Bing West – Vietnam Marine veteran and author of The March Up and The Strongest Tribe among many other writings on the Iraq war, writes to Rich Lowry at NRO, urging caution about applying apples to oranges and, along the way, taking an oblique poke at a Dem campaign meme:

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says we are now changing our strategy in Afghanistan. Hmm. What has it been for seven years?? The Command and Control has been an unfathomable mess—created by the military and not attributable to a lack of troops.

One of the Dems – Obama’s – key memes in the election was the idea of shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan (indeed, Amy Klobuchar thought it’d be hunky dory to shift all the troops to Afghanistan, and use it for a base to go back into Iraq if the situation went south.

West notes that the “Anbar Awakening” – really, the start of sound counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq – predated the arrival of David Petraeus.

We have to be careful not to design a strategy that is based on a theory created from myths. If you look at Anbar prior to the Sunnis coming over, you see that the Americans were persisting in very small unit (squads) dismounted patrolling, day and night. If you transfer that model to Afghanistan, you are increasing the risk and assuring many more US casualties. It may Americanize yet further a war that should be quite limited, and focused on how to get to al Qaeda in western Pakistan. Above all, we shouldn’t do it because we believe it worked first in Baghdad in 2007 and became the key to bringing over the Sunnis in a short period of time. That’s not what happened.

West may be being both a little parochial (he’s a Marine) and accurate (the change in approach in Anbar was largely pushed by the Marines’ General Mattis, and the Marines have long embraced the approach to counterinsurgency that the media has largely credited to Petraeus).

Either way, winning the war is no more about “sending more troops to Afghanistan” than it is about “finding Bin Laden”.  You may recall the last time Democrats ran a counterinsurgency – they sent half a million troops, over three times as many as are in Iraq.

We know how that turned out.

Sean Broom at MNPublius has the, um, oh-so-dire news for Republicans; Steve Kelley (AKA “The John Edwards of Minnesota”), former Senator from Hopkins, is going to run for Goober:

Senator Kelley was the surprise of the 2006 State Convention with a much stronger than expected showing. He ran for Attorney General after Matt Entenza dropped out and lost narrowly to Lori Swanson. And the conventional wisdom in DFL circles is Kelley had been our Gubernatorial candidate in 06 he’d be occupying the Governors mansion now.

That’s right – he was an also-ran among the zealots, twice, on top of being a totally Edwards-like lawyer with, if this is possible, even less likeability than Mike Hatch…

…er, I mean, “No, DFL, please! For the love of all that is good, please give us Republicans a chance, and do not nominate Kelley. I beg of you!

(Whew. Almost let that one slip out).

Let it never be said that I ever wished ill on anyone (or at least anyone that didn’t have innocent blood on their hands).  While I believe Nick Coleman is a mediocre columnist (with flashes of brilliance, I hasten to add, when he puts away the Junior Studs Terkel kit and writes the stuff he does well – the slice of Twin Cities life stuff he actually can do), I’d rather have him at the Strib than out of work.  I’ll never wish for someone (especially someone with kids to take care of) to be out of work. 

Besides – while I’ve tired of fisking the guy, Coleman’s always been a reliable source of material.

But, according to Brauer, perhaps the gift of content that is Nick Coleman is about to stop giving:

According to a buyout memo released this afternoon and newsroom sources, Nick Coleman and Katherine Kersten will lose their columns, though they may be able to remain at the paper as reporters.

To put it mildly, that would be a stretch for Kersten, who has never held such a journalism job.

Brauer says that like it’s a bad thing.  Dave – you do  know that many of us live happy, productive lives without ever putting the “j” word on our resume, don’t you?

Expect a gigantic eruption from the right wing.

…as if “the right wing” didn’t expect the Strib’s management would chafe at the notion of dissent in the ranks.

Okay, so maybe we’re not going into another Great Depression. Maybe That 70’s Show offers us a better glimpse.

Actually, the year that offers the closest historical parallels to the present might be neither 1932 nor 1980 but 1976, and that analogy helps us understand the directions in which the country will be moving. Both in government and opposition, people might want to hold off on planning for the next New Deal, still less for a coming generation of liberal hegemony. In three or four years, the main political fact in this country could well be a ruinous crisis of Democratic liberalism.

The parallels are amusing if not cause for concern.

So disaffected was bicentennial America that it sought leaders unconnected to the establishment. In Jimmy Carter, voters found a candidate whose main qualifications were his lack of experience and connections within the Beltway or corporate worlds. Like Barack Obama, Carter claimed to rise above failed partisanship, while his New South background allowed him to symbolize racial healing. Carter, like Obama, sold himself mainly on the virtues of his character. He presented himself as a man of simple honesty, faith, and decency, and his lack of a track record allowed voters to see in him what they wanted, however far-fetched those hopes might be. If they hadn’t believed it, they wouldn’t have seen it with their own eyes. Above all, Carter promised change, a message that carried weight as long as its details remained nonspecific. The problem with messiahs from nowhere is that when they do exercise power, people discover to their horror what their leader’s actual views and talents are. The disillusion can be dreadful.

