Pretense Aside

SCENE: Mitch BERG is waiting in line at the Rack Shack on South Robert.   Stephanie Marie ANNAN – Community organizer for the 5th CD Libertarian Party – enters with a great clatter, vigorously stomps off her boots, and gets in line, finally noticing BERG. 

ANNAN:  Hey, Merg!  I don’t like all that stuff you’ve been saying about how us Ron Paul people just like to throw…what do you call it?”

BERG:  “Turd bombs”.

ANNAN:  Yeah!  The GOP did it first, back in 2008!

BERG:  Yeah, so I’ve been told.  That was about three years before I got involved in the GOP beyond going to caucuses, by the way.  I know there’s been going on eight years of tit-for-tat between the Ron Paul clicque and the “establishment”, which I’m told I’m part of, even though I got involved in the party after the Tea Party.

ANNAN:  You’re already boring me.

BERG:  That seems to happen a lot.  You all apprently got “bored” with Kurt Bills after you you all went to Tampa in 2012…

ANNAN:  Hey – there’s a special primary coming up in a house district 68B!

BERG:  Yeah, it’s been in all the papers.

ANNAN:  I suppose you’re supporting the Republican candidate, like some mindless sheeple?

BERG: No, I support the endorsed Republican candidate because I’m an intelligent, informed voter. I think the endorsed candidate, Mindy Pilph, is an excellent choice.  Although I don’t actually live in the district.

ANNAN:  I plan on supporting her primary opponent!

BERG:  Who?  Jesse Duff?

ANNAN:  Yes!

BERG:  Duff supports doubling the gas tax, banning civilian firearm ownership, rolling back school choice and instituting an entirely grievance-based curriculum, and adopting the North Korean style socialist philosophy of “Juche“, an isolationist firm of Stalinism based on all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent state.  Which seems – pardon me for saying so – counterintuitive for someone who was a high ranking functionary in the Ron Paul campaign four years ago.  Since Duff would seem to be the polar opposite of Libertarian, I gotta say, that’s a zig when I expected a zag.

ANNAN:  But he’s independent from the Minnesota Republican Party.

BERG:  Well, with good reason. He stands for everything the party rejects.

ANNAN:  But he’s independent!

BERG:  But he’s the exact opposite of Libertarian.

ANNAN:  So?

BERG:  So yet again, it seems that “libertarian principle” isn’t really as big a deal as trying to TP the MNGOP….

ANNAN:   Squirrel!

(ANNAN leaves the room.  And SCENE)

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Are you sure you’ve thought through this lawsuit, Chris?

Chris Kluwe potentially kicks open a Pandora’s Box.

Given Chris Kluwe’s love of role-playing board games, it shouldn’t surprise that his latest actions have more angles than 23-sided dice.

On Tuesday, former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was demanding that the team, through the law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P, release the six-month independent investigation into Kluwe’s allegations that he was let go due to his gay marriage activism.  By Friday night, Kluwe (or at least his attorneys) might have wished the Vikings had kept the findings to themselves.

The 29-page summary of the investigation (pdf warning on the link) was notable for two things: 1) proving Kluwe’s story that current Special Teams coach Mike Priefer did indeed make his “nuke the gays” comment; 2) proving little else.  Instead, the investigation brought to light an incident of Kluwe mocking the Jerry Sandusky trial and generally negatively commented on Kluwe’s final years as a Viking:

The record does not support the claim that the Vikings released Kluwe because of his activism on behalf of marriage equality, but instead because of his declining punting performance in 2012 and potentially because of the distraction caused by Kluwe’s activism, as opposed to the substance of such.

Throughout the independent investigation, interviewees characterized Kluwe in similar
ways: someone who is highly intelligent, reads a lot, a prankster or jokester, comfortable with the media and seems to enjoy attention. [Vikings kicker Blair] Walsh stated that Kluwe spent much of his free time in the locker room doing interviews. Walsh also said that Kluwe “loves the attention,” “was focused on everything but football,” and wanted to be in the spotlight.

The fallout was sadly predictable.

The perpetually indignant community – Kluwe’s political base – expressed outrage (outrage!) that the Patron Saint of Punting was a “hypocrite” for engaging in the same sort of outrageously inappropriate locker room behavior that Kluwe supposedly was fighting against by his threatened lawsuit.  While many former media supporters were throwing Kluwe under the bus, the man at the center of the report took to twitter to vent, sparing even with gay marriage supporters and potentially getting the Vikings (and maybe himself) deeper into the dark waters of legal action:

Color me unimpressed with the outrage over Kluwe’s Sandusky jokes.  In the pantheon of vulgar Kluwe behavior/comments, his exposed butt cheeks aren’t even as crass as most of his Deadspin articles.  But Kluwe’s accusation that he (and presumably, the Vikings) knew about statutory rape and did nothing is a world away from Kluwe’s STD shots at Mankato or calling NFL lockout opponents “assh*le f**kwits.”  Kluwe is potentially an accomplice in this (alleged) crime at worst.  At best, he kept silent about actions against minors, but the words of a hot-headed, idiotic Special Teams coach were somehow his personal Rubicon…after he was fired.

Kluwe’s defenders, like ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio, are trying to poke holes in the investigation’s conclusions over the Vikings’ assessment on Kluwe’s punting abilities, setting the stage for Kluwe’s threatened lawsuit that he was dismissed for his beliefs, not his on-field actions.  Despite all the vitriol, the merits of any potential Kluwe lawsuit are few and far between, and minus a heretofore undiscovered “smoking gun” document or testimony, a legal Trojan Horse for the entire NFL should Kluwe prevail.

