Is NASA necessary?

…before you answer that, remember, Star Trek isn’t real, and clearly the government already knows where Uranus is.

Is there a cure for cancer or world hunger in space? Should we risk bumping into someone out there, and pissing them off? Do we need to spend Billions on a space station that will eventually burn up in our atmosphere some day?

…you know, like a Dodge pickup?

NASA invented Tang – shouldn’t they have quit at the top of their game? (shut up, Brett)

The space program “is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources,” the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee said in a summary of its report.

…Geez, must be run by a bunch of liberals or something. God forbid we lower our goals during an almost unprecedented (as of yet at least) economic crisis.

In a time when our government (and it’s people by the way) should be looking to do more with less, to work harder, save and sacrifice more, to work our way out of the hole we’ve collectively dug, Obama’s next proposal is out of this world.

Obama asked Congress in February to boost NASA’s budget by 5 percent in fiscal year 2010 to $18.7 billion and embraced Bush’s 2020 moon-return goal.

Barack Obama shares Bush’s goal to go where the sun doesn’t shine. You can pay a lot of mortgage payments with nineteen billion, Mr. Jimmy!

The increase excludes $1 billion the agency will get under economic-stimulus legislation. A 10- year projection released with Obama’s budget showed spending would remain flat for NASA in later years.

Impressive. The deficit represents IOU’s stacked from the “stairs” on Purgatory Creek all the way into space; literally and figuratively. Of course $1 Billion to a liberal is a nit; but someone mindmeld with me and explain how spending a billion on NASA is stimulating government economic growth?

(crickets are chirping but since they are part of a useless experiment in space you can’t hear them)

The public would be inspired “with a series of interesting firsts to keep them engaged and supportive,” the committee said.

Why don’t you just try putting something in the nation’s water? Seems like less trouble to me.

The panel said that Mars, already visited by U.S. robotic probes, should be the “ultimate destination” for human explorers.

Just ask the robots.

Then again, they’ve never been to a MOB night at Keegan’s, either.

Labor Day weekend is supposed to be a sleepy time removed from the normal grind of days. It’s to be a time of camaraderie with family and friends and escape from the workaday routine. It denotes the symbolic end of another summer idyll and the return of less frivolous pursuits, foreshadowing the imminent return of less frivolous weather as well. This is what Labor Day weekend is supposed to be.

Instead this Labor Day Weekend was all too full of politics as usual. It started, as most things do in the era of Hopenchange, in the White House.

The sordid details follow the jump…

(more…)

The Event:  While bowling, David Strom knocked down all but the 8 and 9 pin, and then – improbably – picked up the spare.

The Shorter Shot In The Dark: David Strom rolled a spare.

The Shorter True North: David Strom rolled a spare. (Comment on this post over at Shot In The Dark)

The Shorter Scott Johnson: In a scene reminiscent of the pandemonium after Jimi Hendrix’ tour de force at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, our good friend David Strom did to the pins what he’s spent a career doing to the opponents of Milton Friedman.

The Shorter Dump Bachmann: I bet it was actually Michele Bachmann dressed in a Strom suit.  Developing… 

The Shorter MNPost: We asked U of Minnesota Political Science professor Larry Jacobs to put Strom’s score in context for us…

The Shorter Ed Morrissey: David Strom rolled a spare – but he shouldn’t pin his hopes on a career as a bowler.

The Shorter Minnesota Progressive Project: David Strom knocked down 17 pens, just like Chimpy McBushitler knocked down teh Twin Towers.

The Shorter Lori Sturdevant: David Strom rolled a spare. Elmer Anderson, a real Minnesota Republican, would have left a few pins for Democrats to pick up.

The Shorter Dusty Trice: David Strom attacks mob!

…the Democrats didn’t raise a fuss like the GOP is today over Obama’s speech!”

Well, no, not really.

Sunday’s Strib editorial actually ends with a modestly useful point:

Education has never been as strategically important to national well-being as it is today, as other nations move quickly to overtake this country in the knowledge-based economy of the future. Given that challenge, a simple speech on the value of education should not be a matter for partisan contention.

Well, yeah.  It should not be.  Education has much, much bigger problems than a speech from a President. 

And I personally don’t have a huge problem with the Presidents speech, in and of itself.  The bureaucracy certainly overstepped in its rah-rah approach to publicizing and curriculumizing the speech – it smacked of personality cultism like a 2×4 to the back of the head “smacks of” impact – and people do need to be vigilant about this kind of thing.

