Speed Gibson – new to the world of seceding from the tax-paying car community – notes the bad news:

The Twin Cities slept through the last Transit strike and barely noticed the one before that. But now ridership is up and the union knows it. They voted down the latest offer, 19 to 1. A strike is possible in about a month, just in time for the State Fair and the Republican National Convention.

Oh, wouldn’t that be great news?

Public Transit provides a very small percentage of the total number of passenger miles. Most don’t use it at all. But if you’re a regular, you might want to arrange an alternative. As ineffective as the last strike was, it did last 45 days.

Any doubt about fares going up another 50 cents next year?

Government in action; “people are using the product!  Jack up the price!”

One of those things we conservatives take on faith (a faith that is pretty much always answered, as a matter of fact) is that the market sorts out all things.

Now – will drilling in ANWR or off the coast or in the Badlands of North Dakota drop the price of gas by half instantly?  Of course not.

But a lot of us are paying a lot less for gas – less, even, than we were when gas was under $3 a gallon.

In my case – well, I bike to work from April through (crosses fingers) most of October.  And my company pays half the price of my Metro Transit “all you can ride” card, and my bus almost literally goes door to door – faster, in most cases, than the combination of driving and then walking from a parking spot.  I do it out of a combination of loving biking, liking being in some kind of shape, and scando-scottish penurity.

Speed Gibson (AKA “the best blogger in the Twin Cities that you’re probably not reading enough of, now that Roosh has retired/started posting at “Shot”)?   Well, he provides a glimpse into the “grass-roots” free market response to gas prices:

After the DFL shoved the various new rail transit taxes through the 2008 session, I vowed not to pay it. I can report that I have more than succeeded, adjusting my driving habits to reduce my gasoline consumption and raising my use of buses.

Biking to spite the DFL?  Kudos!

Now, with bus fares going up to again cover the rail losses this fall I needed a way to avoid paying the extra quarter as well. For that and other reasons including pleasure and exercise, I purchased a used bicycle. I just got it tonight (the shop refurbs it after you buy it), and I really like it. Actually, the left pedal fell off after 1/2 mile and I had to limp back for a quick repair and re-inspection, but all is well now…Meanwhile, I’ll be really green, using no fossil fuels every time I bike to work, just under 6 miles. Plus, I’ll save the $4 bus fare or the $2 gas plus depreciation.

Y’know, there’s a great protest idea for the next session; the next time the DFL agitates to raise the transit taxes, there should be a ride-by of Republicanson bikes.

(But they’ll probably start taxing bikes).

Slate

This could be a post on the second amendment, or on property rights. The comments section will dictate that.

I just had to put it up because…

…because I thought it was so damn funny.

Man shoots his lawn mower, police say

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) — A 56-year-old Milwaukee man is accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn’t start.

Keith Walendowski has been charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski says he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn’t start Wednesday morning.

Not exactly an endorsment for Lawn Boy.

Right off the bat, I can empathize. Lawn mowers don’t have a complicated life. They start, they run, they cut. In that order. A lawn mower unable to perform any of these three elements would foster hatred in the heart of any property owner.

 He told police: “I can do that, it’s my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want.”

Okay, fearless readers, who wants to handle that one?

A woman who lives at Walendowski’s house reported the incident. She says he was intoxicated.

No, really?

Walendowski could face up to an $11,000 fine and six years and three months in prison if convicted.

Wow. That would have paid for years of lawnmower tune-ups and oil changes. Heck, that would have paid for years of lawn mowers.

A call to Walendowski’s home went unanswered Friday.

Seriously, what could possibly come of that conversation? Again, the comments section might offer some insight here as well. Anyone up to the task?

There was no information available on the condition of the lawn mower.

There was no mention of Brett Favre in the article either.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network brings you the best in Minnesota conservatism from 11AM-5PM:

• Volume I “The First Team” – Chad and John kick off (Brian is off on assignment) from 11-1.
• Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed is back in the studio.  What’ll we talk about?  It’s a weekly mystery!  But it’s a fair guess his performance at the Millard Fillmore Golf Tourney is a solid contender, as well as my being crowned “Most Ridiculous Conservative Blog” in the Twin Cities!
• Volume III, “The Final Word” – King and Michael will be dishing the Minnesota smack from 3-5.

So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of sanity. On the air at AM1280 in the Metro, or streaming at AM1280’s Website, or via podcast at Townhall.

And don’t forget the David Strom Show, with David Strom and Margaret Martin, from 9-11!

So let’s recap what we have so far:

On June 25th, 2008, the Saint Paul City Council passed ordinance 07-1194 4 (“Green Sheet” number 3046791). You can read it for yourself – but in essence, it amends the city’s legislative code to say the following (I’m summarizing below):

To sell a vacant (or “dangerous” or “nuisance”) house, you need a Certificate of Occupancy.

To get a Certificate of Occupancy, you need to…:

1. Pay all vacant building fees (Category I properties – the ones in the best shape. There are about 300 Cat I properties among the 2,000 vacant houses in Saint Paul).
2. Get A Truth In Housing Report (again, for Cat I houses)
3. Post a Performance Bond or Escrow amount to cover the estimated amount of repairs to bring the structure up to code (all categories).

Now, let’s posit a hypothetical; say you’re a bank. You’ve had to foreclose on a ton of properties, because your CEO’s dimbulb nutslap of a nephew went to a bunch of sleazy brokers and bought a ton of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that were going to adjust to eleventy-billion percent, and went and spent it all on jet-skis and tipping waitresses at Hooters. Naturally, when the ARMs adjusted the owners defaulted; as housing values sagged, the owners came up “upside down”; they owed you more than the house could sell for.

