to go, drink a couple of beers and having a few laughs. One of my friends says he still wants to go, but only if he can wear his Bush Cheney 2004 t-shirt. I don't really believe that the $60 I paid is going to help JK win the election, but I am really not looking forward to the constant droning of how we were lied to, how anyone but Bush would be better, and so on. I just wish they had accurately described the show as a fundraiser for Kerry. I feel as though they misled people in an effort to raise some money for the guy. Here are two links, first to First Avenue where on the 18th you'll see no mention of John Kerry. The second to Rolling Stone magazine, with a story regarding the show. Following Chad O's links, I have to laugh. The first line of the Rolling Stone article, describing the show First Avenue promotes as "Rock for Democracy": Singer-songwriter David Poe is organizing a pair of concerts to benefit Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry's campaign. Young Chad is learning the hard way the first rule of any politically-oriented music event. It's marinated to its marrow in liberalism. Liberalism of the most naive, least informed, pseudo-rebellious, and impudent sort. All stemming from either the hatred the artists have for their parents (despite the fact most of the guys are in their late 40's), or their hatred toward a society that hasn't appreciated their "genius" enough to allow them to quit their day jobs. If you go to concerts at any of the hip rooms in this town, you will have to get used to inane, insolent, inarticulate stage pronouncements from the alleged talent. That's been true for years. It's part of the conservative's sacrifice for appreciating local music. But I can understand Chad's particular chagrin in knowing his entire ticket price is going to a candidate he wouldn't donate a dime to under other circumstances. For Chad's sake, let's just hope the show doesn't suck. But with that tired line up (the Flops, Golden Smog), the odds are no better than 50-50. For future reference please note, any rock event using "democracy" in its title should cause the same red warning lights to flash and sirens to go off as when you casually notice a country in the Almanac whose official name includes "Democratic People's Republic". That's trouble mister. If I were you Chad O., and I had already bought the ticket, I'd go too. $60 are indeed righteous bucks. But as a way to amuse yourself, let me suggest you listen carefully to the between song comments, write them down and report it all back here to Fraters Libertas. Let's find out exactly which local artists are the most inarticulate, superficial, and/or most under the influence of controlled substances. I have no doubt the competition will be intense. Labels: Music
Monday, July 12, 2004
Political lightweight John Edwards and...
...deceased lightweight actor John Ritter. Labels: Separated At Birth
Chumley Wonderbar over at The Plastic Hallway reminds us that today is the 25th Anniversary of Disco Demolition Night.
For the blissfully unaware, the carnage happened in 1979, between games of a double header at Chicago's Comiskey Park. The report (and check out Chumley's site for the great picture links): Unfortunately, this particular scheme was a little too successful; upwards of 50,000 fans showed up for the game, mostly male and mostly drunk. Another 15,000 or so milled around outside the stadium, burning effigies of John Travolta and trying to sneak into the game. The crowd spent the first game chanting "DISCO SUCKS!," whizzing records onto the field and throwing firecrackers at the opposing team. When the records were blown up by Dahl with a fireworks bomb, the crowd went apesh*t. Several thousand members of Dahl's self-styled "Insane Coho Lips Antidisco Army" ran onto the diamond, ripped up the pitcher's mound, started a bonfire in centre field, tore down sections of the fence in the bullpen and sprayed sections of the crowd with the hose used to dampen the field. After almost half an hour of complete chaos the riot police showed up and restored order, but the field was completely wrecked and the Sox were forced to forfeit the second game. Newspaper columnists called the event "sickening" and "an unmitigated horror." Veeck resigned in disgrace, started drinking and didn't get another job in baseball for twenty-five years. Veeck, of course, refers to Mike Veeck, one of the owners of our beloved hometown St. Paul Saints. If he's not yet sober, at least it looks like he's finally over the stigma of that ill-fated promotion, as evidenced by the promotion at last Saturday's Saints game: Disco Demolition Revisited Night. According to the Saints, things stayed calm throughout: After the game, the team blew up disco records on the field with no problems reported. Maybe it's the times that have changed, or maybe the Twin Cities just ain't Chicago when it comes to hosting a savage, drunken riot. Labels: Baseball
My term as the guest judge for the Captain's Quarters photo caption contest has come to an end. I've read all submissions multiple times (once in normal voice, once doing a Kerry impression, and once as Jerry Lewis), deliberated long, struggled with the ethics of choosing myself as the winner, and finally have chosen the victor and runners up this week.
Very few life experiences create multiple laugh out loud moments, but this was one of them, thanks to the quality of entrants. Funny stuff all and hopefully I'll do this again sometime. Thanks Ed! Labels: Blogs-Local
Elie Wiesel's July 4th essay on America (from Parade Magazine), is now available online. It's a beautiful piece, relaying his personal testimony of what America means, both to him and the world.
The true nature of America was revealed to Wiesel almost 60 years ago: Even now, as America is in the midst of puzzling uncertainty and understandable introspection because of tragic events in Iraq, these words reflect my personal belief. For I cannot forget another day that remains alive in my memory: April 11, 1945. That day I encountered the first American soldiers in the Buchenwald concentration camp. I remember them well. Bewildered, disbelieving, they walked around the place, hell on earth, where our destiny had been played out. They looked at us, just liberated, and did not know what to do or say. Survivors snatched from the dark throes of death, we were empty of all hope - too weak, too emaciated to hug them or even speak to them. Like lost children, the American soldiers wept and wept with rage and sadness. And we received their tears as if they were heartrending offerings from a wounded and generous humanity. Ever since that encounter, I cannot repress my emotion before the flag and the uniform, anything that represents American heroism in battle. That is especially true on July Fourth. I reread the Declaration of Independence, a document sanctified by the passion of a nation's thirst for justice and sovereignty, forever admiring both its moral content and majestic intonation. Opposition to oppression in all its forms, defense of all human liberties, celebration of what is right in social intercourse: All this and much more is in that text, which today has special meaning. And that same American character remains consistent and on display today: In extreme left-wing political and intellectual circles, suspicion and distrust toward America is the order of the day. They deride America's motives for its military interventions, particularly in Iraq. They say: It's just money. As if America went to war only to please the oil-rich capitalists. They are wrong. America went to war to liberate a population too long subjected to terror and death. We see in newspapers and magazines and on television screens the mass graves and torture chambers imposed by Saddam Hussein and his accomplices. One cannot but feel grateful to the young Americans who leave their families, some to lose their lives, in order to bring to Iraq the first rays of hope, without which no people can imagine the happiness of welcoming freedom. Hope is a key word in the vocabulary of men and women like myself and so many others who discovered in America the strength to overcome cynicism and despair. Remember the legendary Pandora's box? It is filled with implacable, terrifying curses. But underneath, at the very bottom, there is hope. Now as before, now more than ever, it is waiting for us. A holocaust survivor, talking about hope and the strength to overcome cynicism and despair, and endorsing the policies of George W. Bush. Take that Michael Moore. Hope, a wonderful concept to base a campaign on. I hope the Bush campaign is listening, because that word has great resonance with the American people. And it's a word not in the vocabulary of the "extreme left-wing political and intellectual circles" as Wiesel called them. Of course, those folks are more commonly known as the Democratic party. Labels: Iraq, Politics-National (02-04)
An announcement from the Northern Alliance Social Committee:
If you're a blogger in Minnesota (or anywhere within driving distance of the Twin Cities), we really should get together sometime. There are a lot of cool people writing blogs - or even just reading them - in the Upper Midwest, and we should definitely try to meet sometime. So the Northern Alliance is throwing a shindig - a non-political, ecumenical one - for bloggers in the area, and we'd like all you bloggers to be there! Here's the deal: We'd like to meet at Keegan's Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis, on Saturday, July 24, at 5PM. We'd like to spend a few hours hanging out, meeting other bloggers, and just having some fun. Cash bar? The whole place IS a cash bar! By the way - this is not a "Northern Alliance" event, just a random social thing. Interested in being there? We'd love to get a headcount. Please drop us a line at party *at* northernallianceradio *dot* com Tell us who you are and what blog you write, if any. We'll send the details right back. Hope to see you all there! Oh - and spread the word among any other bloggers you know! The Whole Northern Alliance Labels: NARN (04-05)
