I’m glad to see the Associated Press’ Charles Babington T issuing this warning about “rhetoric”…:

Politicians of all stripes are bound to be haunted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ warning, 10 months before she was shot, to cool the rhetoric.

It’s been a year or more of raw politics, with anger spilling over on both sides and gun-related metaphors coming loosely from the lips of some candidates and activists.

…after this nation sat through eight years of “Chimpy McBusHitler” and “time to secede from Jesusland” and “If (pick your candidate wins) we’re moving to (socialist utopia) and “Screw ’em” and “God D*mn The USA” and “I think I’ve got the ‘nads for a revolution” and “I hope Tony Snow died a painful death“, and this…:

(oh, this is SO much more benign that Sarah Palin's "targets", isn't it?)

…and…

…oh, what’s the point?

Well, the point is that everyone gets their knickers in a spin over the other guy’s rhetoric.

Did Michele Bachmann’s “rhetoric” cause someone to kill Bill Sparkman – to pick just one example of the left’s chattering heads like the loathsome and incompetent Paul Krugman jumping to an unwarranted but pre-written conclusion?  No, he killed himself.  But one is bidden to wonder whose rhetoric it was that caused Mr. Sparkman to choose to as his last act on his earth to slander “anti-government” protesters?

Mr. Loughton’s mind was pretty clearly gone over the edge.  I’m no shrink, but if he didn’t have some sort of dissociative disorder, I’ll eat my hat (rhetorically speaking).  Now, the insane and the not-very-bright do tend to be drawn to one political extreme or another.  To listen to the caterwauling of the left, the right – and only the right – needs to watch it’s rhetoric so that…

…so that the insane don’t get the wrong idea?

I’m still unclear on what it is they’re looking for, besides trying to slander and/or shut up the right.

Dick Winters, the Pennsylvania Quaker who became famous later in life as the commander of E  Company/506th Parachute Infantry (and later of the Regiment’s 2nd Battalion) in Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, and the eponymous TV series, has passed away:

Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” threw him into the international spotlight. Since then, the former World War II commander of Easy Company had received hundreds of requests for interviews and appearances all over the world.

And the Greatest Generation got a lot smaller.

The Winters that came through in the book and miniseries was an estimable person:

Ambrose, the author of “Band of Brothers,” said in a 2001 BBC interview that he hopes young people say. “I want to be like Dick Winters.”

“Not necessarily as soldiers, but as that kind of leader, that kind of man, with basic honesty and virtue and an understanding of the difference between right and wrong,” Ambrose said

I had a chance to meet Herb Suerth – who was a driving force beyind getting the original veterans together for Stephen Ambrose’s book – last fall.  He’s one of two of the company’s 37 survivors living in Minnesota (Frank Soboleski lives in International Falls).

I originally wrote this after the Virginia Tech shootings and adapted it to current events. In light of the frenzy going on only hours after the shootings in Arizona, I feel it is no less relevant now.

What can we do?

…regarding the shootings yesterday in Arizona?…nothing.

You can’t make sense of something like this. You can’t ban guns. You can’t promote guns. Not today. Not ever.

You can’t make this about policy, religion or politics. Not today. Not ever.

We’ll hear all the angles, all the speculation, the second it’s politically acceptable – probably sooner. In the context of an isolated tragedy like this no one will be right.

You can’t lock down public places. You can’t arm everyone everywhere, even if they wanted to be, and a gun law won’t stop a person intent on harming another person.

You can’t prevent everything.

We want to try to make sense of it. We want to try to mitigate the pain by somehow surmising that there is an upside. Something to be learned. An opportunity to capitalize. A way to prevent someone intent on harming others. But there won’t be.

All we can do is support and pray for the families…and for the shooter’s family…and for the victims of similar past tragedies for whom this will be an excruciating reminder.

Hug your loved ones, your husbands, wives and kids.

That’s what we can do.

When I heard about his shooting I thought about the congresswoman’s husband and what he must be going through. I thought about what it would be like to lose a nine-year-old daughter in such a horrible way. I thought about how I would feed if the shooter were my son.

It didn’t occur to me to think about the political motivations of the killer or the culpability vis a vis a policy stance or voting record on the part of the congresswoman or her staff, let alone the bystanders who are no less or no more innocent in this context.

I think it’s sad that there are those that have already done that, even before all the facts are in; as if it would be appropriate even if they were.

