According to Rasmussen, Franken leads McFadden by eight points – but only by three points (48 to 46) among people who are “certain” to vote:

Yesterday, Roll Call included Franken on their top-ten list of the most vulnerable U.S. Senators facing re-election in 2014. McFadden had a “fiery” performance in his debate with Franken yesterday in Duluth and he followed-up today with a press conference today about rate increases for MNsure consumers.

 If the poll is accurate (and since Scott Rasmussen retired, it’s been less so – but it’s also swung a bit toward favoring the left), this could be very good news for the GOP in MInnesota…

(Via PoliMN)

Eric Holder’s greatest legacy – and perhaps Barack Obama’s, by the time we put this wretched era in the history books?

He was a staunch advocate of the rule of men, rather than laws. 

Throughout Holder’s six years in office, Holder trampled the rule of lawand ruled by fiat, essentially making it up as he went along.  Look at the record:

1. His politicization of the DOJ’s hiring practices was unprecedented. 
2. Nadia Comenici in her prime couldn’t have done gymastics like the logical flips and turns Holder went through to avoid calling Major Nidal Hasan’s massacre at Fort Hood terrorism. 
3. If Richard Nixon had done the sort of dirty tricks against the media that Holder’s DOJ did, Woodward and Bernstein would have been really pissed.
4. Even moreso for media openly critical of the “most transparent administration in history”.  
5. Get out of jail free cards for Democrat fugitives?  Of course!
6. Even violent ones?  Don’t be silly.
7. The First Amendent was just so passé.
8. He used the DOJ as an Obama campaign tool
9. He was an inveterate gun-grabber, first last and always.
10. He worked tirelessly to give foreign terrorists captured in action the full protection of American criminal law. 
11. He dinked about with the right of states to enforce the very laws that the Feds had passed. 
12. Voter intimidation was bad – unless it intimidated Republicans. 
13. Otherwise?  Holder did what he could to make voting easier and more convenient for the Democrats’ most important constituencies; Duplicate-Americans, Fictional-Americans and Deceased-Americans. 
14. Islam has never been violent, Winston. 
15. What’s arming a bunch of cartel thugs, if we can take a whack at law-abiding American gun owners? 

What does Holder’s future career hold?  Doesn’t matter; if it’s in the world of government “Justice”, Eric Holder will be working to strengthen government and weaken oversight, accountability and the lot of the individual.

The lefty media has been giggling like schoolgirls over this story – a Texas waitress, who got not one but two $2000 tips from Rush Limbaugh – and gave the money to a pro-infanticide group:

“That was like blood money to me,’ Tierce told The Dallas Morning News.

Tierce was the former executive director at the Texas Equal Access Fund, which provides money to women who can’t afford to get abortions.

She was the “executive director” of a nonprofit that provided infanticide to poor women, AND a waitress?

Anyway…;

Tierce said it felt right to her to give the money to the TEA Fund.

‘It felt like laundering the money in a good way,’ she told the newspaper.

‘He’s such an obvious target for any feminist or sane person.

Yeah, Ms. Tierce seems pretty sane to me.

The part that I get the chuckle over? Ms. Tierce, and the media bobbleheads who’ve been reporting the story, keep saying that Ms. Tierce “gave Limbaugh’s money” to the infanticide charity.

No!

When Limbaugh left the tip – of his own free will, mind you, not as part of some “living wage” wealth transfer – it became her money.

She gave her own money to her own group.

This story isn’t “Man bites dog”. It isn’t even “dog sniffs dog”. It’s “Deeply morally ugly woman gives her own money to a group she used to run, while taking a snotty, stupid swipe at someone who has the temerity to “share the wealth” of his own free will, rather than at government gunpoint”.

Holder resigns as AG. 

Now – how about some subpoenas?

CD8 DFL representative Rick Nolan was photographed on “hunting trip” photo op, carrying an eeeevil black assault rifle AR-15.

Anyone see the problem?

Answer below the jump.

(more…)

Outrage is brewing over the scandal involving “Community Action”, a Minneapolis “non-profit” whose director, Bill Davis, spent a boatload of taxpayer money on living the high life, according to an audit. 

