Carleton Democrats

Jet Flys Over NY and Scares Many

2009-04-27T21:21:00.002-05:00

This story is so spooky... Not the best idea Air Force One keepers...

I remember the jets constantly flying over me at home in Washington D.C. on Sept. 11. They were so low I thought I would be able to reach up and touch them. Frightening stuff - scary memories.

Jet Flyover Frightens New Yorkers

100 Days?

2009-04-26T15:34:00.000-05:00

Please explain to me this fascination with 100 days. The President only has a hundred days then we are going to judge them and see if they stack up. The problem I have is that 100 seems just like an arbitrary number. Why not make it after one or two economic quarters? What am I missing, why did the media make it 100?

DCCC uses Bachmann to fundraise

2009-03-06T00:03:00.000-06:00

Bi-Partisan Ship still afloat; (Men hug?)

2009-02-25T12:26:00.002-06:00

Yes, George, men do hug. Look at Wonkette for more on that.

Will Franken be Minnesota's Second Comedian in the Senate?

2009-02-05T14:41:00.005-06:00

We all know Al Franken's funny (at least he's supposed to be), but by the time he gets to the Senate it very well could be that he not the first Minnesota Senator who is requested for comedy engagements...Senator Klobuchar could be getting the call instead. Yesterday, she spoke at a gala in DC and apparently brought down the house. And they say Minnesotan's don't have a good sense of humor:
...it turns out Sen. Amy Klobuchar is funny. Very funny. Bring-down-the-house funny.

It's a tough crowd. No one really wants to be there, but they don't not want to be there either. Dinner is eaten. Planners are thanked for their planning and attendees for their attending, and then Nancy Pelosi, always radiant, takes the mic and gives a couple of corny jokes: "When Secretary Geithner gets a call from The New York Times, he doesn't know if it's for a scoop or a bailout." And Barack Obama's e-mail address is I'mAllEars@WhiteHouse.gov, while Rahm's is bleepbleepbleep@WhiteHouse.gov.

And then Klobuchar — who told Politico that she wrote half of her own jokes — stepped up, and things got unexpectedly funny.

"I'd like to make this as short as Bill Richardson's tenure as commerce secretary," she opened. "I raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends — true story! I know that is the record in the Senate, but in the House it's held by Barney Frank." Roars of laughter, even from Frank.

Then she turned to the "great reporters? in this room — all of whom got scooped on the John Edwards story by the National Enquirer." She promised not to be too rough with them, though, since "I'm all about protecting endangered species."

Perhaps best of all: "Typically a Republican and a Democrat speak at this -- you could have saved a lot of money by asking Joe Lieberman."

When Klobuchar finished she received a partial standing ovation, the first this reporter has seen at a WPCF dinner.

...
After the dinner McCarthy, told Politico he knew he was in trouble following Klobuchar. "When she was finished, Tom Pryce emailed me and said 'What are you going to do now?' And then I thought, 'my last joke is about the clap!'"

Imagine the DFL dinners when they're both in the Senate!

Tom Daschle Withdraws Nomination

2009-02-03T13:00:00.002-06:00

From the NY Times:
Daschle Withdraws as Nominee for Health Post

Former Senator Tom Daschle, President Obama's nominee for
health and human services secretary, has withdrawn from
consideration for the post over his belated payment of
$128,000 in federal taxes.

Right, wrong, you decide? All I know is this is the second candidate who has withdrawn after what was supposed to be the most stringent vetting process in human history...or something like that.

Stimulating Discussion: The Economic Stimulus Plan and Birth Control

2009-01-29T21:41:00.000-06:00

The talk in Washington this week has been all about the economic stimulus package. Everyday comes with a new round of corporate lay-offs and what were once thought of as pessimistic predictions become reality. While it may not be so obvious living on a small college campus in Northfield, MN, outside of the bubble the crisis is quite evident.

On Wednesday, President Obama announced that there wasn’t a “moment to spare” with regards to Congress passing his stimulus plan. The fear-inducing language worked, and on that same day the House passed the $819 billion package with a vote of 244 to 188. This version of the plan passed by the House now heads to the Senate for approval. The package includes funding for numerous projects including $79 billion to establish a state fiscal stabilization fund, $87 billion to help states close their budget gaps created by Medicaid expenditures, $43 billion in unemployment benefits, and $275 billion in tax cuts.

