Rambling from the North

I don't have anything large and prolific to say for today. I have lost friends and relatives who were in wars. I have friends who are currently serving in Iraq. I have friends that I graduated with who lost limbs, parts of their face, and their future in Iraq.

This is a time to remember those who have left us, and think about those who are still with us. We must pray each and every day that our troops, all of them, come home. That Iraqis are not murdered, or killed, and that everyone can live to see another day. In a perfect world, this is how it would be. Unfortunately our world isn't perfect.

People are dying over there, and often we forget about it, and use them as a political tool. Both democrats and republicans are behaving this way. We turn the dying men, women, and children in Iraq, on both sides of the war, into rhetorical tools. This is wrong. We need to remember that they are people, sons, daughters, parents, and that we shouldn't use them as our own means to an ends. Either way, we're imbedded in Iraq for an indefinite period of time. The extreme left wingers would have you believe we can pull out any time we have a change in the House and Senate. But that would lead to even more death. Like it or not, we're stuck there until we fix the mess we've created. So we must pray for our people and for the Iraqi people, so that we can all come out of this better then we went into it.

We need to work together to end the fighting, to bring about a better, more peaceful world, only by working our hardest to achieve this goal, can we hope that we'll have less people to mourn and remember on next year's Memorial Day.

Tonight was a very interesting night for Almanac. I'm watching the re-run after seeing X-men 3, The Last Stand. Let me start by saying-don't go see it. Seriously, if you've ever read an X-men comic, watched the cartoon show, or know who the X-men are, don't go.

With that out of the way- the interesting things are as follows- First, Ford Bell declared he would go to a primary and ignore the endorsement. Not surprised but very dissapointing. See previous post though for that.

The Governor's debate was a bit more interesting- I could feel everyone rolling their eyes whenever Ole Savior spoke. The big part was that Mike Hatch ferverently stated he has ruled out running for Attorney General. As Eric Escola said- He's got the fire in the belly to be Governor.

The better part of the governor debate was Becky Lourey. She was basically begging Hatch to step away from the race and run for AG. She was going on how they could make a great team. You could see him try hard not to laugh at her. I would have. There are several metaphors for what she was doing, praising him, took his hands, begging him... it was quite disgusting. Out of all of the people, Savior included, I rate her the lowest on this debate.
Kelley held his own but was constantly cut off. I felt bad for him but he just wasn't aggressive enough. He did however look fairly good when he did talk.
Hatch won this one, but not by much. It was a fairly uneventful debate aside from those. He was on message and on issue better then the other two, but again, not by much.
Rankings- Hatch First, Kelley second, Savior third, and Lourey fourth.

Ford Bell has just announced on Almanac that he will skip the endorsement process in its entirety and go to the primary.
This will make Friday night very easy at least. This is a dumb idea in my opinion. Bell had a chance to at least get his message heard at the convention, make a difference with a small percentage- say getting over 15% would be very impressive. He could have pushed the party to the left.

Running in the primary is a fool’s mission for him. He doesn't have a prayer. He has little name recognition beyond the party, not a lot of money, and above all, he now looks like this is all about Ford, and not about the message. He looks like a self-centered baby who is taking their ball and going home. It’s too bad really.

These are the words I got from Hatch's campaign staff when I asked about the rumor.

I can't say I'm surprised though that one of the other campaigns would put out this rumor now. Hatch's lack of campaigning give either two signs- supreme confidence or a lack of care about the endorsement. I think Hatch has both. I dont' think the Endorsement matters to him. I dont' think it should. His name recognition is nearly 100%, No one else has even close to this.

My theory is that these rumors are circulating to make his lack of campaigning seem like he is so far down, he's going to run away. Based on my communication with the Hatch staff person, I am goig to believe them at this point, and say, as my favorite guy on Mythbusters Jamie says--"This myth has been busted"

Ok, so there aren't any really big updates. Not much has been happening lately--
Mike Erlandson is in the race, anyone who actually was paying attention to the races knows he was going to stay in.
The other big one is the rumor about Mike Hatch's desire to drop out- the rumors are stating that he Spoke to Wendal "Wendy" Anderson about low poll numbers and a desire to drop. The chain goes that Wendy told this to Ted "Ted" Mondale, who in turn told Wendy "Not Wendal" Wilde, who told everybody. Now, I doubt that these rumors are true. I can't understand why Hatch would want to drop out this late in the game. I think this is spread by the Kelley and Lourey campaigns (everyone I've heard it from so far has been associated with the Kelley campaign). But i have no proof other then hearing this 8th hand or so.

