Monthly Archives: August 2007

George Soros’ Crack Investigative Journalists Strike Again

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Joe Bodell – RentABlogger with SorosTemps “citizen journalist” at the Minnesota Monitor – has found a major mystery.

But first:

 

OK.  Where were we?

Oh, yeah.  Crack citizen journalist Joe Bodell has found himself a mystery to try to solve:

So what is looktruenorth.com?  If you go to the website, you get a message from the Joomla software running that the site is down for maintenance.  But digging a little deeper (legally and without trickery, of course) reveals at least a few details

nslookup looktruenorth.com
Server:  cns.westlandrdc.mi.michigan.comcast.net
Address:  68.87.77.130Non-authoritative answer:
Name:  looktruenorth.com
Address:  74.53.51.52

68.87.77.130 doesn’t do much — it’s owned by Comcast out in Michigan, and doesn’t have a public-facing website associated with it.  However, plug 74.53.51.52 into your web browser, and what do you get?  Whaddaya know, a Minnesota-based conservative group blog known as FreedomDogs.com.  Although an nslookup search on freedomdogs.com reveals a different non-authoritative answer, the same primary server at IP address 68.87.77.130 appears in the results as well.

Bodell proceeds to do everything but…

Wait a minute…:

True North Teaser

…Sorry.  had to get that out of the way.

Bodell then goes all Chloe O’Brien on us, trying to figure out exactly what True North and its domain “looktruenorth.com” are all about.

Hmmm.

Now, if I were a “citzen journalist” on the payroll of a mighty news outlet like the Minnesota Monitor, where would I go to try to get to the bottom of this mystery?

When one is reporting a tricky story like this, one needs to look carefully for signs – sometimes very, very subtle ones…

 

…that someone is “in the know” about the conspiracy mystery.  Sometimes, when you do that, approaching them – this is almost indistinguishable from magic, to the non-“citizen journalist”, but bear with me – with a “question” might actually get you some answers.

So think, Joe.  Think hard.

True North

Is there anyone out there, any faint hint you can find that someone might perhaps have some information about the story?

Think, Joe Bodell.  Set the blender of that finely-honed citizenjournalistic mind on “Puree”, and think hard.  Who could you possibly simply ask for details about True North?

The truth is out there!

True North Teaser

It is.  Somewhere.

It just takes superhuman tenacity along with otherworldly investigative skill.

I know you’re up to it.

Counterinsurgency

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A few weeks ago, I wrote my own (admittedly amateurish) impressions of the fallout of the surge in Iraq – especially the developments congruent with the observations of Robert Kaplan in Imperial Grunts.  As I put it a few weeks ago, the goals are to:

    1. Keep our troops out among the natives – even in tiny numbers, the act of showing a presence among the civilians makes a huge difference in…
    2. …Cutting the guerillas off from the people.  Make it impossible for the insurgents to get supplies, recruits and support (and, commensurately, to exert control through coercion and terror). 
    3. Co-opt and exploit local institutions to help you with #2 first – and then build new institutions.   This drives liberals (and, it must be fairly said, neoconservatives) crazy; surely, they reason, imposing democracy and human rights immediately must be a better thing – right?  Like most ideals, it’s not always true, of course.  It was a former Ranger – who’d spent a few years training for this exact kind of warfare – who introduced me to the saying “perfect is the enemy of good enough”.  In many parts of the world, the only human right that matters right now is the right to not get blown up, beheaded, shot or gang-raped.  Once those are taken care of, one can worry about the more finesseful rights of man. 
    4. Build up the local institutions that work.  Liberals – and some neoconservatives – grouse about this because it involves “picking and choosing warlords”. 

 This latest set of dispatches from Michael Yon (Ghosts of Anbar, Parts I, II and III) shows evidence of all of these.

