September 2006

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9/29 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Did dinosaurs have a separate brain in their behinds? Why is there a "33" on Rolling Rock beer labels? You've got the questions and Cecil Adams is the man with the answers, as we welcome The Straight Dope to City Pages every Friday.

Will you be Pizzaman's friend? He's got a MySpace page.

Atmosphere, Gay Beast, and Lucero are just a few of the acts performing around town tonight. Check out Chuck Terhark's City Planner at Culture To Go for a complete itinerary.

Corey Anderson has a handy guide to knowing when a GOP convention has hit your town at American Idle.

THESE DAYS

China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft.

The U.S. Navy is due to leave Iceland by the end of this month, ending an American military presence dating back to 1951.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

You can get to Nordeaster Shyestviolet's blog by googling "look at my cankles" or "Blogspot doodyhead Kermit," or you can just click on this link to Is That All You've Got?

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

50 versions of The Girl from Ipanema [via Golden Fiddle]

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Trailer 1A of Casino Royale

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The Gap is not going to call that agency and say, 'Can I have a 5-year-old who looks like Dolly Parton?'"

— Monica Daniels, director of the America's Beautiful Faces pageant, on modeling scouts shying away from preteen beauty pageants

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 29, 2006 6:36 AM | Comments (1)

 

Compare and contrast

Filed under: Family

Of nanny nutritionists and our collective disdain for generation next

One of the "most e-mailed" stories in today's New York Times is an examination of the tension parents and nannies must navigate over the provenance and nutritional sanctity of the little loveys' breakfast bowls and snack packs. The story feints at edginess, making cursory nods at the inevitable class elements and the fact that as cultural currency the topic is firmly wedged between right-thinking and hand-wringing.

Just a few years ago, giving lunch to a 1-year-old was a simple matter of popping open a jar of the Gerber mush du jour. But many parents now feed their children with the precision of chemists and the passion of Alice Waters, and expect sitters to do the same. Fruit juice, once a childhood mainstay, is now considered a sweet slosh of empty calories, and soft drinks are a potential firing offense....

The issue is a trying one even for those gifted in the delicate art of parent-nanny diplomacy. The conflicts are partly a result of the educational and economic divide that leaves many nannies less knowledgeable (or neurotic, take your pick) about nutrition than their employers. But it is also partly a struggle over the emotional issues involved in leaving a child in another person's care.

How precious.

It's been said that an outsider can tell ours is a polarized society simply by taking note of our embrace of the extreme. You know, Hummers and Mini Coopers, anorexic chic and Anna Nicole Smith, the "Left Behind" novels and "Deadwood." And the of-the-moment genre of family issues reportage of which this Times piece seems to be an outgrowth: Concern over the effect that trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup are having on the underclass and how we might wean them from their Sunny D and microwave-ready egg sandwiches.

If you ask me, The Great Juice Box Conundrum, with its preoccupation with controlling every morsel consumed by one's singular, irreplaceable individual child, is a top-notch distraction from our wholesale inability to invest in children--plural and frequently unwashed. Today's not-so-frequently e-mailed news: The Economic Policy Institute says the number of children who have no health insurance last year grew for the first time in seven years.

Just in case my point's still unmade, let me take one more swing: These are children who cannot go to the doctor today for a chronic, life-threatening condition such as asthma or diabetes, children whose parents probably can only dream of making a forward-thinking nutritional investment in reducing their lifetime chances of suffering cancer. EPI says we can blame the profit-motive for this:

The rate of uninsured children in the United States has increased for the first time in seven years, from 10.8% in 2004 to 11.2% in 2005. From 2004 to 2005, the number of uninsured children grew by 361,000 to a total of 8.3 million uninsured children....

Children experienced declines in employer-provided health insurance coverage of 5.1 percentage points in the last five years. In 2000, 65.6% of children had employer-provided coverage, whereas in 2005 only 60.5% did. While the number of children insured by Medicaid or SCHIP increased from 2000 to 2004, 184,000 fewer children (nearly 1%) had Medicaid or SCHIP in 2005 than in 2004.

I have two kids who have become experts at thwarting virtually every anxiety-fueled food edict I've ever laid down. They get Capri Sun from grandpa, breakfast-hour candy from kids on the school bus, slimy, cheap goody bags from other daycare parents, and macaroni and cheese from me on those nights when Mom is worn down from a long day of keeping the health insurance card in her wallet active. And--and--this despite the fact that my older son goes to a school with one of those "evolved" food programs that eschews the processed and doctored. I'm here to tell you that children gravitate toward salt, sugar, and fat, their parents' ideologies notwithstanding.

I'll tell you what's popped up as much bigger problems than the methods used to farm their apples. The kids in my son's second-grade class who are still learning to tell time. The rumor floating around among us remaining tighty-whitey parents at his public school that the withdrawal of our even more uptight kin concentrated so many kids with behavioral diagnoses and learning disabilities in last year's class that more than 40 percent had special needs. The fact that our nearly wholesale retreat from public childcare assistance means my preschooler's cohorts cycle through the Starfish Room too quickly to acquire school readiness skills.

But hey, as a screen onto which to project our end-of-empire anxiety, nannies, who may be persuaded or coerced into making the switch to organic, certainly outweigh the conundrums of the nanny state.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 28, 2006 2:22 PM | Comments (2)

 

9/28 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Vampire Hands, Birthday Suits, and Pigeon John are just a few of the acts worth catching tonight. Check out Chuck Terhark's City Planner at Culture To Go for a complete itinerary.

THESE DAYS

The Washington-based Lincoln Group, known for its role in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for stories favorable to coalition forces, has been awarded another multimillion dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq.

The NY Daily News is reporting that "Screech," from the 1990s teen sitcom "Saved By The Bell," is shopping around a 40-minute sex tape in an effort to reignite his career.

ESPN has been accused of covering up jeers directed at former President George H. W. Bush by football fans in New Orleans during the September 25th Monday Night Football broadcast. The 24-hour sports network denies the allegation.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Kevin, Matt, and Ted blog on astronomy vs. astrology, dropping things into the toilet, and post-sex pancakes at Rambling Men.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Why aren't the youth-size Koren Robinson Vikings jerseys on sale? Or will they be collector's items now that he's a Packer?

Silence of the Lambs bloopers

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"This type of gauze dress... was typical of the kind worn in early 16th century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth. This is something that had never been seen up to now because the painting was always judged to be dark and difficult to examine."

— Bruno Mottin of the French Museums's Center for Research and Restoration, announcing Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was painted to commemorate the birth of the second son of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco de Giocondo

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 28, 2006 6:39 AM | Comments (0)

 

Elephants on West Seventh

Filed under: Politics

The Associated Press is reporting the GOP has chosen Minneapolis-St. Paul as the site for the 2008 Republican National Convention. Also in the running were New York City, Cleveland, and Tampa/St. Petersburg. The convention itself will be held at the Xcel Energy Center, September 1-4. The Twin Cities was rumored to be a leading candidate, along with Denver, for the Democratic Convention, with MSP gaining an edge due to the Mile High City's dearth of union hotels. The DNC has not announced their site choice. State government officials predict a national convention would boost the local economy by about $150 million.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 27, 2006 3:25 PM | Comments (8)

 

Senate candidate Kennedy paying blogger Brodkorb $4583 per month as "part-time consultant"

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

Perhaps the most interesting item in this Minnesota Monitor profile of Minnesotademocratsexposed.com blogger Michael Brodkorb is Brodkorb's admission that he is paid $4583 per month--which works out to four bucks less than $55,000 per year--to be a part-time press consultant for U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kennedy's campaign.