And yep, DFL figures are involved in the scandals up to their eyeballs:

[5th CD Representative and DFLer Keith] Ellison, [Senate Deputy Majority Leader Jeff] Hayden, [Minneapolis City Council president and DFLer Barbara] Johnson and City Council Member Robert Lilligren were on the board during the time covered by the audit. All have said they appointed alternates and did not regularly attend meetings.

Passing the buck to your patsy.  Not exactly a profile in courage…

…or, I suspect, much of a defense. 

The GOP has filed an ethics complaint against Hayden, and Ellison’s GOP challenger Doug Daggett has got Ellison pretty well dialed in.

But here’s the real scandal;  this is inevitable in a one-party city like Minneapolis. 

Maintaining one-party control in a place like Minneapolis (or Saint Paul, which has its own single-party patronage scandal brewing) requires paying off a lot of stakeholders from the dominant political class – in both the Twin Cities’ cases, that’s the DFL.

There are only so many patronage jobs available for the giving out in city government.  Likewise, the city school district can only absorb so many petty administrators and pay for so many “consultants”.

So the “non-profit sector” serves as a patronage factory for people in the dominant political class.  While many non-profits exist to do good things, many others exist to channel money from the government run by the party in power to the people who help get and keep it elected.

Picking examples of corruption in a one-party city like Minneapolis – like its intellectual kin in Detroit, Camden, New Orleans, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC and so many more – is like playing whack-a-mole.  Until the people of Minneapolis decide they need the accountability that a multi-party government can (with a little elbow grease) bring, not to mention an adversarial (as opposed to dutiful) media? 

Meet the new scandal, same as the old scandal.  And the next scandal.

Why does the DFL hate the First Amendment?

Trackers – interns for various campaigns and groups filming footage of politicians giving speeches and doing other public appearances – have been a fixture of Minnesota political life for at least a decade now. Most politicians – and by “most” I mean “everyone I’ve encountered, from every party, so far” – accepts that with good grace, and tries not to say something stupid.

Apparently “good grace” is beyond DFL Rep. Paul Rosethal, from District 49B in Edina:

“You’re in the Edina City Hall. You’re not allowed to be here without their permission to film. So I’d appreciate your leaving,” Rosenthal said in an exchange posted on YouTube.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s a public building” replied [photographer Ethan] Hellier.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Rosenthal, moving in front of the camera.

Clever, Mr. Rosenthal.

At least, compared to representative Ron Erhardt, from District 498, who seems to be going more and more Tony Soprano as he gets older (With emphasis gleefully added):

Rep. Ron Erhardt, a Democrat, took a different approach.
“Do you know what would happen to that thing if we dropped it? Probably wouldn’t work very well. Now would you back off please?” Erhardt said.

At least he isn’t threatening to blow Mr. Helier’s head off.

Dear Edina – these are the thugs you sent to StPaul in 2012. Let’s shoot for better this time, okay?

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Obama has adopted the Bush Doctrine.

I think it’s more a matter of him reverting to form for Democrats. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton broke with the 20th century Democrat tradition of getting the US involved in wars overseas.
Obama has dived back into that trough, whole hog.

… It was an “undocumented visitor”.

To:  The Blue States
From: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant
Re:  Examples

Hey, Blues,

Scotland has voted to stay in the United Kingdom (provided the UK’s taxpayers pay more for its care and feeding).

But perhaps there’s a lesson in there for you.

Given your contempt for those who think differently than you – “What’s the Matter With Kansas“, anyone? – and the conceit you cling to that you pay the nation’s freight (it’s BS, but it’s Krugman, so you all are attached to it), perhaps it’s time for you to follow the Scots’ example.

Maybe you should get high on dudgeon, and take your toys and go elsewhere?

That’ll show us!

Sincerely,

That is all!

Deb Wasserman Drescher Schultz will likely not be The Nanny the chair of the DNC too terribly much longer.

And it’s interesting to notice, after two years of “War on Women” rhetoric (much of it put into the public arena by Wasserman Drescher Schultz herself), that the Democrats’ bench of (obligatory) female prospects to run the DNC is so very very shallow:

Here’s the reality: No matter the outcome for Democrats in November, Wasserman Schultz will likely be shown the door, with another woman to replace her. But, the list of possible replacements is a not-so-long list of two: Stephanie Schriock, who heads the Democratic women’s group EMILY’s List, and Stephanie Rawlings Blake, the mayor of Baltimore.