There is only one person to blame. Whether he used a gun, a knife, a car or a baseball bat, it is of no import. Whether he was a Republican or a Democrat or of the Tea Party, it is of no import. Whether he was sane or not, it is of no import.

Senseless acts of violence can not be explained or rationalized.

No one in the interest of any affiliation should condone or attribute a senseless act of cruelty.

The Giffords shooting has truly separated the wheat from the repugnant chaff.

Paul Krugman in the NYTimes?  In  a column released on the NYTimes online before the last body was cold, and indeed looks pre-written?  Chaff:

A Democratic Congresswoman has been shot in the head; another dozen were also shot.

We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.

Krugman goes on to give no evidence that Loughner was politically motivated in any way.

She’s been the target of violence before.

And in Paul Krugman’s world, correlation equals causation – even if there’s no correlation!

And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list.

Watch for the drumbeat over the coming weeks; “Rhetoric” will be targeted.  Oh, just certain kinds of rhetoric; political “crosshairs” bad, “war” on obesity good.

Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary.

To be fair, Ezra Klein is scared of the Constitution, freedom, and Girl Scouts selling cookies.

Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.

And there, finally, Krugman is right.

The left, shredded nationwide in the past election, needs a Reichstag Fire.  Oklahoma City helped give Bill Clinton the horrible, emotionally-wrenching distraction  he needed to regroup after his drubbing in 2004 (and by that I’m calling him an opportinist, not a conspirator); Krugman knows not to “waste a crisis”, too.

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

“When did you stop beating your wife”.

Update: I see that Sarah Palin has called the shooting “tragic”. OK, a bit of history: right-wingers went wild over anyone who called 9/11 a tragedy, insisting that it wasn’t a tragedy, it was an atrocity.

And with that noxious tu quoque, we’ll move on to a more local example.

“Matt McNeil” is a “host” at AM950, a liberal talk “radio station” in the Twin Cities.  He popped up on Twitter a few times yesterday:

The rhetoric of the right is playing out. I can’t wait for the righto’s saying “Who could have…”

As we’re all shocked, every Republican is meeting with their staff right now to figure out how they can seem sympathetic but not critical.

Oh screw you – all of those who are now saying “don’t rush to judgement,” We all know where this rhetoric was headed, don’t act surprised

All three before we knew who the shooter was, much less that Loughner is apparently insane.

Never waste a crisis, I guess.  There are enemies to tar.

And yes, there are really depraved people on the fringes of every issue.  We know that.

But when the New York Times gives space to someone whose only act is to fraudulently slander his political enemies, what does that say about the Times’ “rhetoric?”

More on “rhetoric” tomorrow.

Carolyn McCarthy (Ghoul, NY) has a sweeping new gun control bill already written:

One of the fiercest gun-control advocates in Congress, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), pounced on the shooting massacre in Tucson Sunday, promising to introduce legislation as soon as Monday.

McCarthy ran for Congress after her husband was gunned down and her son seriously injured in a shooting in 1993 on a Long Island commuter train.

Make sure your Dem friends catch that icky little irony; McCarthy’s husband was killed on a train in a city with among the stiffest gun control laws in the country, then and now.  Those laws served only to make Rep. McCarthy’s late husband and the rest of the victims on the LIRR train sitting ducks for Colin Ferguson – an earlier generation of insane shooter.

“My staff is working on looking at the different legislation fixes that we might be able to do and we might be able to introduce as early as tomorrow,” McCarthy told POLITICO in a Sunday afternoon phone interview.

36 hours flat.

What a deeply depraved woman.

Law enforcement is saying that the Giffords’ shooter was one Jared Loughner, a student at Pima Community College.

Here’s his Youtube channel.  Check out the references to “government controlling our minds by controlling grammar”, mind control, the unconstitutionality of tuition.   There are references that make noises that sound like anarchism and atheism – but for the most part, he seems to be very, very mentally ill; if he is indeed the shooter behind the (as this is written) 1 to 4 dead, very very mentally ill.

Here’s an example:

Here’s another, from three weeks or so ago, with a few rather troubling bits in it:

looks just a tad mentally ill, from my utterly unqualified but common-sense-drenched perspective.

Judge for yourself.

Side note:  Anyone trying to fob this maniac off on the Tea Party is going to have me to deal with.  Don’t go there.

For the record, I’m with Speaker Boehner on this one:

“I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff.  An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.  Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society.  Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families.  This is a sad day for our country.”