NFL history, and Minnesota Vikings’ history, is replete with older veterans being replaced for players deemed to have a larger upside who can be signed for less money.  In the last several seasons, the Vikings alone have cut ties with still capable players like kicker Ryan Longwell or defensive end Jared Allen.  These moves aren’t always right or popular (SITD argued against the Allen move months ago) or consistent across franchises.  Denver’s punter, Britton Colquitt, is the highest paid punter in the NFL, earning $3.9 million a year for a 46.1 yards per punt average.  Chris Kluwe was making $1.5 million, due to increase to over $2 million, for a career average of 44.4 yards per punt.  Jeff Locke kicked an average of 44.2 yards for roughly $400,000 for the Vikings in 2013.  Is any of that logical?  By NFL standards, for better or worse, yes.

If Chris Kluwe can convince a jury that a $1.5 million punter with the league’s 22nd best average cannot be cut for a younger, cheaper option because said player is outspoken, then the NFL’s entire collective bargaining agreement will be up for grabs.  In a league with an openly gay 7th round draft pick who isn’t assured of making the team, what will stop current and future NFL players from adopting controversial political/social causes if they believe doing so will complicate their release?  Will the next Tim Tebow decide that his Christianity, not his throwing motion, was the motivating factor in his cutting, and sue his former employer?

A Kluwe victory (again, barring new evidence) means a more political NFL – an outcome that can only hurt the most popular sporting brand in the country.

Footloose

Photoshop out the football and you’ve pretty much recreated Chris Kluwe’s latest press conference

The most famous (or is it infamous?) punter in modern history tries to pin the Minnesota Vikings against their end zone.

Well, in his defense, he no longer has a job to be so focused on.

Chris Kluwe may possess a number of less-than-desirable qualities, but the former punter’s media savvy remains arguably his strongest suit.  Since leveling accusations against the Minnesota Vikings, in particular special teams coach Mike Priefer, of fostering an atmosphere of homosexual hatred which led to his firing by “two cowards and a bigot,” Kluwe has remained relatively quiet.  Perhaps partially motivated by a press corps seemingly less willing to believe him, or realizing that his legal strategy depended upon him dragging many of his former teammates into the mix, Kluwe and his representation had said little about the Vikings’ independent investigation in the past seven months.

That changed Tuesday as Kluwe charged that the Vikings’ investigation has concluded and that the lack of public disclosure over the findings proved Kluwe’s allegations of bigotry:

The onetime punter said Tuesday the team is “reneging on a promise” to release a copy of its completed investigation of alleged anti-gay sentiments expressed by special teams coach Mike Priefer during the 2012 season.

Kluwe and his attorney, Clayton Halunen, announced at a morning news conference that they will file suit against the Vikings alleging discrimination on the grounds of religion, human rights, defamation and “torturous interference for contractual relations.”

The move is self-aggrandizing and potentially premature (the Vikings said the independent investigatory group would provide a report this week).  Had the press conference included accusations of the team of being “lustful c**kmonsters,” it would have been vintage Kluwe.

It was also a somewhat smart public relations ploy.  Now, whenever Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P release their findings, Kluwe can claim his pressure forced the team to do so.  And Kluwe’s willingness to forgo a lawsuit for a monetary settlement that goes towards an LGBT cause also assists both the Vikings, in helping the issue go away faster, and Kluwe himself as even old media allies questioned the punter’s motivations (the KFAN Morning Show, who often gave Kluwe free-rein to voice his opinions on all matter of subjects, openly wondered if he was making a money grab this morning).

But “somewhat smart” isn’t the same as “smart.”  Kluwe’s strategy only truly works if the independent investigation proves some or all of Kluwe’s anecdotes, in particular his claim that Mike Priefer suggested moving gay people to an island and hitting it with a nuclear bomb.  Not unlike the current Jesse Ventura defamation suit, Kluwe’s case ultimately comes down to a “he said/he said” legal battle.  Even if Kluwe is 100% accurate in quoting Vikings’ staff, he would still have to prove a correlation between comments like Priefer’s and his cutting in 2013.  The Vikings can respond about Kluwe’s declining skills and (for the position) high salary – reasons that even Kluwe cited…when cut last summer by the Oakland Raiders.

The outcome of the investigation – or any following legal action – may be pointless.  Kluwe’s defenders will continue to insist the end of his career was due to his gay rights activism, and not his next-to-last finish for punts inside the 20-yard line while making $1.45 million.  Kluwe’s detractors will continue to be maligned as being bothered by his politics rather than his penchant for vulgar name-calling to anyone who doesn’t share his views (on gay rights or other subjects).

Other than attorneys or an LGBT charity, it’s hard pressed to see who benefits from this continued fight.

Tantrum

“Occupy Minnesota” “protesters” disrupt a Henco Commission meeting by…

…well, basically, kicking their feet and sputtering like spoiled four-year-olds.

The footage above is by Bill Sorum at “The Uptake”, the lefty astroturf vidblog.  Sorum writes hilariously:

Since the occupation began on October 7, there have been a number of attempts to remove the protestors from The People’s Plaza ( also known as the Hennepin County Government Plaza).

No, Bill.  It’s known as Hennepin County Government Plaza.  A bunch of spoiled dilettantes are calling it People’s Plaza, but nobody that anyone in Henco voted for made that decision, so…no. It’s not People’s Plaza.

But since y’all are so concerned about First Amendment rights on the plaza, maybe Minnesota Concealed Carry Reform Now should have its next open carry picnic there.  Maybe this Sunday.  Because we’re all about rights, too.

The Facts, For Those Who Want Them

The unedited video of the fifteen minutes leading up to the UC-Davis pepper-spraying incident. It’s about fifteen minutes, and not fantastic quality…:

…because, let’s face it, ubiquitous electronics aren’t always a blessing.