Yon quotes selected passages from the Army’s Counterinsurgency (“COIN”) manual:

From the counterinsurgency manual that every Marine and Soldier should read:

Sometimes, the More You Protect Your Force, the Less Secure You May Be
1-149. Ultimate success in COIN is gained by protecting the populace, not the COIN force. If military forces remain in their compounds, they lose touch with the people, appear to be running scared, and cede the initiative to the insurgents. Aggressive saturation patrolling, ambushes, and listening post operations must be conducted, risk shared with the populace, and contact maintained. . . . These practices ensure access to the intelligence needed to drive operations. Following them reinforces the connections with the populace that help establish real legitimacy.

From “Counterinsurgency/FM 3-24/MCWP 3-33.5”

Earlier, at the Falahat station, I counted 24 armed Iraqis at one time, but there may have been as many as twice that. So it was just SSG Lee, me, and dozens of armed Iraqis. Some clearly had been insurgents just months ago. Nobody was denying it. Not us, not them. SSG Lee and I could have been killed or kidnapped at any time, yet I felt not a twinge of danger other than maybe watching for an enemy car bomb or sniper, or starting when someone accidentally fired a burst from an AK, which they occasionally do.

The Marines were constantly outnumbered, yet they were pushing out there with the Iraqis, who are picking up more of the weight in many places. 

Back in 2005 many Iraqi Soldiers and Police preferred to hide their identities.Today it seems that most Iraqi Soldiers and Police want their photos taken. Their confidence is growing and their attitude toward the terrorists is increasingly one of being more the hunter than the hunted. 

Now I started to understand why the Army officers had been telling me the Marines are more advanced in counterinsurgency. Normal Marines have morphed into doing vintage Special Forces work. Many of our Army units are excellent at this work, but the Marines, at least these particular Marines, did seem to have an edge for it.

They were even studying Arabic in their filthy little compound. Lightweight study, but they were showing the Iraqis they were making the effort. The Iraqis appreciated it. I have yet to see an Army unit undertake such a clear effort to learn Arabic.

They’re moving out of the big Forward Operating Bases, into really small, rough-and-tumble bases big enough for a squad or two of men:

The Marines there live in disgusting conditions. They have two toilets. One is a tube. For more serious business, there are the small plastic baggies called WAG bags. Do your business, seal it up and put it into a garbage can. They don’t complain.

And most importantly, they’re out among the Iraqi troops and people – showing them how to fight…:

Iraqi Soldiers and Police constantly emulate Marines and Soldiers. When he got back from missions, SSG Lee would work out. The Iraqis would watch and start doing their own exercises. This form of mentoring happens naturally because Lee is just being Lee, and the young Iraqis see it and want to be it. 

…and how to run a town…:

Iraqis in every province I have traveled all respond to strong leadership. It’s a cultural touchstone. A man like SSG Rakene is not someone they would overlook. Physically, the man is amazingly strong. But what is most amazing is the strength of his moral fiber. Whatever the man talked, he walked. After all of al Qaeda’s false promises, the people here have learned a hard lesson about the true value of character.

…and how to beat an insurgency in an area that was their home turf:

While al Qaeda runs and hides, stuffing its death-cult down the throats of Iraqis in other areas, out in Anbar, once its domain, American Soldiers and Marines are increasingly able to go in small numbers out on patrols with Iraqis. This morning, only two Marines accompanied an Iraqi-led foot patrol several miles through an Iraqi village. It is important to note that at the time of this patrol, Soldiers who had recently been kidnapped elsewhere in combat were still missing. With no backup, our guys are able to perform such patrols in many parts of Iraq.

Read all three parts – Part IV is coming soon.

Tune Up

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Local anarkids plan to “tune up” for the convention:

Marie Braun, a local antiwar leader, said protesters will get a tuneup on Sept. 15 when they will stage an antiwar march from the Cathedral of St. Paul to the Xcel Center and then to the State Capitol, a route protesters hope to use again on the opening day of the convention.

Hm.

If I can make it to the meeting, I’ll tune up by skipping my shower for three or four days, and eating lots of bean burritos and cheap beer.

That will tune me up.

Two Days

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I’ve gotten involved in a new project.  It’s an incredibly exciting experiment.

True North Teaser

And it launches on Saturday!