And my prayers are with Rep. Giffords and her family, as well as all the other victims – however many there are.

UPDATE:  I’m in the studio, with Ed, digging into whatever’s available about Mr. Loughner.  So is Ed, over at HotAir.

UPDATE 2:  Rep. Giffords is out of surgery – after having been reported as “dead” by NPR and Fox during the 1PM CT hour.  There is apparently room for optimism about the Representative’s condition.  She was (reportedly) shot in the temple at four feet range; perhaps the vagaries of ballistics and some excellent doctors have given her a miracle.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and as many as 11 others (or more, or less, depending on the source you’re paying attention to) shot in an Arizona grocery store.

Fox, CNN, NPR.

I suppose this isn’t the first time beer has stopped traffic.

A kilometre-long convoy of beer vats is on the move, shutting down roads and downing hydro and cable lines in its path.

Massive vats that can hold six million bottles of beer are being hauled from Hamilton Harbour to a Molson Coors facility near Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

The trip, which is expected to take four nights, began Friday night as the vats — loaded on six flatbed trailers — were slowly pulled out of the docks by transport trucks.

As for me, I prefer Surly, a local beer known for for it’s quality than it’s quantity.

…and at ten bucks for four cans, thusly priced as well.

I always loved this bit from South Park:

Oh, that Cartman. Spoofing people who “are just asking questions”. Funny funny stuff.

———-

Apropos absolutely nothing; about two months ago, three months ago a group of 20-odd Somalis were busted for running a prostitution ring in Minneapolis.  The ring allegedly forced young Somali girls into prostitution.

Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent lives in Minneapolis.

This raises questions:  Was Andy Birkey complicit in the prostitution ring?

No, I’m not being inflammatory.  I’m just asking questions.

Oh, yeah – Birkey has written his 24th article about Bradlee Dean in the past 53 weeks.

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc. (YCR), the Annandale-based hard rock ministry run by Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillian, set up trusts with help from a ministry in Oregon which has been a target of the IRS investigations for setting up tax avoidance schemes all over the country, Karl Bremer at Ripple in Stillwater reports.

While writing “How do you know Karl Bremer is full of crap?  His fingers are moving over the keyboard?” would be an ad-hominem, his history of being a ranting crank raises questions.

But I digress.  Here’s a serious question:  huh?

What sort of trust did YCR set up?  Was it legal?  Were YCR’s business dealings among those being investigated by the IRS?

Indeed, what is the IRS investigating?  And did YCR’s association with the “ministry in Oregon” happen to coincide in any way with anything that the IRS investigated?

I’m just asking questions (and adding emphasis to Birkey’s quotes).

Dean and YCR dismantled the work done by Glen Stoll and the Embassy of Heaven for their ministry and even took their case against Stoll to district court in 2008, but the arrangement raises questions about whether Dean and his ministry were trying to avoid paying their rightful share of taxes.

Birkey’s “just asking questions”.

We’ll come back to that.

Documents filed in Minnesota’s 10th District Court outline the arrangement set up by YCR with the help of Stoll. Bradlee Dean, whose real name is Bradley Dean Smith, and Jake McMillian, whose real name is Jake MacAuley, took classes from Stoll and paid him $6,500 to set up “established, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable and assignable ministerial trusts” that would allow them to operate as a “‘free church’ that would be invulnerable to state regulation and control.”

As part of the deal, Smith was given an identification card from Stoll’s Embassy of Heaven that affirmed that, “On file is a signed statement by Bradley Smith renouncing allegiance to the world and declaring citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

So let me ask some questions – remember, I’m just asking questions, because questions were raised:

• Was this “trust” illegal?
• In fact, did tax laws in the early part of the 2000s make these sort of trusts a common and attractive means for religious ministries to handle their taxes and finances?
• Did IRS laws change in the past five years, making various forms of non-profit status more useful?
• Did YCR actually “evade” taxes?
• If it could be showed I deducted my mortgage interest or inreimbursed medical expenses, would I be “evading taxes” according to Andy Birkey?
• I know Andy Birkey and Karl Bremer are just “raising questions” – but do they have any actual evidence that YCR and Bradlee Dean didn’t actually pay taxes they were supposed to?
• Any evidence at all?  Or are they just “raising questions”?

Remember – I’ m just asking questions.  Because questions were raised.  So I’m asking them.