So you foreclosed on ’em. Business is business, right?

Ordinarily, you’d wait out the market and sell the place when you could get a good enough price to make it worth selling. In the meantime, you are the owner; you and your bank are responsible for the property taxes and – to keep it saleable and keep the city’s code enforcement people off your back – enough maintenance to keep it ready for some approach to the market.

You grab a file at random from the pile of “foreclosure” files on your desk. You open it up. It’s a house on the North End of Saint Paul.

Eventually – I don’t think this is irrationally exuberant – the market’ll rebound. Right?

You have to hope so – because until then, the house that your bank is into for, say, $200,000 (plus fees and whatever maintenance it takes), would fetch $175,000, as is, if you tried to sell it today (and could find a buyer). Maybe less, since there are more and more foreclosures popping up in the neighborhood.

But the City has just passed a law saying:

To sell the property to anyone, you need a Certificate of Occupancy.

To get a Certificate of Occupancy, you need to…:

1. Pay all outstanding fees.
2. Get A Truth In Housing Report
3. Pony up whatever it takes to bring the structure up to code. And by “to code”, we mean “the current code, not the code when the building was built. For the sake of this hypothetical, let’s say the house was built when a lot of the houses in the St. Paul neighborhoods worst-affected by the foreclosure epidemic were built – say, 1920.

“Hm”, sez you, the banker and accidental owner of the property. “We have to pony up a bond, and get all the work done, to current codes, before we can even try to sell this house”.

“What would that mean?”

So you get an inspection. And you get the following letter back from the City (with marginal notes in blue:

(The letter below is an actual letter, to the owner of an actual vacant property, forwarded to me by a contact in Ramsey County’s government who wishes to remain anonymous. It is by no means atypical of a punch list for repairs to an older house – in this case, a 90-something-year-old home on the North End, not far off Rice Street, an area heavily beset by the foreclosure epidemic. I’ve redacted personal information and the address. I can scan and post the original, if needed)

[NAME REDACTED]
STATE OF MN TRUST [Department Redacted]
50 KELLOGG BOULEVARD WEST SUITE [redacted]
SAINT PAUL, MN 55102-1657

Re: [Your property’s address]

File#: 04 215708 VB2

Dear Property Owner

Pursuant to your request the above-reference property was inspected and the following report is submitted:

BUILDING

1. Replace or sister all damaged floorjoist on first and second floor per Code with proper supports and hangers.
2. Remove all exterior wall covering and insulate and frame to Code.
3. Replace first floor and basement stairs to Code. (Catch this? You need to remove all the siding and not only insulate, but make sure the framing complies with current standards – which means massive, expensive structural rework).
4. Install rear, exterior stairs and landing to second floor to Code with frost footings or close up and stucco.
5. Remove covering from first floor ceiling and add floor joist to support second floor. (Cha-chingggg!)
6. Install ventilation for bathroom per Code.
7. Insure sill plates are in good condition.
8. Exterior to be weather proof. (Not cheap!)
9. Insure basement cellar floor is even, is cleanable, and hall holes are filled. (Which, with an older place, can mean a ton of money!)
10. Install Provide hand and guardrails on all stairways and steps as per attachment.
11. Strap or support top of stair stringers.
12. Install floor covering in the bathroom and kitchen that is impervious to water.
13. Provide thumb type dead bolts for all entry doors. Remove any surface bolts.
14. Repair or replace any deteriorated window sash, broken glass, sash holders, re-putty etc as necessary.
15. Provide storms and screens complete and in good repair for all door and window openings.
16. Provide fire block construction as necessary.
17. Re-level structure as much as is practical.
18. Where wall and ceiling covering is removed, attic, replace doors and windows, (insulation, glass, weather stripping, etc.) shall meet new energy code standards.
19. Prepare and paint interior and exterior as necessary (take the necessary precautions if lead base paint is present).
20. Any framing members that do not meet code (where wall and ceiling covering is removed, members that are over-spanned, over-spaced, not being carried properly, door and window openings that are not headered, etc.) are to be reconstructed as per code. (Jeezus H. Christ On A Harley! That means the framing – which could be spaced pretty haphazardly in structures more than 30-odd years old – has to be re-done to current standards. After you remove the siding!)
21. Habitable rooms with new usage, replaced windows shall have glass area equal to 8% of floor area, or a minimum of 8 sq. fet., one-half of which shall operate and all bedroom windows shall meet emergency egress requirements (20″ wide minimum, 24″ high minimum but not less tan 5.7 sq. ft. overall). (In other words – egress rooms even on upper floors!)
22. Provide general clean-up of premise.
23. Provide smoke detectors as per the Minnesota State Bullding Code.
24. Repair soffit, fascia trim, etc. as necessary.
25. Provide proper draininge around house to direct water away from foundation. (Cha-chingggg!)
26. Install downspouts and a complete gutter system.

ELECTRICAL

1. Rewire all exposed areas to Code.
2. Install front entry light.
3. Wire basement to Code.
4. Rewire service grounding to Code.
5. Insure proper fuses or breakers for all conductors.
6. Repair or replace all broken, missing or loose ficxtures, devides, covers and plates.
7. Check all 3-wire outlets for proper polarity and ground.
8. Throughout building, install outlets and fixtures as per Bulletin 80-1. (In other words, you need to re-wire the place…)
9. Install smoke detectors as per Bulletin 80-1 and I.R.C.
10. Electrical work requires a Permit and inspections. (…and get a licensed electrician to do it!)