But it sort of turns the media’s and “Occupy Movement’s” (pardon the redundancy) narrative about the incident on its head…

I Have A Hunch…

…that while  Obama has aggressively flirted, to the point of tongue-kissing, with the “Occupy” “movement” since day 1, and the media has been fluffing the “grassroots” “uprising” more aggressively than an up-and-coming production assistant on a pr0no shoot…

…that those days are over.

Friendly wager:  Once the “Occupy” “novement” turn on Obama, they disappear from the news.

Or maybe the media just finds some time to cover the killings, rapes, assaults and other capers and hijinks.

“The Administration Has Never Supported “Occupy”, Winston”

John Nolte notes that  the media is frantically backing and filling and trying to remove all record that the Obama administration ever supported the “Occupy” movement:

Two months ago, the White House, Democrats, and the MSM were all sure that the #OccupyWallStreet movement would save them in 2012. With thousands of astro-turfed morons in the streets raging against Wall Street, Obama’s allies hoped to use said morons to create a silver lining in the economic cloud he himself created.

Obama’s goal was pretty simple; create (indirectly, through the unions that’ve been paying the freight for these “protests” all along) a sense that there was a mass movement protesting against the anonymous forces that were keeping the little guy down (but not, of course, the Obama administraiton, which had uncontested control of Congress for two years).

The hope was that by repeating this message incessantly, enough voters could be convinced that Wall Street, and by extension, evil Republicans, were to blame for our chronic unemployment, record deficits, and stillborn economic growth. President Obama who?

 And Obama jumped on the “movement”- his movement – from the beginning:

Now, of course, “Occupy” is rapidly becoming about as popular as Nickelback with voters.  And the AP is dutifully doing damage control for the President they desperately want to keep in office:

And it looks as thought the Associated Press has decided to start the memory-holing with the following:

“Democrats See Minefield in Occupy Protests

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party and the tea party seemed to be a natural political pairing. But what may have seemed like another politically beneficial alliance — Democrats and Occupy Wall Street — hasn’t happened.”

Insert record scratch here.

Sorry AP, but the only reason Democrats see a minefield is because they’re standing in it.

Nolte helpfully exhumes some history that the Dems would rather have disappear – stories of Dems jumping on the Occupy bandwagon:

House Democrats. And look, the story about House Democrats endorsing Occupy is an AP story!

Top Democrats.

Nancy Pelosi.

A President named Obama, who said of Occupy, “We are on their side.”

…The SEIU.

The association between the Democrats and the “nazi-endorsed rat-infested rape camps” needs to pop up again next October.

America: “Occuwhat?”

The “Occupy” movment is drawing a big “meh” from the “American Street”:.

[A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll] finds that 56% of Americans surveyed are neither supporters nor opponents and 59% say they don’t know enough to have an opinion about the movement’s goals.

The survey, however, does show an increase from 20% to 31% in disapproval of the way the protests are being conducted.

Just goes to show you that enough rats, filth, theft, untrammeled entitlement, assault, murder and rape will make even Americans sit up and take notice eventually.

Auditions

The Occupy movement is still looking for the big moment that the media – who are still largely sympathetic – can flog into an epochal, or at least society-altering, event.  It’s called a “Kent State Moment” – which, as Zombie at Pajamas Media notes…:

…when modern liberal pundits wish for an OWS “Kent State moment,” they’re not wishing for fatalities, but rather for the appearance of that one photograph which will reverberate around the world and forever establish the Occupiers as oppressed victims. It is the photograph, not the shootings, that is the “Kent State moment.”

 

The "Kent State Moment".

The Dorothea Lange Moment

So far, they haven’t got it — not for want of trying. For the last several days The San Francisco Chronicle has helpfully featured a slide show of nominees on its Web site to hopefully stir up interest in one or another iconic martyr image, but so far, no Occupy photos have quite caught on, Kent State-style.

And here in Minneapolis, with our city’s long tradition of great regional theatre (and all the would-be actors that that scene draws to the city)?

On Saturday, a group of “occupiers” went to the former (?) home of a U of M lecturer that’s been foreclosed for some time now, and, um, “occupied” it.  The police responded.  And as the first serious snow of the season fell, one of the dimmer bulbs among the “occupiers” decided to stand in the path of one of the cop cars.

The cop opted to give the lad a nudge (as opposed to jumping from his car and cuffing him then and there which, to be fair, was what the young buck was looking for):

Twitter glowed all weekend with reports that a cop had “tried to run an Occupier down with his car”, and “attacked” him with a “lethal weapon”.

This Is Occupy

The first five minutes of this video – by Sally Zelikovsky and Steve Kemp of TeaPartyTelevision – almost looks like OccupyMN; placid enough, but with a lot of flowery semiliterate arrested-adolescent rhetoric (“It looks like the rich don’t want to give it up, so we’re going to have to take it”).

The last five minutes – with the black-clad, masked “anarchist” mob destroying property and intimidating people – documents more violence, hatred and destruction than occurred at every Tea Party rally, ever.

The Gang That Couldn’t Protest Straight

I know that I’ve pretty much given up trying to keep up with all the stories of the violence and depravity at the various “Occupy” sites around the country over at my “Climate Of Hate” page; there’s just been too much for what is supposed to be a series of capsule summaries of individual events.  “Occupy” has turned, with a nod to “Iowa Hawk”, into “Rat-infested Nazi-endorsed rape camps”.

The folks at Verum Serum have been trying to keep up with it all.  Will they keep it going?  Who knows:  It could be a full time job.