Stoll also told his clients not to pay income taxes or employment taxes and to not file tax returns. And the ministry seemed to take that advice. According to the group’s 990 forms, it stopped reporting its activities to the IRS in 2003, the same year Smith signed his citizenship card with the Embassy of Heaven. It would resume filing its tax returns in 2008.

And was this illegal under the applicable laws at the time?    Is YCR under investigation of any kind, by anyone (other than Karl Bremer)?

Again – I’m just asking questions.

By 2005, Stoll and his clients were under investigation for tax fraud by the Department of Justice. As Bremer notes, Stoll has already been fined $50,000, is in violation of an injunction, and his arrest has been sought.

“People who buy into tax-fraud schemes are buying nothing but trouble — past due tax bills with interest and penalties and the possibility of criminal prosecution,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. “The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are committed to stopping the promotion of tax fraud.”

Well, that’s interesting.

Is Ms. O’Connor commenting about YCR?

Why, no – indeed, it seems Karl Bremer has clipped a quote from several other stories that used the same quote. Now, I’m just asking questions here – but isn’t the quote framed in such a way as to make it look like Ms. O’Conner “said” the quote to Birkey?  As opposed to Birkey and Bremer clipping it, with context grossly obscured, from several other stories?  Hasn’t the Minnesota Independent gotten into trouble for this sort of thing before?

Just asking questions.

By 2008, Smith and MacAuley began to unravel the complicated tax-free trust that was being administered by Stoll. As Bremer reports:

According to court documents, Smith’s and MacAulay’s attorney advised them to sever all ties with Stoll, demand his resignation from their trusts and return all property from the trusts. Stoll refused, and on December 9, 2008, a summons and petition was attempted to be served on Stoll’s address, where a person there “refused to accept the documents” and “slammed the door.”

Wait – so after “asking questions” that, if framed as a statement, would have sounded a lot like an accusation (“tax evasion”), Birkey and Bremer’s story’s source is…records of a lawsuit that YCR’s principals filed against their allegedly fraudulent ex-advisor…

…er, he was an ex-advisor, right?  Wait – Birkey’s story is so unclear, I have no idea what’s going on.  When did YCR have its trust with Stoll?  When did YCR break off the relationship?  Why?  What does it have to do with the quesitons about Birkey’s links to Somali prostitution?

On March 27, 2009, District Court Judge Stephen Halsey granted Old Paths Church, Inc. and YCR, Inc. their motion for a summary judgment against Stoll that terminated Stoll’s trusts, removed Stoll as trustee, transferred assets from the trusts back to the two original entities, and awarded attorneys fees plus the $6,500 they paid Stoll to create the sham ministerial trusts.

I’m getting a headache, now.   Would someone provide the who, what, when, where, why and how of some of these allegations?

The Minnesota Independent examined some of Smith’s financial dealings in 2009 when new IRS 990 forms showed that he and his band mates were taking a ministerial housing allowance despite his organization being a religious non-profit as opposed to a church. Those housing allowances are meant only for “duly ordained” members of the clergy. Smith has refused to answer questions related to his ordination or which church his organization belongs to.

OK, I’m shaking off my headache; I have more questions.  To ask.

• So since the court case against Stoll – whose relationship to Dean and YCR is the subject of Birkey’s entire article – happened before 2009, what does this have to do with any “tax evasion” scheme?
• Does Birkey know what “duly ordained” means?  No, I don’t either.  I’m just asking questions.  Is the “due”-ness of Dean’s ordination a legal issue?  If so, how?  Under what part of the IRS code?  Is anyone but Karl Bremer alleging that Dean is operating illegally?
• Is Dean legally obliged to answer questions about his employment to Andy Birkey?
• Given the geneology of the O’Connor quote, above, did Birkey even ask Dean?  To whom did Dean “refuse” to answer?  Details?  Again, I’m just asking questions.

I’m just…well, you know.

In 2008, Smith and his sidekick MacAuley, greatly increased their compensation and housing allowance. According to the group’s most recent 990 filing, Smith was paid $51,303 salary and $45,887 for the housing allowance, raking in $97,190. MacAuley’s compensation was a bit less coming in at $66,897 in 2008.

So?

I mean, I’ve met Brad and Jake.  Brad’s got five kids, and he works like a sled dog.

Did he pay taxes?

Just asking.

Dean has not responded to repeated request for information about his ministry or a weekend request for comment on his association with Stoll.

And why would he?

(Just a question).