Brodkorb frequently cites his role in Kennedy's campaign when posting items about the U.S. Senate race that polls show Kennedy is losing by a wide margin to DFL challenger Amy Klobuchar. And while the MDE blog is appropriately regarded as place where no attack seems too petty or vile when it comes to belittling Minnesota Democrats, Brodkorb should also be credited with providing a forum for some of the most spirited, and occasionally enlightening, political debates regarding state political issues and candidates. DFL empathizers frequently weigh in to defend their side.

But Minnesota Monitor raises some good points about how difficult it is for a paid consultant to keep his work completely separate from his partisan blog. And another DFL-leaning blog, Mn Publius, recently published a report from the campaign of Michelle Bachmann showing that Brodkorb was paid $5500 for work on her campaign. Brodkorb didn't acknowledge this conflict when posting an item on MDE about Bachmann's race with DFL challenger Patty Wetterling for the U.S. House seat Kennedy is vacating to run for the Senate.

Posted by Britt Robson at September 27, 2006 12:22 PM | Comments (8)

 

9/27 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Chuck Terhark has your Wednesday night all planned out for you at Culture To Go.

THESE DAYS

New Hampshire state officials say a teddy bear dropped into a pool at a Fish and Game Department hatchery earlier this month clogged a drain causing the deaths of 2,500 trout.

"The Boondocks," the comic strip by Aaron McGruder that's currently in reruns, will end in November, Universal Press Syndicate has announced.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Jodi's truck is named Ruby, her iPod's name is Kathleen Turner Overdrive, and her hilarious blog is named I Will Dare.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Submit a photo of your messy workspace to Uneasy Silence and win an Omni lounge chair.

Knight Rider bloopers

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Literally one moment before you go on, he comes and says hello, and it's like 'Oh, my God,' because he's six feet five, and I find that to be a turn-on—my boyfriend at the time was six four. So unfortunately, the first time I met Bill O'Reilly, it was an attractive thing. I guess I assumed he was a short guy, because he's so pugnacious. He still has the Napoleon complex while being six five—that's what kind of an asshole he is."

— comedian and radio host Janeane Garofalo, recalling her first stint on The O'Reilly Factor, in the October issue of GQ

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 27, 2006 1:14 AM | Comments (0)

 

Clinton's Fox News Snit Ensnares Grams in Old Criticism

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

Poor Rod Grams. He got bounced from the U.S. Senate by daft Mark Dayton, had that Bush brown-noser Mark Kennedy cut in line ahead of him to challenge Amy Klobuchar when Dayton predictibly crashed and burned, and was left with the boobie prize of waging a longshot, not to say hopelessly Byzantine, campaign to try and unseat U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar up in the 8th District, where Iron Rangers have been voting the 78-term incumbent back to Washington ever since he invented the taconite pellet and rode beside Ulysses Grant in the Second Battle of Bull Run.(Actually, Oberstar has served only 16 terms, a period in which he has always received at least 59 per cent of the vote. And, to further set the record straight, he has graciously never claimed credit for inventing taconite.)

So Grams has gone from being a talking head on Channel 9 to one of the silver spoons in the U.S. Senate to persona non recogniza, more invisible than Chevy Chase in that horrible movie with Darryl Hannah, everywhere but a few fur-trapping precincts up in 8th. Until this weekend, when, wonder of wonders, he finally scores a little national pub. And what does it turn out to be for? Casting aspersions on former President Clinton's attempt to kill Osama bin Laden eight years ago. This is one of those cases where the "as long as they spell my name right" rule does not apply.

This time it really is all Clinton's fault. If the former Prez hadn't pitched a snit at Chris Wallace on Fox News the other day, Grams could have ridden that obscurity bandwagon all the way to election day and then seamlessly faded back into the vinyl siding. But Clinton had to point out the hypocrisy of Republicans for questioning his motives back when he bombed one of bin Laden's compounds in Sudan in 1998, claiming Slick Willy was making a Wag the Dog gesture to deflect press attention from Monica and the looming debate over impeachment. Now, of course, they and Wallace at Fox want to know why he didn't dog bin Laden more assiduously.

As bad luck would have it, if you go back and look at Republican criticism of Clinton during that bombing incident, Rod Grams was obviously dragooned into a specially commissioned single-syllable name brigade that also included Dan Coates and Trent Lott. Worse, if this weekend's citations of Grams's comments had put his words in their complete context, they would show that he never directly took Clinton to task for going after bin Laden. On the contrary, on the August 20, 1998 edition of the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, where Grams was part of a four-Senator roundtable discussion on the bombing, Grams flatly stated that, "I very strongly support this, and I think these raids were carried out, I hope, very successfully."

But it was what Grams said later in the program that would permanently link him to the criticism of Clinton. His most memorable soundbyte cited the then-recent movie "Wag the Dog"--a wicked satire about a President staging a war to distract the country from more unpleasant matters--more directly than any other prominent politician.

"I think it was an appropriate response," Grams reiterated. "But I think in the back of many people's minds you're going to have these questions that come to the surface, and I know I've talked to many reporters today, and in just about every interview the reporters asked that very question. And I think it just goes back to the controversy that still surrounds the White House today."

"Did it leap to you--to the back of your mind, Senator?" Jim Lehrer asked Grams.

"Yes, it did," Grams confessed. "I had this question, and although, you know, I just kind of thought about it, because of the movie 'Wag the Dog'..."

Posted by Britt Robson at September 26, 2006 5:27 PM | Comments (3)

 

News flash: Titty bars to blame for rising crime!

Filed under: Crime

With the mounting hysteria over lawlessness in Minneapolis, it seems like there are now more new crime fighting proposals in town than crack dealers. Some of the ideas--such as adding more cops--have the virtue of common sense. Others--such as decriminalizing drugs or figuring out how to close yawning economic disparities between the races--seem worthy of consideration. Unfortunately, those seldom gain much traction because the issues raised are too complex and too radioactive.

And then there are the poorly reasoned approaches so often favored by the political class. For instance: the city's unprecedented crackdown on north side housing code violations--things like chipped paint, insufficient driveway gravel and the like--all of which was initiated under the theory that evil-doers will surely be demoralized by a sudden proliferation of well-manicured lawns.

But the latest crime-fighting proposal to grace the august pages of the Newspaper of the Twin Cities transcends the merely silly; it is ridiculous and you have to wonder why the editors even considered it for publication. I refer here to the op-ed authored by Andy Brehm, former press secretary to Senator Norm Coleman and a regular on Twin Cities public TV broadcast, Almanac.

In Brehm's view, it's those appalling strip clubs and sex shops that are driving crime rates downtown. Brehm is certainly within his rights to be offended by the sex industry. Like lots of people, Brehm, evidently, is uncomfortable with the commercial exploitation of nudity. Fine. But Brehm's proposed solution--Mayor Rybak, in the name of the children, you must shut down Dream Girls!--is rooted in crappy logic. Writes the budding attorney:

One of the reasons Minneapolis is dangerous is that it looks and feels dangerous. Unlike most urban centers, including St. Paul, Minneapolis is littered with strip clubs and sex shops. Hennepin Avenue, which seeks to welcome families to Block E and the Orpheum Theatre for wholesome entertainment, also plays host to the clientele of topless bars and adult stores.