Missing from the package, however, is the $200 million from the original plan marked to help provide birth control for low-income women. This provision was cut from the package because House Republicans refused to define such a provision as an economic stimulus. They argued that the Democrats were only trying to monopolize on the economic downturn and push their moral agenda, but the Republicans were wrong. The birth control provision would have helped to better living standard’s for those currently suffering - a goal of the stimulus plan. The allocation should have remained in the package

It’s not a question of moral agendas. It is simply a question of economics. The following examples illustrate the general principle on which I make my argument. If you have five miles2 of land and five people, each person gets one mile2 to live off of - this includes space to build a home and grow sustenance. But now imagine that you have ten people for the same five miles2, the amount of room and the amount of food available for each person gets cut in half. Suddenly, they are all worse off and their living standards have decreased. In the second example there were too many people trying to use the available resources and everybody suffered.

Currently, like the land available in the above example, the United States has a limited amount of resources available to assist struggling families. When a household loses its income, as many are doing in these economic times, the state carries the burden of allocating a part of the resources pie to the additional household. It makes it all the worse when parents incapable of providing for their family of four, become a family of five - in some cases not because they choose to but because they cannot afford any form of pregnancy prevention. The additional person represents an additional drain on the state’s resources. We can see this problem in the stimulus package passed on Wednesday. The House allocated billions of additional dollars to fund welfare services such as Medicaid, unemployment, and food stamps. As the number of people in need of these services increases with each additional child born, so does the cost to the state, and in reality, the tax payer. As the cost of these services continues to rise because of additional and sometimes unwanted births, tax payers suffer and money that could otherwise be used for other forms of economic stimulus is drained from the state.

The point is that by providing birth control to lower-income women, the state provides economic relief to everyone in society. Essentially, providing birth control has the same effect as providing the $275 billion in tax relief that Republicans insisted be part of the package. This conversation does not revolve around morality, but instead the serious economic hardship of a society deep into a recession.

Blagojevich: Guilty?

2009-01-27T17:59:00.006-06:00

I'm curious to here what my fellow bloggers and readers think about the Gov. Blagojevich proceedings.

When the scandal first broke, we got to hear snippets of the recorded phone calls between Blagojevich and others - but we haven't heard everything. I am extremely curious to see what comes out during the trial. From what we have heard so far, I am not so convinced that Blagojevich did anything illegal - immoral to be sure - but not illegal. He was playing the political game. He had a very valuable piece of political capital that he wanted to turn into a political war chest - a trade of political assets.

This media tour he is now going on though, oy vey. I read that he is trying to taint to jury people - make himself seem likeable (and hopefully not-guilty-looking) to people out there who could sit in the jury box that decides his fate. To do this tour, he is boycotting his impeachment trial in the Illonois legislature. Dude, show up!

Governor Blagojevich -

You say the legialture is being unfair and not letting you call witnesses, yada yada yada. It doesn't matter, you have to show up to the trial! You owe it to the citizens of Illonois. Regardless of whether you committed a crime, you were dubious and dirtied the Governor's office. You owe the voters something. After this is all over, right your book and do your media tour. Right now, try not to make this whole debacle more of a joke than it already is.

-Michelle

P.S. Telling the world that you wanted to appointment Oprah to the Senate does not make you more likable. I sincerely hope that you don't think that you can manipulate Oprah's primary audience - women- with such a revelation. We aren't that malleable.

The Most Influential

2009-01-26T10:11:00.004-06:00

Forbes has very helpfully provided us with a list of the 25 most influential liberals in media.

I will admit that I don't follow the media game particularly well--I'm a faithful blog reader, but pretty much only watch The Daily Show and Rachel Maddow--so I can't say that I'm well-equipped to assess this list on its merits. Ta-Nehisi Coates and Andrew Sullivan both thoughtfully criticize Forbes' definition of "liberal" but I'd like to address another observation.

Of the twenty-five people on this list, just four are women:

Maureen Dowd (#15)
Rachel Maddow (#7)
Oprah Winfrey (#6)
and Arianna Huffington (#2)

Just four are women, and two of those four are Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington, who are not exactly paradigms of measured, intelligent discourse. The list contains bloggers and columnists, newspeople and authors. There weren't a few more liberal women in any of those positions with substantial influence?