In other news, I got straight A's last semester, So that was a nice way to end this year.

In my last post I ranted about the religious nuts having a persecution complex. I mentioned the St. Thomas graduation where the speaker there rallied against gays and birth control. There is an article in the Star Tribune about it and now he's appologizing. At least he is doing that much considering it drove some people to walk out of their own graduation.

This just goes to show the Right Wing Religious Nuts will do anything to get more press time, they can use a happy time to promote their message of hate, then only sort of take it back- like this quote:

"I have shared my sentiments with Mr. Kessler that it was not appropriate for him to use the commencement exercise as a venue to express his opinions on several issues," Dease said.

At the same time, the president said, it was also important "to treat one another with respect as we speak and as we listen, regardless of how controversial an issue may be."

This is from the President of the School- Now, I dont know but it sounds an awful lot like he's saying, well he shouldn't have done that, but it was still right what he said and students should have listened. I don't know but if someone pulled the same crap he did at my Graduation... I would have rushed the stage... These people need to not ruin everybody else's day just because they think their view points are better then others.

Many other blogs have posts against Katheran Kersten and her column in the Star Tribune. Her latest is about religious tolerance in the media. Her article basically says that its intolerant of media to refuse to display the Mohammed cartoons if it will allow and support the Da Vinci Code movie. She isn't claiming intolerance against Islam, but rather against Christianity. She believes Christianity should have the same protection from being attacked as those few certain principles in Islam are.

First, let me say that some groups have shown the prophet Mohammed without backlash. The biggest example is one of my favorite TV shows- South Park. In the episode Super Best Friends, Mohammed is displayed as one of the best friends, with magical fire power. There was not backlash, well, no more then usual, against this South Park episode. So not every media empire is as tolerant as Kersten is claiming. (Jesus is also a reoccuring character on South Park who runs his own call in talk show.)

But, I bring up this article not to talk about South Park but rather to espouse on something Kersten's article is symptomatic of: The Christian Right's Persecution Complex. No group believes they are being persecuted more than the Christian Right. They believe that the evil liberal media is out to get them.

No group has waged a war against Christmas or Easter, yet every year at that time, we always hear about the War on Christmas, or the War on Easter. We hear these protests when movies come out like this.

This weekend I attended St. Thomas' graduation. There, a very catholic student got up and was attacking gays and birth control. This recieved some boos, but it also recieved some applause. The student claimed it was selfish to use birth control. This is the position of the extreme right wing. They, like this student, believe that the Christian way of life needs to be imposed on others, and that it is "selfish" to not do what the Pope, and other extreme right leaders claim.

The reason the extreme right has this belief, is that they try to impose their extremist views upon the rest of society. They attack Santa and Christmas trees. They attack the Easter Bunny and teach their kids that Easter has always existed, even before Christ. Then they are surprised that they are mocked.
They teach their kids that God created the world in 6 days, dinosaurs never existed but were placed in the ground by God in order to complete the world, or some crap like that.

These extremists, have money and power enough to make Solomon blush, but yet they still believe that they are being persecuted.
My biggest problem with these guys is summed up very easily--Despite having every advantage and supposedly strong christian faith, they believe not only that it is their duty to tell us what we're all doing wrong, but to shove it in our faces, and when we laugh at them, they back up, say they are persecuted, and claim religious intollerance against Christianity. These people need to embrace the true tennets of Christ, which were tolerance for everyone, working for the common good, and treating everyone as you would want to be treated. And they refuse to do that.

This has sort of turned into a giant rant, but let me say I by no means consider all Christians like this, just the extreme right wingers, like Kersten, who needs to get over the fact that one of the biggest religions in the world is being doubted right now by works of fiction. Get over it. Seriously.