But the Strib is shocked, shocked, to realize that Americans disagree about politics:

 But these are odd times. Unfortunately for our children, even a back-to-school welcome can further divide us.

True.  But the address is hardly alone.

But just seven months into the Obama presidency, nothing is simple. The political lesson some seem intent on teaching our kids today is rooted in what appears to be a growing lack of respect for the office of the president. How very sad.

A “Growing lack of respect” for the office of president?

What did the Strib – as reliably DFL-leaning a publication as exists – have to say about the endless, toxic disrespect that was paid to the previous President? 

Bear in mind that disagreeing with policy isn’t direspectful – conservatives opposed Bush’s spending, quaint as it seems today. 

This after eight years of running columns that referred to President Bush as “the occupant”; eight years of Garrison Keillor’s sniffing down his nose over Bush’s accent with nary a word about policy; eight years of Susan Lenfestey’s paranoid, hate-drenched Bush derangement.

Yeah, Strib.  Your concern for respect for the office is touching.

It ought to give Americans pause about the toll of excessive partisanship when the president is faulted for planning to urge the nation’s schoolchildren to learn their lessons. On Tuesday, the first day of school for many Americans, the president’s brief address should be a valuable reminder that students serve their country as well as themselves when they succeed academically. That message deserves a top-level spokesman.

And the notion of “respect for the office” deserves a spokesman who isn’t marinading in cynical hypocrisy.

Politico counts the Administration’s casualty list.

The latest one grabbed me; it’s the twerp with absolutely zero experience in the auto industry who became Obama’s car czar:

When the Treasury Department announced on July 13 that Steve Rattner, the private equity executive who headed the president’s Auto Task Force, would return to the private sector, Secretary Tim Geithner said Rattner’s work in Washington was essentially done.

 

“With GM’s restructuring complete, Steven Rattner, whose leadership and vision were invaluable to the Auto Task Force’s efforts, has decided to transition back to private life and his family in New York City,” Geithner said in a statement. “We are extremely grateful to Steve for his efforts in helping to strengthen GM and Chrysler, recapitalize GMAC, and support the American auto industry. I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future.”

But that sounds like it’s becoming the Obama Administration equivalent of “Good Job, Brownie”:

 

But Rattner’s departure wasn’t the end of the Auto Task Force. Indeed, even as Geithner announced Rattner’s job as done, he announced that Ron Bloom, a former banker and union official serving as an adviser to Treasury, would take over Rattner’s responsibilities.

 

For months, Rattner’s tenure had been plagued by stories of a New York-based investigation into Rattner’s firm, Quadrangle Group, and allegations that it had illegally obtained a management role in New York’s public pension fund.

Blame all the noise at the town hall meetings…

Last week at the State Fair, I interviewed Congressman John Kline, shortly after he’d adopted the “press the Reset button” line on the healthcare debate.  Kline reflects the kind of deliberation one needs to exhibit when talking about a sixth of the US economy.

Keith Ellison is not a legislator who needs to deliberate; like President Obama, he’s an apparatchik from a place with a one-party government; in Minneapolis, deliberation is for parties that aren’t in power.

None of that pesky “thought’ and “democratic process” for Ellison (quotes from the KSTP-TV interview with the Representative):

“We need to hit the “go” button”. 

 None of that pesky “democracy” for Ellison:

“I don’t think getting a bipartisan bill is more important than getting a good bill for the American people”.

 (where “Good” means “Enact the Administration’s radical agenda, consequences – unintended and “Unintended” – be damned!”)

But there is no debate too complex, with consequences too daunting, that a little rah-rah cheerleading can’t be used as substitutes for actual thought…:

“I think the boat should be leaving the dock.  You wanna get on board, you gotta get on board right now”.

…among DFLers, anyway.

For the past decade or so, socialism has been advancing in Latin America.

But perhaps Hugo Chavez and his statist ilk have gone too far; Latin Americans are pushing back:

Thousands of opponents of Hugo Chavez marched against the Venezuelan president across Latin America on Friday, accusing him of everything from authoritarianism to international meddling.

The protests, coordinated through Twitter and Facebook, drew more than 5,000 people in Bogota, and thousands more in the capitals of Venezuela and Honduras. Smaller demonstrations were held in other Latin American capitals, as well as New York and Madrid.