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Robb from Infinite Monkeys e-mails with thoughts on light rail:
Train-based commuter transit is plain STUPID in Phoenix -- and I'm a fan of it in the kinds of cities that warrant it. For example, I love using mass transit in San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago, and when I'm in those cities I'd gladly pay fares that were more commensurate with the actual cost of providing the service. But mass transit (including buses) is just idiotic in cities like Phoenix which, like Los Angeles, has neither a high enough population density (per square mile) nor a concentrated business district. Look at the two cities where mass transit is not only useful but necessary: San Francisco and New York City are both located on PENINSULAS that effectively force the concentration of both population and places of work. Phoenix occupies an area that must be ten times the size of Manhattan and has a population that's about a fifth of the number of people that occupy Manhattan during the day. And "downtown" isn't where everybody works -- the jobs are as spread out as the population. You just can't build enough trains to effectively move people conveniently between their homes and offices. To top it off, mass transit fans in Phoenix ignore two fundamental market realities. First, it isn't "painful" enough to drive. Sure, we've got a lot of traffic during rush hour, but if you live anywhere along the proposed train route, you can get to downtown in less than 30 minutes by car. What train will get you the same distance in less than twice that time? Second, unlike in NYC and SF, the availability of mass transit does not preclude the need for a vehicle, or even a second vehicle for couples, because the train doesn't take you to Wal-Mart, the grocery store, the mall, Home Depot, the movies, or any other place where normal Phoenicians go several times per week. So you're still making the stupid car payment, still making the insurance payment, and gas is cheaper than train fare. You'll save on parking, but it would be much cheaper for the city to build giant free parking garages than it will be to tear up the city and build this ridiculous light rail system. A tangent, which I'm guessing is another parallel between Phoenix and Minneapolis: The shopping habits of Phoenicians is remarkably different from those of New Yorkers and San Franciscans. We don't "stop by the market on the way home and pick up some groceries." It's f'ing HOT here. Between May and October, we don't leave home unless we're forced to. We don't deviate from our travel route unless we're forced to. We shop once per week, and buy enough groceries to feed our giant WASP/Mormon/Catholic families and fill up the entire back end of our station wagon, minivan or Suburban. You can't bring two full shopping carts home with you on the train, and you can't cart around four kids on public transit. Our Ridiculous Governor (a huge proponent of the Phoenix light rail system) isn't married, and has no children. Her Republican opponent in the last election, Matt Salmon, is a married Mormon with four children. He didn't just oppose light rail because he's a Republican -- he knew that it would be practically useless to the populations concentrated around its primary routes. Robb is correct. Those of us who oppose light rail are often painted as greedy, short sighted haters of all public transit who would love nothing more than to pave paradise and put up an SUV dealership. I don't own a SUV, nor do I particularly like SUVs. And I've enjoyed using public rail transportation in cities such as Boston, Washington D.C., Toronto, Vancouver, Munich, Berlin, and London. The question is not whether public rail transit can work in some cities. Clearly in the cities that Robb and I have mentioned it can. The question is whether it is the answer in cities like Minneapolis and Phoenix. Robb points out that two key variables in public transportation are geography and population density. The geography of cities like Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, combined with the population densities of these cities, makes it necessary to have some sort of rail system for public transportation. In Minneapolis and, from what Robb says, Phoenix, this is simply not the case. The only serious geographic barriers in the Twin Cites are rivers. There are enough bridges over the Mississippi to ameliorate the impact on traffic flow there. In the past the Minnesota River created difficulties for those living in the southern suburbs, but with the opening of a new bridge, impervious to flooding, the situation has improved dramatically. The Twin Cities are pretty much accessible from all directions without hindrance. Geography is a non-factor. And unlike cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco there is not a concentrated downtown area for business and commerce in the Twin Cities. Sure, there are a lot of companies located in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. But most people who live in the Twin Cities area do not work in either downtown. And nobody shops downtown. Most of the commuting being done in the Twin Cities is not from the suburbs into downtown. It's from one suburb to another. I live in St. Louis Park, a first ring suburb just west of Minneapolis. I work in Eden Prairie, an outlying southwestern 'burb. My wife works in Minnetonka, another western suburb. This is an extremely common circumstance in the Twin Cities. And if we want to shop we rarely if ever travel to downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul. The shopping centers in the Twin Cities are in the various suburbs scattered throughout the metro area. The fact of the matter is that you could build light rail lines leading from the suburbs into downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul from all directions at a cost of billions and billions of dollars and not have a significant impact on traffic congestion. There could a line running from the West into downtown Minneapolis just a few blocks from my house, and I still would have to drive my car to work and to shop. The question is not whether or not light rail isn't a neat way to get around. It is. But is it the most efficient way for us to be spending our precious transportation dollars, given our geographic and demographic realities? When it is completed, the Hiawatha Light Rail Line will cover all of twelve miles from the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington (currently it only runs as far as Fort Snelling). Last time I checked the cost was somewhere around $850 million. That's a significant chunk of change. A chunk of change that would probably be much better spent on our bus system. There's a bus stop at the end of our block. I could easily catch a ride downtown. But could I take the bus to work? Not unless I wanted to go downtown, transfer to another line, and spend two hours in the process to avoid a twenty minute drive. More buses. More bus routes. And more roads. One of the arguments for light rail was that "you just can't keep building more roads". Obviously, there is some truth to that statement. At some time you will reach the point where it is physically impossible to add to your roadway infrastructure. I just don't think we're anywhere near that point yet in the Twin Cities. When I travel to other cities I see new highways with four or even five lanes of traffic in each direction. The main artery around the Twin Cities, the 494/694 beltway, has two lanes in each direction in most places, with three in certain areas. There is construction underway to add a third lane in a few highly congested areas that currently have two. Why not four all the way 'round? We CAN build more roads if we choose to. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, the construction process can be lengthy and painful. But we're dropping close to a billion dollars for twelve miles of light rail line that will do little or nothing to reduce congestion. Is that really the best way to spend our transportation dollars? In Minneapolis at least, given the realities on the ground, the answer appears to be no. Labels: Transportation
Friday, July 09, 2004
Rick, our man assigned to monitor Air America, reports in on the Al Franken show. According to Rick, this premier political talk show of the left, who's only mission is to cover the ceaseless, daily news cycle ..... is doing reruns:
As yourself appointed Franken-Factor Eaves' Dropper, I'd like to point out that this is "The Best of the O'Franken Factor Week" at Air America Radio. Beyond the obvious oxymoron doesn't it seem odd to be running an entire week of reruns on a premier political talk radio show? The reason for the hiatus is apparently because Al Franken is out "boring for dollars" at democratic fund raisers. I know that most every conservative host will only do reruns on holidays or last minute absences or technical difficulties. A whole week of reruns! Limbaugh, Medved, and Hewitt get guest hosts that their audiences will appreciate. So why doesn't Al Franken have a substitute host? Here are some possible reasons I can think of. 1. He doesn't think listeners will tune in to listen to a guest host. 2. He's afraid the guest will be more popular than he. 3. The shows staff is too incompetent to adjust to a guest host 4. He's afraid the staff will like the guest host better. 5. Air America can't pay a guest host. 6. This is an attempt to cut costs. The best of the O'Franken Factor Week every month. Maybe they can really cut costs by running the same episodes every week until the election. The ratings couldn't get much worse. Labels: Media-National (02-06)
Look people, I'm going to be spending the next couple of days dragging (literally) Atomizer's sorry ass all over Northern Minnesota as we skate seventy five miles from Hinckley to Duluth in the MS75. The least you can do is drop a couple of bucks in the kitty for a very worthy cause.