No doubt, that opinion is shared by a lot of visitors to Minneapolis. That doesn't mean it has merit. To begin with, Brehm ought to consider the inconvenient fact that the businesses he derides as civic toxins have been in existence long before the current surge in crime. And, contrary to his assertion, most major cities have their share of such establishments.

Of course, it is true that a badly run strip club can cause trouble in a neighborhood. So can a badly run bar or a badly run convenience store. That does not mean that strip clubs and sex shops are inherently criminogenic and thus deserve the smackdown. I explored this issue in a story about the city's efforts to close a topless bar in northeast Minneapolis, the 22nd Avenue Station. A relevant passage from the that piece:

According to an affidavit prepared by urban planner R. Bruce McLaughlin, for instance, the club averaged significantly fewer calls for police service over a three-year period than two neighboring bars, a nearby liquor store, and even one nearby residence. McLaughlin also found no discernible effects on property valuation related to the presence of the club.

Unlike Brehm, sociologist Dan Linz, who has studied the issue of so-called "adverse secondary effects" of strip clubs for the past quarter century, offers insight that are grounded in science, not personal morals:

"There is always this struggle between what we as social scientists find and what legislators will rely on in order to substantiate their political or moral views," Linz observed. "And very often government officials trot out these studies without having even read them."

Linz acknowledges that some studies have drawn correlations between adult businesses and effects on neighborhood property values and crime rates. "There is a standard set of studies that can be downloaded from conservative Christian web pages, which are often used as justification for ordinances and which are circulated from state to state," Linz says. "We have reviewed each of these studies and found them to be so flawed in scientific methodology as to be virtually useless."

Bottom line: The rising crime in Minneapolis is an enormously complex phenomenon, a phenomenon that is difficult to untangle. But it's not fair for Brehm or others to scapegoat a few juice bars that feature naked women dancing on stages or retail outlets that sell adult DVDs. And it's a mystery why the Strib chose to showcase this argument so prominently.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at September 26, 2006 4:27 PM | Comments (4)

 

9/26 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Chuck Terhark on the Twins clinching a playoff berth at Balls!

Corey Anderson remembers the saxophonist who shouted "Tequila!" in the famous song at Corpus Obscura.

Will Jim Walsh have another Song Du Jour for today at the Walsh Files? Yeah, probably.

THESE DAYS

Disappearing wetlands, pollution, and fungal disease are threatening almost one-third of the world's 5,918 amphibians with extinction.

A Missouri man in Austin, Minnesota, for the "National Barrow Show" is going home without his vanity license plates, which read "PIGGIN," after they were stolen in broad daylight. (scroll down)

NBC has come under fire from the Parents Television Council for editing out some references to God from airings of the Veggie Tales video series.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Andover blogger Chris DeLine posts on music videos, reviews, bootlegs, and concerts, with a ton of MP3s thrown into the mix at Culture Bully.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A Bag of Leaves for Senate... after awhile the candidate starts to stink, but that's when it actually becomes useful.

The Danielle Steel Book Title Generator

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"That was totally tongue-in-cheek and everyone in the building knew that and everyone laughed."

— Televangelist Jerry Falwell, discussing the Washington breakfast last Friday where he stated a Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential candidacy would energize his constituency more than if Lucifer were running

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 26, 2006 6:36 AM | Comments (1)

 

NY Times: What senate race?

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

To every blogger and right-winger concerned with howling over the Old Gray Lady's sins of omission (strange bedfellows are often aligned on this one), Sunday's Op/Ed pages of the New York Times must have seemed like more MSM business as usual. Even so, the paper's round-up of pivotal Senate races around the country was a sign of sorts.

"While my assignment was to write about Minnesota's important Senate race," begins Charles Baxter, a Minneapolis-born author who teaches at the U of M. "I think there's more to be learned right now from the far closer contest in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District."

While it's true that the Bachmann/Wetterling race is closely contested, handsomely funded and critically important for either party, Baxter's piece really is about who it isn't about. That is, is the margin of Amy Kobuchar's lead in the polls over Mark Kennedy so much that the Times doesn't think the race is compelling enough to cover?

If so, that would be shocking turn for what was supposed to be one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. It's true that the campaign as been devoid of suspense, if not drama (the misguided conspiracies behind last week's Bloggergate non-story notwithstanding), but it ain't over till it's over, right?

For example, the hometown papers aren't willing to say that Kennedy's toast. This excerpt from a story in today's Pioneer Press: "Although the spread is wide--15 points--it's not insurmountable, according to experts."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 25, 2006 3:37 PM | Comments (4)

 

9/25 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

San Francisco, New York, Washington, and other big cities are keeping bluegills—also known as sunfish or bream—in tanks constantly replenished with water from the municipal supply, and sensors in each tank work around the clock to register changes in the breathing, heartbeat and swimming patterns that occur in the presence of toxins.

Researchers say they have identified an "on-off" switch in the brain that controls the emotional response to fear, and said it might some day be manipulated to help patients with anxiety disorders.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Black Java focuses his camera lens on Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue at the Uptown Mpls Blog.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A graph showing Halliburton stock from 2003 to the present

How evil are you? Take the quiz. Contrary to popular belief, I am "good."

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's an energy drink, and it's a fun name. As soon as people look at the can, they smile."

— Jamey Kirby, inventor of new energy drink Cocaine

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 25, 2006 6:36 AM | Comments (1)

 

Crime of the season

Filed under: Politics

One of the more catty pieces of political literature this campaign season has been making the rounds for the last week or so. It's got nothing to do with Klobuchar v. Kennedy, Pawlenty v. Hatch, or even Bachmann v. Wetterling. Instead, it comes from a relatively apolitical corner of the public service universe known as the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.

In that race, Juan Lopez, a former Bloomington cop and current corrections administrator, is taking on Rich Stanek, the longtime MPD cop who has also served in the state House and had an aborted stint as Minnesota's Public Safety commissioner. DFLer Lopez and Stanek, a Republican, are vying for the seat being vacated by Pat McGowan.

All was relatively quiet between the two, even up to the primary, where Stanek captured 43 percent of the vote to Lopez's 24 percent. But afterward, the attacks began in the form of a press release from a group called the Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputies Association (or--unwieldy acronym alert--HCSDA).

The missive, which lists HCSDA president Pat Denman as a contact, notes that the association issued a "no confidence" vote in candidate Lopez. Further, the statement went on to claim that "Lopez is not a licensed peace officer."

"Has he ever answered a 911 call or walked down an alley alone as a peace officer, supervised a shift or managed an agency budget?" the lit quotes Denman as asking. "He simply is not qualified to lead the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.

"Bottom line is," Denman concludes, "he is not a cop."

When reached by phone, Lopez calmly assails the press release as "a feeble attempt to distract from my opponent's actual record." "The guy who wrote it is Stanek's boy," he offers.

Fair enough, but is Lopez a cop?

"I have a peace officer's license in this state that is currently not active," he says. "But I have been in law enforcement and I have been in corrections."

