Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

Friday, May 24, 2002

Memorial Day - Everyone reminds you of this - but take a few minutes to remember those who died for this country. Maybe even pass some of the facts along to our woefully-educated kids.

In these days, when we fight wars 10,000 miles away with cold-eyed professionals and casualty rolls fit handily one one page of notebook paper, most students don't know - because most of their teachers don't know, either - that as many Americans died in World War II as currently live in Minneapolis. At least 2.5 times that many were injured. That means that of the 10 million Americans who served in World War II, nearly 1 in 11 was killed, wounded, captured, or hurt in some way; it was not a paltry risk, in those days, and most of those who went had no choice. Enough Americans were killed in the drive from Normandy to Paris - from June to September of 1944 - to fill the Metrodome. The Marines that were killed in a month on Iwo Jima - 5,000 - died taking an area not much bigger than the U of M St. Paul Campus, with the Ag station.

And the average age of those dead was 23 years. 1/3 of their life expectancy.

My ex-father-in-law lived past his life expectancy, thankfully; he passed away on Martin Luther King day, this past January. He joined the Navy the morning after Pearl Harbor, at age 20, along with most of his seven brothers. It was week after his wedding. He served on the battleship USS Iowa for a cruise, then spent the rest of the war on the destroyer USS Collett. He once spent 18 months aboard, without setting foot on land. He shot down a Kamikaze, narrowly evaded being torpedoed, and came back four years later. I'll be visiting his grave - he's my kids' grandfather - this weekend.

Hope you all do something similar.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 03:22:05 PM

Senator Springsteen? - One of my favorite Bloom County strips, back in 1985, was a trip to the future - complete with President Springsteen.

This took an ironic turn toward (humorous) reality this week, as a former Jesse the Meathead staffer launched an effort to draft Bruce Springsteen to run for Senator from New Jersey.

Cheesy publicity ploy to get the Independence Party some play in Jersey? Most likely - Bruuuuuce promises he will not accept any nomination or run for any office.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 01:18:59 PM

Vital Signs - I'm a serious student of political oratory. My father was a high school speech teacher, and I grew up with a deep appreciation of the art of moving people and nations with a well-crafted and perfectly-timed speech.

And in this regard the President has surprised pleasantly, even stirringly. He will never be mistaken for Winston Churchill - but then, we are not Britain in 1940, and the situation doesn't call for one.

In an earlier post, I expressed some trepidation about what seemed like a retrenchment on engaging Iraq. After reading Andrew Sullivan's piece today, I wondered: is Bush abandoning the notion of attacking Iraq, or was he downplaying the hawkishness and concentrating on building up the European consensus and realization of the danger terrorism presents them?

Peggy Noonan's article today makes me think - maybe, just maybe, the latter.

And I'll be watching his upcoming speech in Normandy very closely. This, the scene of what may have been our nation's greatest undertaking, has been where previous American presidents set the stage for other great undertakings; Eisenhower on the changes since he first crossed those beaches twenty years earlier, Reagan making the case to Europe to resist Soviet tyranny...

...and, this week, Bush. Stay tuned.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 10:29:18 AM

Pavlov's People - The idea started almost as a joke - right-wing wags and punditry thinking aloud "I wonder if the Democrats really care about doing anything about Social Security, or if they just like having it around for fear fodder?"

Today - the "smoking gun". A congressional staff memo essentially spells out that that is, indeed, the Democrat strategery; the mess that is Social Security is worth more to them as a boondoggle than as a working program that supports senior citizens.

When it comes to cynicism, you really can't make it up fast enough anymore.

Suppose this'll stick? Any bets?
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 10:18:03 AM

Second Thoughts? - It's odd. At work (at a local engineering company), there's a big, pre-9/11 poster of Manhattan - a big aerial photo taken from south of Battery Park. People walk by and look at the picture, and seem awed by the huge amount of space the twin towers took up in the picture. I've done it myself. From that angle, the World Trade Center took up a very large part of the field of view - and it's easy to see why people feel like such a huge piece of Manhattan is missing.

All this is apropos the President's announcement yesterday that he's not considering moving against Iraq - one of the powers that wants the ability to erase the rest of the Manhattan skyline.

Is Bush dissembling? Is he lying to put the Iraqis at false ease? Is he playing to the room (full of pusillanimous European leftists), for temporary gain? Or has he lost his nerve? Is he (as Andrew Sullivan puts it) surrendering to the terrorists?