The Honduras march was led by Roberto Micheletti, who became president when Chavez ally Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a June coup.

“Any politician who tries to stay in power by hitching up with a dictator like Hugo Chavez, he won’t achieve it,” Micheletti said. “We’ll stop him.”

From their lips to the American voters’ ears.

Remember – the Fifth Anniversary Minnesota Organization of Bloggers Summer Gala is Saturday night at Keegans’ Irish Pub, just west of Hennepin on University in Northeast Minneapolis.

Things kick off around 6:30, and run ’til we’re done (usually 10:30ish), so there’s plenty of time to make your other late-night plans.

You can RSVP via the email address feedbackinthedark (which is at Yahoo dot com), or if you’ve friended me on Facebook, you can respond to the event.

Up early Sunday. 

Taking a rare bit of sunday morning TV.

Saw the Baby Bell Cheese commercial.

Wondered “who is the lady who does the spot?”

Googled “Baby Bell cheese commercial girl”.

Got my answer.  It took maybe 20 seconds.

Apropos not much.

That’s what we are telling our kids when President Barack Obama addresses the nation’s schoolchildren in his upcoming address. Be there, listen, take notes and we will talk about it when you get home.

At the same time, I respect parents that are pulling their kids that day a hell of a lot more than those that are neutral on the issue, or aren’t even aware of it.

This is a teaching, parenting moment.

Some parents have cried “Leave the parenting to us, not the President!”

But guess what, a lot of you are really crappy parents.

Some are absentee. Others are uninformed, lazy or disinterested. Many are physically present but not active; wealthy but won’t invest time. A lot of our nation’s ills can be traced back to a lack of focus, leadership and discipline on the part of parents, fathers especially, coupled with the increasingly fragmented family unit.

If there is one thing to recognize Barack Obama for, he seems to be a pretty good Dad and I think its fair to say it’s a harder job than being President, and certainly while being President.

If the President is true to his mission for this address, it could be of value. The nation’s first African-American President, addressing millions of children, many of whom are without a father, telling them to stay in school, dream big, and make the American dream your dream is good for all of us.

At the same time I understand the disdain many parents have for the President’s address. This is in part due to its timing, amidst a controversial and highly unpopular push for a government takeover of our health care system, soaring deficits, and the predicted bloating of the federal government.

But I also think it can be tied to a growing awareness that the President really hasn’t been the agent of systemic change that he told us he would be; that the actions he and Congress have taken to stimulate the economy have more likely made things worse; and the growing list of broken campaign promises.

A lot of people don’t trust Obama any more and aren’t exactly looking for his advice, especially to their children.

My kids know that we are conservatives, but they also know why. They know we don’t blindly follow or discount a politician of any particular party – my kids also know I’m not a George Bush fan and why. They also know that I am not a Barack Obama fan, but not because he isn’t like us, rather because I don’t agree with his politics. That is not to say that there aren’t things we agree on, and that will purportedly be the agenda for his address.

…and if the President strays into political or ideological territory, my kids will spot it from a hundred yards.

I don’t want my children to blindly follow in my ideological footsteps. I want them to form their own beliefs and philosophies. I want them to own them so that no one can take them away without a fight.

And that is why I want them to watch the President with respect, and with an open but discerning mind.

The Violence Policy Center has a long record of cooking data to try to build a national case against civilian ownership of firearms.

They’ve failed, of course; more Americans own guns today than ever, while the idea of a link between crime and the demonstrably law-abiding armed citizen is almost too specious for modern physics to measure.  Gun control is a third rail like few others in American politics.

Which doesn’t mean they won’t try; the VPC – the very definition of an astroturf group – has masters with deep pockets to obey. And so they keep cranking out the material.

Like this “study” (which should be getting slavering coverage from the bought-and-paid-for lefty media) to show pervasive violence on the part of carry permit holders nationside.

The “study” summary:

As the impact of lax CCW laws grows, the evidence is now overwhelming that these laws have completely failed to reduce crime or increase public or personal safety.

Overewhelmingly lacking, at any rate; John Lott proved the case, and while astroturf hacks like the VPC may jump up and down and cry otherwise, they are bringing jackknives to sword fights.