Dean and his ministry have close ties to the Republican Party and GOP officials and candidates including gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer,

If I had shown that that particular claim was a lie, would Andy Birkey stop making the claim…

…well, doy, I guess my answer’s right there!

Since I’m just asking questions, I talked with Bradlee Dean.  We both noted that Birkey was “raising questions”.

“If the question was “did Bradlee Dean pay his taxes”, the answer is “yes””, he said.

Well, enough of that.  All those questions give me a headache.

I just love South Park.  Let’s watch that clip again!

He’s so funny.

UPDATE: Is Andy Birkey trying to concoct some grandiloquent link between the GOP on the one hand and a shadowy conspiracy of Christianist Tom-Petters-wannabees, to appease the appetites of his lords and masters at Media Matters (who pull the strings behind the Center for “Independent” Media, which controls every facet of the operations of its “independent” websites like the Mindy for dirt?

This article raises questions.

UPDATE 2:  I should start a bet pool for how many articles about Brad Dean that Birkey writes this years.  Last year was 23; I think the over/under in a non-election year will be more like 18.

Place  your bets.

I’m just asking questions here.

UPDATE 3:  I see that that bit above wasn’t actually a question.

By now you’ve seen the viral YouTube video and the media darling it made of Ted Williams.

But is this a true story of redemption or a soon-to-be cautionary tale?

Only time will tell. I’m rooting for him. This guy not so much.

What do you think?

Perhaps it’s the circle of radio life.  The First Team of the Northern Alliance gets shown the door…

…and Mark Dayton takes to the air:

Gov. Mark Dayton plans to do a governor’s radio show soon.

“I wish I could be on the air somewhere tomorrow,” Dayton said. “I can’t wait to get on the air. It is just a question of where and going through the proper procedure.

Dayton having a weekly radio show follows a tradition of past governors. Both Govs. Jesse Ventura and Tim Pawlenty had Friday morning shows on WCCO that were required, and sometimes interesting, listening for political geeks.

So gubernatorial radio will go from vain, to vapid, to…uh, is there a synonym for odd that starts with ‘v’?

Ventura and Pawlenty’s shows had their moments, but “fireside chats” they were not.  Ventura used the forum as a ricktey soapbox from which to deliver a folding chair to his opponents while Pawlenty’s often politics-lite interviews were professional but dryer than a Martini in the Sahara.  Unless Dayton wants to reminisce on his Haight-Ashburyesque days, 60 minutes of dead air might be more entertaining.

MITCH ADDS:  While First Ringer would have no reason to know this, I’ll add that the First Team wasn’t “shown the door”.  There were some revenue-driven schedule changes; management and John and Brian couldn’t agree on a change to the First Team’s schedule that worked for everyone.   There were no aspersions cast on either side; the logistics and timing for both the station and John and Brian couldn’t be made to match up.

It stinks; I was one of the First Team’s biggest fans.  But them’s the breaks in Freebie Radio.

Apropos not much.  Just saying.

More.

Think you’ve seen the Best of BTO (So Far) when it comes to the media’s obsession with Michele Bachmann (and vice versa)?  You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Let’s not bury the lede – she isn’t going to run. 

In politics, the rumored presidential campaign for many office holders is a cry for attention about one step removed from binging on aspirin.  For near total unknowns like former Godfather’s CEO Herman Cain or heyday politicos like Rick Santorum, the seeking of the White House is game of trival pursuit.  Lacking resources and with few political options, candidates like these have nothing to lose and everything to gain with a quixotic bid that likely ends in the hometown of Iowa State sometime in early August. 

Bachmann doesn’t lack for attention nor resources, as her $13.4 million campaign haul demonstrated.  But she may lack options.  Hemmed in by Minnesota’ s statewide left tilt, likely ruling out any statewide bid, immediate or otherwise, and having lost out as Chair of the House Republican Conference to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Bachmann’s present trajectory would be to become the best known backbencher in the history of Congress.

A bid for the presidency likely wouldn’t change that – but a possible bid for president might.

Actually running for president involves far too many “make or break” moments for any candidate, let alone a three-term congresswoman who, despite her numerous media forays over the years, isn’t exactly a household name to the average Iowan or New Hampshirite.  An exploratory committee or even merely a rumored campaign allows Bachmann the best of both worlds.  She can raise copious sums for her Michele PAC, get mentioned in every discussion of the 2012 Republican Primary, dismiss any poll that shows her doing poorly (she isn’t even a candidate, of course) and conversely celebrate any poll that shows her non-campaign campaign gaining momentum.  It’s the Fred Thompson strategy – which worked as long as he wasn’t formally running.

