Shot in the Dark

Month: September 2010

  • The Game-Changer

    I’ve said it many times in this forum; Gay Marriage isn’t the biggest issue to me. Oh, I believe “marriage” is about a guy and a gal and having kids, sure enough.  I believe that marriage is something sanctioned by the God I believe in.   I believe the religious reason is rooted in an…

  • Just Around The Corner From The Light Of Day

    The latest Rasmussen Poll shows the race still a dead heat, but with Emmer ahead: The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Minnesota Voters shows Emmer earning 42% support to Dayton’s 41% when leaners are included. Independence Party candidate Tom Horner is a distant third with nine percent (9%) of the vote. Six percent…

  • Why Does Mark Dayton Hate Black, Latino, Asian, Native And Muslim Families?

    If you are a charter school parent, no matter what your politics, I urge you reprint this article and pass it around to your friends, While Minnesota is proud of its education system, its great achilles heel is the inner city.  The Twin Cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have among the highest achievement gaps in…

  • Trying To Keep This In Perspective

    I joined a good chunk of the blogosphere in reviling Michelle Obama for saying she wasn’t proud of being an American until her husband became a contender.  It was a dumb remark. Still – hearing that the Democrats are going to do this…: Comedy Central humorist Stephen Colbert is set to testify before a House…

  • Fact Checking

    I’m not one to jump to rash conclusions.  I’d hate to have my self-appointed betters call me a “lazy-ass activist”, after all – that is one of those things where the mere accusation makes it so, at least if the subject is a conservative in Minnesota, apparently. So I sent the following email to the…

  • Wake Them In December

    You could almost call it a “malaise“… Vice President Biden said Thursday the conservative Tea Party movement might be “the best thing to happen” to Democrats with the midterm elections approaching. …couldn’t you?

  • School Days

    I’ve more or less kept out of the flap over Dayton’s time as a teacher in New York. The MNGOP has not.  And their angle is an interesting one; Dayton, who opposes Alternative Licensing for teachers, got his license through alternative means: St. Paul- According to documents obtained by the Republican Party of Minnesota from…

  • Hypothetical Question #2: Gross Negligence Of Press Duty

    I’d like to ask you all another hypothetical question.  All of you lawyers out there will again be especially useful, but it’s not just a legal topic, so everyone can chime in. If someone were, hypothetically, to propose a law that would punish the Press for gross negligence of their duty as the news media…

  • A Modest Proposal

    Joe Doakes from Como Park writes: Sheriff Fletcher got in trouble for using the Concealed Carry Permit holder’s list to invite permit holders to shoot on the Sheriff’s indoor pistol range in exchange for a contribution to the Sheriff’s favorite charity. He got lots of people to come and raised money for charity which was…

  • The Dayton Dustbowl 2.0: Not Ready For Prime Time

    After four months of demanding “details” from Tom Emmer, and a month of carping about the details that were actually released, Mark Dayton had to… …um, scrap his first budget and start over. The second try isn’t a whole lot better than the first. I’ll do a much more detailed analysis later, but at first…

  • Chanting Points Memo: Overpowered By Innocuous

    I have this friend; let’s call her “Lydia”.  “Literal Lydia”, we called her in high school.  She was a little anal-retentive.  She sorted her sock drawer by thickness.   She reportedly brushed her teeth before and after giving a talk in speech class.  She pronounced the “g” in words like “Knowing” and “Sailing” and “Talking”;…

  • Hypothetical Question #1: Banning Bias

    I’d like to ask you all a hypothetical question.  All of you lawyers out there will be especially useful, but it’s not just a legal topic, so everyone can chime in. Laws, especially criminal laws, have “elements” to them – criteria that must be satisfied for the law to apply to the situation.  For example,…

  • Barbarian Thwarted

    Heh. (Via Amy Alkon)

  • All In The Timing

    So yesterday former Emmer campaign manager Mark Buesgens was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. Well, that’s news, sorta.  Granted, Buesgens left the campaign over a week ago, but facts are facts. Of course, the media flogged the “story” that Tom Emmer had had two alcohol-related careless driving convictions, in 1981 and 1991 – nearly…

  • Horner’s Corporate Welfare

    Tom Horner wants to put you on the hook for a new Vikings stadium: In an attempt to drum up interest, Horner will appear outside the Metrodome Sunday before the kickoff of the Vikings’ first home game of the season to pitch his proposal to fans. Under Horner’s proposal, the team would pay 40 percent…

  • The Hewitt Hit List

    Hugh Hewitt has put out a bleg for his top twenty races to watch and, ideally, pony up for.  These are not just big races with solid conservative candidates; these are big races with solid conservatives facing serious opposition (hence no John Hoeven, who will win by fifty points), and with major down-ticket and regional…

  • Favre’s Agent Is Reportedly Interested

    From the “Sports I Had No Idea Existed” department: From Pete the neighbor…

  • Mulligan

    Reacting t0 the news that the Minnesota Department of Revenue found that Mark Dayton’s original budget “plan” came in about $3 billion light in its attempt to close the budget shortfall by “taxing the rich” (Minnesotans with adjusted gross incomes greater than $150K for a family or $130K for an individual), the Dayton campaign is…

  • Going Off The Rails

    I’ve never cared about Ozzy Ozbourne. Black Sabbath?  Zzzzzz.  Ozbourne’s nasal yawp combined with Tony Iommi’s guitar playing (he sounds he’s fingering notes with his nose) has always bored me stiff.  Who cares? The superannuated, drug-addled caricature on “The Osbournes?”  I’ve seen maybe twenty minutes of the show.  I regretted every one of them: And…

  • Taking Back “Miracle”

    “Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles.  We’re here to steal it back” — Bono, introducing “Helter Skelter” at the beginning of Rattle and Hum. ———- There aren’t many things in the world worse than someone – especially someone putatively in charge of you – claiming credit for your work. All of Minnesota should…

  • Sagging In The Stretch

    Professor David Schultz says it’s time for the DFL to tag it and bag it as re the Tarryl Clark campaign (I’ll add emphasis): The poll reports that the lead is unchanged from the previous survey. Since then hundreds of ads and hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars have poured into the race. Yet…

  • Today’s Alec Baldwin Award

    Nick Coleman tweeting MinnPost writer David Brauer: You picking Emmer? God, Winnipeg is looking good. Yes, it is, isn’t it?

  • I Heard It On The Flag

    Hey, Fargo people!  I talked with Rob Port about the Emmer budget proposal, and the huuuuge gap in the Dayton budget “plan”. See y’all next week!

  • Flagged

    I’m going to be on Rob Port’s “Say Anything Morning Show” on AM1100 The Flag in Fargo in about (checks watch) one minute. Join us!

  • Chanting Points Memo: Perhaps Her Nickname Should Be “Lyin’ Tarryl”?

    You’ve seen her ads:  Tarryl Clark bags on Michele Bachmann for not voting for a congressional tax cut. I saw the ad, and nodded, and moved on; something about it didn’t pass the sniff test, but I couldn’t quite make out why. Yesterday in the comment section, commenter Gundog76 put his finger on it.  Not…