PLUMBING

1. All plumbing work requires permit(s) and must be done by a plumbing contractor licensed in Saint Paul. (Cha-chingggg!)
2. Expose all plumbing that has been covered with concrete on [sic] sheetrock so it can be test [sic] and inspected. (Not cheap!)
3. Finish all waste and vent, water and gas piping for a complete plumbing system to Code. (Major work!)

HEATING

1. Install heating system to Code. (You know what furnaces, and their support infrastructure done to code, cost these days?)
2. Install gas piping to Code.
3. Recommend installing approved lever handle manual gas shutoff valve on gas appliances.
4. Install chimney liner.
5. Replace furnace/boiler flue venting and provide proper switch for gas appliance venting.
6. Tie furnace/boiler and water heater venting into chimney liner.
7. Recommend adequate combustion air.
8. Provide support for gas lines to Code. Plug, cap and/or remove all disconnected gas lines.
9. Provide heat in every habitable room and bathrooms.

ZONING

1. This property was inspected as being a single-family dwelling.

NOTES

1. See attachment for permit requirements.
2. VACANT BUILDING REGISTRATION FEES MUST BE PAID AT NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING AND PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT (NHPI) FOR PERMITS TO BE ISSUED ON THIS PROPERTY. For further information call, NHPI at 651-266-1900, located at 1600 White Bear Avenue.
3. Provide plans and specifications for any portion of the building that is to be rebuilt.
4. Most of the roof covering could not be properly inspected from grade. Recommend this be done before rehabilitation is attempted.
5. There was considerable storage/clutter within property at the time of the inspection. All to meet appropriate Codes when complete.
6. All items noted as recommended do not have to be completed for code compliance but should be completed at a later date. Possible purchasers of property should be made aware of these items.

Sincerely,

[Name redacted]
[Title redacted]

Remember – all of these have to be done (save for the two “recommended” items) before anyone can live in the place.

Any builders out there wanna take a whack at estimating this? I am going to take a very ill-informed whack at this, and say $20,000. I think I’m being conservative. Remember – you have a bank to run; no sweat equity here; you need to hire the work done.

And until your bank ponies up for all of this work, nobody can occupy it – hence, almost nobody will buy it (because they’ll just inherit the same problem!)

So, Mr. Banker – what do you do with the property? Remember – it’s already upside down. Its value is falling, since the rest of the block is slowly going vacant. You’re paying property taxes on it. So to sell this house, by the time you are ready you’ll have (counting the original loan liability, my conservative estimate of repairs, and property taxes, and vacancy fees) well over $225,000 on a house that, maybe, will be worth $165,000 for the foreseeable future.

That’s a $60,000 bath.

For one house.

And the one in the next file? And the next one? And the next one?

Repeat this process for most of the 2,000 currently vacant properties in Saint Paul. And for the dozens coming up vacant every month (my estimate; the five Twin Cities law firms that specialize in foreclosures say there are 500 foreclosures a month in the Twin Cities, today, and they are disproportionally focused in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

So what does this mean for Saint Paul?

Good question.

We’ll look at it from a couple of sides – from the mortgage lender side, and the City of Saint Paul’s as well – on Monday.

UPDATE:  I floated this scenario past Dan Bostrom, City Councilman for Ward Six, the north-east part of Saint Paul. 

He got a chuckle out of it.  It doesn’t go far enough.  I am, indeed, too conservative in many cases.  “There are houses out there with $200,000 mortgages that aren’t worth $30,000”, he said, “And it’ll take $100,000 to bring them up to code”.   More from Bostrom – and a couple of other City Council reps – next week.

At any rate – put yourself back in the banker’s shoes, and plug those numbers in; you’ve foreclosed on $200,000 in loan, you’ll have over $300,000 in by the time it can be occupied, and by then you might – might – get back half of that when the market starts to tilt toward some kind of equilibrium.

More next week.

(Read the whole series: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V)

Sean from MNPublius voices his disgust at “front groups” attacking the “Employee Free Choice Act”, the proposal with the most Orwellian name since the “Fairness Doctrine”

[State DFL chair] Brian Melendez sums it up:

Two front groups have been spreading false statements about the Employee Free Choice Act — lies that Senator Norm Coleman has gladly repeated on many occasions, even after labor leaders met with him and explained that the statements were untruthful and that the Act in fact guarantees a secret ballot. Senator Coleman desperately wants to divert attention from his record and from his intimate ties with the corporate special interests that fund his campaign, so he has resorted to telling lies about his opponent, Al Franken.

More about the E”F”CA later.  Back to Melendez

But in Minnesota, we don’t tolerate intentionally false statements in paid political advertising; in fact, such statements are a crime, and rightly so. We are therefore holding legally accountable the two groups that have knowingly and intentionally spread these false statements in Minnesota. A judge will hold those groups accountable. And Minnesotavoters will hold Norm Coleman accountable.

It’s about time. It was exposed that these ads were intentionally dishonest a long time ago. Coleman has been asked to condemn the ads. Coleman continued to trot along telling the same lie. The ads never stopped. Therefore, appropriate legal action’s being taken.

Yes.  It’s a terrible thing when front groups that are paid by political special interests spread craven, facile lies.

Get out there and condemn ’em!

Whew.  I’m glad we could settle this.