What on earth am I talking about?

Tune in at 2:30 on Saturday on the NARN broadcast.   

More tomorrow

A World All Their Own

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I’m not one of those conservatives who reflexively bashes the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.

But I do relish the chance to give them a rhetorical wedgie.

They’re organizing a phalanx of lawyers to defend the well-heeled “anarchist” fops that’ll be swarming the Cities about this time next year.

Katherine Kersten, as usual, is the only voice in the major media with the real story:

The pinstripe brigade may see lots of action. At the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, police arrested more than 1,800 people, though a smaller crowd of protesters is expected here next year.

The MCLU’s volunteer lawyers will go to bat for any demonstrator arrested at the convention, regardless of conduct or offense, says Samuelson.

Really?

So if a ProtestWarrior runs afoul of a cop for whatever reason, the MCLU will be there, defending a conservative counterprotestor?

What sort of protesters are likely to benefit from these legal eagles’ skills? Earnest grandmas who wave signs outside the Xcel Energy Center aren’t likely to get in trouble with the police. Arrestees will probably disproportionately be anarchists and other self-proclaimed rabble-rousers who are eager to flout the law.

One such group is Unconventional Action, an “emerging network” whose national membership advocates “militant direct action.” At a recent planning conference, members listed goals to “shut down” Minneapolis and St. Paul, and “to deter [other] cities from wanting to host [political] conventions in the future,” according to an anarchist web site.

Unconventional Action lauds the strategy of an organization that helped create havoc at World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, another website says. In Seattle, according to published accounts, a relatively small group of activists used weapons like Molotov cocktails and ammonium-nitrate bombs with nails to provoke violent confrontations with the police. Millions of dollars in property damage and numerous injuries resulted.

So the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union is going to elevate malicious violence to the level of a civil liberty, worthy of our defense?

According to Unconventional Action, the Twin Cities have “strategic vulnerabilities unique to any trade summit or party convention of recent years.” The group is considering blockading traffic on narrow highway interchanges, bridges and key intersections and conducting other kinds of civil disobedience.

Hm.  It’s a little late to organize this, but wouldn’t it be fun to organize a counteprotest to visit this next bit…

This weekend, the so-called RNC Welcoming Committee, a local anarchist group, is hosting activists from across the country — including Unconventional Action — to strategize. The committee has urged people to march through St. Paul to “gather information, take measurements, check drain covers, etc.” At a news conference on Monday, the group showed a video featuring masked figures and hinting at violence. “There exists no ‘peaceful’ option,” it said in a news release.

…and block their right to speak freely?

Wonder how they’d like it?

No matter.  The MCLU, head buried firmly in sand, will be there to get Ian and Ashley out of the clink:

Samuelson says that protesters have no “license to riot.” But he expressed little concern about anarchist threats, and said that serious problems — if they occur — are likely to arise spontaneously.

So, Chuck Samuelson – is the MCLU defending the right to commit violence as a general thing?

Or only violence against Republicans?

Blah

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Piercing headache.

That run-down feeling. 

Eyestrain.

Is it an “under the weather” day, or is my body just giving me a preview of life under Hillary!?

Once Upon A Bagel

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Went into the Brueggers down the street from my office this morning.  Locked the bike, walked inside. 

  1. Note to Bruegger’s:  it’d be oh so cool if you’d do a little division of labor behind the counter; maybe have a couple of the workers focus on making those fussy, nasty-looking breakfast sandwiches (that take like two minutes apiece to make), or filling the orders for the dozens and dozens of bagels (which seems to be about a three minute job), and have someone – even one person – concentrate on grinding out the single bagels-with-cream-cheese that most of the people in line came for, and take about fifteen seconds apiece to make.  That way, all of us in-‘n-out quick-bagel guys can be on our way, shortening the overall wait in line appreciably.
  2. Of course, it’d help if three of your shop’s six people weren’t standing around the cash wrap, gabbing away.
  3. Note to the customer who stood in front of me this morning, talking to the Hmong girl who’d just finished an order of those loathsome sandwiches.  You were hard to miss; you were wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.  As you gave your order.  Your order sounded like “Mfmmmfmmrfmmfm”.  Both the first time, and then when the Hmong girl gamely, tenaciously asked you to please repeat your order.  It took three tries to get the order (naturally, for a loathsome, time-consuming sandwich) straight.  While caution can certainly be amply rewarded, I might suggest that you perhaps sneak a little microphone under the face-shield, and attach it to a bullhorn of some sort.  That, or remove the damn helmet, or at least cock it back to clear  your mouth, long enough to give your (loathsome) order.