Their list, so far (go to the original article for links to sources):

Arson

  • Occupy Fort Collins – Member arrested, $10 million in damage
  • Occupy Portland –  Member arrested for throwing Molotov Cocktail
  • Occupy Seattle – Suspicious fire at Bank of America 2.7 miles from camp
  • Occupy Portland – Three men arrested with homemade grenades

Assault/Threats

  • Occupy SF – 12 assaults in 24 hours
  • Occupy LA – 4 assaults including two with knives
  • Occupy Philly – Man punches woman in the face
  • Occupy LA – Two assaults including setting someone on fire
  • Occupy Berkeley – Police respond to three assault calls per night
  • Occupy Wall Street – Three men threaten the life of a sexual assault victim
  • Occupy Lawrence – Punch thrown
  • Occupy Orlando – Knife fight sends man to hospital
  • Occupy Portland – Multiple assaults within a 24 hr. period
  • Occupy Toledo – Man assaults police officer after arrest
  • Occupy San Diego – Woman assaults cameraman
  • Occupy Victoria – Man dumps urine on city worker
  • Occupy Vancouver – Two police officers bitten during near riot
  • Occupy Oakland – Death threats
  • Occupy Austin – Man in Joker make-up arrested for brandishing knife
  • Occupy Oakland – Man sets his dog on reporter
  • Occupy Oakland – Man pulls a knife in camp
  • Occupy Wall Street – Photographer assaulted

Drugs/Dealing

  • Occupy Boston – Two drug busts in a week
  • Occupy Boston – Another drug arrest
  • Occupy Boston – Heroin dealers busted were living with 6 year old boy directly behind welcome tent
  • Occupy Portland – First hand account “Drugs. Selling…Heroin. Meth.”
  • Occupy Portland – Video of open drug use in the camp
  • Occupy Portland – “I get high“

Fraud

  • National Lawyer’s Guild member Ari Douglas pretends to be run over by a police scooter

Illness/Death

  • Occupy Santa Cruz – Ringworm outbreak
  • Occupy Atlanta – TB outbreak
  • Occupy Wall Street – Zuccotti lung outbreak
  • Occupy New Orleans – Man discovered in tent had been dead 2 days
  • Occupy Portland – Body lice outbreak

Murder

  • Occupy Oakland – Fatal shooting

Public disturbance

  • Occupy Dallas – Protesters block bank entrance, 23 arrested
  • Occupy Vancouver – Mob with bullhorn enters bank
  • Occupy Wall Street – Protesters block bank entrance, four arrested
  • Occupier takes a bathroom break in the street
  • Occupy Vancouver – Occupiers disrupt debate, threaten riot when asked to leave
  • Occupy Long Beach – Group disrupts city council meeting
  • Occupy Boston – Three arrested for occupying Burger King
  • Occupy Oakland – Yelling and nonsense at Burger King
  • Occupy DC – Group storms AFP event, traps attendees inside

Rape/Sexual Assault

  • Occupy Philly – Man arrested for alleged rape
  • Occupy Wall Street – Two sexual assaults unreported to police
  • Occupy Wall Street – Man arrested for sexual assault, suspect in rape
  • Occupy Dallas – Sex offender allegedly rapes 14 year old
  • Occupy Ottawa – Sexual assaults go unreported to police
  • Occupy Lawrence – Sexual assault reported
  • Occupy Toronto – Foot sniffer arrested
  • Occupy Seattle – Man exposes himself to young girls
  • Occupy Portland – Sexual assault
  • Occupy Wall Street – Drunk gropes women in Zuccotti Park
  • Occupy Cleveland – Rape reported after an overnight stay
  • Occupy Glasgow – Possible gang rape
  • Occupy Baltimore – Multiple reports of harassment
  • Occupy Chicago – Man arrested for child porn
  • Occupy LA – Man charged with exposing himself to a child

Sedition

  • Occupy DC – Let’s have a coup by taking over the military
  • Ted Rall wants occupiers to choose the path of violence
  • Occupy DC – Mike Malloy incites crowd to cheer for President Bush’s execution

Suicide/Overdose

  • Occupy Burlington – Man kills himself with handgun
  • Occupy Salt Lake City – Man found dead with syringe in his tent
  • Occupy Vancouver – Young woman dies of cocaine and heroine overdose
  • Occupy OKC – Young man with history of drug abuse found dead

Theft

  • Occupy Portland – Theft is ongoing
  • Occupy Boston – Store owner suffers 4 break-ins since camp began

Vandalism

  • Occupy Eureka – Protesters use local bank as a toilet
  • Occupy Portland – Two banks vandalized, promises of more to come
  • Occupy Oakland – Bank windows broken, Whole Foods vandalized, broken windows
  • Occupy Boston – Banks vandalized with anarchist, OWS graffiti
  • Occupy Portland – Spike in vandalism near camp
  • Occupy SF: ATMs being smeared with feces
  • Occupy Santa Fe: Banks vandalized with OWS-themed graffiti
  • Occupy San Diego – Vendors cart vandalized with bodily fluids
  • Occupy graffiti found on PA governor’s mansion

I can think of a few they left out; where’s the guy crapping on the police car in NYC?

An Experiment

While at the “Occupy Minnesota” “rally” over the weekend, I saw a few signs saying that “Labor Creates Wealth”.

Now, I’ve got nothing against labor.  I work for a living; without someone to build things to sell, capital and management will be more or less out to dry.

But does labor create wealth?

For those of you who believe this, I’m going to propose an experiment.

  1. Do some work.  Any work at all.  Dig a ditch, draw a painting, ride a bike from downtown to downtown, bake a tray of cookies, write a blog post, play guitar in the skyway, build a dog house, make your bed, it doesn’t matter.  Just do some…labor.
  2. Check to see if you have gotten any “wealth” – money, food, lodging, coffee beans, green stamps, trading cards, coupons, strings of beads – by simple dint of having labored.