Labels: Good Works
Not only does he have a new book being released next week called, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It, but today is also the fourth anniversary of Hugh Hewitt's talk radio show. Our congratulations go out to Hugh, Generalissimo Duane, Lynne the WebXena, Adam Youngman, and the rest of the crew (especially the guy who restocks the vending machine) responsible for one of the very best shows in the land.
It was not quite perfection last night at Keegan's weekly trivia contest, but you could not get much closer. Twenty four of twenty five questions answered correctly by the Fraters squad. Another victory. Another round of free drinks.
How's that whole "gauntlet throwing" thing going for you Mitch? Labels: Trivial Pursuits
Former Viking running back Robert Smith has a book coming out:
If Robert Smith had his way, no one would care why he abruptly quit professional football three years ago. In his world view, people would focus on more critical issues than why a 28-year-old superstar gave up $40 million with no explanation. Smith, who rarely gives interviews, spoke with a reporter Thursday to promote his autobiography. The former Vikings running back said society has gone too far in elevating athletes to celebrity status. It is a central theme of his book, "The Rest of the Iceberg: An Insider's View on the World of Sport and Celebrity," and it represents a large portion of a complicated explanation for his departure from sports and public life. Viking fans might be interested in his explanation for running out of bounds in the fourth quarter of 1999 NFC title game against the Falcons while the Vikings were trying to drain time off the clock. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything. He's not the only new author with a local connection: Jacob Slichter has been in this boat before, getting rave reviews from not-so-little rags such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, talking about advances and publicists, and browsing the bins at his local stores to make sure his new release is stocked. No, there isn't a new Semisonic album out. The drummer for Minneapolis' favorite power-pop band has a new book, "So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life", which is all about Semisonic's less-than-enviable jaunt in the major-label marathon. Both sound like great reads. That is, if anyone is even reading anymore. Labels: Books, Football, Music
Joe e-mails with an interesting example of "supporting the troops":
OTOFTC Home Page Labels: Military
Captain Ed's weekly John Kerry photo caption contest starts today and I've been honored with the role of picking this week's winners.
Those that have followed the contest know both Ed's pictures and the associated captions are typically hilarious. His blog attracts a multitude of witty quipsters and insightful, wry social commentators, so I know it will be a challenge picking a winner, but it should be a blast. Tip for those trying to sway this judge, I'm partial to sophomoric and scatological humor. And withering social commentary written in your underpants. Fraters readers who are not typical entrants in this contest, I call on you specifically to get on over there are knock out some zingers. Yes, you! The best and brightest of the scatological and sophomoric. The wretched refuse of our teaming shore, migrate over to Captain's Quarters and CAPTION!!! In addition to the glory associated with victory, this week's winner will also get a rare, first edition, autographed copy of the DESERVE VICTORY! bumper sticker. Those not winning will each receive three. Good luck! Labels: Blogs-Local, Foto Foolies
Faulkner, Ninomiya leave KSTP amid dismal ratings:
In a dramatic newsroom upheaval, anchor team Kent Ninomiya and Harris Faulkner left KSTP, Channel 5, Thursday night, and were replaced by the newly hired Cyndy Brucato. KSTP General Manager Rob Hubbard said one of the anchors resigned Thursday evening, and the other was subsequently released from contract. Hubbard refused to specify which anchor did what. Neither Faulkner nor Ninomiya could be reached for comment. Hmmm...I rarely watch the local news so I have little interest in who's anchoring at KSTP. However, I do wonder if this is the sort of dramatic news that will shake JB Doubtless out of his comatose state. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Kerry, Edwards: Florida votes to be counted:
Kerry told thousands of supporters gathered at the airport hanger in Broward County--site of one of the biggest recount disputes in 2000--that he's discovered that Edwards' youngest children, ages 6 and 4, are "good at math." "Those kids really know how to count. I've given them a special duty in this election. We're sending Jack and Emma Claire down there to help those Republicans in West Palm Beach count those votes," Kerry said. Here's a better idea for you John: Have the kids help those empty headed Democratic voters in West Palm Beach figure out how to properly cast their ballots. You don't even have to be "good at math" to do that. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Mike Nelson, on facial hair:
As a man, I understand the temptation to cultivate facial hair. It does, after all, grow on your face, forcing you to come up with some sort of plan as to what to do with it, and where to exactly to put it. His commentary includes several case studies (and expert illustrations) of unique facial hair expressions, including the "The Wispy Not-Really-There Beard", "The Overly Groomed Mustache", "The Out-of-Control Soul Patch", and "Mutton Chops. Good Lord, Mutton Chops". If Mike tackles this subject again in the future, we suggest he profile one other neglected American classic: the Pube-stache. Labels: fashion
And if your name is Roz Kohls, Gary Skidmore, or Joel Watson you are in fact a loser. A loser in the Fraters Saddam Dead Pool that is. The dates that these folks chose for Saddam to shuffle off this mortal coil have come and gone.
Next up on the clock: Chris Stone with July 13th. Best of luck to you Chris. Labels: Iraq
Al Franken made an appearance at a John Kerry rally in Oakdale yesterday. According to reports, it was a "love fest":
The best-selling author and former "Saturday Night Live" star was making his first major public appearance in Minnesota since he announced in May that he is considering challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman in 2008. With his wit, national stature and ability to excite a crowd, Franken probably would win the DFL nomination, predicted Jeri Rasmussen of Shoreview, a co-founder of the DFL Feminist Caucus. "I think he could have Coleman on the run." Rasmussen added, however, that she was "a little uncomfortable with all his butt jokes." Democrats, please, please nominate Al Franken for Senate in '08. There hasn't been a good butt joke in Minnesota politics since Roger Moe retired. Labels: Politics-Local (04-05)
Royals Shut Out For Third Straight
The Royals made franchise history Wednesday night, but not the kind they'll be bragging about to the grandkids someday. For the first time in their 36 seasons, the Royals have lost three consecutive shutouts. The Minnesota Twins completed an all-shutout sweep as right-hander Kyle Lohse put the Royals to sleep, 12-0, on a six-hitter at the Metrodome. Three games. Three straight complete game shutouts by Twins chuckers. Twenty five runs put up on the board by the Twins in the sweep. Ouch. I would wager that Mr. Hipp is under heavy medication at this time to help cope with his team's descent into utter and complete ineptitude. There's always next year, right Brian? Labels: Baseball
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
During my lunch hour, sometimes nothing goes as well with a turkey sandwich and a bag of Funyons than a little righteous dissent. Sadly, since Al Franken's show was bumped in this market from obscure frequency 1220 AM to even more obscure frequency 1530 AM, even I've had a hard time finding them.