A while ago, I wrote about the association that “Allison Road” by the Gin Blossoms has in my mind – with working serial all-nighters, back in 1995, trying to get a contract writing job finished on time. I hear the song? I feel my eyes crackle with fatigue, the funk of bad coffee on the back of my tongue, my fingertips chilled from the drafty room I used as an office.

I got to thinking; I have a bunch of those:

• Glycerine, Bush: I always associate this song with driving in blizzards; for whatever reason, the first 100 or so times I heard it, I was…well, driving through blizzards. To this day, I hear the song (or see the video), I feel…cold, and in danger.
• Nights In White Satin, Moody Blues: This one is high school. Sitting up at 2 in the morning. Terribly lovelorn. Sitting out at Shale Beach at Jamestown Reservoir, staring at the sky with KFYR in the background, thinking this year was gonna be my year. I can feel the humidity, the dank evening breeze with the faint whiff of cattle manure, when I hear it.
• Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes: When I hear this song – which, I hasten to add, I hated then as I hate it now –  I still recall the exact weather (cloudy, chilly, humid, starting to drizzle) as I drove up Seventh Street in Jamestown, to the alley behind my parents’ house. 
• Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits: I first heard this song on the weekend of a German Club trip to Bemidji. I got lost (although not badly, and not for long) in the woods while cross-country skiing. I always associated this song with being frozen, fighting off panic, and warming up with a quart of cocoa afterward.
• Shout, Tears for Fears: Driving in my first rush hour on 494, in 1985, right after I moved here. To a guy who’d spent his whole driving live in North Dakota, it felt like I’d driven into the Indy 500 by accident. I still smell the burning oil and feel the incipient panic when that song comes on.
• In A Big Country, Big Country: It was late fall, almost early winter, if 1983.  I walked up the fire escape at my dorm and walked in.  It was a Friday night.  I’d gotten out of play practice early.  I had a date.  The dorm, like the guy’s floors on most dorms on Friday nights (back in those days when co-ed dorms still separated genders by floor), was awash in testosterone and optimism which, along with the song and the warm air on the chilly night, smacked me in the face as I opened the door.  And, with that propulsive beat and those skirling, martial guitars in the background, so was I.
• The Wait, The Pretenders: Driving from Carrington to Jamestown at 100+mph, playing it on a cassette boombox plugged into the cigarette lighter. I can feel the wind and smell the late-summer prairie and everything whenever I hear those chiming opening chords.

I’m sure I could come up with more…

Has it really been 12 years since Darryl Strawberry played for the Saints?

So much has happened to Darryl Strawberry in the 12 years since he resurrected his baseball career with the independent St. Paul Saints. Success. Addiction. Recurring cancer. Divorce. Jail.

I remember seeing Strawberry – and Jack Morris, for that matter – at Midway Stadium, during the Saints’ “antique resurrection” season back in 2003.

No, wait. It says here it was 1996. Again, I think someone screwed up.

Strawberry said he tries not to think about the worst, all the chances he wasted, all the things that could have killed him long before Tuesday’s event, when he sat on a riser at the Crowne Plaza hotel in St. Paul as the honored guest at the American Association All-Star Game luncheon.

“I was spared for a reason,” Strawberry said near the end of a question-and-answer session with KSTP Radio’s Kris Atteberry. “All the things I had to deal with, there was something which I was called for. I used to think it was about baseball. It’s not. It’s about who I can help.”

Read the whole thing.

It looks like you are getting screwed, even without Obama in office and even if you borrowed responsibly while everyone around you went all in.

It would appear the White House, reportedly run by a Republican Administration, has better things to do than protect taxpayers from covering losses taken by people that either (1) Should have known better (2) were realizing the downside risk in their investment which in no way should have been a surprise or (3) were out to screw people out of their homes, their money, or both.

Housing Bill Hammers Taxpayers

Combine a housing meltdown with election-year politics and the results were not going to be pretty. Add a crisis in confidence in Washington’s favorite quasipublic companies and what we’re getting is a rout for taxpayers, especially those who kept their heads during the housing mania.

The House yesterday passed a housing bailout by 272-152. The White House has thrown its reservations overboard and is begging to sign this boondoggle, despite the less-than-veto-proof majority. A few brave souls in the Senate are threatening a filibuster, which is where the last hope lies for stripping the most egregious and expensive provisions from this monster.

Even conservative estimates by the Congressional Budget Office say the cost for this bailout will run to $41.7 billion, with $16.8 billion offset by higher taxes. No one has any idea of the real cost.

On the floor of the House yesterday, Democrats argued that this bill was the least Congress could do “for the people,” given the way the government had “helped” Bear Stearns. The cost borne by Bear Stearns was having its shareholders all but wiped out and half its employees pink-slipped. Countrywide was likewise sold at a fire sale price. Not so these two government-chartered giants.

Citing the Bear Stearns “bailout” as a precedent, a Democrat has only to open his or her mouth to reveal a view to profound economic illiteracy. Forcing one financial institution to buy out another and at a price just North of zero thereby locking in losses for investors and employees alike (many of which just before being asked to gather their personal effects) is hardly a bailout.

The Fan/Fred Bailout Is a Scandal

This should have been a perfect opportunity for Republicans, struggling to regain some standing with the American people, to rise united and demand real accountability and reform.

Just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted last week, President Bush withdrew his previous veto threats against the overall legislative package on Wednesday, having gotten virtually nothing in return.