That is all.

Street Justice For We, But Not For Ye

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Look at the list of names involved with any of the big gun control organizations.   Prominent among them will be any number of Hollywood stars, starlets, and executives.  Hollywood joins with (and contributes big bucks to) those who think Americans should be disarmed.

But when it’s time for a faded star to make a comeback?

The past few weeks have brought us trailers for The Brave One with Jodie Foster, and Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon. 

The LA Times – never the law-abiding gun owner’s friend – gives a hug and a kiss to Foster’s new role (I’ll add emphasis), whose trailer makes it look like Charles Bronson’s Death Wish with a chick:

In the film “The Brave One,” opening in mid-September from Warner Bros., audiences will see Foster’s rendition of this kind of a woman, an NPR-type radio host who is thrashed by malicious gangbangers in the first 10 minutes of the movie, then left in a bloody heap to watch them pummel her fiancé to a pulp. Afterward, her character transforms into a cerebral vigilante, methodically mowing down an array of wife-beaters, muggers, hoodlums and psychopaths. It’s a replay of 1974’s “Death Wish,” [Hahahahaha! – Ed.] with Foster as a pint-sized Charles Bronson in a hoodie and leather jacket. Or a reworking of “Taxi Driver” where the girl who so memorably played the child prostitute in short shorts and a floppy hat has grown up and turned into Travis Bickle, her own addled savior.

Ah.  An NPR host.  “Good times”.   “As long as it’s one of us…“, says Hollywood, “then being a vigilante makes good box office!”

And Bacon’s movie?

In his latest, “Death Sentence,” based on the sequel to Brian Garfield’s novel that spawned Charles Bronson’s 1974 revenge classic, “Death Wish,” Bacon starts out as solid citizen Nick Hume, content with his job as an insurance executive, his pretty wife (Kelly Preston), his happy kids and a nice house in the suburbs. Within 15 minutes, tragedy strikes, and by the third act, Nick has a shaved head and has become a shotgun-wielding vigilante, blowing away tattooed thugs.

But relax, complacent lefties; it looks like the angry white guy with the gun gets his comeuppance:

In the case of “Death Sentence,” Bacon says, his character learns a grim lesson in the pursuit of justice.

“There is a horrible price my character pays because he takes the law into his own hands,” he says. “He can’t wash that blood off his hands, and that comes back to haunt him.”

Beyond the sheer hypocrisy of “anti-gun” Hollywood (with its armed bodyguards and carry permits gotten through connections and long arrays of stars picked up with guns at airports), there’s the sad, sick impression they seem to have of regular American schmucks with guns; that we’re all a bunch of incipient psychos, just waiting for that transfusion of parkerized steel to set us into full “Dirty Harry” motion.

Unless we’re NPR hosts.  Then it’s different.

My Life In Saint Paul

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So as you’ve heard, there was a rape in Saint Paul last week.  It was a brutal assault – and, worst of all, a bunch of neighbors saw the attack, and did nothing about it. 

I’m involved in an email discussion group for Saint Paul politics.  And here’s a sampling of the conversation.  Our first subject – a prominent Saint Paul DFL fixer:

It is sad that so many people have become motivated by only two things
  greed and fear.  But, then when that is all they get from talk radio what
  does one expect?  Over and over again people are bombarded with how much  they  have to fear and that someone is out to take their stuff away from  them.   Protect what is yours don’t worry about the other guy.  It is  the poor’s fault  that they are poor.  If a child can’t succeed in school  its is fault.  Its  them liberals that want to steal my money… If a woman  was raped its her
fault.  Heck, she’s out there in the hallway with him,  making noise in my
building… just like Bill O’ says.