Thankfully, Fraters reader Rick has an atomic strength radio antenna, or lives right next to their broadcast tower, since he continues to monitor Air America broadcasts. His report: I feel it is my patriotic duty to tune in as often as possible and monitor the tripe that Al Franken spews on Air America. One of the few interesting aspects is their roster of advertisers. They include The Carpenter's Union, Northern Sun Alliance, the place to get lefty T-shirts and bumper stickers (editor's note--I can personally testify to that, since I once bought a gross of hemp Nader t-shirts from them as Christmas gifts), the Law offices of DFL House Minority Leader Matt Entenza (or was it DFL chairman Mike Erlandson? I can't remember which one) (ed. note--there's a difference?), and in heavy rotation, Air America begging for contributions to keep them on the air. There's also a message from the Prairie Island Indian Community, reminding us all about the good Indian gaming does rural Goodhue County, but not suggesting at all that the listener should come down to Treasure Island and play a few slots. And on Monday, I was rather surprised to hear a commercial for Playboy Magazine. Of course, the ad only mentioned the hard hitting interviews and sports features that have made the magazine such a success. Every guy buys those for articles, right? I wonder what's next, a PSA from Déjŕ Vu? Unions, hemp t-shirts, lawyers, sex, gambling, I think they've got all their core constituencies already covered. No wonder they've had such a hard time expanding their ad revenues. Or maybe this has something to do with it, the official promotion for their morning show: Time to wake up, brush your teeth and stick it to The Man. Set your alarm to Morning Sedition and keep us on as you make your way to that charmingly decorated cubicle where you help rich people increase the disparity between their bank account and yours. We'll give you the day's headlines and political news, without that annoying, smiley, blow-dried double-talk the other media use to avoid offending anyone who might jeopardize their access to Sweet Lady Ad Revenues. Join radio veteran Mark Riley and comedian Marc Maron for morning news served up the way you like it: In context, with a healthy dollop of absurdity on top and a side order of subversion. Speaking of ads, here's an article on the going rates. $1,500 per minute on Franken. $16,000 per minute on Limbaugh. Although this article (from March 30) quotes all sorts of people associated with Air America who have either resigned in disgrace or been exposed as frauds, so it's hard to know what to believe. As the folks at MPR will attest, it's so much easier to do liberal radio when the tax payers are funding you and you don't have to degrade yourself by having to generate an audience to justify your existence. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Will Saint Paul show up in his underwear to deliver withering social commentary?
Will Atomizer drunkenly stumble into the barbeque and suffer yet another alcohol related injury? Will JB Doubtless bite the head off a live chicken? Will I be doing my award winning Pee Wee Herman impersonation? There's only one way to find out. Come out to the Estates of Diamond Bluff on Saturday July 31st from noon until 3:00pm to catch a live broadcast of the Northern Alliance Radio Network. You can check out the beautiful home sites, enjoy lunch, and win hard to come by official AM-1280 The Patriot merchandise. And you'll hear about an upcoming Patriot promotion where the station is promising to "give away something huge." My guess is that the prize has to be an autographed pair of Hugh's Dockers. Labels: NARN (04-05)
...are greatly exaggerated.
 Although the rumors of the demise of that burger are frighteningly accurate. With The State Fair less than two months out, JB Doubtless was in heavy training mode over the holiday weekend. Last year it was the Scotch Egg. What deep fried concoction will fall prey to his gluttonous urges this year? Labels: State Fair
James Phillips e-mails with more on light rail:
You will be happy to know that on Sacramento Light Rail's website, your wonderful new light rail is characterized as a "success story." Of course I suspect that to the bureaucratic mind, the mere existence of this taxpayer subsidized boondoggle is a "success story." You might be interested in the site for the CFTE - "Center for Transportation Excellence" a "a non-partisan policy research center created to serve the needs of communities and transportation organizations nationwide." This non-partisan website has such non-partisan news items as "Missing the Train: How Bush Is Derailing Transit", "Washington's Metro: Deficits by Design", "Aging Americans Left With Little Choice", and "Beware of LRT Oversell" (which links to a paper that seems to guide the erstwhile government planner in how to fudge the numbers to justify light rail. I am not sure because my eyes glazed over and my hair started to hurt as I started to read it.) This site on "Transportation Excellence" also has a news report on an apparent "must read: "If you don't have time to read Richard Florida's book, "The Rise of the Creative Class," don't worry because he is offering parsed versions on his website. In case you haven't heard, Florida's book describes why cities that don't have gay-friendly communities, vibrant music scenes, and yes, modern and convenient public transportation, are losing the economic development race. Chock full of information to combat the critics with!" Yes, I am sure it is. I am still peeved over light rail being extended into my community (Folsom, CA). As you may be aware, we have a prison in Folsom (what, you knew that?). Two actually. Folsom State Prison, and California State Prison - Sacramento. We all know that one of the benefits of light rail is that it increases the crime rate in the vicinity of all its train stops. In our case, it will also make it easier for the families of the inmates to travel into Folsom to visit. Yeah, I'm liking that idea a lot. Finally, for now (I am not going to mention that we also have a "Friends of Light Rail and Transportation - FLRT.), one of the pictures the Government Planners won't show you is a light rail stop like we have here Downtown Sacramento on 12th Street Drive by virtually any time, day or night, and it looks like Darwin's Waiting Room. Granted, a multi-culturally diverse Darwin's Waiting Room, but one nonetheless. Nice to see that the central planners from the Soviet Union found a home after the collapse of Communism. Labels: Transportation
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Okay, Eloise, I'll give it a shot:
While boozebonding with some friends last week, I found myself beereft and ended up getting a nasty PBR scar on my shin after hurdling in the Special Olympics on my way to the keg for a refill...or so I have been told. Alcoheimers prevents me from recalling the details. Bah! Too many words. I find it much more efficient to say: My friends laughed at me the morning after I mangled my leg on a lawnchair that came between me and my thirty-fourth beer, but I don't remember a thing. Much better. You see, the sport of professional drinking requires one to find every possible way to conserve energy before, during and after a scheduled drinking meet. Wasting it on unnecessary syllables tends to leave you too tired to make witty comments or poke fun at the shortcomings of those around you, both of which are very effective scoring plays in a regulation drinking session. So, if it's all the same to you, I'll stick with the traditional English language to relate my drunken deeds of derring-do. You never know when I might need that extra burst of energy to let loose with a game winning zinger...at the Elder's expense, of course. On the other hand, Ebonics does have some merit. Labels: Drinking
Not according to this Money Index from Fundrace.org which shows that, contrary to popular perception, John Kerry is getting the largest contributions from the wealthiest Americans. George Bush meanwhile, is the candidate getting smaller contributions from all over the country and inspiring repeated giving and financial sacrifice. Let's see MoveOn.org chew on that one.