So what will congressional Republicans do? Ironically, a veto-sustaining majority of House Republicans — led by House Minority Leader John Boehner, Financial Services ranking minority member Spencer Bachus, and Republican Study Committee Chairman Hensarling — voted against the bill on the very same day that the Bush administration caved. “I’m deeply disappointed the White House will sign this bill in its current form,” said Mr. Boehner in a statement. “We must take responsible steps to ensure our financial and housing markets are sound, but the Democrats’ bill represents a multibillion dollar bailout for scam artists and speculative lenders at the expense of American taxpayers.”

Multiple polls show that majorities oppose a federal mortgage bailout by a two-to-one margin.

The President could apparently veto this measure with success but won’t. Washington DC will soon become the largest financial sinkhole in the history of civilization and voting Republican is unfortunately no guarantee of relief.

Slate

Around noonish yesterday I took advantage of the gorgeous day to buzz over to the Xcel Energy Center to take in the “Anti-War Committee”‘s press conference to announce their plans for the fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention.

We stood on the plaza at Seventh and Kellogg.  Construction workers with their yellow contractor badges taking a break from the big buildout inside the X wandered around, lunchpails and Subway wrappers in hand, taking (mostly) no interest at all in the proceedings.

I counted a total of seven reporters or camerapeople of various types (plus me, whatever it is that I am), seven people from the “Anti-War Committee”, three of whom spent the conference standing in the back of the camera shot holding a banner (and not all that successfully; one corner got away from one of the guys a couple of times), and a rather portly guy in cargo shorts with a consumer-grade video cam who hovered around the edge of the “conference” shooting footage of…the reporters, mostly. 

Three women from the AWC spoke – briefly.  Jesse Albertson-Grove – a dead-ringer for a younger Chelsea Clinton – noted that the Anti-War Committee “stood in solidarity” against US involvement in wars in Iraq, Palestine and Colombia.  I didn’t get to ask her if they advocated giving Ingrid Betancourt back to FARC.

Next, Katrina Plotz noted that Iraq wasn’t the only war – indeed, we have a “war at home”; as evidence of this war at home, she noted that candidate and presumptive nominee John McCain wants to…

…extend the Bush tax cuts. 

(Around this point a heckler – a lanky guy with a contractor badge, carrying his lunch box as he walked back to the X on Kellogg – yelled “Why don’t you go back to your own neighborhood?”  I don’t think he got any air time). 

 Misty Rowan – an auburn-haired woman in an AWC t-shirt who looked like Kelly O’Donnell’s younger, vegan, Prius-driving sister – added that the group’s plans include a march.  The Saint Paul Police had given them a permit to march from the Capitol to the X later in the afternoon on the Fourth; according to Rowan, the AWC was upset that the permit didn’t allow them to march into the X and throw garbage at delegates, or something (I’ll admit my attention was wandering around this point). 

Among ’em, they mentioned that the 9/4 march, timed to coincide with John McCain’s acceptance speech, is going to be “more militant” than the opening-day parade.

How much “more militant?”  And what does that mean?

Ms. Plotz took the microphone again. 

I asked her – given the number of left-leaning groups who are talking about blockading streets, damaging property and attacking delegates, did the “Anti-War Committee” specifically condemn or abjure violence?

MPR was there.  Bob Collins noted the conference on NewsCut yesterday.

What about what most people think when they hear a term like militant, violence, for example?

“The violence that I’m worried about is the violence that’s being carried out in Iraq right now,” she answered, which isn’t really an answer.

“You’re not answering my question,” a blogger said, uttering the five words that mark a great political journalist.

“I know,” she said, adding that she doesn’t consider the blockades being planned — allegedly — by other groups “violence.”

“That’s not what we’re planning,” she said.

Collins notes the game of rhetorical peek-a-boo as some of the other reporters followed up with Plotz:

“We worked very hard to make the Day 1 march on the Xcel something that you can bring your family to and you can all come out for the war. And we believe Day 4 is for the truly committed and for the people who really want to see change and expect that to be a little harder to come to than just showing up with the kids and the balloons.” (Listen)

Collins:

That sounds almost militant. Perhaps, too militant, because the other speaker jumped in to spin that answer…

“If people are wondering about Day 4, is it going to be safe, is it going to be OK to bring their families, we would say ‘yes.’ I think the more the better.”

A few minutes later, however, she said militant might mean that “people face a little more risk by coming down.” (Listen)

Also – whenever “violence” was mentioned, all the speakers took pains to note that the violence they feared the most was from the police.

After saying there wouldn’t be any “sit-ins” or “die-ins,” that led us back to the question of how the second protest is more militant than the first? “I would say if people have questions, they should get in contact with us,” she said.

Hello?

She said people should go to an organizing committee meeting to find out what the protest is going to look like.

Hmmm.

As the conference broke up, a woman with the AWC asked me for my card.  She said she wanted to read what I wrote about the event.

After six and a half years of blogging, I still don’t have cards.  I wrote down my URLs (for Shot in the Dark and True North).

I presume she’s interested in checking out the fairness of my coverage. 

In the spirit of the event, let me say that the only unfairness I am worried about is in Zimbabwe.

…that Minnesota’s first female governor would be Republican.

But I always thought she’d be elected, as opposed to fleeting up because our governor got a promotion:

Pawlenty, who previously has gone out of his way to tamp down expectations, on Tuesday pointedly dodged the veep question.

“I’ve stopped engaging in all this vice-presidential discussion,” he told Fox News on Tuesday, in an interview from Arlington. “It’s interesting, I’m sure, for people to speculate about, but I’ve stopped engaging in it.”