 I’m guessing “no”.  And without wanting to spoil the experiment, I’m going to speculate on exactly why. 

Without someone willing to pay you something for that “labor”, the “labor” you did in #1 above was just something you did for fun (hopefully; I mean, you didn’t really expect to be paid, did you?)

And who is it that finds someone who needs, and is willing to pay for, a ditch or a drawing or for you to ride your bike, or is hungry for cookies or your insight or your music, or needs a dog house?

Management.

Now, you could very well be your own manager – it happens all the time.

And unless you dig with your hands, draw with your blood, inherited a bike, conjure flour and sugar and chocolate chips and butter and heat from pure mind power, can ethically blog from the library, imitate a guitar with your voice, or pound nails with your face, someone needs to “invest” in a shovel, a pencil, a bike, ingredients and a stove and gas, a computer, a guitar, and a hammer and some wood, in the hopes that they’ll generate a “return” on the investment – money or food or lodging or whatever you get for your labor.  Again – you could be the investor!   But without someone – you, your mom, a venture capitalist, or a bank listed on the NYSE – to “invest” in making sure you have the tools you need to make sure your labor produces something to take to market, you’ll be, well, pounding nails with your face, as it were.

It’s called “Capital”.

Just Good Neighbors

Joe Doakes from Como Park writes that the group “occupying” the square at Henco Gov’t Center tomorrow will be running rampant:

Well, not rampant. The County will provide portable toilets and bike racks. Alcohol is banned, smoking is allowed on sidewalks only, tents are still being negotiated.

These people fancy themselves the heirs to Kent State or Tiananmen Square – rebels, risking all sticking it to The Man. They might as well be Kiwanis.

Joe Doakes

Como Park

Or, y’know, Republicans.

Avalanche Of Depravity

You’ve probably already heard this; in the wake of the emailed death threat to Republican senators last week, someone has sent conservative blogger Ann Althouse a threat, presented here in its vulgar entirety (emphasis added by me):

“We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving shit out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk’s Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? Fuck the Capitol, we are the CITY… We have the numbers and we don’t back down from anyone. We all know each other. We all know each other. We know each other from Service Industry Night at the Orpheum, because we’re regulars at the same coffee shops, restaurants and bars, we know each other from the co-ops, we know each other because we’ve had a million jobs each (and we all worked at CapTel at least once), because we live in every shitty townie house in ever-changing groups of 2 – 7 people, because we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly, because we’re all on facebook, and because we aren’t anti-social, life-denying, world-sterilizing pieces of human garbage like the two of you. WE WILL FUCK YOU UP. We will throw our baseballs in your lawn, you cranky old pieces of shit, and then we will come get them back. What are you gonna do? Shoot us? Get Wausau Tea Patriots to form an ad hoc militia on your front lawn? That would be fucking HILAROUS to us. You could get to know the assholes on your side in real fucking life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath.”

Thanks for that “civil society”, scumbags!

The not-very-fringe, over-entitled, spoiled-rotten near-left is the moldy underbelly of American society.

Every example of true mass depravity in recent American history – every one, without exception – has come from the Big Left.

No exceptions.

Answer for this, lefties.

Of course, whenever a lefty decides to run off at the mouth, a conservative blogger is there to humiliate their entitled, upper-middle-class asses.  In this case, it’s Robert Stacy “The Other” McCain (emphasis added):

The terroristic screed against University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse was posted on a Web account of Madison resident Jim Shankman.

In a Facebook status update about 9 p.m. this evening, Shankman wrote:

Because of a right-blogosphere campaign to silence me, I have been forced to commit Identity Suicide. I have never supported or advocated violence for any purpose other than self-defense against terror attacks by the armed wing of the American Right….

A “campaign to silence” you, Jim? And what was your obscenity-filled rant against Professor Althouse?

McCain also adds:

We have seen this before in American history. The lesson is a bit too close to home — and a bit too fresh in memory – for me to let it pass unmentioned. The privileged never surrender privilege willingly. They employ demagogic appeals to rally others to their self-interested “cause” by demonizing those who dare challenge them. And if someone gets hurt in the process, if some of those duped by the demagoguery decide to turn wrathful words into violent deeds . . .

Madison has become the Neshoba County, Mississippi, of this season. “Workers’ rights” is the Jim Crow of 2011 and government-employee unions are the new Klan.

Naturally, not a word from the MSM.

UPDATE:  Ann Althouse will join us on the Northern Alliance at 1PM tomorrow on AM1280.  Tune in.

Do You Remember?

Two years ago, a small number of Tea Partiers carried guns to the rallies.

In every single example, the owners followed applicable state laws; they either had permits for open-carry, or were in states that didn’t restrict open carry of handguns and/or long arms, whichever were applicable.

And for all of the left’s barbering on the subject, not one single episode of violence was ever, not once, pinned to a Tea Partier, save for a single threatening phone call, and that caller’s been convicted.  Not that the left didn’t try; every time a Tea Partier sneexed or looked the wrong way, someone tried to claim there was violence, racism or both. The only actual physical violence involving the Tea Party was carried out by counterprotesters and supporters of liberal congresscritters at Town Hall meetings.

But those Tea Partiers with their guns (which, for the record, I found counterproductive; no sense inflaming your opposition’s most paranoid instincts for no good reason) were legal – with no excpetions that I’m aware of.

Not so much this alleged episode:

Dozens of rounds of live ammunition were found outside the Capitol Thursday morning, law enforcement officials said.

Dane County deputies found 11 rounds near the State street entrance Thursday morning, said UW-Madison Police Chief Susan Riseling. Twenty-nine rounds were found near the King Street entrance, and one round was found near the North Hamilton Street entrance, Riseling said.