(Via Professor Bainbridge) Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Light rail has now officially come to the Twin Cities with last week's opening of the Hiawatha Line. According to an e-mail from Jack, Phoenix will be the next city to jump on the bandwagon:
The light-rail fungus is spreading West. We are about to dig craters through the central part of Phoenix to construct yet another monument to the folly of permitting men who have "drivers" decide ways to spend MY money to get ME out of my SUV. I know (sorry pal, I really am) that it's too late for the Twin Cities to eradicate the fungus. But Phoenix is still in the "getting ready" phase. Neighborhood-breaking (I mean "ground breaking, " sorry, I get carried away) will commence soon, as temperatures near 1 gazillion degrees Kelvin. Do you have any suggestions as to how us good conservatives might monkeywrench the politics of this stupidest of the stupid ideas? We're always too nice and dedicated to "the process." I mean they're gonna deface the most graceful city boulevard (Central Avenue) and plop down this monster from the 19th Century and flee to their suburban enclaves while those of us who live down here watch empty trains go by. Take a look at the artist's rendering of a station and, when you stop laughing, imagine yourself standing out there where the temperature is Tikrit-in-July. I didn't think you could. Imagine it, that is. Despite what Hewitt says about you, I know you to be far more intelligent than that. One of my liberal acquaintances (who unfortunately has dug himself a foxhole at the Editorial Page) thinks that a perpetual public subsidy is just ducky, and is as it should be. If he were here right now, I'd tell him.... what was that phrase Cheney used? July is Phoenix's version of Minnesota's January. I've heard that comparison made more than once. To survive July in Phoenix you need to stay in your air conditioned home, car, and workplace. To survive January in Minneapolis you need to stay in your heated home, car, and workplace. The one difference may be that when it gets hot you can only take off so many clothes, while when it gets cold you can at least attempt to dress for the conditions. As for the impending light rail boondoggle in Phoenix, I'm afraid that it's probably too late to stop it. Sorry Jack, the mob has spoken. Labels: Transportation
Regarding the Minnesota appearance on July 4 of Shoshanna Johnson (quoth Mayor Randy Kelly, "a true American hero"), blog Damscus Road points us to this article by Captain Roger Lee Crosland of the US Naval Institute. Excerpts:
The individual heroes of the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, generally are unknown. Deluged by lengthy, detailed stories of the extreme efforts taken by terrorists, we have heard little of the extreme efforts taken by members of the U.S. armed forces. We help our enemies by default, by allowing lesser images to be presented as substitutes. Everyone knows the name Jessica Lynch. She wore her country's uniform, went willingly to her duty in Iraq, and suffered grievous injuries, but does she qualify to be known first among those who served in this war? We have brushed aside battlefield resolution and action - which should be foremost - and allowed the image of victimization and suffering to take its place. On the media's role in glorifying victimization: Another factor surely at work is that victims are easier to identify and celebrate than heroes. They are less controversial. They inspire sympathy. They can be identified using fairly objective standards. It is their status rather than their acts or intentions that define them. Clearly, we need to know their stories, but we should give greater attention to the heroes of war. Substituting victims for heroes, the media have cheapened the concept of heroism. They have sent it into obscurity. When I first saw the Shoshana Johnson article it was on the Pioneer Press web site and I figured it was appropriately buried somewhere in the Metro section. I didn't realize until I got home and scanned the print edition that it was the lead article, above the fold on page 1A of the paper. Entitled: A HERO'S WELCOME. The Pioneer Press, at the head of the class of lazy, cheapening influences in the local media. At least for today. Labels: Media-Local (02-04), Military
The new, X-rated Laura Billings may be a shocking addition to the St. Paul journalistic community. But it should be good for Fraters Libertas. Sex sells of course and with all the folks soon to be Googling her name, looking for salacious commentary, guess who they're going to find?
Fraters Libertas at #4. Thanks to all who've helped us rise all the way from page 19 to this lofty position, particularly Mitch Berg and Steve Gigl. (The latter of whom seems to be temporarily off the air.) Anyone else wishing to help in this regard by linking to our Laura Billings material may be the lucky blogger to put as at number 1 for her name search. An appropriate position I think, considering her obsession with our underwear. Fraters Libertas and Laura Billings. Together forever. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
The Pioneer Press is suffering through declining circulation numbers and now staff cuts and a reorganization. I've speculated here and on NARN that the only way they can save themselves is to steer their editorial direction to the right. It seems obvious that they can't survive trying to mimic the ideological slant of their dominant opponent from Minneapolis. They need to oppose it and offer an alternative to the 40% of Minnesotans predisposed to a more conservative perspective.
Or they need to start working blue. Laura Billings takes this option with her column today on thongs: According to the half-dozen mothers who've told me about this trend, it doesn't matter if your undies are maternity-size, bikini cut or purchased at La Perla. If they don't go up your biscuit, they're for babies. Yowza! Does that mean what I think it means? If so, that may be the most profane thing ever printed in the Pioneer Press (at least since Nick Coleman left). Didn't this used to be a family newspaper? What would Don Boxmeyer think? Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
King from St. Cloud State Scholars takes apart a piece carping about the horrors of outsourcing.
Labels: Economics
The Hmong are a tribal people originating from the mountainous region at the intersection of of China, Laos, and Thailand. They were American allies during the Vietnam War and after the fall of Saigon the United States began taking thousands of them in as political refugees. According to reports, 60,000 Hmong live in the Twin Cities. 5,000 more are on their way to St. Paul this summer, direct from the Wat Tham Krabok shantytown in Thailand.
Some observers have expressed concerns over the ability of the city to successfully assimilate such a large group of folks coming from such a primitive area of the world, especially in this era of high competition for social welfare resources. A legitimate concern for what the Star Tribune described as "a wave of immigration unparalleled in recent history." Let your concerns be eased ever so slightly with this announcement from the Pioneer Press: ... a bilingual health educator, [May Thao-Schuck] has produced a Hmong exercise video, which she says is the first of its kind in the country. Thao-Schuck, who graduated from the University of Minnesota in kinesiology, created "Get Fit With May" for beginning exercisers. She shot the video in her home, an environment she felt was more inviting than a gym. She uses familiar, inexpensive items for the workout - cans of soup, a phone book, a gallon of water and a chair, not expensive gym equipment. The video costs $20. According to the article, Hmong obesity is an increasing problem due to cultural factors (back in the old world, chubbiness is a valued trait, a sign of wealth) and the American lifestyle (lots of food, survival not dependent on backbreaking manual labor). We wish May all the best in her efforts, especially if this video helps our newest citizens acclimatize to mass prosperity. And nothing says mass prosperity more than spending $20 on an exercise video that doesn't even feature Suzanne Sommers. But that's not to say slimming down this audience still doesn't have some unique challenges: Throughout the 45-minute video, Thao-Schuck speaks mostly in Hmong. She uses English only if there are no equivalent terms in Hmong. Take the word "squat," a type of lower-body exercise. "I'll say, 'Pretend you're going to poop,' " she says. "You have to be very blunt." That sounds like trouble waiting to happen. Call me a xenophobe if you will, but just to be safe I'm making a point of not standing next to any Hmong in my advanced step and squat aerobics class at Bally's. And I pray there's nothing in that video about the clean and jerk. Labels: Culture
Monday, July 05, 2004
In Sunday's New York Times sports section, Alan Schwarz discussed a concept known the Pythagorean standings for baseball. It's a way to predict a team's wining percentage based on the number of runs it scores vs. the number of runs it allows its opponents to score.