But that’s really not the issue:

On the contrary, these laws have armed individuals who have murdered law enforcement officers and innocent citizens. Review of the devastating facts surrounding the 30 incidents detailed in this study alone should immediately halt any effort to create a national concealed carry system and, in addition, impel the
repeal of state “shall issue” laws allowing the carrying of concealed handguns.

Well, it’s an interesting conclusion.  Although not only is it not borne out by evidence in general, but even the VPC’s own evidence, viewed in detail, convincingly refutes the VPC’s own claim.

• Over the two-year period May 2007 through April 2009, concealed handgun permit holders have slain seven law enforcement officers resulting in criminal charges or the suicide of the shooter. All of the killings were committed with guns. An additional three law enforcement officers were injured in these incidents.
• Over the two-year period May 2007 through April 2009, concealed handgun permit holders have slain at least 43 private citizens resulting in criminal charges or the suicide of the shooter. All but one of the killings were committed with guns. An additional six private citizens were injured in these incidents.
• In six of the 30 incidents (20 percent), the concealed handgun permit holder killed himself, bringing the total fatality count to 56.

So let’s look into the numbers in detail.  As noted above, “Carry permit holders” accounted for seven dead and three wounded law enforcement officers; 43 dead and six wounded citizens, and six suicides (all of them after other shootings).

But if you look at the individual cases, some facts emerge that the VPC found inconvenient to stress.  I broke them out into several categories:

• Self-Defense Cases Gone Seemingly Awry: One of the problems with self-defense claims is that ones’ decision to respond to an attack that needs to be made in seconds under mind-warping pressure will be picked apart by prosecutors and jurors who have leisurely days and weeks to judge the results.  Two of the killings – one not charged as of yet, one resulting in a manslaughter conviction – fit this description.
• Self Defense Against Law Enforcement Officers: One of the trickiest cases in all of self-defense is when a citizen believes – legitimately or not – that a law enforcement officer (whether known to them or not) presents them a lethal threat.  Law enforcement enjoys special protections under the law – usually for good reasons.  But cops screw up, too; in Minneapolis a few years ago, a SWAT team executed a no-knock raid – on the wrong address.  The owner of the house, an Asian man in a crappy neighborhood crowded with scumbags, had no idea who was charging into his house; he was eventually exonerated.  In the VPC report, two law-enforcement officers (federal and local) were killed and two wounded.  In one case, the killing was the result of a seemingly stupid response on the part of the shooter, and ended in a manslaughter charge (although, significantly, not murder). The other killing, and the two wounded, were the result of no-knock raids seemingly gone awry.    Note that these cases all took place in the citizens’ dwellings – and thus have nothing to do with the carry permits.  You don’t need  a permit, in most places, to have a gun.
• Accidents: One of the killings was an accidental shooting involving a pistol owned by a carry permittee.  Tragic, certainly – but it has nothing to do with the permit.
• Shooters Who Shouldn’t Have Gotten Permits: It’s generally agreed that people with criminal records, or records of mental illness or just-plain-violent behavior, should not be granted permits.  When this happens, it’s usually a matter of less-than-thorough investigation by the granting authority (usually a county sheriff), or, as is the case in jurisdictions where permits are issued purely by police discretion (this was the case in a shooting in New York state), faulty use of discretion.  Shootings involving people who should never have been issued permits included 12 incidents, involving 24 dead and two wounded.

And with all of those out of the way – the ambiguous cases or the people who should never have gotten permits at all – that leaves us with the actual, unambiguous crimes where a carry permit holder did something for which they were clearly, unambiguously at fault; Ten cases, involving 20 deaths.  It’s skewed a bit, of course, as it includes one mass murder case, the Michael McClendon case in Alabama which claimed ten people and the shooter.

Of course, concealed carry permits are hardly a direct contributor to mass spree killings; many have happened at the hands of people with no hope of ever getting a permit.  But for purposes of dealing with the article, let’s grudgingly count it among the 20 unambiguously wrongful deaths where no blame is shared with other peoples’ negligence.

Now – how many carry permits have been issued nationwide?  Nobody has a complete count, but the general rule seems to be about 1% of eligible citizens seem to apply; that ratio holds true in Minnesota (5 million people; over 50,000 permits issued).  Other states are higher, some might be lower.  Now, about 220,000,000 Americans live in states with shall-issue laws, or with no restrictions at all (Alaska and Vermont, where no permit is required); it seems reasonable to assume that 2.2 million Ameircans have some sort of carry permit.