On Wednesday, Pawlenty popped over to Michigan to speak to Republicans at a well-known audition spot: the Lincoln Day dinner.

Governor Molnau?

I suppose her first act in office might be to appoint Larry Pogemiller to head MNDoT.

Bogus Doug reviews the new Fratellis album.

‘Yah, I know the Frat Boys hate the Fratellis on the basis of politics. Not too helpful. Most of the best artists of our (probably any) generation endorse sucky politics.

The thing is, the first Fratelli album was freaking awesome! It was all punky yet dancy and introspective, yet only to the extent it made it even better. It was pretty much the perfect album for its genre and its age. Infectious. A bevy of hit singles to choose from. Hitting the right notes for the time.

What Doug said.  If I had to reject all music that didn’t agree with me politically, I’d be pretty much down to Ted Nugent, Johnny Ramone (who, drat the luck, never did a solo album), Five for Fighting (if only on foreign policy), maybe Franky Perez, and country-western.

Which is fine – there’s a thin film of C/W I enjoy a lot, and I like to crank “Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue” just on principle to piss off some of my DFL neighbors (and yes, putting boots up miscreats’ asses is  the American way, dadgummit).

But dammit, I like to rock.  And it doesn’t bother me that some of my favorite artists – Springsteen, Pete Townsend) have some of the dumbest politics – because I’ll care about what musicians think about politics about the time I care what John Kline or Michele Bachmann think about music; interesting trivia, perhaps, but not why I hired any of them.

And so – I loved the first Fratellis album.  It was…fun.  I enjoyed it.

So did Doug:

I listened to the Fratelli’s initial offering so often I almost wore out my headphones.

“Flathead” was one of my favorite singles of the past five years (and there aren’t many).

And the new one?

And… what the heck happened?!

All at once there’s nothing threatening. Nothing challenging. Nothing interesting. It’s all so safe… so formulized… And the weird thing is the formulas don’t seem to follow the previous album at all. They’re some kind of bland “this should be more accessible” formula only a soulless studio drone might have preferred. Makes the whole thing tedious. Seriously.

…I’m having a hard time thinking why I would subject myself to a listening of their next album again without payment.

And that’ll be the last we hear of them.  There was a time in pop music where an act that had a great (or at least hot-selling) debut album might be forgiven a sophomore slump; the third album could save ’em.  It was frightfully common; an artist would spend years getting material together for the debut – and have a year to get the second ready, while touring and doing oceans of blow.  It was almost inevitable; the second album almost always disappointed, both artistically and in sales.

And the third act was what made a lot of artists; Springsteen’s first album sold poorly, and had one song (“Blinded by the Light”, an Van-Morrison-like R’nB romp that Manfred Man re-tooled into an ode to depression) that grazed the bottom of the Top100.  The followup didn’t do much better.  Today, the label would have dumped him.  32 years ago, he got the chance to do Born to Run.
No more.  Record companies, desperate as their revenues are plunging, need the hits now. There are no second chances.

Ah, well.  We’ll always have “Flathead”.

From the “look who pooed on my floor” department:

I’m not interested in blog-gazing “across the isle” by finding the most ridiculous post from the most ridiculous local righty blogger and taking pot-shots at it (for old time’s sake, this is Mitch Berg in case you are wondering

Still the best, baby!

You hear that, Ed Morrissey? You feelin’ it, Hinderaker? Brodkorb? Kersten?

Cuckly the Stoo says I am the most ridiculous!

I’m the shee-izzy-neeyot! At least, according to…um, an anonymous crankblogger who “won” the “City Pages” last “Best Leftyblogger” award…

(Note to new conservative bloggers: when they call you “ridiculous”, “thin-skinned” or worse better, it’s because they’ve bounced all their intellectual checks, and are digging for rhetorical change under bus seats).

The mission is proceeding according to plan.

(That should get ’em talking…)

Something I missed in the crush of events this past week: the north and south banks of the Mississippi are connected again:

Image is from the MNDoT webcam.

You don’t want to drive on it yet, naturally – but last Wednesday, the contractors did the final pour to connect the main segments of the northbound span.

The southbound span should be getting connected any day now. Expect an angry column from Nick Coleman blaming Governor Pawlenty for the delay.

History marches on.  After the great Eden Prairie riots (which occurred after a “police beating” in Blaine, for reasons that were chalked up to confusion among the “demonstrators”), more violence broke out in the ring of decrepid, desperate, DFL-dominated suburbs surrounding the city.

(The scare quotes around “demonstrators” will be explained later.

This takes us into the mid-2040’s.

———-

July 8, 2041
Burbs Still Cleaning Up After Cataclysmic Riots: Residents Demand Answers
Megan Megan Megan-Megan, Minnesota Codependent

The fallout from the Great Suburban Riots is still reverberating throughout the suburbs.

Eden Prairie, Blaine, Lakeville, Woodbury and Lino Lakes were all heavily damaged during riots after a pair of policemen were acquitted for assaulting a couple of local men.

The rebuilding effort is running into some obstacles.

“Part of the problem” according to Bluffy Sansevere, of “Suburbs Need Money” , a performance-art advocacy group, “is that homeowners aren’t moving back to the suburbs”.

“We’ve been trying to emulate the tactic that worked so well for the uncaring Republican inner-city – having all sorts of housing stock available for people to move into.  We even started a program putting people to work at government expense to bring these buildings up to full city, state, federal, emotional and ethical code, and passing the cost on to the uncaring Republican who buys the home.  But we haven’t had any takers”.