What do you think?
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 07:39:38 AM

All About Accusations - Ann Coulter on what the Democrats knew.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 06:39:35 AM

Scary - We've long known that the FBI office in Minneapolis may have had the key to breaking September 11 before it happened.
you can feel the frustration
Today - with the bureaucracy...
posted by Mitch Berg 5/24/2002 06:38:31 AM

Thursday, May 23, 2002

Try to Comprehend the Horror - The Minneapolis Police Department has a reputation for thumping first and thinking later. The Minneapolis Public Schools are a mess. They have higher crime per capita than St. Paul, their city council and other officials have been getting dinged for corruption, they're about to lose two sports franchises, and they're just not as cool as St. Paul...

...but what gets Doug Grow really upset is those damned scantily-clad waitresses at the potential Downtown Hooters.

You can hear the teeth gnashing.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/23/2002 07:11:54 AM

Ummm - Governor?... - This story from Reason Magazine is interesting for its perspectives on mass transit, yadda yadda...

But notice, a few paragraphs into it:

"We're one of the few cities of our size without a mass transit system, and it's been years and years in process and we still don't have anything started yet."

Hmmm - didn't Governor Ventura say that Minneapolis/St. Paulwere the only such benighted cities?
posted by Mitch Berg 5/23/2002 07:05:19 AM

It Was the White House - People have long suggested that Flight 93 - which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers tried to kill their hijackers - was intended for a target in DC.

Today - evidence from Abu Zubayda that the target was, indeed, the White House.

The Wednesday that Wasn't - woke up late, never had time to post anything. In meetings all day, kids' stuff all night, and ended up falling asleep during the first commercial break in "Law and Order", about an hour before I'd planned to post something.

Sorry! I'll try to catch up today.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/23/2002 07:00:42 AM

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Stupid People - An Australian company is selling a line of September 11 handbags.

They're made in China, and apparently being exported to...you guessed it, Europe.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/21/2002 07:59:19 AM

The Feeding Frenzy - Now that the legislature has shown its willingness to buckle under to Major League Baseball's demands, billionaire Red McCombs is bellying up to the trough.

I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

At least the Wild can't demand a new arena yet.

Can they?
posted by Mitch Berg 5/21/2002 07:43:52 AM

Another Upside of Home Ownership - The next terrorist attack may involve renting an apartment in a high-rise and packing full of explosives.

Wonder if this will drive rents down, and thus solve the "Affordable Housing" crisis?
posted by Mitch Berg 5/21/2002 07:30:29 AM

Gandhi Award - During WWII, Mahatma Gandhi urged Jews not to resists the Nazis, but to go to the gas chambers by way of shaming the Nazis with their non-violence.

This year's award-winner - the Dalai Lama.

Actually, I was somewhat shocked to see the Dalai Lama does recognize the concept of the "just war" - which makes him a lot smarter than a lot of liberal western religious leaders.

Second Thoughts about Second-Guessing - from Slate, of all places.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/21/2002 06:07:28 AM

Benefit of Having No Social Life - Walk-in Suicide Bombers termed "inevitable".
posted by Mitch Berg 5/21/2002 06:01:43 AM

Monday, May 20, 2002

LA, It Is A-Splittin' - The San Fernando Valley is trying to secede from Los Angeles.

My favorite part:

Nationally, urban affairs experts warn other cities not to be too smug. Los Angeles has exported everything from skateboards to facelifts, and secession could follow.

"Every city has some neighborhood that doesn't feel loved. And every one of those cities will be looking with interest at what LA is doing," said George Thomas, an urban affairs professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

I have to ask Mr. Thomas; exactly why would that necessarily be a bad thing? Are people not the best arbiters of their own best interest? Why should a political structure that may have been defined hundreds of years ago - a city and its set of boundaries - be sacrosanct and immune to challenge?

I hope the Valley goes through with it (along with the LA port town of San Pedro, which is also pondering bailing on LA).
posted by Mitch Berg 5/20/2002 03:07:56 PM

The Times, They Are a-Fabricating... - Yesterday's bit on the Anti-Gun Media (see below) was only the tip of the iceberg.

Ann Coulter points out the flimsy academic and historical basis of the left's belief that the Second Amendment only applies to the National Guard - and the hollow nature of the Times' reporting on this issue.

I love this part:

Indeed, the one guy the Times dredged out of the left-wing toilet willing to provide tepid endorsement to their bunkum was Stanford history professor Jack Rakove. Even Rakove � the only academic still defending Michael Bellesiles' fraudulent anti-gun book Arming America � wouldn't stoop to supporting the Times' preposterous claims.

Far from asserting a "bipartisan consensus" for the Times' view, Rakove said it is "no secret" that controversy over the Second Amendment "has escalated in recent years." (Except at the Times, where it remains a huge secret.) Moreover, Rakove's big rebuke to Ashcroft consisted of his meek observation that "it is far from clear that the Justice Department's new position would prevail."

For taking a position that an anti-gun zealot says might not prevail, the Times says Ashcroft is betraying "his public duty."