Department of Administration lawyer Steven Means is asking that the Capitol be cleared for a security check.

Riseling said all the bullets were 22-caliber long rifle hollow points. Officers were conducting a sweep of the grassy areas and bushes outside the Capitol.

Bear in mind that Wisconsin is one of few states where it is  completely illegal for a civilian to get any carry permit under and circumstances.

So if it’s true – we’ll check back – it means that some pro-union protester is walking around with an utterly illegal firearm.  (Or that some protester is dropping ammo around to freak people out.  Either way…)

Demented

Ann Althouse notes that some of the protesters are starting to lose it:

I see some people descending into irrationality — beginning to form a cultish mentality that demonizes outsiders. Meade was at a demonstration, photographing it. A demonstration is — to a clear-thinking person — a collection of people asking to be seen, wanting to be photographed. Yet when they perceive that Meade isn’t one of them they flip — it’s a Flip camera — into fear. Meade had been trying to talk to them rationally about why the pro-Walker woman might not want to debate her ideas in that setting, and instead of seeing Meade as a citizen who’s finding out what’s going on and helping 2 women who are surrounded and outnumbered, they spread their “plant” theory. And it’s not just a theory. They know he’s a plant.

Context?  Sure – read the piece.

Weigel Misses The Point

David “JournoList” Weigel, writing at Slate, wonders “Where Are the Thugs?“.

Michelle Malkin promises to do “the reporting the Tea Party-bashing national media won’t do on the rabid outbreak of progressive incivility and violence at Big Labor protests across the country.” Sounds promising! But here’s what she delivers.

– Protesters call Scott Walker a “Koch whore.”

– Two other protesters made crude sexual references.

I suppose you could call this…:

…a “crude sexual reference”.

I mean, come on – if a Tea Partier had been caught with a sign like this, ever, we’d still be hearing about it.

– Last month a liberal talk show host said GOP Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch had performed “fellatio” on other talkers.

And as we discovered during the 2008 campaign, no crudity is beyond the pale…when referring to conservative women.

– At a rally in Providence, one asshole shoved a cameraman and was arrested and taken away, union members cheering the arrest.

Well, good.

What do they want, a cookie?

– In Denver, a black conservative was insulted in racial terms.

And here, Malkin was right; the media observes a very pronounced double standards.  Here was the attack on the black tea partier:


Even the faintest, most ambiguous perception of potential racism – from a conservative – can give the media the vapours.  The national media is still hyperventilating about a supposed racial attack against black Congresspeople that never happened.

– Two weeks ago, a black liberal columnist used racial slurs against Herman Cain.

– At a protest outside FreedomWorks’ office, a union member being filmed and interviewed got pissed and struck Tabitha Hale; someone else called someone a “bad Jew.”

Let’s be clear on this:  This guy…:

…allegedly punched her:

Where are the thugs, indeed?

But Weigel misses the point.  It’s not that there are thugs at a union action.  That’s like saying “that Mafioso just ate lasagna!”

No – the point is that the media observes a systematic double standard; leftist violence and thuggery is ignored, while the media goes out of its way to find, even manufacture, crimes on the right.

Weigel notes (as part of an apology for impugning Michelle Malkin’s journalism):

I just spent four days in Madison and the state Capitol, reporting, and saw absolutely no violence. There were no arrests on Saturday, when 80,000 liberals rallied and a smaller number of Tea Partiers counter-protested. There were no arrests last night when hundreds of angry protesters watched the GOP-led Assembly pass the budget repair act. There are no arrests, so far, in Madison. And Malkin cites actual violence in only two cities where protests have taken place.

And Weigel skips past the violence – the attacks in Providence and DC – pretty blithely…

…and it’s irrelevant.  Because thuggery isn’t just about hitting people.

By the way, David Weigel – the thugs are right here:

Double Standard

Remember last year, when the regional media furrowed its stately brow and pondered whether the Tea Party was “racist”…

because of an ambiguous sign?

Apparently the media isn’t curious about mass movements any more, since conservative bloggers have been documenting enough reprehensible, repulsive signage in Madison to re-side every shanty in Port-Au-Prince.

Here’s the latest, via Dana Loesch:

Note:  Someone at a “progressive” rally is calling for gang rape of female Tea Partiers.

It should go without saying that if this were at a Tea Party rally, it’d be getting dissected this morning on every news show in the country.

UPDATE: Everytime I see the left’s “civility for we, but violence/gang-rape for thee” vibe in action, I think about this post here.

Dear Wisconsin Tea Partiers

Bring video cameras.  Lots of them.  And don’t interact with a “union” protester without at least one camera on you.

Because yesterday, the unions and the other organizations leading the protests were warning their members “not to be provoked” by the Tea Party counterprotesters.

And you know Berg’s Seventh Law:

Berg’s Seventh Law of Liberal Projection – When a Liberal issues a group defamation or assault on conservatives’ ethics, character or respect for liberty, they are at best projecting, and at worst drawing attention away from their own misdeeds.

Or planned misdeeds.

So keep those cameras spinning.  Because the media will hang everything that goes wrong on you, and you know it.

The Great Poll Scam: Introduction

The weekend before the election, I was talking with a friend – a woman who has become a newly-minted conservative in the past two years.  She’d sat out the 2008 election, and had voted for Kerry in ’04, but finally became alarmed about the state of this nation’s future – she’s got kids – and got involved with the Tea Party and started paying attention to politics.  And she was going to vote conservative.  Not Republican, mind you, but conservative.

And the Saturday before the election, she sounded discouraged.  “Have you seen the polls?” she asked.  “Emmer’s gonna get clobbered”.