Another problem; the vandalism continues.  “We’ve actually rebuilt some houses – as high-density group homes, naturally – and they’ve been promptly burned down.  And there’s been nothing we could do about it, since the Plochman case”, says Annette Plover, DFL senator from Wellstone (formerly Minnetonka).  He’s referring to Plochman Vs. Inver Grove Heights, a Supreme Court case that affirmed that vandalism was a form of art protected by the First Amendment.  The case, which was handed down during the Obama Administration in 2018 by former Chief Justice Kucinich (appointed in 2011 by then-President Obama) has not yet been reversed.

“It’s like pushing a hose up a hill” she added.

In related news, “Hose Esteem” – a program that taught self-esteem by teaching troubled suburban teens to push hoses up hills – was cancelled due to excessive vandalism.

 ———-

September 6, 2044
Cities Abolish Property Tax: Residents Demand Answers
Achmad Epstein, Fraters Omnisciens

Mayors Trixie Coleman of Saint Paul and Bucky Prathanshaniam of Minneapolis met at the crown of the Marshall-Lake Bridge yesterday, and tossed a symbolic, bronzed property-tax assessment into the Mississippi River to mark the end of the property tax.

The tax – long a standard revenue-generator in the Twin Cities – became obsolete due to increasing sales taxes and user fees.

“These cities”, Mayor Coleman noted in her prepared speech “make so much money due to the whole ‘overheated economy’ thing, that morality demands we stop taking so friggin’ much of it!”

A thin film of protesters gathered at the Mall of America to demonstrate against the abolition.  “In the whole history of my family”, said Annabelle-Annaliese Fromholz-Bisbee of Elko, “nobody has ever been able to find Saint Paul – so we met here.  Anyway – this is money that should by all rights be going to the needy in Savage and Forest Lake!” 

———-

April 12, 2046
DFL Suburbs Unveil “Happy To Pay For The Great Leap” Plan
Mark 3, Generic News

Mayor Kim Jung-Bill of Maple Grove declared the first step of his five-year plan to revitalize Maple Grove “a complete success”.

“To help prevent ‘white flight’ – people moving farther out in the ‘burbs to avoid suburban blight and find more progressive policies – we’ve found that some of the traditional incentives, like taxing people and businesses that tried to move away, while useful, didn’t go far enough”. 

The “Human Severance Tax” Jung-Bill instituted in 2040 didn’t make a lot of money – but it did create a new revenue stream.  “People trying to leave Maple Grove started trying to load up trucks and move out under cover of darkness.  Arresting and fining them bough us some time, but Illlegal Emigration remained a seriously problem”

“Finally”, he adds, “we had to build The Happy To Live Here For A Better Maple Grove Wall”.  The controversial 15 mile brick wall, with gates at six key exits, has cut down drastically on emigration from Maple Grove.

“The standard of living, and government revenue, haven’t increased just yet.  But it’s right around the corner!”.

———-

Friday:  The conclusion.

Last week, I wrote two pieces on a new Saint Paul ordinance (here and here).

I’m going to delay the last part – partly because I’ve been buried at work, but largely because it’s now two or three parts.

More on Friday.

Barack Obama is proposing $4 Billion in aid to the automotive industry, aid that John McCain is opposed to, and for good reason.

Obama pledges $4b in aid for Detroit automakers

After nearly eight years of getting little or no attention from the White House, it seems as though Detroit’s automakers will be a major focus the 2008 Election. With the economy looking worse by the day, lawmakers in Washington have been kicking around the idea of a second economic stimulus package to get people shopping again, and Mowtown’s lawmakers want in on the money.

Years ago, the Japanese suffered an extended recession because they did this very thing, only on a larger scale. Bankruptcy was considered a national dishonor. Good money was sent after bad; public money at that.

Over the long haul, our economy is much more resilient because we (at least those of us that understand economics and the free enterprise system) understand that failed management teams or business models should not be put on life support. The talent and capital should be free to seek its best and highest use – and without delay. That is why our recessions are typically limited in length and in fact many times our economy comes roaring back afterward.

No one celebrates the Enrons or the WorldComs of the world but we are strengthened by the lesson and can at least take comfort in the fact that the suffering and devastation ended as soon as possible.

Putting our automotive industry on life support will only delay the inevitable. Ford, GM and Chrysler need to reinvent themselves or get out of the way. Don’t think that large trucks and SUV’s sitting on dealership lots is their only competitive disadvantage. They suffer far more from a legacy of arrogance and overpriced labor and benefits force fed by unions acting in their own interest, and not that of their members or the domestic automotive industry.

Presumed Republican nominee John McCain opposes the idea of federally backed loans, but he does support tax breaks to those that purchase fuel efficient vehicles and a $300M in prize money for electric battery powered vehicles

Obama’s proposal is either politically-motivated, ignorant or most likely both. Obama, having no other tools at his avail, thinks the answer is government welfare. McCain understands that the best way to stimulate our economy is to incent innovation and new solutions.

As the economy is almost surely to become the electorate’s chief concern, McCain would be well served to exploit this opportunity to explain to Mr. Obama how and why capitalism works.

The other day I was thinking about the ever-increasing forms of information and mental stimulation we are subjected to in the course of a day in America.

I wonder if the modern human species has lost its ability to truly relax and do nothing; and in doing so, can the species achieve a state of mental pause?