Gulp.

And as they did in 1976, Democrats now show every sign of repeating the blunders that led to a generation-long discrediting of liberalism.

Hee hee hee.

But if liberals seem so determined to repeat the mistakes of that era, then we have at least a plausible sketch of the coming Obama administration—of its rise and ruin.

Obama may have been right. They are the people we’ve been waiting for…

…to illustrate to those that weren’t paying attention: what happens when Liberals have the helm.

Minnesota is famous for being…well, cold.

Of course, as has been confirmed on this site many times in the past, Minnesotans are wusses about the weather – North Dakota is colder, and windier to boot. 

But that’s not the chill I’m talking about, this time.

No, it’s free speech that’s freezing on Minnesota’s college campuses.  The Young Americas Foundation (YAF) has compiled its annual Top Ten Abuses for the past year – and two of them take place within a mile of each other, at Saint Paul’s two up-market Catholic schools.

And the scary part is, the story doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Saint Thomas comes in at #2:

2. Transgendered activists in, pro-life speakers out. Liberal administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker because campus officials felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the school. The University’s mission statement claims it values “the pursuit of truth,” “diversity,” and “meaningful dialogue.” Except, not really—or better yet, as long as the said “pursuit” doesn’t offend leftist predilections. Meanwhile, within the past year, the same school hosted Al Franken, the bombastic liberal comedian, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes God is a black lesbian. Realizing they had a public relations disaster on their hands, the head honchos at St. Thomas eventually reversed the ban on Star Parker.

Since it’s a “Worst of 2008” award, the YAF necessarily omits the larger historical context of oppression at St. Thomas during the reign of the school’s president, Father Dennis “Havana Denny” Dease. 

Father Dease has blazed a frozen trail during his tour at St. Thomas – from forbidding students to assist Cuban baseball player Manuel Chaoui’s bid for freedom when he defected to the US on a trip to play the Tommies, to actively attacking the students that booked an appearance by Ann Coulter, to turning a blind eye to the vandalism directed against the campus’ conservative student newspaper.  Some considered his (brief) banning for Bishop Desmond Tutu from campus a sign that he was an equal-opportunity oppressor; leaving aside the imbalance of the campus’ oppression, it’s fair to say that chilling one side’s freedom of speech chills everyone‘s.  Even if they don’t know it yet.

St. Thomas sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River gorge at the intersection of East River Road and Summit Avenue is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country – unless you’re a conservative activist; for them, the campus is a windswept ideological gulag, as cold, barren and oppressive as Solzenitzyn’s Kolima.

Stroll south down Cleveland Avenue about half a mile to Randolph – the icy ideological tailwind will put purpose in your step.  Hang a left.  It takes you to the University of Saint Catherine:

10. Who knew? Universal health care is actually a non partisan issue. Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota—the nation’s largest Catholic women’s college—unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. College officials deemed Ms. Buchanan’s remarks on “Feminism and the 2008 Election” too politically charged, citing concerns about the school’s tax status. Those same “concerns,” mind you, didn’t prohibit the school from sponsoring programs that push for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases or hosting Frank Kroncke, an anti-war radical who is reliving the Vietnam days. But Bay Buchanan? Well, she’s partisan, according to St. Catherine’s administration.

Of course, the Twin Cities has other contenders for the Top Ten.  Go east on Grand from St. Thomas (or north on Fairview from St. Kate’s) maybe half a mile, and you run into Macalester College, a Presbyterian-affiliated liberal (heh) arts school that richly earned a “Red” rating from FIRE for its stultifying-yet-capricious speech codes.  Then, don your wooly (rastafarian?) cap and handmuffs to plod up Snelling a mile and a half to Hamline, which earned brickbats (or perhaps ice chunks) from FIRE for suspending student Troy Scheffler for advocating legal concealed carry on campus (for students that passed Minnesota’s permitting criteria, no less).  I give ’em both a good shot at making the “top” ten before long.

And I’m so proud.

Twin Cities’ “liberal arts” campuses – where the icy winds of repression are always leaking up under your waistband.

What do you get when you put an attraction for (among others) yuppies with more money and concern for Mother Oerth than common sense in the middle of the second-worst neighborhood in the Twin Cities?

Oh, what do you think?

The Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) Third Precinct has issued an alert regarding a series of robberies/assaults taking place on the Midtown Greenway bike trail and the adjacent Hiawatha light-rail transit (LRT) trail.

According to the MPD, victims have been surrounded by groups of 2–3 or more younger males, pushed off their bikes and robbed of wallets, backpacks or purses. The assaults have occurred after dark. In some instances, knives and guns have been used.

They’re talking about the Midtown Greenway – the old railway trench converted into a cross-Minneapolis bike path – and the trail along the Ventura Trolley.

“Conservative” anti-bike activists please note – both areas were vastly higher-crime before the bike path.

Still, there’ve been some ugly incidents:

The most recent attack took place on Dec. 4 at around 8:30 p.m. along a dark and secluded stretch of the Hiawatha trail just south of the Franklin Avenue LRT station. The victim told the Midtown Greenway Coalition that three young men “formed a pattern” in his path, ordered him off his bike and onto the ground and then stole his backpack. Afterwards, a gun was held to the victim’s head and, the man with the gun said “I’m going to shoot this nigger.” The assailants were gone soon after.

Another victim was referred to using that word in a separate incident on Nov. 21, in which the victim was threatened with a box cutter after stopping along the trail near Minnehaha Avenue.

I’ve ridden the Greenway – never later than dusk in the summer. It goes through some dodgy areas. The LRT bike path – which allows you to ride from the Metrodome to Fort Snelling (and thence to points south across the Mendota Bridge) – is a nice ride, but it goes through some of the worst parts of Minneapolis. I remember riding south from the Riverside Park apartments (the hideous multicolor “New Town” towers on the West Bank that look like they were transplanted from some hideous Egyptian public housing idea) south to Franklin, where the path runs between the backs of warehouses and the LRT line, and silently crossed it off my night-time biking “to do” list.

In response to this ugly, violent crime, the Twin Cities’ perpetually-enraged community proposes to respond with…well, the usual: ineffective symbolmongering:

Take Back the Greenway
Saturday, Dec. 13, 4 p.m.
The ride begins at the Midtown Greenway entrance near Calhoun Beach Club, travels the greenway past the Sabo bridge, then turns onto the Hiawatha LRT.. trail and finally ends at Grumpy’s Bar, 1111 Washington Ave. S. in Downtown East.

…and lumpen passivity:

The MPD and Midtown Greenway Coalition offer these prevention strategies:

— Avoid the Greenway after dark. [That’s right. We merely citizens need to know our place. Everyone knows the city belongs to the scum after dark – Ed.]
— Ride and walk with others, rather than alone. [ “Hell is other people – Sartre]
— Look for a “Bluelight” phone on the Greenway that will connect you directly with 9-1-1. [ Right. Because a bunch of thugs who’ve staked out an ambush will be happy to let you pedal back to a “blue phone”- Ed.]
— Carry a cell phone and call 9-1-1 if you need help. [ Ditto – Ed.]
— Pay attention to your surroundings. Exit the Greenway at the nearest ramp if you feel comfortable or nervous about people you see ahead of you. [ At last, common sense. Of course, that’s always good advice, wherever you are – Ed.]
— If you are assaulted, try to stay calm and give the attackers what they want. The more you resist, the more likely it is that you will be injured. [ Actually, people who don’t resist are about four times as likely to be killed as those who do; SEVEN times as likely as those who resist with lethal force – Ed.]
— Wear a bike helmet while riding to reduce considerably your chances of injury. [ That’s just common sense, given how awful Minnesota drivers – “The Cairo drivers of the West – are. Ed.]
— When calling 9-1-1, give the operator your location. The Greenway is now listed as a street: Midtown Greenway East is the name of the stretch east of Nicollet Avenue to the river. [ Not dumb, obviously – Ed.]
— Take time to familiarize yourself with the addresses of the cross-streets over the trail to help ensure quicker police response. [ Again, not a bad idea – subject, of course, to your having time to call in a report. Which, likely, will be after the perps are gone – Ed.]

Another idea; get your carry permit. And then you, the trained, authorized, permitted citizen, carry while you ride.

Remembering this event last summer – where scads of permit-holding Minnesotans held an Open Carry picnic at Lake Harriet – perhaps a more effective “Take Back The Greenway” idea would be for a gathering of permit-holders on bikes to have a ride. Carrying openly. Or perhaps just doing bounding overwatch.

That’ll get the thugs’ attention.

The AP says we’re all already dead:

When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid.

Since Clinton’s inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton’s second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it.

Hinderaker:

This displays a remarkable level of ignorance on the part of the Associated Press. Global temperature records are nowhere near accurate enough to rank years, over a period of centuries, with any confidence. For the recent past, though, we have the world’s best data set here in the U.S. And it’s true that at one time, it was widely believed that the 1990s were the warmest recent decade. But that was before it was discovered that NASA’s James Hansen, Al Gore’s chief scientific ally, had been fudging the data, either accidentally or on purpose. NASA was forced to correct its data, with the result that the ten warmest years on record here in the US are as follows: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, 1939.

The AP apparently hasn’t gotten the word, perhaps because it is relying on the report of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the IPCC report was a political document, not a scientific one, which deliberately ignored the most current research in the field.

Global Warming:  the first utterly un-falseable, un-testable theory in the history of science.

When Obama began recycling the Clinton Administration with the nomination of Rahm Emanuel, it was said that Obama’s new chief of staff was going to be the muscle that helped our inexperienced neophyte president deal with – indeed, “moderate” – the Reid/Pelosi ultraliberals that control both houses of Congress.

And with Emanuel gone?

Not really fisking Coleman today, per se, in looking at Ntoday’s column, in which a couple of longtime U of M season ticket holders are complaining about the segregated beer sales at the U’s new TCF Stadium:

[The couple] can’t endure the unfairness and crass commercialism that are coming next. And they can’t abide the thought that the swells in the padded seats will drink beer at the new TCF Bank Stadium while fans in the cheap seats are cut off from the taps when football moves back to campus next fall.

“Swells”?

Lemme think; a “swell” is the next step below “big cheese”, isn’t it?

Sometimes I wonder; has Coleman taking “retro” to absurd lengths, or did he learn English from watching Mike Hammer movies?

The independent media world was shocked by revelations that the Minnesoros “Independent’s” recent layoffs occurred as the FBI was investigating Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on charges of corruption.

Officials from the Center for “Independent” Media – which controls the financing, story assignment and editing for the “Independent” – have not been reached for comment, and are otherwise suspiciously silent on the links between cuts to the “Independent” and the Blagojevich investigation . Calls to Citizen Journalist First Class Steve Perry went unreturned (as he has reportedly left the company – again, “coincidentally” right about the time Blagojevich’s investigation was about to boil over); calls to Citizen Journalists Second Class Paul Demko and Chris Steller haven’t been placed, since the call will be so very likely to wind up on an FBI wiretap.

The timing of these allegations come as allegations that the Minnesoros “Independent” hired Citizen Journalist Chris Steller immediately after ultraliberal financier George Soros sent a large payment to the Center for “Independent” Media continue to go unanswered.

Well, it’s not much more of a reach than this.

As long as health insurance is predominantly accessed through a third-party payer – employers – most Americans will have to rely on their them to shop for them. This has been a great deal for those who suffer from preexisting conditions as the insurance provider takes on the employer group in toto.

It’s also been a great deal for those whose conditions are of their own volition, or lack thereof as it were, as they are able to average in their morbidity and get a break.

Politicians talk of a health care crisis and how a country as prosperous as ours should not allow anyone to be without health care. It’s a right, not a privilege; a matter of dignity.

Fact is, our national health care “crisis” is not being caused solely by the insurance companies, nor the current delivery system but rather by the insureds themselves. In a way, our prosperity is our downfall. Everyone can afford Twinkies and smokes.

Experts say that upwards of 40 percent of U.S. medical costs are linked to obesity, smoking and other lifestyle factors — a statistic not lost on the nation’s employers. As a result, more than half of large corporations now use incentives to get employees to shape up, a 2008 survey found.

America is fat, and still surprisingly smoky too. Health insurers have been prodding consumers to get off their duffs, join clubs and live healthier lifestyles to no avail. Have you seen the insipid television commercials?

Now employers want a crack at it.

Sheila Kromer doesn’t want any help.

She enjoys smoking and she doesn’t want to quit.

Nor does she want advice on how to eat right. Or how to exercise. “I’m smart enough to take care of myself,” she says.

As a chemist at 3M, she’s had plenty of chances to join health and fitness programs on the job. But like many Minnesotans, she’s simply chosen not to.

Smart is as smart does. As it stands Sheila, you’re a jackass, and you’re gonna pay for it. Now and later.

(more…)

Last summer, Vanity Fair’s Michael Wolff predicted Newsweek would be lucky to last five years.

Wolff has changed it – to two years:

[Wolff predicts] Sometime around the fourth quarter of next year, Newsweek will be shuttered (possibly there’s a phase where it goes bi-weekly, or even monthly).”

All this is well and good.  But the retrenchment in the traditional liberal media won’t be complete or especially satisfying until NPR’s On the Media goes off the air.

Learned Foot [pen name] discusses discovering Learned Foote. [pen name well, blow me down – it’s a real name. Who knew?]

I don’t have that problem, so much – there are actually three Mitch Bergs in the Twin Cities that I know of, and for many years one of them worked in IT. He must have been older than me; while we never met, I knew plenty of people who’d worked with him at Control Data.

My dad, Bruce Berg, had it weirder. There was another Bruce Berg in Jamestown, North Dakota. My dad was a high school teacher; the other one was in Human Resources at the factory on the north hill. To make things confusing, they both lived on the 700 block of 2nd Avenue – one of them on the north side, the other on the south. Every time there was a blizzard, we’d get inundated with people calling in sick; likewise the other Mr. Berg got plenty of calls for help with homework, I’m told. The funny part? In a town of 15,000 where everyone knows everyone, I’m not sure that they ever met.

The top three most maddening things about my name?

3. Oy, Avay: People assume I’m Jewish. Berg is, obviously, a common Jewish surname. As it happens, it’s also quite common among goyim in Northern Europe as well; it’s German, Swedish and Norwegian for “Mountain”; like every goy named Montaña, Montagne, Vuori, Gornik, Núi and Planina, my anscestors were from the hill country. Apparently. It used to cause both yuks and consternation when I was at KSTP-AM back in the eighties; I got the occasional anti-semitic call, even a death threat or two. I’m about as Jewish as a bacon cheeseburger, but this being right after the murder of Alan Berg, I didn’t entirely laugh it off.

2. Punt This: For years – I do mean years and years – I’d say my name on the phone. People would audibly light up; “The Mitch Berger? The Vikings punter?” And no, just because he left the Vikes in 2000 doesn’t mean it’s over; my place-setting at the company Christmas party this year? Yep – the place card was for “Mitch Berger”. Next year I’ll wear a Steelers’ uniform and run with it. As it were.
1. Screw “U”: When I give my name to people on the phone or in person, I usually go “Name’s Mitch Berg, B E R G”. That’s to avoid the one question in the world of which I’m the sickest; “Is that B U R G or…”. In all my years, I have ever once met a single Burg with a “u”. I’m sure they exist, but good lord, they are scarce; there are probably as many people who spell it “Byrg”. There must be 50 Bergs for every Burg in the world. And yet every single time I don’t spell it out letter by letter, I kid you not, people guess “Burg”. Will it never end?

Not a huge problem, obviously. Just had to get it out there.

Hugh Hewitt has shut down the comment section at HughHewitt.com, switching his user feedback entirely to Twitter. He’s using a “hash tag” (“#hhrs”),for those of you for whom that means anything.

Every message sent over Twitter –every “tweet”– that contains your hash tag will then show up when you search the hash tag at search.twitter.com. All the folks listening to your show who want to communicate with you but who don’t want to look up your e-mail or get to their computer can then do so, and also see what all other tweeting listeners are saying. Instant chat room about your show. It can go 24/7, but of course is most useful during the program. When Joel Kaplan was on today’s program, for example, the online comments were not very encouraging for Mr. Kaplan’s arguments.

Think of it as expanding your inbound lines by as many as you can comfortably read.

Or, alternately, think of it as “confusing the bejeebers out of people who just don’t get Twitter yet”.

And, oddly, I’m one of them.

But I’ll work on it, since I sorta kinda grabbed “#narn2” for Ed and I.

So someone ‘splain it to me, since I’m as clueless as can be about Twitter.

They sometimes say a gaffe is when a politician screws up and tells the truth.

By that token, journalistic malfeasance is when an MSM outlet accidentally doesn’t spin things in favor of Democrats.

The leftysphere was all afroth over this story in USA Today claiming that my native North Dakota was the most corrupt state in the union.

Oh, yes – they’re spinning for Illinois’ famously-corrupt Democrats:

On a per-capita basis, however, Illinois ranks 18th for the number of public corruption convictions the federal government has won from 1998 through 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Department of Justice statistics.

But see if you can juuuuuuuust maybe find the clinker in USA Today’s story. I’ll provide emphasis, for those of you who get your news from the Minnesoros “Independent”:

The analysis does not include corruption cases handled by state law enforcement and it considers only convictions. Corruption may run more rampant in some states but go undetected.

Gosh. D’ya think? Places that convict fewer corrupt pols maybe more corrupt than ones that do?

It’s mildly sobering to see that Wonkette would seem to be the only leftyblog that twigged to the simple fact that, while the story claims North Dakota is the most corrupt, the metrics indicate that my reliably Republican home state is the most anti-corruption state:

However, one arrives at this metric by dividing the number of political corruption convictions in the past ten years by the number of residents. Thus, low-population states with normal-sized governments are disproportionately “corrupt,” as evidenced by the shameful badge of corruption affixed to neighboring South Dakota and Montana. Meanwhile, the truly corrupt states (Rhode Island, anyone?) emerge a shade better, because they never bother to arrest, or god forbid convict, their political criminals. Instead, they elect them Mayor of Providence.

KB notes:

There are international measures, most commonly used being the Transparency International rankings of bribe payers and corruption perceptions…Micro-level studies seemed to be more persuasive. I would argue that corruption is higher in places where the top pay of the private sector is greatest, which is not inconsiderable in Chicago.

While the North Dakota legislature makes $5 a day during its biennial session (no raises since the 1890’s), government work is actually a decent living in NoDak, where the general standard of living really isn’t all that high.

As usual, leftyblogs – great job. Just great!

Oh, the USA Today completes the leftymedia trifecta, adding a little ofay victimology (emphasis added):

Michael Johnston is a political science professor at Colgate University in New York — which is ranked just after Illinois for corruption convictions. Johnston, who has studied political corruption for 30 years, said places such as Illinois gain a bad reputation that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Expectations build up … and you replicate those expectations when you get to the top of the ladder,” Johnston said. “It gets repeated.”

“Blogojevich is a victim! He couldn’t help himself! It was expected of him!”

Sorry, USA Today. You call it “self-fulfilling prophecy”. We call it “culture of corruption”.

It was Sunday, December 11, 1988. 

I was working at the Mermaid.  It was my 26th birthday.  And my life was pretty much going nowhere.  And I was feeling very, very sorry for myself.

I watched the small, desultory crowd in the bar – a few pool players, a few alcoholics, a few couples out on the town on a cold Sunday – and felt the warm wash of…fatigue?  Disappointment?  Frustration?  Whatever it was, I marinaded in it.

“This is my f****ng life”, I thought, spinning one inane record after another, standing in the dusty, smoky booth in my ratty tweed jacket and khaki pants.  Of the four jobs I’d interviewed for in New York not two months ago, two had tanked completely, one was giving me the impression that they’d be “waiting for funding” until long after all the principals were dead, and the final one, doing voice-overs at WOR for $225 a week, which didn’t even count as “starvation” money in New York, just wasn’t going to be worth moving for, all on its own. 

So I was back to square one.  Again.  And I was seriously doubting I had what it took to get to square two, or that it’d matter if I did.

The evening was uneventful.  I shut things down at the end of the night, and grabbed an after-work drink.  And another.  And another.  I let it slip that it was my birthday, so the bar staff kept ’em coming.  I was pretty lit up by the time the bartender decided to wrap things up, around 2AM. 

I got in the car and drove across the parking lot to the Perkins; I needed coffee and lots of greasy food to be in drive-home worthy condition.  I grabbed a booth and ordered the Potato Pancakes. 

They came, I noticed – as I always did when I went to Perkins, since the potato pancakes were the most addictive thing on the menu – with syrup.  Which made no sense, since potato pancakes were basically more-cohesive hash browns, and everyone knows that ketchup is the only condiment that mixes with hash browns, dammit.

I sat in the booth and slowly ate the pancakes and read the Twin Cities Reader until 4AM or so, and then drove home.  I took the long way – down Highway 96 all the way over to Rice Street, and then all the way down Rice to Maryland, and then east across the freeway to the East Side. 

I stopped at the top of one of the many choppy hills on the East Side, probably close to 5AM; it was dark, and very cold, and the lights of the city shown like a million crystal-clear little gems off into the distance.  It was a vista that would have filled my soul with delight not so long before. 

“Whoop di f****ng doo”, I thought. 

I drove home to the rat-trap house full of drug dealers and my roommates girlfriends-du-jour, to hibernate for another cold winter day and get up to do it all again.

Best Buy founder gives U $40M for diabetes research

The University of Minnesota said today it will receive $40 million for diabetes research from the foundation of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze in what appears to be the second-largest gift in the university’s history.

The money, which will be paid over five years, is also thought to be nationally the second-largest diabetes research donation by an individual or foundation.

My youngest daughter is a Type-1 diabetic.

Thank you Mr. Schulze. I will never ever not shop for anything at Best Buy again.

Mr. Oprahma, the worst President in modern history is on line two and would like a word.

A Past President’s Advice to Obama: Act With Haste

Almost three decades later, Jimmy Carter recalls vividly what it was like trying to get Americans to turn down their thermostats and kick the oil habit.

“It was like gnawing on a rock,” the former president says.

…speaking from experience.

Now President-elect Barack Obama is heading to Washington with a set of energy goals as ambitious as Mr. Carter’s back in 1976. He promises to free the country from “the tyranny of foreign oil” and to save “our planet for our children.”

…so they can live to give…60% of their earnings to fill in the hole that you’ve dug for them.

He’s calling for a “spirit of service and sacrifice,” and promoting hybrid cars and wind and solar power.

Guys, guys. It’s the economy, stupids.

By the way, “That One”,  a “spirit of service and sacrifice?”

Huh?

Is that what you call your proposed largest-ever ginormous government economic stimulus program?

Obama would be wise to spend his dwindling political capital on the economy. Four years won’t be long enough to get to what should be ninth or tenth on your “Things to Do If I Become The Messiah” list.

But Mr. Obama must now champion his $150 billion energy plans in the face of a sinking economy and oil prices that have fallen 70% since their record mid-summer high. Forces like these have killed at least four similar presidential efforts in the past. Already, falling energy prices and the credit crisis are laying waste to scores of alternative-energy projects, from huge wind farms in Texas to biodiesel plants in Mr. Carter’s home state of Georgia.

As it should be. Priorities being what they are.

Mr. Carter offers Mr. Obama this advice: Try to inspire Americans to see the virtue in making energy sacrifices, a notoriously tough sell, especially in the face of falling prices. Get energy legislation to Congress quickly, during the presidential honeymoon. And stick with it.

Don’t worry that people are losing jobs, retail is down double digits, the national debt clock in New York City to be pulled down for lack of digits and the auto industry – well never mind about them.

Speaking of sticking it, Mr. Carter…how’d that all work out for you?

“I think he can prevail if he does it early and with a great deal of dedication and enthusiasm — and with tenacity,” Mr. Carter says in an interview.

What out-of-work journalist sought to rejuvenate their career by interviewing Jimmuh?

Mr. Carter says he had a key advantage over Mr. Obama — a national sense that something had to be done: “The energy crisis that I inherited was in many ways much more serious than it is now.”

And yet he also failed. While you’re at it Mr. Former-Crappy-President, any stock tips?

Just two weeks into his presidency, Mr. Carter gave his famous “fireside chat” on energy. Clad in a yellow cardigan that now hangs in his presidential museum

…because no one else wanted it

Please pass the malaise…

Later, in his most politically costly address dubbed by critics the “malaise speech,” Mr. Carter announced a massive program to boost solar power and make synthetic fuel from coal. He vowed the U.S. would never again import more oil than it did in 1977.

…and a two-hour movie would soon fit on a small thin shiny disk. Oh, sorry. That actually did happen.

Mr. Carter concedes that his battles over energy policy cost him political support. “It sapped away a substantial portion of my domestic influence to harp on this unpleasant subject for four solid years,” he says.

Oh, well in that case, Mr. Oprahma should make great haste to  heed this most sage advice of the wise and revered former President.

At 84 years old, Mr. Carter hasn’t lost his fascination for the subject that helped to define his presidency. Eight years ago, he planted 10 acres of paulownia trees on several fields around his house. Native to China, the trees are among the fastest growing in the world. His groves already stand more than 50 feet tall. He sent one of the trees this summer to a lab at the University of Georgia, where it was pulped and turned into ethanol.

…and he sits in a rocker on his porch, donning another yellow cardigan, sipping it.

…if the Senate denies The Big Three bailout.

Ford Bailout Money Unnecessary, Company Says

DEARBORN, Mich. — By shunning government loans, Ford Motor Co.’s top executives say they hope to buff up the automaker’s image and set it apart from its cash-starved Detroit competitors, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Why is Cerberus, one of the world’s richest private equity firms, begging for a bailout?

Buried on the business page of The New York Times Saturday were the details of Detroit’s biggest snow job yet–literally as well as figuratively. Turns out that Cerberus CEO John Snow, who spent three-and-a-half lackluster, and some might say lap-doggish, years as President Bush’s second Treasury secretary, is leading a who’s who of crony capitalists in a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout to “salvage Cerberus’ investment in Chrysler.”

That’s right. Not to save the jobs of Chrysler employees or America’s disappearing manufacturing base, mind you, but to prevent “one of the world’s richest and most secretive private investment companies” from having to take a relatively modest financial hit and use some of its own capital to prop up the smallest of the major automakers.

As it turns out, this may end up being a GM-only bailout. Assuming Cerberus shows some integrity, and Ford isn’t willing to sell it’s soul to Congress for a handout, will the Senate be able to save one and not give something to the other two?

UPDATE: Auto Bailout Appears Dead in Senate as G.O.P. Resists

 It’s just an innocuous column about blogging, people…: 

In the last few weeks, I’ve scoured the Minnesota blogsophere, finding more than 500 blogs with some kind of tie to the state.

What I’ve discovered is that just beneath the surface of our media consciousness is an incredible community of mothers, athletes, comedians, professionals, farmers, mayors, teachers and many more who are putting the stories of their lives online for the world to read about.

Who is this person who’s just discovered Minnesota’s huge, vital blog scene?   My parents?  Someone who’s been in an underwater lab since before Matt Drudge first put finger to keyboard?

No.  It’s Justin Piehowski, who “was most recently Web Manager at KSTP-TV for four years where he won five Regional Emmy Awards, including one for Best News Web site in the Midwest for 2007.”  

Those Hubbards must have kept him busy.

Anyway, now he’s with the MinnPost, the regional web news outlet that, unlike the Minnesoros “Independent”, wasn’t started purely to be a propaganda outlet – but it’s published by former Strib editor Joel Kramer, who is affiliated with all sorts of “progressive” groups.  

And part of his mission is to watch blogs.  And dang – it seems he’s noticed this newfangled “blog” thing:

Americans are creating blogs at a scorching pace. Technorati.com estimates that there are nearly 23 million bloggers in the United States and nearly three-quarters of all active Internet users read at least one blog regularly. The number of blogs worldwide is believed to be approaching 200 million, according to Universal McCann.

While the definition of a blog — short for web-log — is still very unclear…

 Really?