I dont' normally like to post direct candidate's mailings but I thought this was kind of cute. I have to say, I have been impressed that Hatch has been the only one to focus soley on Pawlenty while the other two duke it out over who's numbers are more correct. So without further ado... Top Ten Reasons why Pawlenty isn't your Father's Republican:

#10 PERSONAL INTEGRITY: Candidate Tim Pawlenty personally accepted $60,000 from a telephone company. As governor, he let the CEO select the telephone regulator. Dr. Bill McGuire, CEO of United Healthcare, was awarded $1.6 billion in stock options he allegedly back-dated in violation of the law. Governor Pawlenty, as a member of the State Board of Investment, declined to vote to remove Dr. McGuire as a director because he accepted campaign contributions from him.

#9 MANAGERIAL EXCELLENCE: Tim Pawlenty is the first governor in Minnesota history to shut down the state government.

#8 SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH: The Pawlenty Administration approved 50 percent increases in health insurance premiums, stifling job growth and entrepreneurialism.

#7 RESPECT FOR ELDERS: Under Governor Pawlenty, "fees" paid by nursing home patients to fund state government jumped 173 percent, to $2,700 per patient.

#6 EDUCATED WORKFORCE: College tuition has gone up 50 percent under Governor Pawlenty, and we're 49th in classroom technology. Tim Pawlenty is the first governor in Minnesota history to cut K-12 education funding.

#5 SMALLER GOVERNMENT: Governor Pawlenty's personal office has grown twice as much as the rest of state government. Governor Pawlenty had state agencies pay his staff's salaries to obscure the growth. State government workforce has grown by over 1,000 people under Pawlenty.

#4 CRIME & PUNISHMENT: Governor Pawlenty proposed to slash over $55 million from the Department of Correction's budget and to cut sex offender supervision. His administration placed sex offenders in nursing homes and failed to upgrade the St. Peter security hospital where dangerous sex predators are housed.

#3 FISCAL TRANSPARENCY: Governor Pawlenty says he's had "no new taxes," but on his watch, property taxes increased $1 billion, state "fees" increased $1 billion, and public school "fees" have jumped 45 percent.

#2 WELFARE REFORM: Governor Pawlenty kicked over 30,000 hardworking people off MinnesotaCare. He then told them to go on welfare if they couldn't find jobs with insurance.


And the #1 reason Tim Pawlenty is not your father's Republican...


#1 COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE: Governor Tim Pawlenty proposed to abolish state funding for Meals on Wheels and the Senior Corps , whose 20,000 retirees provide 2.9 million hours of volunteer work.

A judge had ruled that the gay marriage ban in Georgia to be unconstitutional. While this is on a technical note rather then directly stating this violates people's civil rights, its still a step for their own rights.

A recent poll has shown that neither democrats nor republicans have gained any percentages in the last two years.

The Star Tribune has more:

In the poll, conducted last week, 29 percent identified themselves as Republicans, exactly the same percentage as a year ago, despite President Bush's record-low approval ratings and the conventional wisdom that Republicans are likely to suffer net losses in this fall's election.

Those who identified themselves as Democrats stood at 25 percent, close enough to be considered even, given the margin of sampling error, but down from 31 percent a year ago.

This is surprising considering the recent victories, the clear distaste Minnesotan's seem to have with republican values...

But Democratic leaders have been pointing to numerous polls showing Republicans losing in head-to-head races and moderates and independents moving toward Democratic candidates.

"It's whether they are motivated to get out and vote," McIntosh said. "Republicans in national and state offices have betrayed GOP principles, like the right to privacy and fiscal responsibility."

The only thing I can believe is that this poll didn't ask specific enough questions concerning whether they are identifiable party people, or if they just support Democrats or Republicans more often. I would tend to believe the latter. This poll definately does not help the democrats, but it doesn't hurt them on the other hand, we'll have to work that much harder though to ensure victory in 06.

Normally, I do not like to link to blogs outside our blogosphere, but this particular blog has a breakdown of why they think Joseph Biden will be our next president. I think its good analysis.