2.2 million Americans with permits divided by 20 murders committed over the course of two years equals less than .5 murders – half a murder – per 100,000 carry permittees per year.  Even using the VPC’s numbers exactly as they are in the “study” means the 2.2million permittees are responsible for 56 wrongful deaths over the course of two years (ambiguous or not, related to carry permitting or not) gives a murder rate of about 1.4 per 100,000 permitted Americans.  Of course, the chance of any American being wrongly killed by a permit holder (using the VPC’s statistics, which as we’ve seen above are poppycock) are .014 per 100,000 Americans.

The overall murder rate in America in 2007 was 5.9 per 100,000.  In other words, Americans are 1/421th (roughly) as likely to be murdered by a carry permit holder as they are by a typical citizen – and that’s using the VPC’s numbers without qualification, which as we’ve noted in the past, one should never do.  If we leave out the ambiguous cases, the accidents and the others that have nothing to do with concealed carry, the average American is almost three orders of magnitude less likely to be killed by a legal carry permit holder than by, say, anybody else.

Let’s be clear, here; we want no unjustified killings by holders of carry permits, which are supposed to be a tool for the law-abiding.

But when you see this VPC study being flogged by the media, pass the word; there’s less there than meets the eye.

About 1/421th as much.

The UAW! While Cash for Clunkers junkies lie on the sidewalks of America looking for their next fix, the only long-term benefactors are the government and the UAW.

The United Auto Workers (UAW), which donated more than 99 percent of its $25.4 million to Democratic federal candidates in the past 20 years, had a particularly good year, at least compared to other stakeholders as General Motors and Chrysler struggled and were forced into a government-managed bankruptcy by the White House.

Those auto company bailouts and bankruptcies were major stories this year, yet the network news media rarely discussed union causes of the car companies’ inability to compete, and the high cost of union labor compared to non-union labor. In fact, in some cases the UAW was portrayed to evoke sympathy from viewers.

The UAW, along with it’s country cousin the federal government now own GM.

But the union paid their dues, being the business savvy, cost-couscious, and visionary assembly that they are; gave up so so very much to save GM and get their cut.

“UAW workers gave up their customary paid holiday on Easter Monday and their right to overtime pay after less than 40 hours per week. They still get health benefits that are far better than those received by many American families upon whose tax money GM jobs now depend. Ditto for UAW hourly wages, though according to the task force, GM’s labor costs are now within ‘shooting distance’ of those at nonunion plants run by Honda, Toyota and other foreign firms. Cumbersome UAW work rules have only been tweaked.”

This will turn out to be either the largest government takeover and giveaway of a private corporation or just desserts for the UAW.

This what Obama meant when his campaign offered an end to politics as usual.

Saturday in the NARN, I said that Van Jones – Obama’s “Green Jobs” Czar – would step down on the graveyard shift, Saturday or Sunday, when the people are asleep and the media are playing infomercials. 

Jones, who was a 9/11 truther and casual racist with a knack for reaching across the aisle – bailed out last night. 

President Barack Obama’s adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

He never existed, Winston.

I came upon this strikingly worthless project while biking along a trail in Purgatory Park in Minnetonka.

I can just picture a couple beer-o-crats self-congratulating themselves on this idea.

“You know what this crawfish creek needs?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Some goll-dang stairs.”

“Yep!”

“Yeah, plus we’ll create jobs.”

“Well, not actually. We alruddy werk for the govment.”

“It’ll take a few hours to put in the stairs, but we can leave one o’ them stimuless signs up for weeks and weeks!”

And it did, and they have.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network wraps up our sixth year at the Minnesota State Fair from 11AM-5PM.  We’ll be at our posh digs on Dan Patch Avenue, about 100 yards west of the main Snelling Avenue entrance, next to the Merchandise Mart, across from the Culligan, Farmers Union and DFL (hah!) booths. 

We have eight solid hours of great live radio planned:

• Volume I “The First Team” –  Brian and John will be dredging the sideshows for the kind of guests that even Howard Stern wouldn’t interview, from 11-1. 
• Volume II “The Headliner” – Ed and I are up from 1-3.  Today, we’re scheduled to have GOP Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, as well as reps from our sponsor, the US Army, and much more!
• Volume III, “The Final Word” – King is up next; he’ll be breaking his 22 year abstention from meat at some point during the show.  See what meat won the poll over at SCSU Scholars.
• And don’t forget, our long-time colleagues David Strom and Margaret Martin lead things off on the David Strom Show from 9-11AM!

