The Northern Alliance schedule today:
Ed and I will be talking with Senator Norm Coleman at 1:30, as well as talking about the week that was.
We will, of course, be taking your calls the whole time. Have a question for the Senator? Bring it on!
…I’ve declared “this is the week I’m getting down to Keegans!”; inevitably, something came up at the last minute, every week.
Last week I said nothing.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
After a week of mad polling, dirty tricks, and emotional appeals, the two great titans of Lenfestation Abatement – Learned Foot and Dan “Northern Alliance Wannabe” Stover – fought to a tie!
Stover made up a five-vote last-day deficit to end up at (or immediately after) midnight with a 43-43 tie with Foot (another vote or two came in after my arbitrary deadline).
Rumors that this has anything to do with my New Years’ Eve poker debacle at Foot’s place are both in utter error and poetically symmetrical.
Anyway, congrats to Foot and Dan – and to all the entrants who made this such a fun contest! Because at the end of the day, when the measuring tapes and checkered flags and lard are packed away for next year, what really counts are the big things; skewering the writing of Susan Lenfestey.
Thanks! Until next year!
(And I’m sure there’ll be a next year. There’s always material).
UPDATE: Dan Stover. My bad. Changed above.
It’s the end of the year – the time when we look back and reminisce on the year of blogging that’s been.
And thus it’s a perfect time for the first annual “Shootie” awards, given by the editorial board at Shot In The Dark for contributions advancing regional blogging.
The Eva Young Trophy For Blatant Link-Whoring: This award is given to the regional blogger who best exemplifies the bloggers’ ideal for getting traffic; suck up to bloggers bigger than you as relentlessly as possible.
And the winner is: Sisyphus from Nihilist in Golf Pants, for puckering up for John Hinderaker, naming the Powerline blogger “Rock Solid in the Blogosphere” last fall.
The Baghdad Bob Award: The lineage of this coveted trophy is fairly obvious – and goes to the local blogger or bloggers who insist the facts we see before our faces don’t really exist.
And the award this year goes to Minnesota Monitor, a groupblog in which a group of local leftybloggers were paid a montly stipend in the low four digits (reportedly $1,500) to dab an “ethics statement” on top of modesly polished leftyblogging. When it was pointed out that the Center for Independent Media shared office space with George Soros’ “Media Matters for America”, and that it appeared there might be a connection between the country-destabilizing ultraliberal plutocrat and the local rent-a-bloggers, the resopnse was “Yo Momma”.
The Sisyphus Memorial Trophy for Trying To Mate Via One’s Blog: This award is named in honor of Sisyphus from Nih[i]list in Golf Pants, in honor of his game attempt to woo Mary Katherine Ham by naming her “Rock Solid in the Blogosphere” last summer. It didn’t work well…
…but to be fair, it was a better idea than that of this year’s winner, who used his LiveJournal to find out if a self-described “goofy looking dude and his goofy looking friend could wander into the scene and begin making out with some slutty collegey-looking babes with minimal effort”, and if so, where.
Blog Post Title of the Year: That’d Go To Learned Foot of Kool Aid Report, for December 13rd’s classic
Captain’s Quarters Gives No Quarter to Hind Quarters
…regarding Ed’s reaction to Chris Muir’s Thong-Gate crisis of a few weeks ago.
The Thomas Dewey Trophy for Atrocious Prediction: In 1948, the Chicago Tribune’s early edition called the election, in four-foot-high letters, for Dewey. Truman, of course, ended up winning.>
Previous winners include local rent-a-blogger Jeff Fecke, who called the ’04 presidential election for Howard Dean. Then Wesley Clark. Then Hillary Clinton. Then Hillary Duff. Then John Kerry. Before the ’04 All-Star break.