6 or 7 months of presidential media footsie and Bachmann can raise her national name ID even further, stockpile cash, and thus potentially leverage her pull within the House GOP Caucus.  Bachmann hasn’t exactly been embraced by the new House leadership, and the feelings are probably mutual.  It’s hard to ignore the comments and demands of a media saavy politico.  It’s even harder to do so when that politico is seen as gunning for the nomination.

It’s a somewhat deft political move by Bachmann as the end result harms few politicians not named Tim Pawlenty – who suddenly runs the risk of spending the summer of 2011 being known as that other Minnesotan running for president.

The Democrats nationwide are holding a pair of sevens with a king high.  In Minnesota, the DFL’s holding a couple of four and nothing much more.

As they say in law school (or so I’m told) if the facts are against you, argue the law.  If the law is against you, argue facts.  If both are against you, argue like hell.

The climate is against the Dems (suspect polling about “voters wanting centrism” notwithstanding).  They just lost big in one of the most epic two-year turnarounds in electoral history.  They stand, quite possibly (if the GOP doesn’t screw up) to lose the Senate in 2012, and maybe the Presidency to boot (although it’s way too early to even feel to optimistic yet; we have a ways to go). They are gathered behind a very weak president whose primary platform has been “I’m not George W. Bush”, yet whose only successful policies were cribbed from his predecessor.

The facts – the electorate – are against them.  The “law” – time, really, in the form of the a huge number of Senators coming up for re-election in 2012 – is against them.

So they’re going to argue like hell.

And at this, the Dems have some huge advantages; a compliant and in-the-bag media, a huge public class, and masses of voters, especially in big cities, who are dependent on government either as employees or clients.

My prediction:  Look for the Dems, nationwide and in Minnesota, to start pushing a series of memes – I’ve been calling them “chanting points” on this blog, and having a lot of fun with it – to try to give the media and their sound-bite-addled acolytes something to chant.

Here are my predictions:

“Tea Baggers Are Teh Crazee”:  That one’s already started; Jerry Nadler’s outburst yesterday (accompanied by some too-perfectly-timed media appearances by the likes of Dahlia Lithwick) on the “Fetishization of the Constitution” is a part of this; trying to frame constitutional originalism as some form of snake handling.  Watch for this meme to work its way down through Media Matters and the leftyblogs (pardon the redundancy), through Jon Stewart and the lefty chattering classes (ibid), and countless editorial pages.  Because actually showing that originalism actually is a pseudo-religious fetish isn’t important; creating the impression is.

“Disagreement Equals Disintegration”: Look for any disagreement among the conservative bloc – which is not a bloc, but a coalition of social and fiscal conservatives and newly-minted libertarians – to be portrayed as “the disintegration of the Tea Party”.  Look for rumors of the disintegration of the Tea Party to crash ashore about Wednesday of every news week.   Because the disintegration isn’t important; creating the impression that it is, is.

“There Is a Huge, Throbbing Center Out there”:  We saw a dress rehearsal of this in Minnesota, where the media set up Tom Horner as a viable “centrist Republican”, notwithstanding the fact that his policies fit in better as a moderate DFLer.  All through the summer, the DFL and media (PTR) tried to put purple lipstick on the blue pig.  Did Horner take 8,000 votes away from Emmer?  We will never know – but the tactic is the important part.  We’re seeing this already; the very days the new US House and Minnesota Legislature were sworn in, the media trumpeted polls of dubious geneology claiming the American People were begging for more centrism.  And you know how polls work these days.

More?

Discuss.

…because Minnesota underspends on health care and social entitlements.

Really!  That’s what the leftyblogs say!

And when they say it, er…ah…:

Just as a debate on Minnesota health care spending rushes in at the Capitol, the Census Bureau offered some numbers to prime the pump.

“State government spending on public welfare was greater than 30 percent of general expenditures in 11 states, led by Minnesota (37.5 percent),” the government numbers bureau said in a news release Wednesday.

The numbers come from the Census’ report on State Government Finances. Dig in to the numbers here.

The article, by Rachel Stassen Berger – mentions:

Worth noting: Although the Capitol debate Wednesday will focus on DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty was in charge when the numbers rose.

As was a DFL-strangled legislature…

I was briefly at the Capitol yesterday for the signing of the Medicaid payoff bill.  It was terribly crowded, and I could only get as far as the outer lobby; it was that crowded.