(All times Central)

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).
• Podcast at Townhall, usually by Monday
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488!

Join us at the Fair!

…is a teleprompter, and independents, Republicans a public majority and a growing faction of your party is against you, what do you do?

Give another speech? …to my kids?

Obama has lost contact with the American people and is soon to be floating in a political vacuum…talking to himself.

“We gave Congress a charge, we gave them broad outlines, which is the reason we are farther along than any of the five presidents that have tried,” [Rahm] Emanuel said in an interview yesterday.

By what measure? Americans are five times more pissed off at their government? The unsubmitted bill used five times times more paper?

Rahm is in a state of stupor.

“We’re not there yet, and this speech is intended to finish the job.”

…I guess we’ll see what or who will be finished. When a thug from Chicago says “finish the job”…

I do try to get along with people.  Even liberals.  Even leftybloggers.  Part of it is that I grew up a liberal, in a liberal family; I’m not one of those who sees liberals as an evil “enemy”, necessarily – because I used to be one of them, and I was no more “evil” or “enemy” then than I am now. 

And there are some good leftybloggers out there.  I’ve called them out when I see them. 

Which doesn’t change the fact that the Twin Cities’ leftysphere is one of the world’s mother lodes of Mittyesque fantasy, deranged paranoia, hopelessly hatred-addled ranting masquerading as “thought”, and (at the end of the day) mindless passing-on of what ones’ superiors want passed on.

But every once in a while, a leftyblog tries to actually “report” the “news”.

Now, as I noted last weekend, a couple of minions from Dustrytrice.com (a DFLer whose blog is to Minnesota Democrats Exposed as Debbie Gibson was to Chrissie Hynde) were busy videotaping GOP gubernatorial candidates’ appearances on the NARN last weekend.   They stood there for two hours, getting vid of Paul Kolls, Pat Anderson and Marty Seifert and, as I got off the air, I saw they were getting ready to film Laura Brod.

I mentioned this to Laura, who is the sort of irrepressible conservative that will no doubt get her labelled as “crazy” by the DFL noise machine in fairly short order here.  Always looking for a scrap, she walked over to introduce herself to the camera guys.

And I thought “Hm.  I wonder how this is going to come out?”  I already had a hint; earlier, Trice had twittered that the utterly mild-mannered Paul Kolls – easily the lowest-key of the four three and a half gubernatorial hopefuls – was “hateful”.  I figured “this is gonna be a doozy”.

So I was mildly shocked to read Trice saying that Brod – who is nothing if not a good GOP trooper – had “said”:

Over the busy opening weekend a few DUSTYTRICE.COM tipsters were volunteering to help tape over at the Patriot Radio booth. They caught up with Rep. Laura Brod as she was getting ready to go on air. One of the tipsters mentioned that none of the GOP candidates were speaking at the GOP booth.

Well, according to Laura Brod they aren’t letting them speak.

Huh. 

Well, I took the liberty of talking with Brod before our NARN interview yesterday, and emailing her this morning just to make sure.  And while the both communications were off the record, let’s just assure you that that was not what Laura Brod said.  She said nothing about the GOP not “allowing” candidates to speak at the booth.

So what I want to know is why the MN GOP is preventing their candidates from speaking to the 1.6 million Minnesotans at the Fair?

And what I want to know is, given that Brod said nothing of the sort, and Dustrytrice.com has absolutely no corroboration of this rather odd charge, where does this curious claim come from? 

Oh, yeah.

We know their booth is only seeing light traffic,

[althought not nearly as light as the DFL’s; I spend two hours a day watching the place from my vantage point across the street at the Patriot booth; it’s a morgue, even though it’s at one of the highest traffic intersections at the fairgrounds.  And I’m seeing easily 2-3 times as much GOP swag and flair as I am DFL as I wander a, which is a huge turnaround from last year] 

 so are the GOP party bosses afraid nobody will be there to listen? Are they worried that the extremist right-wing candidates (Pat Anderson, Tom Emmer) may drag down the more moderate candidates (Bill Haas)?

Nah, Dusty.  In the age of Obama, conservatism is not a drag. 

Whatever you see in the news, whatever you hear from countless town halls and state fairs and all around you, it’s the conservatives who are the violence-prone wackoes.