In that spirit, we honor “Powerliberal”, another prominent local left-leaning rent-a-blog, which called the Sixth District election for Wetterling – on October 6. Based on the Minnesota Poll – which always calls every election for the DFL/Democrats. Apparently some Democrat bloggers haven’t gotten the word…
The Molly “The Hatchet” Priesmeyer Award For Hatchety-est Hatchet-Job: This award is named in honor of the work of the eponymous Ms. Priesmeyer, whose riveting 2004 expose of conservatives eating dinner was so chock-full of facile stereotypes one assumes Ms. Prisemeyer was on the payroll of the Cliche Anti-Defamation League.
>And for the ninth year in ten, the award goes right back to the City Pages, for their election-night “coverage” of the GOP “victory” party that wasn’t. So chock-full of smug cliches was this piece that the Cliche Anti-Defamation league actually sent City Pages’ editor Steve “Not The Journey Guy” Perry a cease and desist order. (The CP’s only loss in this category in recent memory came, ironically, in ’04 – to a Twin Cities exile Jen Vogel’s classic tantrum, “F*ck the Suburbs”. But Vogel’s piece appeared in a paper so similar to City Pages, it’s close enough for Ramsey County work – or, given the tone of Vogel’s piece, perhaps “close enough for Oaxacan mystery meat” would fit better)
The Charles Townsend Award – In 1765, British parliamentarian Charles Townsend, in noting the Colonies’ protests against the Stamp Act, said:
“And now will these Americans, Children planted by our Care, nourished up by our Indulgence until they are grown to a Degree of Strength & Opulence, and protected by our Arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?”
And this year’s winner is: Growth for Justice. The group – led by former far-left-leaning Strib editor Joel Kramer – took out an ad in the Strib last summer, signed by 203 wealthy liberals demanding that we all get happy and pay for a better Minnesota, by bankrolling (with taxes, as opposed to their own largesse) to the tune of two billion dollars a plan by a group of their “experts” to revive the state (which has a throbbing, thriving economy, by the way). Funnier still, they advertised themselves as “bipartisan” – the add said “Growth & Justice has a board of directors of 24 distinguished Minnesotans, including Democrats, Independents and Republicans…” – even though our blogswarm showed that 95% of their contributions went to Democrat/DFL causes; as I noted back then, the signatories “gave a total of $4,782,724 to DFL and national Democrat campaigns – 95.63% of the total. The GOP netted $188,580, for 3.77% of the total. Other parties/campaigns – mostly Greens, if you look at the spreadsheet – snagged $29,800, less than a percent of the total.”
The Kevin McKay Award For Protesting Too Much – McKay was (and might still be) a local leftyblogger famous for his spittle-flecked, thud-witted, sour-grapeolicious snivelling about what angry. thud-witted, sour-grapeolicious people conservative bloggers were.
And this years’ award goes to… this snivelling infant.
And finally, the Kate Perry “We Will Tell You What the Facts Are” Award, given to the mainstream journalist or story that most grossly manipulates or conceals facts, and then rationalizes it away later.
This year, no contest – the Strib, from Anders Gyllenhall on down, for Rochelle Olson’s hatchet piece on Alan Fine – which took 35 column inches to explain the inner details of a 12 year old domestic abuse record – but didn’t bother to mention that the arrest record was expunged, that the case never went to trial, that there was no physical evidence of Fine’s guilt, or that the ex-wife that brought the original charges was eventually charged with domestic abuse herself – seemingly validating Fine’s claim about the original incident. But Kate Perry said there was no problem, so there must not be a problem. Natch.
That’s it for this year. But we’ll be back in 2007 with the next edition of the Shooties! Goodness knows there’ll be material…
No, King caught my flub. NARN is on from 11 to 5 today. John, Brian and Chad at 11, King and Michael at 3…
…plus Ed and I at White Bear Lake Superstore at 1.
Join all six hours!
It’s going to be a big weekend.