It's a simple formula, but according to Schwarz, it's proven to be a reasonably accurate forecaster of a team's performance over an entire season. Allowing the baseball fan some level of certainty with regard to the maddeningly complex roller coaster of a baseball season is good news. The bad news is the Twins may be destined for a fall in the AL Central this season. According to Schwarz: The power of the formula emerges in comparing a team's expected victories to its actual victories. A perfect example comes from this year's American League Central race, where on Thursday the White Sox led the Twins by one game atop the standing. The Sox had scored 431 total runs and given up 357, translating to a .595 Pythagorean winning percentage and a 44-30 record - suggesting that Chicago's 41-33 real-life record was three victories lower than what its run differential deserved, and that better times are probably ahead. Meanwhile, the Twins had managed their 41-35 record despite being outscored on the season, 351-372, meaning their luck is bound to run out. (Much of this does derive from happenstance, how team scoring fluctuates randomly within the little nine-inning chunks we call games, and tends to even out over the course of a full season.) With this weekend's series win in Arizona, the Twins are back tied for first place. But with their lack of hitting this season and inconsistent starting pitching, their hold at the top has always felt shaky to me. According to Schwarz (in a print edition insert) the Twins record is 5 games better than their performance would dictate and unfortunately that feels about right. Looks like we'll need to rely on another White Sox implosion to win the division again this year. Since the White Sox have a perfect 100% record of doing just that the past two years, maybe the odds are still in our favor. FYI - Twins vs. Kansas City Royals, tonight 7:10 PM at the Metrodome. It is also Armed Forces Appreciation Day. Current and former military personnel get half price tickets, Gov. Pawlenty will throw out the first ball and receive a flag from a Minnesota National Guard unit just returned from Iraq, and the Twins will give away G.I. Joe dolls to the first 5,000 kids in attendance. That last aspect has caused some controversy among local anti-war agitators, who are demanding the Twins cancel the promotion. To their credit, the Twins won't, and things are on for tonight. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Joe Repya of the Liberate Iraq sign campaign from last fall (and fresh off the Kerry Waffle Breakfast in Duluth) called into NARN on Saturday and mentioned he would be on hand with his supporters to counter any on-site protests from the usual suspects. So if you're going to the game and want to say "hi" look out for the motley crew of people shouting about "Nazis" and "Hitler" and "lies". The well-behaved, dignified group across from them will be Joe's group.
What does a hero look like? Reporter Lisa Donovan of the Pioneer Press lets us know, with her story on the appearance of Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson at the Taste of Minnesota yesterday:
On Sunday, she sported straight black hair with red highlights, strappy heels and a blue polka-dot dress with a plunging neckline. Asked about those shoes (she was shot in both ankles during the Iraq ambush), she said she's getting around just fine in them and hopes to return to the stilettos she wore before. Too bad the Internet didn't exist in the 40's, otherwise I'd be able to Google the reports of what Audie Murphy was wearing when he got on the speaking circuit after World War II. At least we do know what Audie did to earn the moniker of hero. 2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective. Army Specialst Johnson's claim to the title? According to the Pioneer Press: The first African-American woman to become a prisoner of war, Johnson said Sunday afternoon during Taste of Minnesota events in St. Paul that, as she watches news reports, she wonders how she made it out of Iraq with her life: "It's hard. It's very difficult. Lots of times I ask: 'Why me?' 'Why was I spared?' " Taste of Minnesota officials invited Johnson to be part of Sunday's Fourth of July celebration on Harriet Island, and St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly welcomed the 31-year-old from El Paso, Texas, calling her a "true American hero." Johnson, whose story eluded the spotlight as the media focused on fellow captive Pvt. Jessica Lynch, was captured March 23, 2003, during an ambush when the 507th Maintenance Company that supported the Army's 3rd Infantry took a wrong turn in the Iraqi desert. I want to express my happiness that this American solider was retrieved from the clutches of her Iraqi captors. And I sincerely wish to thank her for her service to this country, much of it done under difficult, harrowing circumstances. But (there's always a but with this guy) defining the term "hero" down to getting lost and getting taken prisoner, and basing it exclusively on a gender and race qualification, well, its simply not American. Heroism, like any achievement, is based on what you do, not who you are. Labels: Media-Local (02-04), Military
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Bust out humanitarian James Phillips writes in to comment on Muriel Kennedy's morbid threats from yesterday:
If Kerry doesn't win she'll just "crawl in a hole and die"? Big words from someone who is 72 years old. Why doesn't she really go out on a limb and scare the Right by threatening to LIVE if Bush wins in November. Sorry. That was wrong, but I couldn't help it. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Lord I apologize to all the starving pygmies in New Guinea." I think James and Muriel might be different sides of the same coin. It's not the content of their remarks that matter, it's the thought that counts. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
Friday, July 02, 2004
John Kerry is campaigning in Minnesota today. He's in Cloquet, the hometown of Jessica Lange, no less. Although I don't expect her to be attending the rally.
But somebody named Muriel Kennedy is going to be there, and she had this prediction for the upcoming election: Muriel Kennedy, 72, of North Branch, said she thought the war had caused the biggest erosion in Bush's rural support. At 7 a.m., the lifelong Democrat was among the first to arrive to hear Kerry - more than five hours before his appearance was scheduled. "I want to be counted," she said. "He has to win. If he doesn't win, I'll just crawl in a hole and die." We of course wish Muriel nothing but good health in the future. But if she does survive a 2nd Bush term, her bold rhetoric will force us to brand her the Alec Baldwin of the Iron Range. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
A few days ago I described Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 as liberal pornography. (The same day, Jonah Goldberg came to the same conclusion, a classic case of great minds thinking alike). I haven't seen the movie, and I'm not planning to. But based on the multitude of reviews I've read, and from hearing reports from those who have seen it, the movie seems to be nothing more than a string of fantasy sequences meant to give liberals a perverse thrill at seeing their worst suspicions blown up and performed for them. It really doesn't matter if the facts presented are true. They want them to be true, they NEED them to be true, and thus in their world, this film becomes evidence. It IS true.