That and Scott Adams rules. If you haven't already, I strongly recommend you add him to one of your daily reads. His blog has everything from back and fourths concerning Intelligent Design v. Evolution, to why he thinks wedding registries suck. take a look.

In the latest Rassmusen poll, Klobuchar lost one point in her lead against Kennedy, as did Ford Bell.

What this shows is that this is by no means a guarentee for Amy, she needs to keep working hard, increase the favorability numbers and she can win.
What this means for Bell however, is that if the rumors of him going to a primary are true, this should be enough proof for him to decide to abide by the endorsement. He doesn't have public support and he can't beat Kennedy. We need someone who can. The process went to the end, the best candidate did win. Broken Nails has a good breakdown of why Bell should not go to the primary as well.

Here is the full report:

Minnesota Senate: Klobuchar (D) 45% Kennedy (43%)

May 10, 2006--DFL county attorney Amy Klobuchar now leads Kennedy 45% to 43%, which is comparable to the toss-ups we've seen all year when the two are matched (see crosstabs). (The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or DFL is the state's equivalent of the Democratic Party.)

The single-term Democratic incumbent, Mark Dayton, is stepping down. Klobuchar led Kennedy 45% to 42% in our previous Minnesota election poll.

The other Democrat in the competition, Ford Bell, now trails Kennedy by eleven percentage points, 44% to 33%. Bell has trailed in three of the four election polls we've conducted in the state. In February, however, Bell had pulled ahead and led Kennedy 43% to 40%. In January, he lagged by five points; in December of last year, he lagged by ten.

Klobuchar currently currently draws at least 10% more support than Bell from both Democrats and liberals.

Kennedy is viewed favorably by 55% of voters, unfavorably by 34%, with 12% Not Sure what to think of him. Klobuchar is viewed favorably by 52%, unfavorably by 32%, with 16% Not Sure.

Bell is viewed favorably by 38%, unfavorably by 30%, with 31%. The uncertainty about Bell is compounded by the softness of his favorable rating: only 5% view him Very Favorably.

May 10, 2006--DFL county attorney Amy Klobuchar now leads Kennedy 45% to 43%, which is comparable to the toss-ups we've seen all year when the two are matched (see crosstabs). (The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or DFL is the state's equivalent of the Democratic Party.)

The single-term Democratic incumbent, Mark Dayton, is stepping down. Klobuchar led Kennedy 45% to 42% in our previous Minnesota election poll.

The other Democrat in the competition, Ford Bell, now trails Kennedy by eleven percentage points, 44% to 33%. Bell has trailed in three of the four election polls we've conducted in the state. In February, however, Bell had pulled ahead and led Kennedy 43% to 40%. In January, he lagged by five points; in December of last year, he lagged by ten.

Klobuchar currently currently draws at least 10% more support than Bell from both Democrats and liberals.

Kennedy is viewed favorably by 55% of voters, unfavorably by 34%, with 12% Not Sure what to think of him. Klobuchar is viewed favorably by 52%, unfavorably by 32%, with 16% Not Sure.

Bell is viewed favorably by 38%, unfavorably by 30%, with 31%. The uncertainty about Bell is compounded by the softness of his favorable rating: only 5% view him Very Favorably.

In a study done by scientists, it showed that Lesbian's brains respond more closly to heterosexual men to sexual stimulus. I think this is interesting. What it leads to is that homosexuality is not a learned behavior. It means that there is a different chemical setting, or hardwire, or something natural and physical in homosexuals (If I actually understood this more then on the surface level, I'd be going to med school, not law school).

This is good news. The more scientific proof we have, backing up the fact that homosexuality isn't abnormal, but is something that happens and exists in the natural world, and there is nothing republicans can do about it.

So today there were three conventions, CD 2,3,and 5. I was at CD 5, but quick-apparently everyone was re-elected in the second and third-with the exception that Marge Hoffa is now the chair of the third congressional. Congrats Marge.