The world of politics still has a recruiting problem when it comes to women, and Wasserman Schultz is perhaps both a beneficiary and victim of that reality.

Looks like a certain party needs to start putting together binders and binders full of women…

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Got to the office Monday, arms and back were sore from a weekend Honey-Do project. No pain pills at the office.
I had bottles of ibuprofen and acetaminophen in my desk drawer, but new office assistant (21-year old woman) re-organized. The bottles had expiration dates of 2011 and 2012 so she threw them away. She didn’t want me to poison myself with expired medication.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that acetaminophen and ibuprofen do not expire. She means well, she just doesn’t know any better.
She’s a perfect Democrat: she causes others to suffer pain but since she was acting with good intentions and didn’t mean to cause harm, she can’t be blamed for it.
Joe Doakes

True enough.

Although she won’t be a true democrat until she actively demonizes you for seeking a solution she disagreed with…

 The BATFE is now collecting racial data when you go to buy a gun:

With little fanfare, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2012 amended its Form 4473 — the transactional record the government requires gun purchasers and sellers to fill out when buying a firearm — to identify buyers as either Hispanic, Latino or not. Then a buyer must check his or her race: Indian, Asian, black, Pacific Islander or white.

Now, the purpose of the form is supposed to be to collect information needed to screen potential purchasers for criminal background. 

So what’s race got to do with it?  

…“This issue concerns me deeply because, first, it’s offensive, and, secondly, there’s no need for it,” said Evan Nappen, a private practice firearms lawyer in New Jersey. “If there’s no need for an amendment, then there’s usually a political reason for the change. What this indicates is it was done for political reasons, not law enforcement reasons.”

Yet another example of politicized “law enforcement”.

Preferred One – the company chosen by about three of five people that were able to actually enroll in MNSure in the past year – is bailing out of Minnesota’s troubled health insurance exchange.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, [MNSure CEO Scott] Leitz said he is disappointed with the decision but Minnesotans will still have other options for health insurance through MNsure.

“We level the playing field for consumers. We provide options so Minnesotans can make wise choices,” he said. “We anticipated some bumps along the way, and we’re still seeing some of those bumps.”

He’s half right.  MNSure – like Obamacare – removes actual choice.

But the bumps?  Those are real.

This is a huge hit for MNSure (emphasis added):

As of Aug. 6, Preferred One had 59 percent of the individual market MNsure enrollees. Blue Cross Blue Shield was a distant second at 23 percent, with HealthPartners, Medica and UCare much further back.

Preferred One got such a large share, because they had the lowest rates of the five insurance companies in the program.

And I’m going to hazard a guess that the bulk of Preferred One’s customers were the ones who were getting the lowest subsidies – i.e. the ones that MNSure was counting on to pay the bills for the subsidized, high-risk customers.

It’s possible this could signal big rate increases to be unveiled in early October, and that could have a significant impact on the elections.

“One of the big land mines looking out over the campaign will be when MNsure announces its new rates for health insurance premiums,” University of Minnesota political expert Larry Jacobs said. “If those go up by 10 percent, some have even suggested 15 percent, then that could really shake up this election.”

So let’s get this straight:  because of Democrat/DFL medding in healthcare, you can’t keep your doctor, but your rates will skyrocket. 

Just wanna make sure we’re clear on this. 

Of course, since there are DFLers involved, “clarity” will be hard to come by:

State Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Minn., also commented in a statement saying in part, “MNsure is a marketplace where consumers can compare and shop for quality health insurance. It is no different than Target or Cub Foods in that some products will come and go. Preferred One may be leaving, but MNsure still has great products.”

Of course, that’s lunacy.  MNSure would be like “Target or Cub” if the state made it illegal to shop at Aldi, and taxed you extra for shopping at Kowalski’s.

Oh, yeah – and if the state paid low-income people to shop there, maybe:

Anyone who has PreferredOne through MNsure can still directly renew through the company, but they won’t get the government subsidy. To get the subsidy, they will have to choose a different insurance plan starting Nov. 15.

This is what the DFL hath wrought.