I've noticed a similar phenomenon among the promoters and fellow traveling critics of Fahrenheit 9/11. Not just in regard to the alleged facts presented, but also to the affect the movie is supposed to have on the election. Specifically, the affect it will have on the precious undecided voters still trying to make up their mind on who to vote for. Moore's alleged working class appeal and talent for humor is supposed to be reaching beyond typical partisan political rhetoric, to finally grab and mold those naive minds out there, who don't yet know Bush MUST be defeated. The testimonials on Michael Moore's web site are full of these tales: [my father] was on the National Mall last week, and a college student asked him to sign a petition to remove the President from office. My father thought that was a rude thing to ask and declined to sign. Leaving the theatre today, he was ready to sign. One vote at a time, one drop at a time, will lead to the wave that will wash Mr. Bush back to Texas for good I expected a "liberal" looking crowd--whatever that means. But I was SHOCKED to see the perfect blend of American society that viewed the film. I even got my republican father a ticket to see the movie in Orange County. Needless to say after he saw the movie he now plans to vote against the Bush. He has voted Republican since Nixon. Everyone was talking about how Bush was going to be damaged beyond repair by this film." My mother agreed to go (who yesterday the 24th told me she wasn't sure who she was voting for anymore) ... she came out of saying there was no way she would ever vote for Bush in November. Even prominent pundits are trying to forward this notion. The latest carnival barker being Paul Krugman in the New York Times: Since it opened, "Fahrenheit 9/11" has been a hit in both blue and red America, even at theaters close to military bases. Last Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took his Nascar crew to see it. The film's appeal to working-class Americans, who are the true victims of George Bush's policies, should give pause to its critics, especially the nervous liberals rushing to disassociate themselves from Michael Moore. All of this anecdotal evidence is, of course, crap. Wishful interpretation or outright lies. Thanks to the efforts of the conservative voices in the media and some honest film critics, Michael Moore has been justifiably stigmatized as a partisan hack in the public's imagination. There are very few sheep left who will be led into this Bush slaughter assuming it's a honest portrayal of the facts. That doesn't mean the movie still can't be wildly popular for a while. There are more than enough extreme Democrats to give Moore a $20 million opening weekend. In fact, there are probably enough of those types to get him close a $100 million gross, without a single wavering political neophyte getting influenced by his propaganda. Sure, there are going to be a handful of people like this claiming to have fallen under Moore's spell. But the idea that it's going to persuade millions into changing their voting behavior is absurd. But since liberals would like it to be true, and Moore and the producers of the film NEED it to be true, it is the hype we're going to be hearing until this pornographic sideshow finally leaves town. Labels: Movies, Politics-National (02-04)
In an opinion piece in today's Star Tribune, transportation consultant Kevin Coates asks us to Think what maglev could do for transit:
During rush hour in Shanghai, China, recently, I traveled 19 miles in 7 1/2 minutes. I wasn't flying, exactly. I was aboard a high-speed magnetic-levitation transportation system. Ever since, I can't help but ponder more efficient ways of moving people into, between, within and around American cities; especially when I am stuck in traffic jams. The high-speed (267 mph) German-built maglev in Shanghai is one good model. It is smooth and much faster than highway or traditional rail travel, fast enough in fact to compete with air trips of 600 miles or less (which means it could eliminate the need for about 50 percent of all domestic U.S. air travel). My ride in Shanghai is proof: The technology exists to meet our burgeoning transportation needs. What we need now is the public will and the political leadership to make the move. Sounds great doesn't it? Problem is that the reality of the maglev line in Shanghai doesn't exactly deliver on the promise. When I was there a few weeks ago, we drove by the station at the end of the line. The line runs from the airport to this station, about nineteen miles as Coates noted. In fact one of our co-workers lives in an apartment within walking distance of the station. And, according to him, the line is little used by Shanghai residents. He described it as "very expensive tourist attraction," which of course led us to relate tales of our own train to nowhere in the Twin Cities. In fact we planned to use the Shanghai maglev line on the Saturday that we left to see what it was like. But the first train wasn't running until 9:00am and our flight departed at 9:30am. According to one of our co-workers, the hours of operation of the line are nine to five every day. Which is great if you're a retiree, a homemaker, a jobless left wing protester, or a tourist. But it doesn't seem like it would do much to help with the rush hour. Labels: China, Transportation
Try rocketing instead. IceRocket is a new search tool with the promise that "every search is a direct hit". And when you "rocket" Laura Billings you'll find a Fraters Libertas link on the fifth page of the search results. But we're only on page two when you search for "social commentary in underpants". C'mon people, get those links going.
(Editors note: this post was composed while the author was clad in nothing more than his unmentionables. Blogging in boxers baby. It don't get much better.) Labels: Technology
Laura Billings' comments about Fraters Libertas yesterday resulted in a flood of reader reaction. But, before I continue, let me properly prepare for this topic by peeling off my skin tight Jordache jeans.
Ahhhhh, that's the stuff. Much better. Phhhew. Where were we again? Oh yes, Laura Billings. First off, regarding Laura's claims about having 10 different false stories about her circulating about on the Internet, a commentator on Mitch Berg's site had this reaction: I tried a bit of Billings fact checking on Google. Wasted an hour and could find nothing to back her claims. When I read the piece, my antenae stood at attention. Could she be making some of this stuff up? Short answer - yes, she could be making it up, and probably is. Maybe it was intended as satire, but her claims of being accused on the Internet of things such as being in a committed lesbian relationship or being married to Joe Soucheray (which, come to think of it, could be the same story), are not verifiable. Our Newspaper Newlyweds stuff exists of course, and she rightly characterized that. But, as of yesterday, Fraters Libertas didn't show up until page 19 of her Google name search. Some blog called The Fat Guy is even ahead of us, and he's from Texas and wrote about her once. Our rank is a minor outrage given our local ties and the wall-to-wall coverage we provide. So I turn to our fine blogger friends for help in this regard. Remember what you did for Rudy Boschwitz and Expose the Ink Stained Wanker and link our Laura Billings stuff today! My guess is that she didn't stumble upon the Newspaper Newlyweds in some diligent act of column research (which is wholly inconsistent with her established work habits). Instead she noticed the Plain Layne article on page 1 of her own paper, saw Mitch Berg's name and blog referenced, and she found us through him and made everything else up. Which once again proves, it pays to pay Mitch Berg to get on his blog roll. (Contact him today, operators are standing by.) Next up, Jim writes in to insightfully parse Ms. Billings' statement: Notice the Clintonian nature of the Billings denial of her husband's vast estate. She denies only being the "sole heir" to her husband's fortune. A quick review of the Newspaper Newlyweds archives reveals no such assertion made by Fraters Libertas. On the contrary, the very first episode centers on the existence of a love child produced of Nick and Laura. Why is it so hard for them to admit their vast wealth? Kerry and Dayton prove that even multimillionaires can pretend to be populists in touch with the concerns of the little guy. It's true Jim, Laura Billings, Nick Coleman, Kerry and Dayton all play the common man game when they're on stage. But none of these folks are interested in revealing the real nature of their wealth (see the refusal of Theresa Heinz-Kerry in releasing her tax records as an example of this.) It just doesn't look good when you're claiming to be a class warrior. What does look good is the Golden Girl, who chimes in all the way from Colorado: Do you guys actually write withering and anonymous social commentary IN your underpants? Cool. It never occurred to me to get out the magic marker and scrawl "John Kerry, get bent. Anon." on my Victoria's Secret tags. (Great, now I have the little Underpants Gnome song from South Park playing in my head...Gotta go to work, work all day....) As a matter of fact GG, that is how Fraters Libertas began all those years ago. Withering, anonymous social commentary written inside of the Elder's underwear. Sure, he's a popular guy and back then, he got around. And the folks at his dry cleaners became avid readers and big fans. But that distribution model proved to be a little too restrictive for his ambitions (complete domination of all opinion in the Twin Cities). So, as his confidence increased and his skills improved, the Elder moved from withering social commentary in his underwear to blistering satirical comments in his dress shirts, then to topical limericks in his hat bands, and then finally to the Web site you know and love. For dedicated fans of the site, I'm proud to announce that the Elder will soon be offering commemorative editions of the first issues of Fraters Libertas, in their original format. It's the perfect gift for the blog reader in your life and they make great stocking stuffers. Labels: Media-Local (02-04)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Our time for training is rapidly disappearing, but you still have a chance to make a pledge for Team Fraters Libertas in this year's MS75. The MS75 is a seventy five mile inline skate in Northern Minnesota over two days (July 10th and 11th) to raise money to help fight Multiple Sclerosis. Thanks for your support.
Labels: Good Works
Reader Joe B. tries his hand at mixing mathematics with Reagan bashing (as I made reference to in this previous post):
Reagan's SDI fantasy had errors compounding quicker than a repeated Euler iteration using h=0.1. Even a Three-Term Taylor Series or Runge-Kutta localization of the formula errors proportional to the same power of h for high-order terms couldn't fix that boondoogle. Nice work, Joe. I do believe there's a mathematics professor position awaiting you at St. John's. Labels: Political History
The creative and financing team for the production of "The Invisible Hand" is starting to come together. First, I need to hire Fraters correspondent Joe B for the writing staff. Based on some of his commentary yesterday (Die! Die! Die!), I really like his style.