Lopez, who will soon turn 50 and lives in Bloomington, explains that he was on the Bloomington force from August 2001 to December 2001. "I resigned for family issues," he explains.

A month later, he took a job with Hennepin County, working in the county jail, doing a stint as a human resources recruiter, and eventually working as a juvenile probation officer.

Lopez, who ran for the sheriff's position four years ago and garnered 102,000 votes, senses a little desperation coming from Stanek backers. "He's spent $100,000 and I've spend $5,000," Lopez notes. "And I'm still in the race."

As for law enforcement bona fides, Lopez counters that he has "been in a shootout and held at gun point." But mostly, he says, such experiences don't matter much to running the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. "Sheriff is an administrative position," Lopez concludes. "I can guarantee the sheriff has not made an arrest in the last 12 years."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 22, 2006 9:08 AM | Comments (3)

 

9/22 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

What are the dreams of the blind like? Can you make big money stuffing envelopes at home? You've got the questions and Cecil Adams is the man with the answers, as we welcome The Straight Dope to City Pages every Friday.

THESE DAYS

Ahmed Rashed, a graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to stealing a hand from a school cadaver and giving it to an exotic dancer.

Attorneys report a growing number of pet owners are making plans for their animals through pet trusts.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Living in the Twin Cities on the cheap and obsessing over a particular local meteorologist are the subjects of We Have Mixed Feelings About Sven Sundgaard.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

From McSweeney's, Short Imagined Monologue: I'm Beginning to Think No One's Coming to My Cinco de Mayo Party

Super Mario Bros. wedding cake

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I thought he was fair. And then he comes out of the closet as this real radical left guy. And I am going, 'Whoa, Walter, where have you been all these years?'"

— FOX pundit Bill O'Reilly, on television news legend Walter Cronkite

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 22, 2006 7:00 AM | Comments (0)

 

Department of Hyperbole: Mark Kennedy edition

Filed under: Politics

With elections less than two months away, the season of absurd political spin--not to mention the season of the unseemly smear job--has once again hit high gear. For the most part, the autumnal whoppers that pass from the lips of the political operatives don't deserve serious comment. Like a burst of flatulance from a dinner guest, they are simply best ignored. But sometimes you can't resist. Case in point: a recent declaration from Mark Drake, the communications director for the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Commenting on the contest between Amy Klobuchar and Mark Kennedy to succeed U.S. Senator Mark Dayton, Drake offered this analysis to the Star Tribune: "It's the most competitive race in the country." That conclusion was based, evidently, on the fact that Bill Clinton appeared at a Klobuchar fundraiser.

You don't have to believe the results of the Star Tribune's Minnesota Poll (which gave Klobuchar a whopping 56 to 32 percent advantage) to recognize the absurdity of Drake's assertion. Because while the Strib's poll has come under plenty of criticism, no poll--not even Kennedy's internal poll--has the freshman congressman within five points of A-Klo. Recent surveys conducted by Zogby and Gallup both found Klobuchar leading by approximately 10 points.

What's more, according to the political newsletter, Politics in Minnesota, there are rumblings that Governor Pawlenty--disappointed by Kennedy's poor showing--is distancing himself from Kennedy:

Kennedy has failed to make this race as close as the GOP thought it would be. While the gap isn't likely to be the 24 points that the StarTribune poll indicates, Kennedy's own polling shows that he is down by at least 8 to 10 points. Most Republicans will acknowledge that Kennedy is in trouble.

One major factor is Kennedy's negatives. Almost every poll has them in the 30% range, while Amy Klobuchar's remain in the low teens. As Kennedy begins to go negative his strategy is to drive up Klobuchar's negatives but it will also drive up his unfavorable ratings among voters. As Kennedy becomes less and less popular, how can Governor Pawlenty stand side by side with him if his race with Mike Hatch is as tight?

Pawlenty has implied that candidates who "run away" from the President are "weenies" and Kennedy has done just that. But even more so, Pawlenty hasn't been running close to the President either. Pawlenty is a deft and bold politician and we predict that if Kennedy doesn't pick up traction, the Governor will distance himself to give himself the best chance at reelection, rather than risk a loss of both statewide offices.

So does Drake still stand by his assertion that Klobuchar-Kennedy is a barn burner? He seems to have modified his opinion, albeit--in true flak form--only marginally. "I think it's one of the most competitive races in the county," Drake now says.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at September 21, 2006 9:00 AM | Comments (6)

 

9/21 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Pizzaman has a brush with third-tier stardom on the Streets of Pizza.

Remembering those whose accomplishments vastly exceeded their fame at City Pages's newest blog, Corpus Obscura.

Jim Walsh bids farewell to the Tin Star Sisters at Culture To Go.

THESE DAYS

The latest research by UK health plan provider HSA has found that women feel the impact of stress at work more than men.

Rupert Murdoch plans to add 1.3 billion new friends by expanding the popular MySpace networking site to China.

A team from Duke University Medical Center offered 12 thirsty adult male rhesus macaque monkeys a choice between their favorite drink and the chance to view pictures of their pack's dominant, "celebrity" monkey. The monkey version of Paris Hilton won.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Michael Gilleland describes himself as an antediluvian, bibliomaniac, and curmudgeon. If you know what at least two out of those three words mean, you'll probably enjoy reading his blog at Laudator Temporis Acti. You had me at "curmudgeon."

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The 50 Worst Things Ever to Happen to Music according to Blender, including braided goatees and electric violins [via Reddit]

Top 25 Best Beers in America according to Men's Journal... Grain Belt must have been 26th

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"[Steve Irwin would] interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years—a lot many more years that he's been alive—and I don't mess with nature."

— Marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, busting on the late Crocodile Hunter

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 21, 2006 6:46 AM | Comments (1)

 

Not hailing the chief

Filed under: Minneapolis

It's been more than a week since Mayor R.T. Rybak held a press conference to announce his inevitable choice for the next chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. It was smiles all around as 23-year vet of the department Tim Dolan stepped more assuredly into the limelight (he had been interim chief all summer), but Dolan immediately noted that he needed City Council approval to take the job.

And indeed there were voices of dissent, most notably Ralph Remington (10th Ward), Scott Benson (11th Ward), and Elizabeth Glidden (Eighth Ward). Remington, for one, is still squawking.

Remington now echoes many of the concerns from last week, namely that the selection process wasn't open enough to merit a bona fide search. The first-term council member notes that Rybak essentially told him that Hizzoner's choice was Dolan many months ago, and word got around in the MPD and other departments to not even bother trying.

Remington also points out that of the three finalists, none of them were introduced to the community in the form of open and closed-door meetings, as has been the case in the past. Finally, Remington contends, the council members themselves were pretty much kept in the dark as far as the reported 17 candidates.

"We didn't know that number, and we didn't know the finalists, until we read it in the Star Tribune," Remington maintains.

Even if the Dolan choice was a fait accompli, as Remington and others have suggested, then why did the city spend $31,000 on a search firm, nearly matching the $42,000 total it spent during the high-profile search three years ago that yielded previous chief Bill McManus?

Remington's list of grievances goes on. Remington, who is black, notes that in the earlier search, "it was all about finding a black chief. Where did that go?" Remington further points out the absence of viable woman candidates. "I know there are good chiefs out there that fit in those regards," Remington says. "McManus was a special case. He spoke directly to the African American community, which is what this city needs. Some people even called him "BlackManus.'"