I would submit that in order to relax, by definition, we have to shut out all external inputs and information sources:

Television
Text Messaging
The Web
Chat
Satelite Radio
Email
Amber Alerts
Cell Phone
iPod

As unlikely as it is for someone to choose to do so, it is of course physically possible but that really isn’t the question is it? Can we stop thinking about what we are missing if we are not connected? If so, how long does it take the brain to adjust?

Has anyone gone on a vacation recently and actually disconnected completely? Did it work? Was it worth it?

Can we ever break free of The Matrix?

Rick Bupkus of Chicago will be leading a coalition of Second Amendment activists to Saint Paul this September to picket the Republican National Convention. 

“We need to convince the Republicans to join with the majority of Americans who support Second Amendment rights”.

GOP spokesperson Anna Elk responded “Er…the GOP was supporting Second Amendment rights long before it was politically cool to do so…”

Bupkus, undeterred, promised “A 4,000 gun salute” outside Saint Paul’s XCel Energy Center, site of the convention. 

———-

OK, I made that whole bit up. 

I had to, just to illustrate how ridiculous this bit here sounds:

When a [trucker-protest organizer Mike] Schaffner-organized truck rally comes to St. Paul on September 2, he hopes the [currently 150-truck] convoy gets even larger, the better to send a resounding message to those assembled for the Republican National Convention: Skyrocketing fuel prices are threatening the livelihood of truckers, more than 80 percent of whom are independent owner-operators, according to Schaffner (pictured). Further, while oil companies continue to post soaring profits, it’s consumers who rely on the trucking industry for shipping the food and clothing that end up paying the tab.

“I’m tired of the rhetoric,” he adds. “Tired of being like the little child and the government is the mother giving us a spoonful of medicine and telling us we have to take it.”

So – you protest at the convention of the party that’s actually trying to do something to increase the supply of fuel, thus lowering prices (and, by some indications, succeeding at it, at least on an initial psychological level)…

…and…

…and…

…oh, never mind.  The “intricacies” of the Tic mind never cease to baffle me.

Good news from Pennsylvania; the campaign to expunge John Murtha from Congress seems to get getting some financial traction:

The campaign of Johnstown resident and Republican nominee for Congress Lt. Colonel Bill Russell outpaced incumbent Congressman John Murtha in the second fundraising quarter of 2008. According to campaign manager, Peg Luksik, William Russell for Congress reported raising $637,137 to Murtha’s $113,155 to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). The combined totals from the first and second quarters of 2008 exceed $900,000.

“The incredible story about Bill’s campaign is that the $15 and $25 contributions are coming in from all over Pennsylvania and every corner of the country,” said Luksik. “This is K-Street versus Main Street. These are patriotic families expressing support for soldiers, sailors and Marines, and people saying they’ve had enough of the old ‘pay-to-play’ culture in the Capitol. That’s what’s fueling this campaign.”

Couldn’t happen to a nicer candidate, or a worse Congressman:

[Luksik] continued, “Bill is currently on active duty with the Army. That means he can’t campaign, he can’t direct campaign activities and simply can’t be a candidate. The ‘Russell Brigade’ is forming around Bill’s personal story and motivation for running. There’s something really special going on in this race.”

…

Lt. Colonel Russell will resume campaigning on August 1st at 12:01am with a marathon, 48-hour campaign tour. Russell and his wife Kasia are survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon. He has served in the U.S. Army for 28 years of Active and Reserve service, including six tours in hostile fire zones. His deployments include Operation Desert Storm, action in Kosovo and most recently Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Wow.  Don’t they call that “absolute moral authority?”

It all makes sense.

Of course, as usual, if you read this blog you’re years ahead of science.

To: USA Network Programming Department

From: Mitch Berg

Re: Criminal Intent

Guys,

One of the “gimmicks” on all of the shows of the Law and Order franchise is the relatively high turnover on the various casts.

For example, in the years since Chris Noth was brought back from Staten Island and onto Criminal Intent, he’s been through a few partners – he’s even recycling one from a couple of years ago, now.

But given the way the writing of the show has changed since CI jumped from NBC to USA, I have a suggestion for next season.

Angela Lansbury.

Thanks. Hey, we gotta do lunch. Have your people call my people. Is that your Audi?

That is all.

The other day, I hired a plumber. When he got to he door, a couple of Code Pink harpies were waiting for him.

That was weird.

Charlie Quimby

Private contractors aren’t only in Iraq. They’re on the scene wherever public resources are deemed not sufficient to serve the needs of the wealthy.

The injustice inherent in the system is everywhere.

People whose plumbing needs fixing but have no money do it themselves. If they have money, hiring a plumber is an option.

Some people go to accountants, or to H’nR Block, and spend their “wealth” to serve their need to get their taxes done. Others, whose resources are deemed not sufficient, use TurboTax.

Companies that are wealthy enough to be able to think about things like “usability” hire me – a contractor (through most of my career) who doesn’t serve the needs of poor, struggling companies.

A relative and career forest fire fighter confirms that insurance company crews have been showing up to foam the roofs of multi-million-dollar houses in places like Big Sur. In California, public agencies trying to manage fire on a broader scale have already run through half their budgets before reaching the main fire season, which starts in August.

To some of us, that sounds like “the wealthy are taking the load off of the public agencies, allowing them to spend their resources on areas that need the help”. It’s downright civic-minded…

…or so it seems to me, a simple conservative.

I guess it’d be more communitarian if they all just let their homes burn down…