I also see a technical advisor's credit going to King from SCSU Scholars, based on his commentary from yesterday. His knowledge of the history of economics as cinematic drama is impressive. He has a list of good movies depicting capitalism in its appropriate light. He's also got interesting plot suggestions for "Hand" (as the guys in the crew are calling it). For example, instead of the movie's climax being testimony in front of the Senate Budget Committee, King opines: I would prefer a hail of bullets. Imagine what Joe B. could do with that idea. I also like King's eye for casting, specifically this link comparing the relative merits of Salma Hayek versus Friedrich Hayek. Based on these qualifications, I definitely see Salma in a supporting role. With all these good ideas, plus a non-refundable investment of $25,000, I may just have to give King a co-producer's credit. Labels: Economics
According to her most recent column, Nick Coleman's wife Laura Billings has been doing some vanity Googling. And guess what she discovered:
Through e-mails from readers and Internet searches of my own name, I've found some fascinating details about myself. Among them, that I am a failed conservative talk-radio host; a lesbian in a committed domestic partnership; a Dartmouth graduate; the adoptive mother of two children from Colombia; the wife of Joe Soucheray; a member of the Green Party, the Socialist Democratic Party and the Communist Party; a fanatical collector of Beanie Babies; an expert on reintroducing aquarium-raised orcas into the wild; and the sole heir to my husband's family's vast fortune of inherited and ill-gotten wealth, similar to that of the Kennedys. I think that last blurb can only mean one thing. Laura Billings has caught on to the hottest soap opera in town (at least since Plain Layne was exposed as a Ozzie Nelson), the Newspaper Newlyweds! We welcome Laura to the readership and encourage her to help us flesh out any details we may miss in the future on their continuing romance between the broadsheets. In today's column, Laura does provide her first piece of feedback for us, in the form of a blanket denial: None of that is true. But the Internet version of me sounds so very interesting that the real-life me is a bit of a letdown. I find that last part hard to believe. I suspect she's a bit of a firecracker. How else would she be able to attract and seduce a wealthy, older, powerful man like Nick Coleman? Newspaper Newlweds co-author Man from Silver Mountain (MFSM) also had this observation: The interesting part is in what she didn't deny: that Nick is her husband, that he has had performance problems, that they have no control over their spending habits, and they fight like cats and dogs. Sometimes what someone doesn't say can tell you a lot. Very true. It's just that kind of insight into human nature that makes him such a good observer and analyst of Nick and Laura's behavior. More evidence that he's got their number is found in this Billings gratuitous slur, clearly directed at our friend MFSM ...especially those lonely guys who write withering and anonymous social commentary in their underpants. According to reports, MFSM does write exclusively in his skivvies, but so what? I think anyone who has the option to do that and chooses not to is the real weirdo. If Laura would start knocking out prose in her frilly underthings maybe Nick Coleman wouldn't be so cranky all the time. And maybe she'd be inspired to actually write something a little bolder than random thoughts that occur to her while making dinner. But until that day we're left with things like this: The Internet may be the most amazing tool for fact-finding and enlightenment ever devised but, just as often, it is a great big garbage can of deception and delusion. Sometimes you have to take off the Google goggles to see the world as it really is. Yes, I'm sure this morning heads all over Crocus Hill and Mac Groveland are wryly grinning and thoughtfully nodding at that one (Honey, Laura Billings has done it again!) Might I remind you that Laura Billings is getting PAID for this level of commentary. Any wonder why the Pioneer Press circulation is at historically low levels? Vox Day has more on the only way the Pioneer Press can possibly hope to survive long term in this market. In summary, the mass extension of the Brian Lambert "reassignment" plan. Labels: Newspaper Newlyweds
From the New York Times, an article on potential John Kerry running mate Tom Vilsack (the governor of Iowa). Reporter Thomas Halbfinger exposes Vilsack's unique appeal to Democrats:
What may be sexiest about Mr. Vilsack as a potential running mate, however, is his life story. Left on a Pittsburgh orphanage's doorstep at birth, he was reared by a father who came from money but lost all of his own, and a mother who escaped into alcohol. Financial ruin, alcoholism, and child abandonment, now that's erotic entertainment. But I wonder how Vilsack is going to manage to blame his parents' failures on George W. Bush. Maybe taking cheap shots at Herbert Hoover will serve as a sufficient proxy. Mr. Vilsack knows this story has mass appeal and has grown comfortable talking about it with total strangers. "Some people back in those days would take a belt to their child," he says, "but when my mother did it, it wouldn't be the strap part, it'd be the buckle part, so she'd do it till I started bleeding. She'd just whack me. She was sick. She was frustrated, she was angry." Does shamelessly exploiting child abuse for political gain have mass appeal? I guess we'll find out. But either way I'm not sure it will help the Kerry ticket. It seems to me the Democrats already have the sick, frustrated, and angry vote locked up. Labels: Politics-National (02-04)
The news earlier this week that William F. Buckley, Jr. was transferring his ownership of National Review magazine to a board of trustees made me think of the day fifteen years ago that he was the commencement speaker at my college graduation.
No, I did not attend Yale...or Harvard, or Princeton or any of them other fancy book learnin' places. I chose to spend my pursuit of a B.S. at the bucolic campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, MN. SJU is a small all-male Catholic school smack dab in the middle of Minnesota, so I'll give you one guess as to the political leaning of the majority of their teaching staff, not to mention the students. When not otherwise occupied drinking ungodly amounts of alcohol at the Midway Bar in nearby St. Joseph (the location of SJU's sister school, The College of St. Benedict...and its all-female enrollment) I spent most of my time in math and physics classes. As a result, I was relatively immune from the onslaught of left leaning nonsense spewed daily to captive, albeit largely hungover, audiences of eager young minds. It's hard to rip Ronald Reagan when your lecture concerns the numerical methods for first order differential equations. I'm sure they've done it at Carleton, but the mathematics staff at SJU just aren't that clever. Nevertheless, you can imagine the wailing and the gnashing of teeth that resulted from the announcement that William F. Buckley, Jr., the torchbearer of modern conservatism, would be visiting our idyllic little campus to send a fresh new class of college seniors out into the big, bad world. As my memory of "The College Years- Act I" has been somewhat clouded by...something...I am unable to recall many concrete details. I do know, however, that for a period of time our class faced the real possibility that the gracious invitation given to Mr. Buckley would actually be rescinded. There were angry letters to the editor of the college newspaper. There were threats of protests during the commencement ceremony. There was the usual hue and cry from those on the opposite side of the fence who alternately claim to value diversity above all else. It seemed then, as it still seems today, that diversity of thought just never occurs to them. Ultimately, the threats were never acted upon. Sure, a few of the intolerants stood up and turned their backs during the entirety of Buckley's address, but the paucity of their numbers just made them look foolish. And they were. Just as those who insist on protesting the release of Fahrenheit 9/11 look foolish. Let's face it...the movie is out there and a whole lot of people will be seeing it. Having a couple of obnoxious chuckleheads confront the throngs as they leave the theater is just as ridiculous as a few 20 year old college seniors turning their backs on an eminently respected and accomplished speaker. The difference is that William F. Buckley's message has survived for 50 plus years and will continue to survive for countless more while Michael Moore's incredible distortions will eventually join several other "popular ideas" that currently reside on the ash heap of human history. Labels: college, Political History
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