I usually pull back when I hear the likes of Michael Savage call liberalism a “mental disorder” – but I have to wonder about some of these people. 

So Bill O’Reilly – assuming he really says anything the author accuses him of – speaks for all conservatives?  Even all conservatives in talk radio?

Where does that come from?

And I’d be interested in seeing what’d happen if anyone were dumb enough to try to rape someone in an apartment building in, say, Lusk Wyoming?

Party Like It’s Eight Years Ago

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It’s almost enough to make me want to learn golf.

I attended the post-Millard Fillmore Golf Classic party last Friday. 

Learned and Missus Foot, as usual, put on a great party; even Joe Tucci arguing with Mark Yost about who’s better – Yost is a Mets fan, Tucci’s Yanx all the way – didn’t cast a pall over the festivities.

Ben from Hammerschwing had a two part wrapup (part one, part two). 

Thanks to all, and I may just try to pick up a swing for next year (I’m told I can’t be any worse than Applikowski…)

Pinned Down

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Al Franken wants to be your next Senator.

But he didn’t bank on Swiftee, who buttonholed him on Saturday at the Minnesota State Fair:

Swiftee: “Well I am convinced that you yourself were not involved in the actual money exchange, but it is inconceivable that you were not aware that money that was meant to send kids to summer camp ended up in your pocket.” “Have you sent that money back to the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls club?”

Al: “Well, Air America is paying that back and…”

Swiftee: “I’m asking about you Al. I’m asking about the money that went from The Gloria Wise charity to your pocket. What did you do, personally, to make things right?”

Al: “You know they still owe me hundreds of thousands of dollars..”

Swiftee: “Yeah, they are running out of charities to turn to I guess.” “Look Al, you are running for the Democrat endorsement, the Democrat platform is supposedly built around concern for kids, especially poor kids. Don’t you think it smacks of hypocrisy to have kept those funds?” “You may not have known about it at first, but you found out a long time before you car to admit it, and you certainly know about it now; why not send it back today?”

Al: “So, do you want me to answer?”

Swiftee: “Absolutely”

Al: “Well I, you know this story has been twisted so badly, you know there is a newspaper called the New York Post and, it’s known as a conservative paper, and (turns to FrankenTeamster), what was that guy’s name?”

Swiftee: “Forget what the Post said Al, its all lies. I’m asking you, Al Franken, candidate for US Senate to explain what has happened to money that you received that was supposed to have sent those kids to summer camp.” “You’re not going to deny that some of that money was paid to you are you?”

Al: “Well, you know, Air America was being run by people who were not honest, Evan Cohen and (unintelligible)…they were crooks. I didn’t have any knowledge of the financials (unintelligible).”

And I loved this bit:

Al: “Well, look, my lawyer put a blank piece of paper out for me to sign, it was an addendum actually, the document was dozens of pages long, and I signed that addendum, yes, but I didn’t read it.”

Mrs. Swiftee: “You’re saying that you signed a legal document without knowing what it said?”  

I love the photo Mrs. Swiftee took:

Never have I so wished to have been at a campaign function with a tape recorder.

Read the whole exchange.

It’s going to be a fun campaign season.

Limits of Dogma

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In the past, I’ve been open about the fact that I support the death penalty for every reason but one; the likelihood – indeed, the inevitability of eventually executing an innocent person.  When there is any conceivable doubt – and the fact that 200 people have been exonorated from death row in the past 31 years means that doubt is very conceivable – the fact that life in a supermax is every bit as secure as death and is reversable makes it much more acceptable.

But for all of that, I say this to you today; when they finally stomp John Evander Couey from the face of this earth for burying Jessica Lunsford alive, I will throw a party at my house.

Just saying that I’ll put my quibbles about capital punishment aside, now that Couey’s been sentenced to death.