RELATED: Big Left squirts tears, blames capitalism, pimps single-payer.

Kevin Williamson’s conclusion:

The only thing stopping federal authorities from suffocating free speech — not only by independent groups such as the SBA List, but by individuals, trade groups, National Review, and the New York Times — is the First Amendment.

And Harry Reid wants to gut it. Figure out why that is and you’ll know everything you need to know about the Democratic party, which with each passing day functions less and less like a political party and more like a crime syndicate.

What led him to the conclusion?

Well, here’s the opener:

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Dissent is the lowest form of crime. If you are a drone in the hive of the Left, it is possible — easy, in fact — to believe both of those things at the same time.

Just read the whole thing.

Two years of “war on women” rhetoric gets the Democrats…

…bupkes:

Women surveyed said they disapprove of Obama by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin — nearing an all-time low in the poll. It’s almost the reverse of the 55 percent to 44 percent breakdown for Obama among female voters in 2012, according to exit polls.

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 His approval rating among women has slipped four percentage points from a year ago and 16 points since his second inaugural in January 2013, when his approval was 60 percent among the group.

 I’d like to think it’s because women felt the Democrats were patronizing them, and that they’re smarter than that. 

I said I’d like to think it. 

Oh, yeah – and yoots are unamused:

Among younger voting-age Americans, Obama’s approval rating stood at 43 percent. That marked an 11-point drop since June among those 18 to 29 years old. Voters younger than 30 supported Obama by 60 percent to 37 percent in 2012.

I’m not one of those who thinks that the whole world needs to turn on the wishes of the under-thirty set; most of them will be changing their minds, one way or another, between 25 and 35 anyway.

A regular correspondent emails:

Just an update on this story.

Jim Golden resigned his position as State Medicaid Director [a few weeks back]. Rumor has it that April Todd-Malmlov has a new job in Washington DC.

Romance is a good thing, I guess Costa Rica is a good place for it.

[Redacted]

You may remember April Todd-Malmlov as the MNSure “director” who took a vacation in Costa Rica with Mr. Golden about the time MNSure’s website was garnering headlines as among the worst in the country.

So I guess it all works out:  guy (apparently) gets girl, girl gets newer and probably bigger and better government job, the taxpayers get…

…well, we’ll get back to you on that.

A regular reader emails:

So I am driving home listening to MPR/NPR and hear this article below.  Essentially Camden, NJ, couldn’t afford the “work rules” negotiated by the local police union spending $180,000 per cop.  So they turned it over to the county and a new contract with new rules which brought the cost down to $90,000 per cop.  Crime is down, more cops are on the street, more community policing.
And I thought…isn’t that kind of the same thing Scott Walker did with the teacher contracts?  Hmmmmm.

Your friend,

[Redacted]

We’re seeing it all over the country; when public sector unions are stripped of their undue influence (even just by making them voluntary), costs go down and services improve.

That’s why I’m pushing Walker for President, so far.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Remember when all President Obama planned to do was cure the sick, end joblessness, slow the rise of the oceans, heal the planet, end war, secure our nation’s borders and restore our nation’s image abroad?

That was nothing.

Now he’s going to “eliminate the the schism between Sunni and Shia that has been fueling so much of the violence in Syria, in Iraq.”

As Powerline asks:“Whoa! We are going to ‘eliminate the schism between Sunni and Shia?’ The schism that goes back to the 7th Century? And we are going to “eliminate the schism” through diplomacy?”

No. Not “we.” President Barack Obama, possibly assisted by Secretary of State John Kerry. After all they have promised to accomplish so far, why would you have any doubt? Nobel Committee, call your office.

Joe Doakes

In a side note, in re last night’s speech, a friend of mine texted me in re the President saying ISIS – the “Islamic State in Syria” – “wasn’t Muslim” [1]; apparently their name is…

“Innocent Separatists Impacted by Sophistry”.

Naturally.

(more…)

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

President Obama will address the nation Wednesday, September 10th, outlining his plans to fight Islamic terrorists.

Islamic terrorists have hit America twice on September 11th. If they have something lined up and hit us again on Thursday, right after President Obama tells the world his grand plan to fight Islamic terror, the entire world will him revealed as a clueless but arrogant poseur. No Greek playwright would have written a character with that much hubris, the audience wouldn’t have believed it.