Onto the fifth-

This were busy and crowded this morning. Signs were everywhere. Campaigns had appeared at 7:45 and did their usual set up. Then the rules committee battle began-

A sheet of paper was being passed around to people as they entered, purporting that the rules weren't fair. That they violated DFL and DNC rules and needed to be changed. I can only speculate but the people handing out this rules sheet seemed to be from the Erlandson campaign as it was Erlandson supporters handing them out and a man wearing an Erlandson shirt that made the motion to amend.

The motion resoundingly failed and the rules remained pretty much the same except a grammatical switch. This was the first bad sign for Erlandson.

During speeches, people were asked to say whether they would abide by the endorsement or not. During Gary Schiff's speech for instance, he forgot, and people started calling it out. He immediately stated he would abide by the endorsement.

This is where things go from bad to to worse for Mike Erlandson. He gave his speech and was near the end of time. People began heckling him, asking if he was going to abide by the endorsement or not. His people began chanting to overcome the hecklers. Mike began to get frustrated and flustered. He tried to go on, but the chant of abide, abide, got louder and louder.

Mike turned to the microphone and said, "See you in september" and walked off stage as people booed him off. Apparently, he also said I withdraw from the endorsement." No one heard this at the convention. MPR began playing it on air and repeating it.

The first ballot was taken. Keith Ellison was in first, followed by Gail Dorfman, then Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and Mike Erlandson. The other candidates didn't make the drop point and wwere dropped. At this point, people had heard the MPR story and began asking about Erlandson's withdrawl. They let the ballot stand, but he apparently phoned in and withdrew.
The worst part here is that he phone from the cafeteria.

The next two ballots went quick--Eventually, Dorfman dropped out and Nelson-Pallmeyer followed suit quickly, throwing support to Keith Ellison, who is now the DFL endorsed candidate from the fifth congressional district.

Will Mike Erlandson take it to a primary? No one will know for the next few weeks. From this blogger's perspective, it was Martin Sabo who wanted Erlandson to go to a primary. He appeared to be pushing Mike hard. Will he follow? We'll see soon.

Oh and Dave Lee was elected chair of the fifth. Congrats Dave.

Check out this survey on MPR. I though it was pretty fun to be able to check out who I should be supporting. Post your results at the bottom! I should be supporting Amy Klobuchar for Senate and tied for Steve Kelley/Mike Hatch (surprise!).

Congratulations to Tim Pawlenty, his government became only the second in US History to shut down, but it is no longer the most recent!
Puerto Rico's government shut down this weekend. We have now secured our place in history, next to a protectorate. What's next? I am also shocked this isn't more covered in the news. I feel like important stories that are going to affect our economy and the future of the United States are so undercovered by the mainstream media these days.

Here's more information on the shut down from CNN:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The government of Puerto Rico ran out of money Monday, forcing the U.S. commonwealth to close public schools and shut down government offices, putting almost 100,000 people out of work.

The legislature and governor failed to reach a last-minute accord that would have averted the first-ever partial shutdown of the government in island history.

All 1,600 public schools on the island were closed two weeks before the end of the academic year, and 43 government agencies were shut down after negotiations between lawmakers and Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila failed.

In order to find this article, I actually had to search CNN, it was near the very back of the Star Tribune, and I didn't see it in the Pioneer Press. Sad, jsut sad. Expect higher gas prices because of this however.

You heard it here- Michael Benson has FINALLY been caught. But, no help from the govenor or the state patrol, but with the help of America's Most Wanted.

Michael Benson, the serious sex offender who escaped last month from the state's St. Peter Regional Treatment Center in southern Minnesota, was captured in Kansas City, Mo., and authorities are crediting a long-running crime-fighting show with the arrest.

Benson, 42, was nabbed by the FBI because of leads prompted by an "America's Most Wanted" television segment that aired over the weekend, said Tim O'Malley, assistant superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Thats right, it took a TV show to find him. Rather then secure our borders before he could make it, this sex offender made it all the way to Missouri before being caught. Pawlenty ought to be ashamed of himself for yet another failure by his administration, but he'll try to spin it and say it wasn't his fault or try to take some credit for the capture. Under a democratic administration, I wouldn't have to fear for my female friends, under a Pawlenty administration, I have already seen proof that our govenor will not take any actions.