I set her straight, of course – referred her to my blog posts debunking the election-eve Humphrey and Minnesota polls.and showing her the Emmer campaign internal poll that showed the race a statistical dead heat (which, obviously, was the most correct poll before election day).

She left the room feeling better.  She voted for Emmer.  And she voted for her Republican candidates in her State House and Senate districts, duly helping flip her formerly blue district to the good guys and helping gut Dayton’s agenda, should he (heaven forefend) win the recount.

But I walked away from that meeting asking myself – what about all the thousands of newly-minted conservatives who don’t have the savvy or inclination to check the cross-tabs?  The thousands who saw those polls, and didn’t have access to a fire-breathing conservative talk show host with a keen BS detector who’s learned to read the fine print?

How many votes did Tom Emmer lose because of the Hubert H. Humphrey and Minnesota polls that showed him trailing by insurmountable margins?

How many votes to conservatives and Republicans lose in every election due to these polls’ misreporting?

Why do these two polls seem so terribly error-prone?  And why do those errors always seem to favor the Democrats, with the end result of discouraging Republican voters?

Coincidence?

———-

Public opinion polling is the alchemy of the post-renaissance age.  Especially “likely voter” polling; every organization that runs a poll has a different way of taking the hundreds or thousands of responses they get, and classifying the respondents as “likely” or not to vote, and tabulating those results into a snapshot of how people are thinking about an election at a given moment.

But the Star Tribune’s Minnesota Poll has, to the casual observer, a long history of coming out with polls that seem to short Republicans – especially conservative ones – every single election.  And the relative newcomer to the regional polling game, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute’s poll done in conjunction with Minnesota Public Radio, seems – again, anecdotally (so far) to take that same approach and supercharge it.

I’ve had this discussion in the past – David Brauer of the MinnPost and I had a bit of a back and forth on the subject, on-line and on the Northern Alliance one Saturday about a month ago.

And so it occurred to me – it’s easy to come up with anecdotes, one way or another.  But how do the numbers really stack up?   If you dig into the actual numbers for the Humphrey Institute and the Minnesota Poll, what do they say?

I’ll be working on that for the next couple of weeks.  Here’s the plan:

http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=15172

They Know What Matters

The state deficit is zooming out of control.

Two of the three gubernatorial candidates have no idea how they’re going to fix it; they’re a step or two shy of hosting a contest looking for ideas.

The DFL, which has controlled the legislature for the past four years and dominated it completely for two, has spent the whole time whining about wanting more money to give to public employee unions and all but claiming Tim Pawlenty personally blew up the 35W bridge, and telling you you’re a racist who hates children if you don’t agree.

Minnesota’s health care – which, with its private/public partnership currently insures well over 90% of Minnesotans, including virtually all of them that actually want insurance – is about to get tossed into a vortex of government-controlled mediocrity by Obamacare.

So what do our brilliant DFL hamsters think is the real priority?

Recycling fake outrage over the FBI’s raids on protesters at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul two years ago (in the House and the Senate).

From the Senate bill:

1.1A resolution
1.2memorializing the President of the United States and Congress to review the FBI
1.3raids on Minnesota activists.
1.4WHEREAS, a number of Minnesotans were issued subpoenas to appear before a grand jury
1.5in Chicago in October; and
1.6WHEREAS, these Minnesotans have not been arrested or charged with any crime; and
1.7WHEREAS, four of these Minnesotans are American Federation of State, County and
1.8Municipal Employees members in good standing in the union; and
1.9WHEREAS, FBI spokespersons have stated that the raids were prompted by the activities
1.10of the four union members, and other individuals subject to the same raids; and
1.11WHEREAS, these people are entitled to a presumption of innocence under the United
1.12States Constitution; and
1.13WHEREAS, every American has the constitutional right to advocate and organize for
1.14change of the foreign policy of the United States; and
1.15WHEREAS, the recent report by the Department of Justice Inspector General soundly
1.16criticized the FBI for improperly targeting domestic peace and antiwar groups for investigation;
1.17and
1.18WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials have frequently gone on record in defense of
1.19trade unionists and others to educate, mobilize, and organize for the legitimate goals of peace,
1.20justice, and solidarity with all working people; and
2.1WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials disavow any practices or policies which threaten
2.2the rights or civil liberties of trade unions and nonviolent peace organizations, and oppose both
2.3attacks on traditional constitutional guarantees and the granting of wider powers to the FBI to
2.4infiltrate or intimidate community groups, unions, and activists; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.5BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it expresses grave
2.6concern that the recent FBI raids are reminiscent of the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy
2.7hearings of the 1950s, and the FBI’s harassment of nonviolent civil rights and peace activists of
2.8the 1960s and 1970s, and that these raids may be the beginning of a new and dangerous assault on
2.9the First Amendment rights of union activists and antiwar peace campaigners.
2.10BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, since
2.11no acceptable justification or evidence has been presented for these raids and subpoenas and
2.12there is no reason to believe any are forthcoming, it urges Congress to review these arbitrary
2.13and capricious raids.
2.14BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, in light
2.15of the Inspector General’s recent report on the FBI investigation of certain domestic advocacy
2.16groups, we call upon the President of the United States to order an immediate investigation
2.17into the circumstances, motivation, and propriety of the judicial and FBI intimidation of these
2.18Minnesotans.
2.19BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is
2.20directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States,
2.21the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United
2.22States House of Representatives, and Minnesota’s Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Glad to see they can prioritize.