No  matter what the evidence:

An opponent of government healthcare programs had part of a finger bit off during a fight at a pro-healthcare-reform rally this week in Thousand Oaks.

William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park was with a small group of counter-protesters at a vigil Wednesday night organized by Moveon.org when a man bit off part of his left pinky finger during a scuffle, authorities said. Doctors were unable to reattach Rice’s finger.

Remember – right-wing domestic terror is the greatest danger to democracy today.  Pinky swear.

Being wired as they are – as hive creatures – liberals want the soothing balm of firm-but-benign authority inserted into every conceivable crevice of not only their own lives, but those of everyone around them.

And so they want President Obama to address America’s grade-school kids next Tuesday.

It’s not the dumbest idea this administration’s had, but it’s right down there:

With just four days left until the first day of school for most students, school administrators spent Thursday fielding angry phone calls and e-mails. Some parents and community members are pressuring schools not to show the telecast, arguing that it’s an attempt to advance the president’s political agenda through the public schools.

Here’s your Minnesota tax dollars in action:

“Some parents are calling their superintendent and saying they’re not going to have their kids go to school,” Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. Dooher urged superintendents to show the broadcast anyway, for its educational value.

“The education of our students shouldn’t become a partisan pawn for those who are trying to score political points against the president,” he said.

Dooher – whose job is all about scoring political points (as the head of Minnesota’s most powerful, and most relentlessly DFL-leaning, union – is, of course, being disingenuous.  As is the Strib, for not telling the less-politically-savyy reader that Dooher heads a union whose main function is to tell the Democratic Party when to “jump”, and off what.

But it’s a moot point.  This speech is illegal.

We all know that for many liberals – even many of those that profess some sort of organized religious faith – that liberalism is a substitute for religion, eliciting much of the same zeal that it does among the faithful (and, among the fringe extreme, even some of the same creepy excess).

This was accompanied by plenty of considered religious imagery during Obama’s campaign; his wife said his purpose was the save the nation’s soul; the point was not lost on a fawning media:

So presenting Obama’s speech violates the Separation Clause just as surely as broadcasting the Pope or the Dalai Lama to our kids would.

King Banaian is ending 22 years of vegetarianism tomorrow.  It’s for medical reasons, natch.

And his inaugural hit is going to be tomorrow at the Minnesota State Fair, and he needs your help.

He’s running a poll to see what the first meat is going to be.  The choices are Buffalo, Gator, Elk, Turkey or Corn Dog.  For the love of the great almighty, please don’t vote for the Corn Dog.

Bummer that he left the Wild Boar off the list.  That’s yummy.

It would be even funnier if it wasn’t all true. Enjoy.

Click to play!

Ed and I are at the Fair again.

Today – Eva Ng (GOP-endorsed candidate for Mayor of St. Paul) and Laura Brod, who is, pinky swear, not a gubernatorial candidate…

ON from 5-7!

I’ve been twenty feet up a ladder, painting my second-level soffits and fascia, since six AM.  No, I do not have energy to blog right at the moment. 

However, I’ll try posting something before I go to the Fair (where we’ll be interviewing Eva Ng and Laura Brod).

“Cash for Clunkers” programs the world over are being touted as a success. Meanwhile dealers are wondering how they can sell…just one car… now.

“German Clunkers Scheme Was Surprising Success”

The issue now is whether a recovery in demand will come soon enough to compensate for the end of government incentives.

Recent figures from the U.S., crucial to Mercedes and BMW, suggest that demand for German cars there is recovering. German policymakers can only hope it recovers fast enough that that history judges their wreck rebate as a success and not a boondoggle.

Meanwhile, back here in the states…from the very same edition of BusinessWeek:

After the Clunker Party, an Auto Sales Hangover

“August was the best month of the year, but it’s possible that it could be followed by the worst month this year,” says Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer of Edmunds.com.

Essentially, the government pissed away a couple billion dollars in August to incent people that wouldn’t have otherwise bought cars…until…oh my gosh…September! (!!!)

…like other carmakers, GM saw sales trail off after the clunkers program ended. And it appears that the rebates sucked some sales out of September as well. Michael DiGiovanni, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, says that he thinks about 200,000 of the 700,000 cars sold under the clunkers program were pulled ahead from future months.

Well done, libs, well done. You saved the auto industry…for six weeks.