Toward the end of the speeches, a baby started squalling.

Doug Grow in the MinnPost takes up the narrative, noting that Democracy is noisy:

It was, it should be noted, especially noisy from the lungs of one toddler, who screamed throughout part of the ceremony.

“His mother couldn’t get him out of the room,” Brase said.

That’s how tightly packed the room was, and how unwilling many were to even make room for a mom and screaming kid.

It wasn’t just any baby; it was the youngest MOBster, Baby Moose!

Mark Dayton committed Minnesota – the most-insured state in the union, a state that already has comprehensive insurance assistance for the poor, and a state that is complaining of a “six billion dollar deficit” – to a third of a billion dollars in spending.

From a GOP caucus news release:

“There is legitimate cause for concern when actions are taken to add 95,000 people to any entitlement program. The policy in place removes all residency requirements and removes nearly all asset limits that were previously used to determine eligibility. This is a big step in the wrong direction,” said Senator Hann.

Early enrollment in to Medicaid has been estimated to cost $26.5 million from the General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2011, depending on the time that it could be implemented. Upon Governor Dayton’s Executive Order, a far larger number of enrollees will be transferred into the program, leaving the state with an estimated net cost of $384 million.

On top of our already-immense social spending.

The NYTimes on the new GOP majority taking office in the US House:

A theatrical production of unusual pomposity will open on Wednesday when Republicans assume control of the House for the 112th Congress. A rule will be passed requiring that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution. A bill will be introduced to repeal the health care law. On Thursday, the Constitution will be read aloud in the House chamber. And in one particularly self-important flourish, the new speaker, John Boehner, arranged to have his office staff “sworn in” on Tuesday by the chief justice of the United States.

Those who had hoped to see a glimpse of the much-advertised Republican plan to revive the economy and put Americans back to work will have to wait at least until party leaders finish their Beltway insider ritual of self-glorification. Then, they may find time for governing.

Um. yeah.

Let me take you back in time:

The Obama Inauguration - the most expensive in history

It was, what, two years ago?  Or was it all a dream?

The federal government estimates that it will spend roughly $49 million on the inaugural weekend. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland have requested another $75 million from the federal government to help pay for their share of police, fire and medical services.

And then there is the party bill.

We have a budget of roughly $45 million, maybe a little bit more,” said Linda Douglas, spokeswoman for the inaugural committee. That’s more than the $42.3 million in private funds spent by President Bush’s committee in 2005, or the $33 million spent for Bill Clinton’s first inaugural in 1993.

Well, to be fair, maybe the NYTimes editorial board groused about the extravagance of Obama’s inaugural, and fretted that it’d get in the way of The One getting about the peoples’ business, too.

Don’t laugh.  It could have happaned.  I mean, it’s possible. Let’s check:

There was no shortage of powerful imagery on Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day, starting with the confident man who defied all political conventions — that he was too young, too inexperienced, too black or not black enough — to stand on the steps of the Capitol and take the oath of office in a city and a country that are still racially divided in many shameful ways.

And there was the crowd that for a day, and we hope much longer, defied those divisions. By the hundreds of thousands they came from every part of a nation that has rarely been in such peril and yet is so optimistic about its new leader…

…In his Inaugural Address, President Obama gave them the clarity and the respect for which all Americans have hungered. In about 20 minutes, he swept away eight years of President George Bush’s false choices and failed policies and promised to recommit to America’s most cherished ideals.

Heh.

Onward:

With Mr. Bush looking on (and we’d like to think feeling some remorse),

Heh.

Onward:

Mr. Obama was unsparing in condemning the failed ideology of uncontrolled markets. [At an inauguration worthy of Gordon Gecko – Ed. ] He said the current economic crisis showed how “without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control” and that the nation has to extend the reach of prosperity to “every willing heart, not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.”

After more than seven years of Mr. Bush’s using fear and xenophobia to justify a disastrous and unnecessary war, and undermine the most fundamental American rights, it was exhilarating to hear Mr. Obama reject “as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

Wow.  Still not much in the way of phumphering over the cost and pomposity and bombast of the whole thing.  Emphasis added:

As the day continued with a parade and parties and balls, the image that stayed with us was the way the 44th president managed to embrace the symbolism and rise above it. It filled us with hope that with Mr. Obama’s help, this battered nation will be able to draw together and mend itself.

Well, there you go.