First: Tomorrow, the NARN Volume II – Ed and I – will be out at White Bear Lake Superstore. We’re both excited to be kicking off our third year of association with Paul Reuben and the whole gang out there; make sure you stop in, or at least tune in. And if you’re in the market for a late-year car purchase, need I say more?
Then: Sunday will be this blog’s first ever year-end award ceremony, The Shooties. We’ll be awarding (and by “we”, I mean I) local bloggers, media people and politicos their just desserts just in time to ring out the year.
Finally, Sunday night will be the mother of all New Years Eve parties. It will not be liveblogged.
Click “Refresh” at least ten times an hour, all weekend long!
Captain Ed’s advice on selecting an executioner…:
pick a Kurd, any Kurd.
…might might actually give lawyers an Eighth Amendment case against Hussein’s sentence. (*)
Ed and I (not to mention King, Michael, John, Brian, Elder, and I presume Strommie and Margaret) are taking the day off today.
But make sure you tune in – or better yet, join Ed and I in person – next week for our first broadcast of the new year at White Bear Lake Superstore. We always have a lot of fun out there, and as always, in you’re in the market for a car, you’re nuts if you go elsewhere.
(Yes, I know – next weekend is still 2006. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s a whole new year for the NARN)
To: “Long-Suffering” Jay Larson, Promotions Director, AM1280 “The Patriot”
From: Mitch Berg
Re: Promotions Ideas
Jay,
Let’s not do this. I don’t care what JB Doubtless and Brodkorb say. It can’t end well.
Regards and happy holidays,
Mitch Berg, NARN
I’m almost tempted to score tickets for this event:
We couldn’t wait until Friday! Tickets for the 2007 Blue State Ball are on sale NOW! Join Big Ed Schultz and Team Fargo for a night of food, music, and political celebration on Saturday, January 20. Attendance for the 2006 Ball was huge… almost too huge! So this year we have moved our party out to the Nicollet Island Pavilion so we can have plenty of room to spread out and celebrate! Keep your eyes locked to the website and your ears glued to your radio to find out who will be announced as the next special guest for the 2007 Blue State Ball!
Sounds like it could be a fun night out for conservatives needing a good, schadenfreud-y laugh after November 7.
Anyone in?
Ed writing from LA, with emphasis added:
and the first fun thing I did was surprise the First Mate with a convertible for our rental car.
In related news: I plan on “surprising” my daughter for Christmas with “The Collected Speeches of Winston Churchill”. I’m sure she’ll love it – and if she doesnt’, I’ll take it off her hands…
Big day on the radio today.
First – from 11-12, I’m still co-hosting the LuAnn Walters Show on AM1570, The Patriot II. It’s one hour of talk on alternatives in education, as well as things you can do to make your experience in your current school system less aggravating (or harmful). Not to take anything away from the Volume I guys, but if you get a moment, tune in!
Ed’s off on assignment this weekend, so I’m going to be hosting Volume II all by myself this week. Well, not really; two of my favorite guests are going to be in the studio with me. In the 1PM hour we’ll be talking with Joel Rosenberg. The subject; how the Second Amendment rights crowd fared in the election nationwide and here in Minnesota.
Then at 2PM, James Lileks will be in the studio for an hour of whatever grabs us. Hope you can tune in – or give us a call.
It’s going to be one of those days that makes me happy to be back in talk radio!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that the Northern Alliance is going to be broadcasting election results tomorrow evening, live from 8PM until things seem to be relativelly settled or until we pass out, whichever comes first.
King and I will be in the studios (along with a number of people who’ll be helping us with research); the Volume I guys (John as well as Chad and Brian from the Fraters and Michael Brodkorb) will be at the GOP party at the Sheraton.
Tune in on AM1280 after you’ve voted – or, if you’re outside the Patriot’s broadcast radius, check out the live webstream.
Update: Just for laughs, I may listen to this in my spare time.
Or I may go for the real and flush out some ear wax. I’m still undecided. It’s the only thing I’m undecided about, of course.
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