For all of the faults of the former chief, Remington argues, that was crucial, seeing that "the black community is most impacted by violent crime."

To hear Remington tell it, Rybak's choice was one of political expediency. "I think what happened this time is that there was an over-correction," Remington surmises. "It was an effort to go for the lowest common denominator, this feeling that we can't go outside the department this time because look at what happened last time."

Remington insists that he has no personal beef with Dolan, but that there were many questions to consider. Aside from Dolan, one of the three finalists was a known quantity: Greg Hestness, a former 28-year veteran of the MPD who now heads the University of Minnesota police department.

But not much is known about the third finalist, Nicholas Metz. Remington says he spent nearly an hour on the phone talking to Metz, who is an assistant chief in Seattle. Metz, it turns out, is African American, was raised in south Minneapolis, and attended Washburn High School. "He was willing to take a paycut to come back home," Remington says. "But none of us even got the chance to meet with him."

To hear Remington tell it, the fight for Dolan's confirmation has only just begun. The mayor's selection must first go the council's Executive Committee before it is forwarded on to the full City Council.

Dolan might not even make it out of the Executive Committee's meeting next Wednesday, according to Remington. That committee includes two yes votes, the mayor and council president Barb Johnson. It also includes a certain no vote in Benson. Two unknowns are Cam Gordon (Second Ward) and Robert Lilligren (Sixth Ward).

"The whole thing could get stopped in Executive," Remington guesses. If the Dolan selection goes in front of the full 13-member council, Remington insists that there isn't a clear majority there either. "It could break 7-6, or even 8-5, either way," Remington says.

"There was this feeling this time that we had to go with the hometown boy, and all of that was wrapped up in some nostalgic xenophobia in Minneapolis," Remington concludes, citing "parochialism at its worst." "It's time to go back to the drawing board, and have an aggressive search."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 20, 2006 3:41 PM | Comments (0)

 

9/20 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

Police arrested an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana violations in 2005, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report. The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. for 2005 far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

School officials in upstate New York are apologizing for an X-rated typeface that was used on a third-grade spelling packet. The font showed male and female stick figures in provocative poses to form the letters of the alphabet.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Anthony Hall and Simon Bryun post on all things purple at Vikings War Cry.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The new and improved South Park Studio, where you can create your own characters

CreateBands allows you to become the next Lou Pearlman

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's always had a very special place in my heart and now it's an amazing thought that I'm going to be riding that funny old car at the very end of the parade."

-- Star Wars creator George Lucas, on being named grand marshal of the 118th annual Tournament of Roses parade

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 20, 2006 6:36 AM | Comments (0)

 

Crime blotter: the only guy who had a worse day than Chris Gamble at the Dome on Sunday

Filed under: Crime

On Sunday afternoon during the Vikings dust-up with the Carolina Panthers at the Metrodome, a Minneapolis police officer working off duty was dispatched to Gate H to deal with an unruly patron. The troublesome fan, subsequently identified as Robert Coleman McNutt, appeared to be drunk and was screaming profanities. According to a criminal complaint filed today in Hennepin County District Court, the officer, identified only as J.K., attempted to escort the man outside. McNutt allegedly responded by twice shoving the officer. He then assumed a fighting stance and purportedly punched the officer in the face, resulting in a swollen lip. McNutt was eventually subdued with a taser. The 29-year-old Minneapolis resident is charged with fourth degree assault and obstructing the legal process. According to records maintained by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, McNutt has no prior felony convictions.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 19, 2006 4:59 PM | Comments (1)

 

Chicken Little Amok on the Business Pages

Filed under: Media

Are men really "disappearing" from TV news?

The business section of today's Star Tribune bemoans the supposed disappearance of the male TV news anchor, and declares women, who hold 57 percent of non-network anchor jobs, "in the driver's seat."

The number of male news anchors started to decline 10 years ago and is now at an all-time low. Men account for fewer than 43 percent of anchor jobs, compared with 46 percent in 1996, according to the RTNDA survey. Women also outnumber men as executive producers, reporters, news producers and writers, the survey found.

Where to even start with what's wrong with this....

How many decades has it been since statistics showing that men comprise a majority of anything has been news? And since when does holding 43 percent of a category of jobs make anybody endangered? Forty-three percent is almost half. Is it even statistically relevant?

More missing-but-crucial context: With the exception of main newscast anchors in large markets, most of the jobs cited in this story are relatively low-wage. (There's a term for it, guys: The pink-collar ghetto.) How many news directors are men? The very same Ball State professor quoted in this story decrying the wane of the male anchor probably knows. In 2002, he wrote about a 2 percent increase in their ranks--to 26 percent. A 2 percent increase--Baby, we really have come a long way. In the same survey, published by the Radio Television News Directors Association, he reports that women hold less than 39 percent of TV newsroom jobs.

And if we're in the driver's seat, how come the substance of the 10 o'clock news is still dominated by women with pesky domestic conundrums and men with serious commentary on the major policies of our era?

Here's what I think. I think editors love stories about endangered men. "Endangered women? A batch of shrews harping on stuff we covered back in the 70s and 80s, thank you. But endangered men? Now that's counterintuitive and sexy." I'll bet you can reel off a list of a dozen such "epidemics" with your eyes closed, without even having to resurrect the angry white man of the '90s: There are our endangered school-age boys, the supposed anti-dad bias of the family court system, male victims of sex harassment and of "reverse discrimination, falling sperm counts, crazy sports dads, "bigorexia," the wrestlers and sundry other male athletes endangered by Title IX, and the latest, boys as hapless victims of more sexually aggressive teen girls.

Or last month's little adventure in dubious reporting of statistics, news from the U.S. Census Bureau that the wage gap is falling. The bean counters at the U.S. Department of Labor actually bragged that the gap between what men and women earn is lower than ever on record, with women bringing home 77 cents to every male dollar. Set aside for a second the notion that this means that in my 25 years in the workforce we've advanced a nickel and consider the D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute's parsing of the numbers, which reveals that the gap is shrinking because pay for men is shrinking.

Following current earnings trends, the Figure projects what more "good news" of this sort would bring in the decades ahead. It turns out the gender gap would completely close in 2024, when earnings for full-time, full-year workers would be just under $25,000—40% below today’s level for men and 22% for women.

Even if the Strib's anchor story numbers are meaningful, they speak volumes about more impressive numbers that aren't news. To wit: 86 percent of congressional seats are held by men, but have you tried to sell a mainstream U.S. newsroom lately on a story about women's underrepresentation in Congress? And you thought the Unibomber was treated like a freak.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 19, 2006 4:06 PM | Comments (4)

 

Sid Vicious

Filed under: Media

Journalism student dissed by "legend"

Minnesota Daily scribe C.J. Spang and "punk kid" claims to have had an unpleasant brush with Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman.

I was in the Athletics Communications office on Friday, squaring away some work-related things when Hartman walked in. I laughed on the inside, as I'd heard about him making the rounds in the Bierman athletics building.

While he was in an office, I sat down to talk with a friend of mine and another person who works in the office.

He walked by and got to the door, only to turn and look toward the three of us.

"You can do better than that," he said to the other two people in the room while gesturing to me. "This guy's a nothing."

And, with that, he walked out the door.