Do I want to see American interests hit by terrorists just to see Barack Obama humiliated? As Jack Benny used to say: “I’m thinking.”

Joe Doakes

I get Joe’s point – but I’m not thinking about it.  Of course not. 

The problem, of course, is that the questions “to attack or not to attack?”, and “where and when?”, are questions that belong to those who are on the offensive; those who have what in strategic and tactical circles is called “the initiative”, or in sports circles “momentum”. 

Say what you will about the US’s actions between 2002 and 2008 – the human, financial and moral costs, the politics, the morals of the tactics and methods and the whole enterprise – but we were on the offensive.  We, largely, chose when and where the war would be fought. 

We’re on defensive now.  We – Barack Obama – lost the initiative; squandered the “momentum”. 

The other side chooses whether Barack Obama spends tomorrow in the Situation Room or on the Golf Course. 

I’m praying for Golf. 

The problem is, they’ll choose it the next day, and the week after that, and the month after that…

…and “ensuring that we’re the ones who make that choice – and make it a moot one through sheer force of diplomatic, moral and if necessary military power” is one of precious few legitimate reasons to have a government.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The US has become so impotent in the Middle East that Egypt and United Arab Emirates have stepped up to fight Muslim terrorists, without bothering to mention it to us. The Obama Administration was taken by surprise.

This might be a good thing, in the long run. Washington and Jefferson warned against entangling alliances. Classical Liberals argue it’s not the federal government’s job to be the world’s policeman; we should let other nations sort out their own problems.

President Obama might end up implementing the most libertarian foreign policy since the founding.

Or he might be a clean, bright, good-looking, articulate Black man who has been promoted above his level of competence.

Hard to say at this point what his legacy will be.

Joe Doakes

It is indeed.

But I have a hunch both Jimmy Carter and the Neville Chamberlain estates are deeply thankful for it.

The larger point?  Obama may do for our foreign policy what his economic policy will inevitably do for the economy at this rate; bring them back to their Jeffersonian origins through the sheer unsustainability of their Obamian reality.

The Good News:  Aaron Rupar yesterday became the first Twin Cities reporter to cover Ron Erhardt’s bizarre alleged [*] outburst to Andrew Rothman, of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance.  Rothman was contacting the 84-year-old Edina representative to remind him to return  his biennial gun rights survey.  According to an affadavit from Rothman, Erhardt told him to stop contacting him or he’d “blow your head off”. 

The Better News:  If you get your news from Shot In The Dark, you knew this almost a month ago. 

The Bad News:  While the various gun-rights commenters in the City Pages’ comment section present themselves well, it’s depressing to note that each of the deranged-sounding anti-gun commentators’ votes count as much as that of a smart person’s (and that’s assuming that Mark Ritchie doesn’t allow them to vote more than once).

And By The Way:  Merry early Christmas, Dario Anselmo.

A volunteer for Mary Franson’s opponent posted this on Facebook the other day:

It’d be interesting to know if Jay Sieling, the DFL candidate for which the woman above volunteers, endorses the tacit threat of violence against Representative Franson.

MNSure is a disaster that’s going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars – much more, in fact, that most of the state’s natural disasters.  .

Behind the happy talk, the state’s economy is showing signs of slowing. 

Our major cities’ minority achievement gaps are worse than those in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Detroit.  Indeed, we are worse than the proverbial “cold Omaha”. 

So what’s been the top news of the week among the left and media (pardon the redundancy)?

Some ill-advised tweets about Robin Williams by the MNGOP’s deputy.

Follow-up question:  What is it that bothered the left/media about Mr. Fields’ tweets?  Was it the politicization of a tragedy?  Or was it that someone would tweet something grossly inappropriate? 

Because I’m sure nobody on the left would politicize a tragedy or tweet something stupid.

I’m sure we’ll hear back on that.

The Lightworker, on his penchant for trampling the separation of powers:

“The American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done,” Obama said.

Well, yes, Mr. President; if Congress doesn’t pass legislation, those of us who understand the Constitution, especially the bit about “separation of powers”, most certainly do want you to go golfing, rather than usurp the role of Congress.

Head for the golf course, Mr. Lightworker.