The NYTimes:  All the news that’s fit to jam into the editorial board’s provincial, far-left template.

It was Saturday, January 5, 1991.

I was working at the Mermaid, the supper club, sports bar, bowling alley and nighclub in Moundview where I’d been spinning records, three nights a week, for a little over two years now.

One of our regular features was the Saturday night live appearances from “Mister Ed”, a disk jockey at KDWB.  He’d come out to the bar, talk on the mobile mike, hand out prizes, and generally work the room (for a nice little fee).

We had a pretty good working relationship; I ran a great floor when I was working, and I set up his appearances pretty well.  We got along – which was better than most of the club jocks managed.

It’d been over three years since I’d been out of radio.

And then, it occurred to me; for the first time in three, almost four years, there was a radio guy with some clout who actually had a good opinion of me.

So…

As the evening ground to a close, and Ed was sipping on his drink, I made my move.

“So – if I was trying to get back into radio, would there be anything I could do at KDWB?”

“Sure”, Ed said without skipping a beat.  “Absolutely!  We could use a weekend screener!”

And as fast as I could memorize the details, he said I could start next Saturday, working with Kris Adams and Spyder Harrison.

And that was that.  I was back in radio.

A little, anyway.

Real Minnesotans will be protesting Dayton’s Medicare boondoggle – committing Minnesota to $200 million a year in permanent in entitlement spending in exchange for a one-time (maybe) shot of money from other taxpayers around the country.

Meet at 9AM at (at last word) Room 125 in the Rotunda.  The actual protest will be at 9:30 in the Governor’s lobby, where the boondoggle will be signed.

Wish I could be there.

Over the course seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, we Whiteys stole this state from the Native Americans.

As part of the only reparations that really mattered – the free market – the state granted the tribes an exclusive franchise to the gambling industry.

And now Mark Dayton wants to wipe all that out:

Gov. Mark Dayton says if Minnesota expands gambling, a state-owned casino would be the best way to go about it.

Horse track owners have long sought to add slot machines. But the new DFL governor says so-called racinos will not produce as much cash for the state at a time when it’s desperate for new revenue.

But every little bit counts, when your entire platform is built around shaking Minnesota down for every nickel you can find to keep the unions assuaged.

“I’m not a fan of gambling myself, but I recognize a lot of people want to do it,” said Dayton. “I propose one state-owned and operated casino at the Mall of America, or possibly at the airport or downtown Minneapolis. Somewhere where the state would derive maximum financial benefit.”

How about on the reservations?

Where we promised that they’d be?

To be benefit the people whose land we stole?

…til the official Shot In The Dark holiday, Reagan’s Birthday.

So it’s time to do all the usual stuff to get ready for the big day:

• Lay in a supply of jelly beans.
• Find a tomato-free recipe for dinner.
• Make your Reagan’s Birthday resolutions.

I’ll be thinking about resolutions over the coming weeks.  More later.

I have broken the Tenth Commandment.

Quotes from “the Governor”:

“Under our administration, state government will do only what is necessary – no more, no less,”

[in] his first day in office [the governor authorized his Attorney General] to join a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Democrats, who controlled state government until Monday, had prevented the…attorney general from doing that last year.

[the Governor] was interrupted 14 times by applause, the loudest and most sustained coming when he declared: “What is failing us is not our people or our places. What is failing us is the expanse of government. But we can do something about it right here, right now, today.”

[the Governor proposed legislators, in special session, move to] give tax breaks to business owners and income tax credits for contributions to health savings accounts; reduce business regulations; provide protections from lawsuits; give the governor more say in state rule making; turn the state Department of Commerce into a partly private entity to focus on job creation; and require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Legislature to approve any increases to the state sales, income and franchise taxes.

[the Governor] also promised to improve education, protect natural resources, honor the role of family and “right-size state government by ensuring government is providing only the essential services our citizens need and our taxpayers can afford.”

“Let me be clear on one thing: Increasing taxes is off the table – as it will counter our efforts to provide economic growth”

“[This State] is open for business.”

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Governor.

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave, Governor Dayton was heard to say

“Meow.”

The day before the 12/11 blizzard, I finally shrugged off my traditional asceticism (and the attendant need to constantly replace work shoes) and bought my first-ever pair of sorel boots, with the removable wool liners.

My feet have been toasty warm ever since.

For all those  years, I had no idea what a nifty thing that was.

I practically sleep in them today.

Apropos not much.