Read Spang's entire account here.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 19, 2006 3:27 PM | Comments (3)

 

No fare

Filed under: Business

USA Today highlights a growing issue at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport: Muslim cab drivers refusing to transport people carrying alcohol.

The airport is expected to propose today that drivers who wish to avoid alcohol-toting passengers change the light on their car roofs, possibly to a different color. [Airport spokesman Patrick] Hogan says the move will help let airport employees and customers know which taxis serve alcohol-carrying passengers. Drivers refusing a fare won't have to go to the end of the line. "Airport authorities are not in the business of interpreting sacred texts or dictating anyone's religious choices. ... Our goal is simply to ensure travelers at (the airport) are well served."

Posted by Paul Demko at September 19, 2006 12:47 PM | Comments (2)

 

9/19 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

Halliburton will help its wounded combat-zone employees get the honors and recognition they deserve—if they promise not to sue the company, according to documents released by Senate Democrats.

Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog poop are urging residents to record how many droppings they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census.

A 32-year-old woman collapsed and later died after participating in a contest at a fair in London, Ontario, in which participants stuffed 100 marshmallows into their mouths and then attempted to say the words "Chubby Bunny." [via Attu]

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

A design blog and a living technology blog live side by side in harmony at Design/Sketches.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Muppet Show lab assistant Beaker singing "Feelings"

Arrested Development's Will Arnett joins Dax Shepard and Chi McBride behind bars in Bob Odenkirk's Let's Go to Prison.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?"

-- political pundit and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, in Sunday's Washington Post

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 19, 2006 6:45 AM | Comments (2)

 

9/18 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Diablo Cody muses on her upcoming ten-year class reunion at the Pussy Ranch.

Jim Walsh has your song du jour at the Walsh Files.

Corey Anderson remembers "Lil' Wally" in another installment of Corpus Obscura at American Idle.

THESE DAYS

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is attempting to impose strict regulations on the growing online gambling industry by tying a measure to the Defense Authorization bill.

According to a paper published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, when youngsters avert their gaze from the face of someone questioning them, they become more adept at solving challenging problems.

The high school in El Dorado, Kansas, is instituting random drug screening for all middle and high school students participating in—or even just attending—any extracurricular activity, including field trips and school plays. So, no getting baked before going to the planetarium!

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Twenty-six-year-old IT company president David Newberger blogs about politics, education, community journalism, and Native American issues.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Beer Cannon Montage

Wookiepedia: The Star Wars Wiki

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Some people have asked me whether America is a Christian country. The answer must be no, for to call this a Christian country is to say that non-Christians are of some lesser order, not full fledged citizens of one nation."

-- From the forthcoming book Faith and Politics by Episcopal minister and former senator John Danforth (R-MO)

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 18, 2006 6:33 AM | Comments (0)

 

Despite the support of the GOP, golfers and God, a judicial candidate flops

Filed under: Elections

Last year, when the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Minnesota's strict restrictions on judicial campaigning--thereby opening the floodgates for political parties to jump into the fray--there was a flood of dire predictions about the consequences for our judiciary. And why not? In states with similarly relaxed rules regarding fundraising and partisan endorsements, judicial campaigns have become ugly, money-grubbing, TV driven affairs; in other words, they are essentially indistinguishable from garden variety slime fests that define the modern American political contest.

So it comes as something of a surprise that Minnesota's first foray into this new world has proved so milquetoast. Case in point: the three-way race for a judge's seat in the ninth judicial district, which covers 17 counties in northwest Minnesota. Just one of the three candidates, a magistrate named Tim Tingelstad (whose Jesus-centric campaign motto was "Justice is served when judges fear God and love the people") received a party endorsement. That came courtesy of the ninth district Republicans.

And what did it net him? A third place finish, in which he was soundly trounced by both the incumbent Terrance Holter (the top vote getter) and Holter's former clerk, John Melbye. Tingelstad's flop was hardly the result of a lack of effort. He was the only candidate to appear at the Republican forum, the only one to appear at an ACLU forum, and one of just two to address the Chamber of Commerce.

Reached by telephone, Tingelstad was something at a loss to explain his defeat. However, he does venture one likely theory: money, or more properly, the lack of it. In the sprawling district--which takes 5 hours to traverse by car--the business of buying airtime, printing signs, door knocking and mailing leaflets is both time consuming and expensive. Tingelstad figures he spent in the neighborhood of $4,000; challenger John Melbye, by contrast, shelled out close to $25,000 and quit his day job.

Still, Tingelstad has no regrets about the campaign, or his decision to be so forthright about his religious views. "If we don't start acknowledging the sovereignty of God in our courts and schools and public institutions, we have strayed off the foundation upon which the founding fathers built our government," he offers. "I like to talk about the whole concept of absolute truth."

Whether ninth district voters disagreed with that--or were simply unaware of Tingelstad's views--the strategy did not serve him well. And after losing his second consecutive bid for a seat on the bench (he was trounced two years ago by Supreme Court Justice and former Minnesota Viking Alan Page), Tingelstad is unsure whether he'll take another stab.

One passion he will continue to pursue: Golf. In the ranks of the Minnesota judiciary, Tingelstad is almost certainly the only candidate to hold a patent on a golf club, an adjustable putter he dubbed "the Way." That name, you won't be shocked to learn, is Biblical in origin. "I used the passage from John where Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth and the light and no one can come to the father except through me,'" Tingelstad explains "It's a witnessing tool, but also a fun way to meet people."

Bottom line: Should he venture another campaign, maybe Tingelstad would be better advised to spend more time on the links and less with the party faithful.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at September 15, 2006 2:03 PM | Comments (10)

 

Popped off about the top cop

Filed under: Minneapolis

Monday's press conference to announce Tim Dolan as Mayor R.T. Rybak's choice to be the next chief of the Minneapolis Police Department had a decidedly low-key vibe. Dolan had been acting chief, after all, since Bill McManus shuffled off to San Antonio this spring. Most people wondered why Rybak would even go through the motions of a search.

And for that, there was a lack of sour grapes at the city's 2nd Precinct station on Central Avenue in Northeast. One of the final three candidates, University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness, said the selection of Dolan over him "absolutely worked out well for both of us." (Hestness, who was with the MPD for 28 years, has known Dolan almost as long as that, and was his supervisor for three years when Dolan led the Fourth Precinct.)

MPD Assistant Chief Sharon Lubinski, who was a finalist for the job that eventually went to McManus three years ago, noted that working with Dolan this summer "has been the most collegial boss/employee relationship I've ever had."

Even John Delmonico, head of the police union that represents the rank and file, was unusually placated. "He's the right guy for the right job," Delmonico said, adding that he and Dolan played hockey together when both were students at De La Salle High School. "He's a smart man, who is highly educated and innovative."

Dolan, 51, would appear to be the most qualified candidate for the job.(Besides Dolan and Hestness, the third finalist was an assistant chief from Seattle.)

He does have a B.A. and master's from St. Thomas in public safety and administration. And though he lives in Edina, with his wife and four sons, he grew up and spent much of his career on the North Side. Besides, Dolan was all but groomed for the position by McManus, taking over most of the day-to-day operations of the MPD. "He gave me the opportunity to fill in some of the blanks in my policing experience," Dolan said.

Then again, some worry that Dolan, who admitted to being "nervous" at the outset of the press conference, might be too tied to the status quo of the MPD. "I'm a very independent person," Dolan said in response. "I am not status quo. There is no Tim Dolan clique in the department."

And with that, Dolan noted that he still needed to be approved by the Minneapolis City Council, which may prove to be a bigger challenge than anyone thought. Council President Barb Johnson said she "hadn't started counting votes" yet, but felt that a majority of the council, like her, would support Rybak's choice.

But there was discontent among other council members. Ralph Remington (10th Ward) told the Star Tribune that the selection process was "secretive and perfunctory." Scott Benson (11th Ward) told the paper that he wants a chief with "more transparency, more honesty, and a willingness to follow adopted policy."

But Rybak did, after all, hire a firm to help with the search to the tune of $30,000. And there was a 12-person search committee made up of elected and community leaders handpicked by hizzoner himself. Some felt he should have just named Dolan earlier in the year, before the summer crime wave hit. Even Rybak admitted that some might have felt the search was taking too long, but that he wanted to review all candidates.

Council member Elizabeth Glidden (Eighth Ward) thinks that having Dolan in the mix so early actually lowered the quality of applicants. "By indicating a favorite before the search, that affects the pool," Glidden says, adding that she's not knocking Dolan's bona fides. "[The selection process] certainly could have been better. I think it's pretty common to have finalists have interaction and meetings with the community before the finalist is chosen ... I wish that would have happened this time out."

Last time Rybak's search was high-profile, with much talk about choosing a woman or a person of color to be the chief. (Ultimately, it went to the decidedly white and male McManus.) This time out, however, the search was nearly off the radar, and discussions of gender and race were never in the air.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 15, 2006 10:21 AM | Comments (5)

 

9/15 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Who invented the smiley face? Will poppy-seed bagels cause you to fail a drug test? You've got the questions, and Cecil Adams is the man with the answers, as we welcome The Straight Dope to City Pages every Friday.

THESE DAYS

Burglars who hit the Dupont Cheese Factory in Marion, Wisconsin, made off with nearly 350 pounds of meat, a dozen cases of beer, 48 jars of herring, and a 40-pound block of cheese carved into the shape of a wedding bell.

Breast-enhancing padded bras for girls as young as six are being sold in Australian clothing stores.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Wife, mother, musician, and photographer Dida blogs about stained glass window tattoos, peeping areolas, and "Olympic knitting" at Highway 47 Blues.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

World Leader Fonts

Find out how Jethro Tull, King Missile, and dozens of other bands got their names

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"If you're reading 'Ulysses' or watching 'Saved by the Bell,' you're trying to find meaning. I don't know why you can't do that in the present tense."

-- Wilkin County native, author, and "voice of his generation" Chuck Klosterman

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 15, 2006 6:21 AM | Comments (0)

 

9/14 Morning Communiqué

Filed under: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

Republicans are distancing themselves from campaign activities at the University of Michigan that encourage college students to "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" and shoot cardboard cutouts of leading Democrats.

American Airlines is prepared to pull its advertising from ABC in order to protest its portrayal in the network's recently aired documdrama The Path to 9/11, according to a source. The airline also said it is considering legal action against the network.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Gems from YouTube and Google Video mined and presented daily at RealAbstract.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Mel Gibson misunderstanding: I Hate Juice!

Conservative Eye for the Liberal Guy

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I still get emotional over the families who lost loved ones. I just don't feel there's any closure on this until they get that guy."

-- Gary Weddle, a Washington state resident who hasn't shaved since 9/11, and vows not to until Osama bin Laden is caught

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 14, 2006 6:49 AM | Comments (3)

 

Hatch's shadow haunts Kelley

Filed under: Politics

Early on at the Primary Night party for Steve Kelley, the state senator-turned-gubernatorial-candidate-turned-attorney general-candidate, there was an air of confidence among his supporters. About 50 of them were crammed into the back corner of Mac's Industrial Sports Bar, on Central Avenue in southeast Minneapolis, chowing on meatballs and chicken wings, watching the early results on an array of laptops.

The news was not promising: First figures showed that Kelley trailed both Lori Swanson and Bill Luther in the DFL primary to replace Mike Hatch, capturing just 29 percent of the precincts that reported by 8:30 p.m. Still, everyone thought that once some other districts started reporting, Kelley would cruise to victory. "In an hour, he'll be at 50 percent," predicted Mike Simpkins, a Kelley field worker from Bemidji.

The conventional wisdom among Simpkins and other Kelley supporters was that the early results were mostly from Anoka County--"Swanson's territory" generally, according to Kelley communications director Jessica Vealitzek--and that when outstate and urban precincts started reporting, their man would triumph. They were, it turns out, severely deluded. And they were underestimating the power of Hatch, who considers perhaps only Swanson his protege.

By 9:30 p.m., Kelley himself appeared and, with the signature green of the campaign's signs and beers flowing, soon was presiding over what started to resemble an Irish wake. Kelley claimed that he was "not surprised" by the early results.

There was an air of elation when Hennepin County's numbers started rolling in--showing Kelley at 45 percent and Swanson at 37 percent. But by then, Swanson's lead statewide was 41 percent to 35 percent. Surely Hennepin County would not make up ground for Kelley.(Luther was at a distant 23 percent by then.)

Still, he was undeterred, claiming that he had captured the hearts and minds of outstate voters because of his tough talk on the stump for prosecuting meth dealers, and that his role in bringing a new Twins ballpark to fruition "hasn't been an issue."

An hour later, Kelley was admitting that Swanson was "doing a little better outstate than I thought," and passed the time by singing a round of Happy Birthday to a campaign staffer. But it became increasingly obvious that he should call Swanson and concede.

In the interim, Kelley's supporters made the case for Kelley as an honorable public servant, one that is genuinely concerned with the well-being of Minnesotans, and an expert on education issues. And they're right, of course, which is what made the night even more bleak. Sure, some could--and should--mark Kelley as an opportunist for taking up the AG's race after his failed gubernatorial bid.

So how come the general goodness of candidate Kelley didn't translate outstate to the AG's race? Well, to hear the disgruntled supporters tell it, the answer was Mike Hatch.

None of them would speak on the record about it, but most of them agreed that Hatch essentially ensured that Swanson would win by sharing mailing lists, helping her target potential-voter pockets, and generally talking her up on the stump. Hatch, behind the scenes, apparently helped out political neophyte Swanson--whatever pull and resources he had in the race, he used, so said the Kelley chorus.

"It's not illegal," said one Kelley staffer, "but it's pretty poor form."

And what's wrong with that? If Hatch gave a push to a close colleague, well, isn't that what politics are made of? Kelley's demise may have more to do with the stench of desperation surrounding his AG gambit. Or maybe it had to do with the notion that "Hatch's ego won't allow him to share the stage with anyone who is his equal," according to one supporter, and that made the DFL slate of candidates for statewide office all the more important to Hatch.

The attorney-general-turned-gubernatorial-candidate (Hatch, that is) has never been a favorite in his own party, and Kelley gained the DFL endorsement in this race. Tellingly, Mac's had a thinning contingent of old-school union types (the bar itself is in the United Labor Centre office complex), the same forces that failed to help Peter McLaughlin in his recent mayoral bid against R.T. Rybak.

In other words, the real reason for Kelley's loss--and, conversely, Keith Ellison's win in the 5th CD--may be that the old-guard of the DFL is finally dead.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 13, 2006 5:01 PM | Comments (4)

 

Steve and Sharon: The AG Primary Surprises

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

Of all the weird curves primary voters could have thrown last night, the respective Republican and DFL races for Attorney General top the list. Who would have predicted that perennial candidate Sharon Anderson would score a higher percentage of her party's votes on the Republican side than DFL endorsee Steve Kelley did with the Dems?

First the Republicans. Anderson is a candidate for whom the words "gadfly" and "eccentric" are charitable, yet she polled 42 percent of vote against Jeff Johnson, the endorsed candidate trumpeted by Republicans as the one who will break the DFL's 35-year stranglehold on the AG's office. At the very least, this shows that even those politically empathetic and motivated enough to get out and vote in a Republican primary don't even know Johnson. And that's the positive spin for Johnson on these results.

On the DFL side, Lori Swanson's surprising triumph is a resounding endorsement for the job performance of Mike Hatch as attorney general, and bodes well for Hatch's ability to rally the DFL party in November. It's no secret that Hatch has alienated some party members in the past by not abiding by their endorsement, by breaking up the patronage network established by his AG predecessor, Skip Humphrey, and by his abrasive temperament. That brusque style and Hatch's former ambivilance on the abortion issue in the early 90s has cost him support particularly among DFL women. That history makes the results of primary night especially significant, and positive, for Hatch's current gubernatorial campaign against Tim Pawlenty.

First of all, Hatch easily dispatched of a popular female opponent, State Sen. Becky Lourey, in his own primary race, without offering anything but praise for Lourey's character and commitment to the process. Second, after stating that he wouldn't confer his endorsement on any DFL candidate seeking to succeed him as AG, Hatch belatedly came out in support of Swanson, the solicitor general who has helped him tackle some of the high-profile investigations against HMOs and other health care operators. Swanson herself made health care and her association with Hatch the dominant themes of her campaign. Her ability to defeat two opponents who had vastly more political experience and name recognition consequently reflects well on Hatch.

Why did Kelley fare so poorly? It wasn't his leadership role in securing a new stadium for the Twins--he actually outpolled Swanson in Hennepin County, where the stadium sales tax will be levied. Part of it has to do with the fact that Kelley and former Congressman Bill Luther were both male, and both easily designated as "career politicians," putting Swanson in the enviable position of being both the outsider and the most experienced at the nuts-and-bolts tasks and background knowledge required of an attorney general.

One never got the sense that Luther was a serious candidate--he took a stab when Matt Entenza abruptly withdrew from the race, and made a half-hearted effort once his candidacy didn't immediately catch fire. By contrast, Kelley worked hard to convey the impression of inevitability regarding his primary election. He lobbied hard for his party's endorsement, then lined up as many big names and official labor and activist organizations as he could. And it was an impressive list. But there was also something cynical about Kelley's bid for attorney general. After running a passionate, spirited campaign for governor only months before, it was hard to believe he regarded the job as anything more than a consolation prize, especially when compared with Swanson, who has spent years in the trenches doing the grunt work that helped establish Hatch's reputation as a populist bulldog. Coupled with his other unsuccessful bids for statewide office in recent years, Kelley took on a scant but still deadly odor of someone who was simply willing to take on anything that would advance his political career. It's too bad it came to that, because he is an honorable man and one of the state's most intelligent and adept policymakers in the field of education. That the AG's office has hardly anything to do with education indicates how far Kelley strayed.

Now it comes to November, with the neophyte Swanson versus the unknown Johnson, and a former Perpich cabinet member, John James, of the Independence Party, also deserving to be in the mix. The winner? The most obvious answer is Mike Hatch.

Posted by Britt Robson at September 13, 2006 3:15 PM | Comments (0)

 

Local bloggers on last night's primary wins and losses

Filed under: Minnesota Politics

Minnesota bloggers across the political spectrum are chiming in on the outcomes of yesterday's primary election. Not surpisingly, the chatter was focused on Rep. Keith Ellison's victory in the 5th Congressional District DFL primary, with a few nods to the AG's race, and the incomplete numbers posted at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website. Soundbites following the jump...

"The 5th is about as blue as a district can get, but today's turnout was so low that it doesn't say much about Ellison's strength as a general election candidate. Between now and November, many more voters will learn about Ellison's checkered past—and present. It remains to be seen whether even the heavily Democratic 5th wants to send a fringe candidate like Ellison to Congress."

—John Hinderaker, Power Line

"Candidates can run a campaign on the issues that voters care about and forego playing political whack-a-mole with the Republican hate-machine. Not only did [Ellison's] campaign survive a very determined, well-coordinated Swiftboating, I maintain that in the end, it helped progressive GOTV efforts. That's some tasty lemonade."

—Jon-David Schlough, MN Publius

"Last night at the Keith Ellison victory party, I told Brian Melendez and Donna Cassutt that I was quitting the DFL. I am happy for Ellison's victory, and for the success of those that worked so hard on his campaign, but I strongly feel that the means by which Hatch initially secured the DFL endorsement are unsupportable, and I feel very much divorced from a party that would ratify that by more democratic means in a primary—defending a candidate that refused to debate, refused to address issues that drove both Keith Ellison and Becky Lourey's campaign, refused to lead on progressive values and challenge Minnesota's voters to engage in the process (voting and caucusing) and to confront head on the wrong headed ideas of the GOP opposition."

—Soren, ImpeccableLiberalCredentials

"Ellison Akbar! Keith Ellison - supporter of cop-killers, unapologetic Kathleen Soliah fan, and a person whose past includes episodes that, if mirrored to a candidate on the right, would have provoked a media frenzy - wins the MN CD5 primary... Well, to be fair, it helps to be in a district where the DFL could nominate a set of wind-up chattering teeth and draw 60%."

—Mitch Berg, Shot in the Dark

"Of course, because Mr. Ellison is black and a Muslim, you can expect a whole lot of canned outrage from the usual gang of 'I'm not a bigot! How dare you call me a bigot!' bigots and other assorted semi-professional right-wing pearl-clutchers. But who cares? All that kind knows how do is complain and smear, so let them complain and smear to their hearts content in their noisy internet ghetto. They don't matter. If they had any taste or real wisdom, they'd look back on their hatchet-jobs and hack screeds and be as embarrassed as a high school kid who's just puked down his date's dress."

—Kevin-M, The Insomnia Report

"Ellison gets his House seat... and state and national Republicans get their poster child for everything wrong with the modern Democratic Party."

—Gary M. Miller, Kennedy vs. The Machine

"Congratulations to Keith Ellison on winning yesterday despite being DFL-endorsed."

-- Mark Gisleson, Norwegianity

"The Minnesota DFL spent a large amount of money to help Ellison win the primary and I couldn't be happier. Money spent on Ellison is money not spent on Mike Hatch and Amy Klobuchar. When was the last time the DFL had to spend money in the 5th CD?"

—Michael B. Brodkorb, MinnesotaDemocratsExposed

"In the AG race, Lori Swanson shocks many by holding off endorsed candidate Steve Kelley in what was thought to be smooth sailing for him. Luther's stealth candidacy, relying on Congressional name recognition and out state radio ads was enough to give him a respectable v