The day is coming when the left, if it values its own integrity, is going to have to admit they haven't a leg to stand on regarding the Second Amendment, except naked emotion.

Candidate Sharpton - The sheep entrails and tea leaves seem to indicate Al Sharpton has presidential aspirations.

Oh, please, let it come to a Gore/Sharpton slugfest at the convention!
posted by Mitch Berg 5/20/2002 12:46:40 PM

Cuba Libre - Jay Nordlinger writes about Carter's visit to Cuba last week.

I'm not sure I agree entirely with Nordlinger. Oh, yes, Carter's become a drinking buddy of the world's Ortegas and Arafats since he left office. He equivocates and rationalizes and finds moral equivalences between the US and Cuba that no rational, freedom-loving person ever should. He is our most embarassing ex-president.

But during his speech, he did sneak in a few shots at Castro and the regime, the type of thing no Cuban had ever read or heard on Cuban national TV before.

More to come...
posted by Mitch Berg 5/20/2002 08:01:47 AM

Sunday, May 19, 2002

Fight for the Right - Heading into the GOP convention, Brian Sullivan and Tim Pawlenty are oh, so close.

For me, it's all a matter of seeing how Ventura breaks on the stadium bill. I'm told a veto is not a lock, as I'd assumed it would be. Likely, but I'm not betting my mortgage payment on it.

If he vetoes the stadium, I'll support Sullivan. Otherwise - or in the seemingly unlikely event Ventura doesn't run - I think I'll give Pawlenty the nod. I think he can beat Moe and beat him bad.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 07:11:29 PM

It Ain't Easy, Being Green - The Green party took another step on its slide to irrelevance outside Dinkytown today, at its state convention in St. Cloud.

The party, built on its platform of hatred of achievement, envy of wealth, and absolute dependence on government masquerading as physical self-reliance, will not have Ralph Nader (the egghead's Jesse Ventura) to rally around - and the Greens will fail to get 5% in any statewide race this year. Their one chance at remaining more relevant than the Libertarians or the Grass Roots party - endorsing and serving as kingmaker to Paul Wellstone - fell short in favor of the endorsement of Ed McGaa.

It's been funny, watching the German Greens self-destruct in the wake of September 11. Now, watch as the Minnesota Greens cease to be relevant outside of, say, Dinkytown.

Been fun to know ya!

...But Not So Bad Being Black - Afro-Americans face lots of problems, even now.

According to some middle-class Afro-Americans, the media's perception of them may be one of the bigger ones.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 07:06:27 PM

Four More Years - The legislature has passed a stadium funding bill, thereby giving Jesse Ventura the political equivalent of the Atomic Bomb in the coming election.

It's over. I've resigned myself to four more years of governor Meathead.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 12:18:57 PM

The Anti-Gun Media - Lawyers for John Walker Lindh - AKA "The American Taliban" - have tried to get his charges dismissed on First Amendment grounds (free association) - as well as Second Amendment reasons, mainly to do with Attorney General Ashcroft's stance that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual, not collective, right (in other words, because it applies to citizens, and not some tortured definition of "militia".

So why did the New York Times cite "problems" with only the Second Amendment, and not the first?

Jacob Sullum, in Reason, writes an excellent article on the re-emerging Second Amendment battle. A recent Fifth Federal Circuit decision began the process of reversing the "collective rights" interpretation that started with the badly-interpreted Miller decision in 1939. Between that, and Laurence Tribe's recent change of mind from collective to individual interpretation, look for this issue to be back on the front page soon.

Thank God for John Ashcroft.

posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 12:16:04 PM

Fascism: 1. First Amendment: 0 - The California Supreme Court has ruled that Nike corporation is not allowed to defend itself in the court of public opinion.

One hopes the US Supreme Court will have the common sense to pound a stake through the heart of this idiotic decision.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 08:03:29 AM

Powell Among the Euroweenies - Powell gave selected left-wing European newspapers what-for yesterday.

It's not only fun to see the Bush administration responding to European leftist pusillanimity in the face of terrorism - but it also begs the question; was that as much a shot on behalf of the resurgent Euro right as it was for our own foreign policy?

The Dutch elections last week (more to come) were a resounding victory for the center-right. Italy and Hungary are already run by center-right governments, while elections in Germany last month indicated the Christian Democrats may have a rosy future. Even the UK's battered Tories are showing signs of life. The anti-EU, anti-unfettered-immigration message of the center-right parties is resonating with more and more European voters, to the immense consternation of the bureaucrats that run the EU, and the left-wing media that supports them.

The Guardian (the English newspaper in my link above) describes Powell as "...the most Europe-friendly figure within the Bush administration". Is it a coincidence that he's in Europe giving these interviews now?

More to come.
posted by Mitch Berg 5/19/2002 07:58:30 AM

Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary:

In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive