Monthly Archives: April 2009

Well Spent

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One of the pro-Tax-crowd’s more corrosively stupid slanders of the Tea Party movement was the slur that we “want to destroy government” and want to “abolish all taxes”.

There are no doubt a few of those outliers out there.  But for the most part, we simply advocate limiting government as much as possible to the areas where it’s supposed to be. 

And one of those areas is public safety, in all of its various forms.  The military; police; fire departments; and of course, with swine flu in the news, public health.

Minnesota, and Ramsey County, have good, solid public health departments; I know very few even among the most libertarian among us who begrudge a dime of their (fairly modest) budgets. 

RamCo Public Health is getting out the Swine Flu info. It’s well worth a read.

I Almost Missed This

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 I’m codifying this as Berg’s Eighth Law:

Democrats will only profess respect for a Republican when it serves their direct interest.

The examples are legion; John McCain was every Dem’s favorite Republican – until he became a threat.  And mark my words – if Chuck Hagel had a consertive epiphany tomorrow, he’s be demonized as well.  In Minnesota, it’s the same thing; to the likes of Lori Sturdevant (who is as perfect a totem as exists for the Twin Cities’ media’s attitude on politics) the only Republicans that count are the ones like Ron Erhard, the ones that are indistinguishable from DFLers.

I found this bit from John Nichols’ exceedingly dim hit piece in The Nation just after I published my last one; I add emphasis:

Famously, Maine Senator Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: “Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not.”

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate’s version of the stimulus measure.

I suspect Sue Collins, having offended her Democrat masters, won’t be doing lunch in DC for a while.

And in conclusion, a line almost too stupid even for Grace Kelly: 

Did Rove, Collins and their compatriots want a pandemic?

I said “almost”.

At Least They Have Their Priorities Straight

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The Nation is sort of like the Minnesota Progressive Project for people who graduated from college; higher-sounding rhetoric, same ol’ Kool-aid-sotted invincible ignorance wrapped around centrally-mandated spin masquerading-as-commentary.

John Nichols  follows the Rahm Emanuel commandment and doesn’t let a crisis go to waste; he’s writing about Republican opposition to vaguely-healthcare-related pork spending proposals in reference to the incoming Swine Flu pandemic:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year’s emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

And with good reason:  none of that $900M would have generated a Swine Flu vaccine from the clear blue sky.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse — with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But to be fair to the Republicans involved, everything in the Porkulus was supposed to be about “renewing” the economy, from “healthcare” spending to building new bike paths.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey’s attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.

No, it makes John Nichols look like a weasel, trying to turn a porkalanche proposal into phony clairvoyance…

…without, let the record show, showing how any of the $900 million dollars would have addressed this possible pandemic. 

As Don Surber notes (via Malkin), this is a head-fake to cover the fact that the Administration hasn’t done anything to staff the key policy positions in the Surgeon General’s office, including those directly dealing with pandemics. 

“President Barack Obama has not yet chosen a surgeon general or the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His choice to run the Food and Drug Administration awaits confirmation,” Politico reported.

So while Obama dithers, and fails to take care of those parts of his job that directly impinge on dealing with pandemics, and sends his Homeland Security director (in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would have a role in dealing with a truly major epidemic, serving as the arms and legs and muscle of the Centers for Disease Control) on politically-motivated witchhunts against political opposition, the Administration is responding by sending it’s trained alt-media monkeys on rhetorical purges against Karl Rove, and – I love this – answering questions from the press:

Notably, the second question at the White House press conference on the emergency had to do with the potential impact on the economic recovery.

On Monday, the question began to be answered, as Associated

Yeah, John Nichols; that’s pretty “notable”; as per usual with the Obama administration, soothing words for the press and slime-attacks against dissenters are supposed to substitute for doing the job.

Nichols even has to resort to “the dog ate my homework”:

The Republicans essentially succeeded. The Senate version of the stimulus plan included no money whatsoever for pandemic preparedness.

It’s a misleading, inflammatory lie; porkulus included no new money, but there was already money in the budget, and now that there is an actual emergency there will no doubt be plenty more found. 

But notice, if you will, the underlying message; even though the Dems have complete, unfettered control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, they couldn’t pass it, and are scurrying for cover by blaming Republicans; more later.

Not only is it an inflammatory lie, it’s a stupid one:

In the conference committee that reconciled the House and Senate plans, Obey and his allies succeeded in securing $50 million for improving information systems at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

As if long lead-time items like “Improved Information Systems” would have made a difference in the weeks that have passed.

You’re doing a fine job, there, Janet-y. 

Can’t. Or…?

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The Bad News:  Eric Cantor  ais making “Sturdevant Republican”-style noises:

Early last week, Cantor talked like a man ready to make amends for the unanimous Republican “no” votes on President Barack Obama’s budget and economic stimulus plan.

“As we near the end of the first 100 days of this administration,” Cantor told reporters, “I think we can also reflect back and see that the era of bipartisanship we’d hoped for could probably be improved upon, and I believe that’s how we’ve come back from the Easter recess, to say to the president that we do want to work together, that we can actually unite.”

The good news:  Maybe it only looks like he’s drinking Capitol Hill Koolaid.  Maybe he’s really spitting it into the flower pots when nobody’s looking:

But headed for a meeting with the president at the White House Thursday, Cantor and other House Republican leaders couldn’t resist picking at the scab. They sent Obama a letter praising him for his “common-sense idea” that “Washington can work together for the American people instead of for political parties” — but also claiming that Democratic leaders in Congress had “ignored your call for a new era of bipartisanship in Washington.”

Remember, Rep. Cantor:  when Democrats are out of power, “Bipartisanship” means “reaching across the aisle and cooperating”.  When they are in power, it means the same thing it means to a Marine recruit at Parris Island.

$10,500,000,000,000

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Ten and a half Trillion dollars have been committed by our government for bailouts and stimulus.

The USA’s GDP is around 14 Trillion dollars and according to the CIA, our current debt as a percentage of GDP is around 60%. The fact that Japan is near the top of the global rankings at 170% does not bode well for us.

This may foreshadow our fate: protracted economic stagnation for the US, as we follow in near lockstep with the Japanese by going dangerously deeper into debt and allowing our government to send (print) good money after bad.

Ultimately, delay may be the sole result as efforts to bail out financial institutions, insurance companies, and manufacturers will end in the bankruptcies that should have been allowed to happen by now.

To anyone currently under the age of 55: your retirement plans are hereby revised canceled.

The Changeburger

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I was listening to a couple of Saint Paul lawmakers talking at a local restaurant the other day.

One of them said to the other “What can we do to make Saint Paul a better place” as he took a bite from a BLT.

The other put down his soup spoon and furrowed his brown in thought.  “Y’know”, he said after a moment, “what this city lacks is government workers.  Yeah, I know – half of the city’s employment base is government offices, bla bla bla, but what about the people who live here?  Yeah, I know, I know – Saint Anthony is all U of M, and the Midway is 70% teachers and AFSCME, and the East Side is half MAPE, and Highland is mostly state functionaries, and Crocus Hill is mostly government consultants, and the city’s politics are entirely dominated by the MFT and AFSCME.  But what if we were to do something to get more government workers to move to Saint Paul?”

The first guy swallowed some Coke.  “More government workers? But what’ll the taxpayers say?”

“That’s the beauty of it”, said the second guy.  “This is the era of “hope and change”; if you take a poo sandwich and call it a “changeburger”, people will pay $6 for it”.

———-

The conversation above is fictional.

The city program below – reported by Jane McClure in the Highland Villager, which is not online – is not (emphasis added):

In addition to the federally funded Take Credit! Program, which provides more than $8 million in frderal income tax credits for qualified first-time homebuyers in St. Paul and Minneapolis, St. Paul is offering the Heroes First-Time Homebuyers Program, which ioffers forgivable interest-free loans of between $1,000 and $15,000 that can be used for closing costs, down payments or even to reduce the principal on a mortgage.

Leave aside the giving away tax money (which is what a forgiveable loan is – in this case, it’s forgiven if you stay in the home for ten years) for homebuyers; there is a sort of logic to getting people into the city’s vast stock of on-the-market (to say nothing of foreclosed and vacant) houses.  Of course, the city government is a big part of the reason those houses are empty and their values are plummeting, and the fed had as much to do with the bubble as anyone did, but we digress.

The program is called the “Heroes” program.  And when DFLers talk about “Heroes”, I think of this, and get nervous.

But let’s give this a chance, shall we?

The Heroes Program is available to military veterans, active members of the armed forces, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel,

Well, we certainly can’t have anything against any of them, can we?

But wait!  There’s more!

health care workers,

Mmmm – OK.  I don’t know that doctors need the help, but nurses certainly aren’t over-appreciated.

But…:

teachers and other public-sector employees.

Teachers and public sector employees?

Just thought we’d slip those in there, did we?

So the City of Saint Paul – run by a government elected by the bureaucrat class, AFSCME and the MFT – wants to use taxpayer money to move more of the bureaucrat class (along with some veterans and EMTs and cops and firemen) into the city, at our expense.  And if you have the temerity to object to, say, some junior assistant district attorney from the Truancy Intervention Program or a petty functionary with the Civil Rights department getting $15K in taxpayer love, the response will be “WHY DO YOU HATE VETERANS AND FIREMEN!?”

And that second bureaucrat at the local restaurant made a lot more sense to me.  Even though he’s utterly fictional.

Those Bitter Gun-Clinging Jesus Freaks

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As every good liberal knows, behind every Second Amendment activist lies someone who’s just dying to shoot a jack-booted federal agent.

And so – as Meredith Turney at Townhall notes – a recent ruling by the Mississippi Circuit Court of Appeals, run by a bunch of paranoid redneck hillbillies, should come as no surprise:

In a state where the judiciary regularly oversteps its constitutional boundaries to advance “progressive” political agendas, it’s remarkable the judiciary acknowledges the necessity of firearms to protect the populace not just from outside threats, but from a tyrannical government:“While the generation of 1789 envisioned the right [to keep and bear arms] as a component of local resistance to centralized tyranny, whether British or federal, the generation of 1868 envisioned the right as safeguard to protect individuals from oppressive or indifferent local governments. But though the source of the threat may have migrated, the antidote remained the same: the individual right to keep and bear arms, a recourse for ‘when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.’”

Silly rednecks.

UPDATE:  Oops.  It was the Ninth Circuit – the most out-of-control lefty court in the country.

I wonder if they’ll end up on Janet Napolitano’s watch list?

Call In The Fire, Whiz On The Dogs

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Sarah Janecek at Politics in Minnesota on the likelihood, and politics, of a state government shutdown:

As I contemplated that question and spent a few hours reviewing what happened in the shutdown of 2005, I couldn’t help but be struck by how different the politics are now.

In 2005, Pawlenty was positioning himself to run for reelection in 2006. The conventional wisdom was that then-DFL Attorney General Mike Hatch would likely be his opponent in 2006, which is, of course, what happened. 

In the ensuing four years, Pawlenty won reelection, became a national figure in GOP politics and an almost VP contender. Meaning, unlike 2005, there’s an aura of confidence in his own leadership that was missing in 2005. Pawlenty continues to receive good numbers in popularity polls. Whether or not he decides to seek a third term, he’s had a good two-term run. Just saying no to tax increases from Democrats not only suits his fundamental political principles, it also bodes well for him making the jump as a presidential contender. 

There’s almost palpable eager anticipation emanating from Pawlenty, a “bring it (tax increases) on, Democrats, I’ve got nothing to lose,” attitude and zeal. Adding to Pawlenty’s confidence is the trouble House Democrats had this week in taking their own tax increase package out of committee to the floor. Three suburban Democrats, Reps. Maria Ruud (DFL-Minnetonka), Paul Gardner (DFL-Shoreview), and Denise Dittrich (DFL-Champlin), defected and voted against the DFL House tax bill (as well they should have if they want to keep their seats). So much for all that bravado Democrats have demonstrated for moths in intimating they could pick off three Republicans to override a veto. Democrats will be lucky if they can pass a tax increase bill on the House floor, period. 

The other trouble Democrats have is how simply Republicans can frame the issue to the public. We’re in a recession, the Minnesota unemployment rate is 8.2 percent and Democrats want to shutdown the government to force tax increases?!

Pawlenty has the catbird’s seat on the politics of a shutdown.

I don’t know that he has anything to lose, and much – like, a huge burst of base-enhancing cred, the one thing he completely lacks today – to gain.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
.

Minnesota Poll: Most want Coleman to call it quits

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If you ignored the first two words of the following headline…

Minnesota Poll: Most want Coleman to call it quits

…then it’d seem almost as damning as  the story’s lede

Nearly two-thirds of Minnesotans surveyed think Norm Coleman should concede the U.S. Senate race to Al Franken, but just as many believe the voting system that gave the state its longest running election contest needs improvement.

But those first two words – Minnesota Poll – are in fact dispositive.  These polls exist solely to provide aid and comfort to DFLers.  Their fifteen year history is one of ludicrous overrepresentation of DFLers – usually right when some discouragement of the opposition is needed.

Thul:

Election night results for MN Senate race-

Independent Dean Barkley 15.15%
Republican Norm Coleman 42.98%
Democrat Al Franken 42.99%

Party preference results from new StarTribune poll-
Republicans 20%
Democrat 36%
Independent 37%

Every time I start to think that maybe big media’s argument against shutting down – “we need to keep government honest” – might just make some sense, we get to situations like this, where it’s impossible to think the Strib’s mission is anything but electing Democrats.

Kudos To Rep. Ellison

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Finally someone in our government puts their butt where their mouth is on Darfur:

Ellison said he and the other members of Congress who were arrested succeeded in bringing national attention to the Darfur crisis that they wouldn’t have received otherwise. “I could have sent out a press release, but it would be, ‘Yeah, so what?'”

True.

And every day Rep. Ellison is in jail is a day he’s not voting to enact his ruinous agenda.

It was a win-win.

Please, Rep. Ellison; let me letter your next sign.  And perhaps you could take Rep. McCollum with you.

Cut The Man Some Slack

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Glen Beck and Joe Scarborough have taken an inventory of Barack Obama’s first 100 Days:

100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES

Jeepers guys, give the man a break – what do you expect?

Barack Obama was elected to an office he was completely unprepared for, completely unqualified for, lacked any relevant experience, was elected on a platform of empty promises, many of which he has no intention or capacity to keep, and has had to go to the second or third choice in many cases in his selection of his cabinet because many prominent Democrats apparently want to keep their resume clear of any mention of The Obama Administration.

Not to mention the fact that working with Hilary can’t be that much fun – she’s not always out of the country you know, and Al Sharpton keeps getting Obama’s Blackberry address and the Secret Service can’t change the number fast enough.

Plus, I think I may have heard that the Obama’s recently got a new dog, and that can be quite disrupting to any American family.

Glen and Joe just need to set their sights a little lower.

“They are going to grow this government.”

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“They” being the Obamanistas running our nation. Government doesn’t grow like grass growing on a peaceful prairie; more like a brain tumor.

Would-be Obama Administration Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg speaks out on why he turned around and walked back out the door, embarrassing the President yet gain with another failed or controversial cabinet appointment (I’ll bet he pays his taxes) and even more so with his postmortem.

[Obama] may be “a charismatic person” with “a very strong understanding of who he is and what he wants to do,” but when it comes to the substance of what Mr. Obama seeks to accomplish, Mr. Gregg is less charitable. “They have a goal,” the senator says, “and he’s very open about it. They are going to grow this government.”

Why? Because that’s what liberals do. Why? Because they got nothin’ else in their quiver. Big government is to be made bigger for its own sake. How does that bode for the future?

“We’re headed on an unsustainable path. The simple fact is these [budget] numbers don’t work and the practical implications of them are staggering for the nation and the next generation.”

And as a result of all that spending, “You see the size of government growing from 21% [of gross domestic product] to 22%, to 23%, 24%, 25% . . . toward 30%.”

For the sake of credibility let me remind you liberals, this is the guy that Obama picked for his cabinet.

We post on torture and war and our liberal readers go ape. We post on Tea Parties and liberals argue semantics rather than addressing the fiscal crisis behind them. Why aren’t both sides freaking out about what liberal politicians, both Democrat (mostly) and Republican (sadly) are doing to our country financially?

I suppose liberals aren’t enraged because they’ve been sold on all these Hopey Changey concepts like wind-powered scooters and affordable health care for everyone without weighing the costs – costs beyond what we can afford as a nation – unless we borrow. Costs that without any market forces keeping them in check will make the current health care “crisis” look like the panacea liberals are looking for. But liberals in both parties have no aversion to borrowing and spending other-people’s money so long as the cause is “noble” enough – so for them, problem solved!

For Mr. Gregg, this is like living a nightmare. He has been a hard-nosed advocate for government spending restraint since his days as a Congressman (1981-87) and governor of New Hampshire (1987-93). At times, his commitment to fiscal responsibility led him to oppose tax cuts when they weren’t matched by spending restraint. Those stances incurred the ire of his Republican colleagues, but he always stuck to his fiscal-responsibility guns. Now he’s staring down a spending explosion that makes those battles look picayune.

What hope have we that prefer our nation not become completely insolvent?

…the runaway spending and growing pile of debt, could yet set the stage for a Republican comeback, and sooner than most pundits would predict. Mr. Gregg will not run for re-election when his current term ends next year. Republicans, he says, “became very clouded as to what we stood for under the Bush presidency.” But now they’re getting their “definition” back.

Once again, liberals will have screwed up our nation’s finances so badly that conservatives will be called back in to restore confidence. When will America learn?

Who said What?

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President Obama, in his weekly address Saturday, said the country cannot “settle for a future of rising deficits and debts that our children cannot pay.”

…and the members of OPEC would like you to conserve fossil fuels. Oh and – hee hee – Jim Cramer has a stock tip for you. Uhhh, and Dan Rather has invited you to an “Ethics in Journalism” seminar. Oooo – Madonna and Alec Baldwin are co-authoring a book on parenting.

Meanwhile Brack O’Bomba is spending your Billions.

The audacity indeed.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today, Part CXVIII

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It Tuesday, April 25, 1988.

My band had a gig.  In the several months since we’d recorded a demo, we’d knocked around with a bit of this, a bit of that, a few practices, a few parties, a little schmoozing…

…and, finally, our band – “Joe Public”, this time – had a gig.  Mark, Bill and I were playing yet another Tuesday “New Band Night” – our third – at the Seventh Street Entry.  Their older brother Chaz was sitting in on the sax for a few songs.

To tell you the truth, I don’t remember much about the evening; I could name probably half a dozen of the ten songs we played, because we played them at all our gigs, songs I’d written two years earlier and that went over OK with audiences, whenever we had audiences; “Great Northern Avenue”, “Fourth Of July”, “Long Gray Wire” and “Five Bucks and a Transfer”, from our demo tape, and a few others I’d written since that are long lost to my memory.  It was a decent gig, although Chaz’ contributions on the sax were a little incongruous; Mark, Bill and I were a pretty tight rock’nroll power trio by this point (think “Gin Blossoms meet the Iron City Houserockers”, not that that’ll help you much), and Chaz was more into “free-form jazz”, meaning honking on more or less random notes and scales as the spirit moved him, which made for a few interesting moments; he took a solo on “Great Northern” that sounded a little like hindu raga music on the sax, albeit in a key utterly unrelated to my little three-minute rock-and-roll tune.

What I really remember about the evening were the other bands that night.  We played third out of the four bands that balmy late-April evening.  The two before us were a couple of sloppy, dissipated groups of college kids who strummed gamely away at first-position chords and did more-or-less-random songs about not a whole lot.  The fourth band of the night – “Full Metal Hangover” – was a trio of local bartenders who, being bartenders, were everyone’s best friends (I knew a couple of ’em); they thrashed gamely away at first-position chords and did more-or-less-random-sounding songs about being incapacitated in one way or another.

The unifying theme?  They were what someone’d call, at another place and time, “bad”.  But on that evening, it snuck up on me; the Minneapolis music scene I’d moved to – a combination of ultra-motivated R’nB bands (Westside), glibly-vocational new wavers (The Suburbs, Limited Warranty, Figures, The Shoes) and raucous punks with ferocious chops (the ‘mats, the Hüskers, the Clams, The Law) – had given way to a new generation.  And to this new generation, detached cool was king; part of “detached cool” was detaching from the newly-uncool idea of “playing your instrument well”.  The new cool, proclaimed via the official bibles of the Twin Cities music scene, the Twin Cities Reader and City Pages’ various music columns, was angsty, noisy or jangly (Sonic Youth, Killdozer and REM seemed to be the big influences), and seemed to actively eschew the notion of competence, much less proficience on one’s instrument.  It was they heyday of groups like ZuZu’s Petals, the Cheap Dates, and a slew of other noisy, sloppy, angsty bands.

I remember nudging Bill the Drummer as we watched Full Metal Hangover.  “It’s getting to the point where playing your instrument well is a handicap”.  He nodded, not for the first or last time on the subject.  It seemed to us – to me – that the Twin Cities music scene I’d moved to the Twin Cities to be a part of had died and gone away.

———-

Call it sour grapes; I don’t think was an entirely inaccurate assessment, then or now.

But what had died and gone away was my future as a rock and roll star.  Oh, I still loved playing.  I still do.  But little did I know that that would be the last time I’d play in a band of my own in a Twin Cities rock and roll bar. The scene had left me, and I’d left it, driving in opposite directions, although I doubt I knew it at the time.  I had one more gig in one more band coming up – but that’d be in July of 1996, a one-off…

But that’s a story for another day – seven years from now.

Not Your Father’s Pontiac

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When General Motors euthanized Oldsmobile the public’s reaction was a non-reaction. Nobody cared – well, except some dealerships. The last Oldsmobile rolled off the line in 2004, ending a 107-year history.

Save America’s first mass-produced front-drive car, the Toronado…

…Oldsmobile really never had a raison d’etre – never really produced an icon like Buick’s Riviera, Chevy’s Camaro and Corvette, Cadillac’s various De Villes or Pontiac’s Bonneville.

That’s not to say there wasn’t some semblance of logic for the existence of the different divisions. Loosely, Chevrolet was the “bread and butter” division, Pontiac the “sporty”; Buick “near luxury”, Cadillac “luxury” and GMC the “professional truck” division – oh and Oldsmobile – “your father’s car?”

Rumor has it Pontiac will also go burbling into the night as early as next week and this time people will take note. There are a lot of Pontiacs out there and Pontiac has shown us some real (relative) talent of late: The G8 and the Solstice are a couple examples…but alas, GM, true to form, is late to the party and all the best girls are already on the dance floor.

GM has fallen victim to the unions GM execs enabled for decades but also to their own invention – brand engineering – where platforms are modified superficially and then force-fed to the various divisions. Many Chevrolet’s, Buick’s, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and even Cadillac models were almost indistinguishable from each other in the 70’s and 80’s as arrogant GM execs thought Americans would buy whatever their factories pooped out the door.

Only now are they realizing the error of design redundancy and being forced by market conditions and economic forces to thin the ranks. Pontiac will reportedly be the next casualty; then maybe GMC, along with possible sales of Saab, Opel and Hummer.

American industrial dominance and ingenuity have seen better days.

So at the risk of having a funeral before the body arrives, here are some of my favorite Pontiacs, a couple of them icons of American Muscle, for your enjoyment: The Bonneville, Firebird, GTO, Solstice, Trans Am and G8.

Somebody’s Playing Strawberry Fields

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Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network brings you the best in Minnesota conservatism from 11AM-5PM.  And while I look forward to doing every episode of the NARN, I’ve been looking forward to this episode in particular.  You’ll see why.

  • Volume I “The First Team” –  Brian and John kick off from 11-1.
  • Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed is off on assignmetn today, so I’ll be up next, from 1-3. We’ll be figuring out how to save the United States.  Not sure what we’ll do in Hour 2.
  • Volume III, “The Final Word” – King should be back today, dishing his own personal brand of conservative hurt.  Check it out.
  • And don’t forget, our long-time colleagues David Strom and Margaret Martin lead things off on the David Strom Show from 9-11AM!

So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of sanity. You have so many options:

  • AM1280 in the Metro
  • streaming at AM1280’s Website,
  • On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
  • UStream video and chat (at HotAir.com or at UStream) – er, not today; Ed’s got the camera…
  • Podcast at Townhall (usually uploaded by Monday morning).
  • Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488!

Join us!

(Title: The Supreme Soviet Of Love)

WaPo: “This Should Solve The Problem!”

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I’m envisioning the publishers at the Washington Post in a meeting:

GILES THROCKMORTON: “Muffy, put a bump on this cognac?  Thank you, dear.  OK, everyone.  We’re getting are ah-sses handed to us.  Ideas?

BENTLY FITZWILLIS: “NPR and Romanesko all say we’ve been swinging to the center…”

SADAH COHEN: “THAT’S the problem!”

THROCKMORTON: “I concur.  What do we do?”

DEREK MICAH DU FRESNE: “I don’t know; we’re laying people off as it is…”

THROCKMORTON: “Damn finances; we need a stronger liberal presence!”

(The previous conversation was fictional.  All celebrity voices were impersonated – badly)

Far fetched? Maybe.  But I’m trying to figure out a better reason that the WaPo would hire Ezra Klein, currently with the Prospect and formerly one of the interchangeable giggly fratboybloggers from Pandagon.

Is there method to the madness? Perhaps:

The benefits to Klein are clear. He gets a potenitally larger audience and one would assume paycheck for the move.

Is there madness to the method?

As for the Post the benefits are less clear as they add to their overhead which they have been chopping at the print edition and their is no guarantee that Klein will attract enough readers to increase the web site’s revenues which is what I assume they are striving for.

And the real question:

After all the paper and web site already lean left so do they really need to add to that side of the ledger?

Having observed the behavior of the Twin Cities media in the past few weeks, I wonder if anyone in the media even recognizes the concept of “leaning left?”

Example: A journalist generally regarded as  credible writing at a local “progressive” publication, covering the Tea Parties, used the term “Teabaggers” in his headline.  Didn’t seem to have a clue anyone would see a sign of bias or slant in it.

If you question a typical journalist, he or she will deny any personal bias (possible), and usually any on the part of the media as a whole – which either means a massive conspiracy to brainwash reporters (implausible) or a persepctive utterly foreign ot most of us.

Hither And Yon

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Just by way of tying up loose ends- Jeff Kouba at TvM links to last Saturday’s inteview on the NARN with Michael Yon.

Ed and I got to spend a half-hour talking with Yon, who may be the best single war journalist (in the classic sense of the term) working in the world today, a guy who’s spent more time in Iraq and Afghanistan than most soldiers and Marines.  His perspectives are very much worth a listen.

While We’re Talking “Overreach”

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Yesterday I wrote about Minnesota HF 2031, which would bar the State of Minnesota from buying from Jennie-O Turkey, and Jennie-O Turkey alone, until the unions are happy.

Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring was the first to write about it, and follows up:

This legislation, authored by Frank Hornstein in the House and authored in the Senate by Ellen Anderson, is a bill of attainder, which is unconstitutional. This bill doesn’t stand a snowball’s prayer in hell of having any effect. Here’s the text of Hornstein’s bill:

The state of Minnesota and its departments and agencies shall not purchase products from Jennie-O Turkey Store or its subsidiaries until Jennie-O Turkey Store or its subsidiaries ceases all alleged unfair labor practices, whether past or present, that are prohibited by section 8(a), subsections (1) and (3), of the National Labor Relations Act.

EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

TRANSLATION: Businesses that aren’t union-friendly will be punished by the DFL majorities in Minnesota’s legislature.

The question isn’t even union-friendliness (although the DFL’s willingness to yell “off what?” when unions yell “jump” should start the good voter thinking). It’s “can government write laws that single out individual people or corporations?

The Constitution would seem to say “no”,but that’s never stopped the DFL.

Show Trials

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Hugh Hewitt on Obama’s urge to conduct a purge:

There is no serious prosecutor who would bring a charge against any of these Bush Adminstration officials. No one not from the far left side of the political spectrum can even frame the indictment or explain how the tactics less coercive than water-boarding could be considered criminal when Congress, offered the opportunity to declare water boarding a crime, refused to do so. When the left turns up a former United States Attorney or even senior prosecutor not named Ramsey Clark willing to lay out his theory of prosecution, that will be an argument worth responding to. This is a witch hunt, a political prosecution, one that should be a central issue in the campaigns of 2010.

I almost hope Obama goes ahead with it. It’d make the McCarthy years look like traffic court.

HGF: Click and Shoot

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With all this talk of torture of late it would be easy to overlook the fact that American forces, often at their own peril, have taken extreme measures to minimize civilian and even combatant casualties in defense of our interests around the world.

Last week’s standoff between pirates and the U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean ended famously with three sniper shots, as a drone watched overhead. In 2008, French special forces captured six pirates on land after ransom had been paid. “There were four helicopters involved,” The Independent reported at the time. “A sniper [in a Puma helicopter] shot out the motor of the pirates’ four-wheel drive vehicle. A second helicopter [a Gazelle] then landed nearby, allowing the six pirates to be arrested” — without any casualties.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) uses helicopter-borne snipers to take out drug-running boats. They are accurate enough to knock out engines without harming the crew or damaging fuel tanks. “The driver just threw his hands up,” concludes the description of one such action in Men’s Vogue, after all three engines were disabled with three shots.

The latest installment in technology designed for the precision required for this policy: behold our latest Hot Gear Friday Installment, the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System

Sniping from a chopper currently takes tons of skill and training. But ARSS is literally point-and-shoot for the operator on the ground, using a videogame-type controller. The software makes all the necessary corrections, and the system should ensure first-round kills at several hundred yards. The secret is in the control system and stabilized turret (on the right in the picture above), which is currently fitted with a powerful RND Manufacturing Edge 2000 rifle specifically designed for sniping work, using the heavyweight .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge.

HT Dr. Dave

“I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.”

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Obama’s National Intelligence Director, Admiral Dennis Blair, wrote a little memo recently and it was edited by Obama administration staff for the sake of brevity.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country”

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.”

A spokeswoman for Admiral Blair said the lines were cut in the normal editing process of shortening an internal memo into a media statement emphasizing his concern that the public understand the context of the decisions made in the past and the fact that they followed legal orders.

It would appear brevity and full disclosure cannot exist in the same room in the Obama administration.