UPDATE:  Nachman from Loyal Opposition went to the Capitol to protest – one on one, in person.  He notes that the resolution, in support of the “Anti-War Committee”, would seem to be a violation of the DFL’s putative core princples:

The Anti-War Committee believes that:

The Anti-War Committee is opposed to the U.S. military, political, and economic support for the state of Israel. We see Israel as an illegitimate apartheid state, and we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination. We support the Palestinian right of return, the demand for a dismantling of Israeli settlements, an end the Israeli Occupation, and an end to racist policies in all of the territories. Our work includes protest, education, and solidarity trips to Palestine.” [4]

Aside from being libel, this is their statement of support for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, the Salafi Islamists who call for it’s destruction, and, in turn, for the subsequent annihilation of Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The Anti-War Committee and it’s supporters are public about their support for these ends, as their public statements of their support for the re-establishment of supply lines to and material support for the Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya (Hamas – the Islamic Resistance Movement), a designated terrorist organization. [5] The warrants were issued based upon probable cause and pursuant to an investigation concerning violations of “Providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations”. [6]

As a reminder, here are the core beliefs of the DFL.

We, the members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in the State Convention assembled, in order to…sustain and advance the principles of liberal democracy, and uphold human rights, civil rights and constitutional government, do establish this Constitution.”

Representatives Clark, Davnie, Hayden, Kahn, and Hausman; Senators Berglin, Pappas, Moua, Dibble (see UPDATE, infra), and Torres Ray have some explaining to do.

I’ll need to follow up to see how that appeal to “core principles” works…

Coverage

I’m mildly shocked to see the same pack of peace creeps that led the bedlam about the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul is leaping into action now that Minneapolis is on the short list for the 2012 Democratic National Convention:

About 20 protesters chanted and toted placards on Sunday near Target Field, hoping to send a message to the Democratic National Committee that it isn’t welcome to hold the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Minneapolis.

I’m amazed that the Strib didn’t jack the number up to 200, or 2,000; maybe there’s progress.  Or maybe it’s because it’s the Democrats they’re bagging on, this time.

By the way, I loved one of the comments to the story:

I had 6 adults on my deck last night.  And there were 8 kids in the pool. I guess we fell short of the 20 person mark for ongoing coverage. And we were so close!

Minneapolis is duking it out with Charlotte, Cleveland and St. Louis. 

There’s been no official confirmation, but protesters Dave Bicking and Janet Nye said their group has information indicating that DNC officials were in Minneapolis this weekend, checking out the city. So the protesters gathered Sunday on a small bridge leading to Target Field, chanting as Twins fans passed by, hoping to get their message through.

“They might not see us because they’re up in the fancy sky box, but they will certainly take notice that we’re here,” Bicking said.

Bicking, 59, and Nye, 63, both of Minneapolis, also protested planning of the 2008 Republican National Convention…

I can’t imagine that any sentient Tic staffer would put the convention here; Minnesota, barring a miracle, is probably still pretty safe Tic territory in 2012; the Dems are in much worse shape in Missouri and Ohio, and North Carolina is legitimately swing-y.

But on the off-chance that Minneapolis gets the nod, let me go on record to say something that not a single DFL politician or significant DFL-leaning blogger could bring themselves to say in 2008;  notwithstanding the fact that virtually all political violence in America today is inflicted by some shade of “The Left” or another, not to mention the fact that fewer Republican-sympatizing protesters have been arrested for violence at DNC conventions in the past six years than were standing across from Target Field yesterday, I call on all protesters planning to incite violence and threaten attendees of all political orientations to stay the hell out of Minneapolis, and furthermore hope that if you do come to this city and cause mayhem that you are all arrested and put into holding cells with very lonely lifers.

Just so we’re clear on that.

Newsweek: “Go to your room, voters!”

I started out my “adult” life, at least to about halfway through college, as a liberal.

But starting in high school, I had doubts; the Dems were a disaster on national security; the economy was falling apart; I started to have doubts that “giving everything to everyone” was anything more than a good campaign promise to people who didn’t think all that hard in the first place.

Those doubts culminated in looking furtively about the polling station in November of 1984 and pulling the lever for Ronald Reagan.  And then lying to my parents about it.  For the time being, anyway; I obviously stayed conservative; within two years, I was hosting a conservative talk show in the Twin Cities.

So here’s a question: was my political evolution, which was a  considered result of a whole lot of reading and thinking and discussion, a sign of growing up and finding myself when it came to my political worldview?

Or a sign that I was just incoherent?

The latter, claims Jacob Weisberg in a Newsweek article called “Why the Public Is to Blame for the Political Mess

In trying to explain our political paralysis, analysts cite President Obama’s tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for important legislation. These are large factors to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit of all: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

That’s a fairly big thought, there.  We’ll come back to that.

Anybody who says you can’t have it both ways hasn’t been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the economic stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later, with the economy still deeply mired in recession, a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but polls reflect something more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, and other problems.

They neglect one other things; polls don’t exist in a vacuum.

A year ago, “the public” was wracked with Bush fatigue.  With the full connivance of a media that was completely in the bag for Barack Obama (painting him as a centrist, for crying out loud), they had a brief fling with radical liberalism.  Then they saw the price tag, and the rot that would set in if Obama’s agenda passed, and changed their minds.

They may be demanding action – but not the action that Reid, Pelosi and Obama want to bring them.

Weisberg is half right. The public had a moment of immature incoherence.  It lasted through all of 2008.

We’ll see if people grow up by 2012.

Obama Girl Gets It

…and she wasn’t popularized for her intellect…if you know what I mean.

Ettinger, 28, said that even though she doesn’t have health care — “I can’t afford it” — she still thinks Obama should have waited to tackle the thorny legislation that has been blamed for the devastat ing Democratic loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

He did create some jobs, but most of them were government jobs and that doesn’t really help the middle class. But it helps a bit,” said Ettinger.

Apparently Hooters doesn’t offer health insurance.