Fair Mess Doctrine

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My NARN colleague and co-founder Chad the Elder has long found the State Fair’s “Seed Art” display to be a bottomless fount of material.

This year, far from being an exception, is the mack daddy of ’em all:

Every year there is at least one entry that illustrates the seed and glue community’s seething hatred of the evil and oppressive right, and this year is no exception:

I especially love the twisted little scowl that crop artist Teresa Anderson has applied to Dick’s menacing visage.

One can only imagine the thoughts that must have run through Teresa’s fragile little mind while she created this masterpiece, though I’m quite certain that the notion of hypocrisy didn’t pop up even once during the time it took her to glue down all of the tiny little seeds making up the word “divisiveness”.

My favorite, of course, is the perennial (ha ha, I slay me) albeit very strange seed art picture of sportscaster Marv Albert testing a new set of dentures (inscrutably captioned “Senator Wellstone”) which has been a long-time fixture in the “Seed Art” display:

 

CORRECTION:  I’m informed that the seed “art” picture is intended to be of the late Senator Wellstone.  Not Marv Albert.

Our State Nightmare

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Nick Coleman is…well, it.

He’s trotting out the “V”-word:

Ford was premature: Our national nightmare isn’t over. It’s baaack. And so is the V-word.

Vietnam.

Well, to be fair, Coleman’s people were calling the war on terrorism “another Vietnam” since before the dust settled in lower Manhattan.  They said Afghanistan would be a quagmire before the first Green Beret jumped into Afghanistan.  They said the battle for Bagdad would be another Stalingrad. 

And always, always, the “V” word.  Said with a smug, knowing smirk that was usually followed by a titter (audible or not). 

U.S. forces were in Vietnam for 15 years and 2 million people died, including 58,000 Americans (1,100 from Minnesota), all to keep Asian countries from falling into Communist hands (like falling dominoes) and to keep the bad guys over there, instead of over here. It was a bloody waste that divided Americans for years until most grew sick of paying lives for an unnecessary war.

I could go on fisking Coleman – but he’s already said everything I need to hear to show my point.  I wrote about this over the last few weeks – in my Small War series.  Coleman is proving my point.

The Pentagon’s biggest problem is that it spent the first three years in Iraq re-fighting the Cold War.  The first three weeks – the part that ended with President Bush correctly declaring “Mission Accomplished” on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln – were the war that the military spent fifty years practicing for; high-tech, fast, armored, aerial, with a small group of elite troops crushing a much larger force of ill-trained but heavily-armed enemies. 

I listened to the vacuous Mark Heaney “Minnesota Matters” show on the local FrankenNet Air America affiliate the other day.  Heaney’s guest – the director of some astroturf “Peace” group – was kvetching about how Americans weren’t being asked to “sacrifice” for this war, “like we did in World War II”, with a draft and a massive home-front effort.  Leave aside the fact that the military doesn’t want a draft, and that a mass, draftee military is historically utterly counterproductive for fighting the kind of war we face in Iraq; it’s a sign that the left is stuck between it’s only templates for “Successful” war, with “success” meaning “whatever delivers it to power”.  World War II – with its immense, statist effort and total societal immersion in the war effort – was, for all that it did say about America, a monument to socialism.  And that’s not even a bad thing; it’s also a historical anomaly; the vast majority of wars throughout history have pitted professional warriors against other professional warriors, or similar fighters (like, say, jihadis).  Historically, indeed, the era of mass, professional armies meeting in armageddon-like struggles on immense battlefields shooting at other guys in uniforms started under Napoleon and ended, for all real intents and purposes, on the deck of the USS Missouri, allowing for a forty-year tete-a-tete in Western Europe, a “Cold War” where all the real fighting took place…in small countries, between professional soldiers, proxies and guerrillas. 

But whatever – as I noted the other day, World War II and Vietnam were the “successful” wars for the American left; they put the left in power in this country, and returned it there, respectively. 