…there’s no question that they are having a profound impact on communication in the United States and the world.

Every day, the seeds of dozens of major mainstream media stories are planted in blogs. Gov. Sarah Palin even called the blogger at Draft Sarah Palin after her selection as Sen. John McCain’s running mate to thank him for his support.

The hell you say!

Are you saying that bloggers – even Minnesota bloggers – might just be starting to have an impact on things in Minnesota, or nationwide, or even around the world?

Let me make a note of that.

Now, to be fair(ish), Justin’s mission seems to be largely to call attention to blogs a little off the beaten path – because you might not have known this, but people do occasionally write about things other than politics. That could be a good thing.

Still, Piehowski  seems to have taken  on a little more than “tour guide” to his brief:

So, who’s calling out bloggers when they misstep? Conversely, who is lauding the good moves that bloggers make?

Er…our audiences?  Other bloggers?  Everyone who gives a rip about the subject that happens by the blog?

Here’s the part that I – and not a few other readers – found interesting: 

Let me first point out a few things that you won’t find much of in the Minnesota Blog Cabin.

Harsh political blogs: Left or right, if you’re more interested in bashing those you disagree with than producing thoughtful, original content, I am not interested.

“Harsh” is one of those things like “balance”; nobody can define it, but everyone knows it when they see it; and most people see it most easily when it’s their ox being gored.  Most Twin Cities leftybloggers think – indeed, seem to chant – that Michael Brodkorb is “harsh”; that he goes beyond merely exposing the (myriad) misdeeds of Minnesota Democrats and gets into personal attacks.  These same bloggers will think that, say, PZ Meyers is funny.  It goes both ways, of course; conservatives tolerate Ann Coulter, while liberals think she’s worse than Pol Pot.

So while I have no idea what trips Justin Piehowski’s definition of “harsh”, the fact that he  works for the MinnPost might in itself be a tell.

That, and the fact that he admits in the comments that he “Love[s] the Blog House”, the Strib’s misbegotten, relentlessly-DFL-leaning, and seemingly-identical column about blogs.

Anyway, Justin – welcome to this newfangled world.  While you’re here, you’ll notice that we have some weird neighbors.

For example, Andy Birkey, formerly and currently with the Minnesoros “Independent” (note to Justin; they are not “independent” in the least.  You will find that a bit of a paradox), who reviews Piehowski’s column and notices:

 Its name bears a striking resemblance to another political blog:  Blog Cabin, the blog of national gay group, the Log Cabin Republicans.

Oooh!  A conspiracy!

That’s harsh!

Birkey links to “Bluestem Prairie”, where “Ollie Ox” writes:

It’s just so messy; these bloggers who have been known to call other writers wankers and worse. You’d think that we didn’t care about Minnesota when we do that.

Fortunately, relief is on its way from the menace of reckless blogging. MinnPost has hired a blog nanny to watch over those of us who presumed to set up blogs without asking permission.

 Justin:  you’ll find some of the local leftybloggers are a tad overdramatic.

Anyway, welcome to this crazy wacky world, Justin.   Oh, and I’m not “harsh”. I’m “gleeful”. There’s a difference

“Day Without A Gay” fizzles.

Perhaps “Day Without Straight Guys” would get their attention.

A Navy pilot’s tale of his first landing on the carrier in the dark.

As the last guys finish their dinner, we all look at each other with similar glances. Not a word needs to be said but everyone is thinking the exact same thing. The expressions say it all. It’s time to walk upstairs and play ball.

We’ve been preparing ourselves for this for years now, and it’s what sets a Naval Aviator apart from every other pilot in the world. If you can’t do it, the years of training leading up to this point are no good to you. As one of our paddles said, if you can’t succeed at this you’re useless to us as a Hornet pilot because we fly, and fight, in the dark. We have to go land this thing on the boat … at night.

We’ve all been behind the boat during the day. You do it in the training command in the mighty T-45. It’s nerve-wracking the first few times, but once you get over the initial nerves and start getting the hang of operating around the ship becomes a lot of fun. Day CQ in the Hornet was even better.

We’d all been here before and were looking forward to coming back. Landing on the carrier is what we do as Naval Aviators. It’s one of the most amazing things you can experience, yet it’s one of the smallest clubs in aviation.

It’s something you can do well, but never perfectly. Every single pass is critiqued by the Landing Signal Officers (LSOs), and you’re graded no matter what your rank 0r who you are. Being good around the carrier is what everyone prides themselves on. Now it was our turn. Time to really join the club, and prove that we can do this safely, with the sun down.

(more…)

1.Chili 2.Bracelet 3.Species 4.Pass 5.Evolutionary 6.Equilibrium 7.Require 8.Crime 9.Cavorting 10.How 11.Dissolution 12.Labels 13.My 14.Same 15.President 16.United 17.Rhetoric 18.Authorities

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