Oh, yeah.  Coleman – a member of a left-of-center media establishment that has been in the bag for the Democrats for two generations – is angry about “big money conservatives” – dare we say, “big cheeses” – who are paying money to get the President’s message out:

Yep. Looks like the Big Muddy once again. With a modern update: Battling TV ad blitzes…The ads deliberately link the war in Iraq to images of the terror attacks of 9/11, although the 9/11 Commission found no evidence of a connection. Like linking Iraq to Vietnam, the ads show desperation, and are aimed at keeping nervous Republicans in Congress from abandoning the farm.

Gosh, go figure – using the media to fight the impression created largely by…the media.

Go figure.

And about the ads, Coleman says…:

They are abuse.

Word fail. 

Oppression Alert

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What with all the civil liberties that the Bush Administration has gutted, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before Martin Lewis is arrested and hauled off to an undisclosed location for backing an extraconstitutional military coup.

After all, the right to criticize the government was one of the rights the Bush Administration gutted, along with all those other rights, like…

…um…

Well, you know, all those other rights the Bush Adminstration gutted.

So long, Mr. Lewis.  I hope they don’t hurt you too bad before you end up being dumped in a back alley with a nine-millimeter aneurism.

Even Jimmy Carter’s Got The Highway Blues

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Today on the Northern Alliance Radio Network:

  • Volume I The Opening Act The First Team – John, Brian and Chad – will shoo the Stroms from the studio and kick things off from 11-1. 
  • Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed and I’ll will be in next, from 1-3. 
  • Volume III, “The Final Word” – King and Michael will talk Minnesota trash after that until 5PM.

So join us on the Northern Alliance Radio Network, 11AM-5PM Central on AM1280 The Patriot, and at Townhall.com!

Schwoops

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A while ago, I wrote about the City Pages – the Twin Cities’ “alternative” freebie ‘zine – and their front-page article about the 35W Bridge Collapse.  I said that…:

 …”last week’s City Pages did a long, meandering, utterly speculative assignment of blame to everyone from the Governor to David Strom.  Absent from Anderson and Demko’s list:  “The design of the bridge itself”.

Former City-Pager Mike Mosedale emailed me:

That is incorrect. If you read the story, you will see there is a full section devoted to the subject.
Here is one relevant snippet:

“Even though it’s early in the investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board is already raising questions about the bridge’s design. One issue of concern: the bridge didn’t have any piers built into the riverbed. It also lacked what are commonly referred to as “engineering redundancies”—back-up support built into the system to minimize damage if one part fails. Last week, the NTSB and Federal Highway Authority focused on so-called gusset plates, steel sheets that connected the bridge’s girders together. The inspectors said the plates may have been a design flaw.”
 
I’m not interested in participating in your comment scrum, but I do think you should post a correction or apology.

Well, it goes to show you that I don’t read the City Pages as closely as I once did. 

But I apologize:  I missed the article’s brief nod to empirical fairness amid the pages of speculative, politicized witchhunting.  My bad. 

Because goodness knows how important it is to check one’s facts.

Kicking the Weekend Off

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I am not a golfer, but I do love post-golf parties.

So I’ll be attending the Post-Tournament gala for the Millard Fillmore Memorial KARNation Open Championship Celebrity Charity Golf Outing Classic, tonight at an undisclosed location in the south ‘burbs.

The Head of Alfredo Garcia is live-blogging the festivities at the tourney, which teed off about half an hour ago.

Fair Enough

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This next week and a half is going to be just fair-tacular. 

I’ll be broadcasting from the fair tomorrow from 1-3 with Ed.  Join us over on Judson, between the motorcycle booth and the international bazaar.

Then – and this is gonna be fun – Monday and Tuesday Ed and I will take over afternoon drive, from 5-8!  We’ll be a two-guy Barnett-free zone!  Guests, news, and mixing it up with the audience; it’s gonna be great.  (Ed and Colonel Joe Repya will be on Wednesday, while King and Michael will take over Thursday and Friday). 

Then, another day the following Saturday, which promises to be a blast. 

No Sunday broadcasts this year, which breaks my heart nary in the least.

So – stop on out!  We’d love to see you!