The lack of women in the liberal blogosphere has been documented. And the sense that there are too few women in media generally exists, even if it's not more tangibly articulated.

The gender gap puts the Democratic party over the top wherever it makes it over the top. Women, as compared with men, are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates. Women are more likely to vote period than men. But, it seems, somewhat less likely to be considered an influential presence in the media.

We need to create a space for women in the liberal media, and in the "liberal movement," insofar as it exists as a collectivity. Women who talk about women ought not to be marginalized. "Women's issues" must move beyond the realm of a specialized interest ("special interest," even) to the political mainstream, and feminist analysis (or at least female analysis) has to find its way into the day-to-day workings of how we think about public policy and the political system.

For that to happen, there need to be women--loud women who are allowed to speak as women--on the airwaves and on our RSS feeds and in our editorial pages. And not just mine.

This list, however oddly it defines liberal, and however inconsequential it is in reality, reminds us that we're not there yet.

PoliTalk is BACK! (under some new management) 4:30 Central Time

2009-01-25T15:18:00.007-06:00

Don't forget to tune into to KRLX FM (88.1) or here. KRLX.org

We'll be breaking down the economic stimulus package, news about Obama's executive orders, Senators Gillibrand and Franken, as well as some strikes on Pakistan.

Great show 4:30-5:00 PM.

Update: You can listen to the show here.

Antisemitism stories

2009-01-23T02:09:00.002-06:00

Richard Jeffrey Newman opened a post at Alas, A Blog for people (Jews and non-Jews alike) to tell their stories of antisemitism.

Even if you don't have anything you want to contribute, take a look at the comments. This is a rare space for people to talk about oppressions that many of us--particularly those of us who grew up in Lutheran cornfields--are too rarely compelled to see.

Blogging for Choice, a little late

2009-01-23T01:55:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Blog for Choice asks that feminist pro-choice bloggers put something on paper in honor of the occasion. But I'll let President Obama do that for me.

On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose.

While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.

On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere.

Norm Coleman Gets New Job with Questionable Group

2009-01-22T12:42:00.008-06:00

Former Senator Norm Coleman has a new job. Coleman has been hired by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) to give speeches and act as a consultant. From The Hill:

Norm Coleman (R) has taken a job with the Republican Jewish Coalition while contesting Democrat Al Franken’s lead in the Minnesota Senate race, his campaign confirmed Thursday.

In what could be seen as a sign that Coleman thinks his bid to return to the Senate may be lost, he has signed on to do consulting work for the group, which is comprised of a number GOP leaders.(emphasis added)

Many groups are talking about what this means for Coleman's efforts to regain his seat, and what it says about his hopes. You can find stuff about that here, here, and here.
Instead of working that angle, let's take a moment to look at the organization that Coleman now calls his home, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC).

First, this is an organization that has long been a friend of Norm Coleman, conveniently the DFL has outlined all of this in a memo, which shows that the RJC has financed over 13,000 dollars in trips for Norm Coleman:

January 31-February 2, 2003: In First Trip as Senator, Coleman Traveled from Washington, D.C. to Boca Raton, FL; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $2,254. Less than two weeks after Coleman was sworn in, he took his first privately funded trip from Washington, D.C. to Boca Raton, Florida to be a guest speaker at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference. The Republican Jewish Coalition reimbursed Coleman for $1404.00 in transportation costs, $700.00 in lodging expenses and $150.000 in meal expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

June 26-28, 2003: Coleman Traveled to Orange County and Los Angeles, CA; Orange County Republican Party of California and the Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $688.70. From June 26-28, 2003, Coleman traveled to Orange County and Los Angeles, CA to be the keynote speaker at a the Republican Party of Orange County event and two RJC events in Orange County and Los Angeles. The Orange County Republican Party of California and the Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $688.70 for Coleman’s lodging expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

December 16-17, 2003: Coleman Traveled to New York, NY; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $500. From December 16-17, 2003: Coleman traveled to New York City to be the keynote speaker at the Republican Jewish Coalition Hanukah event. The Republican Jewish Coalition reimbursed Coleman $200 for transportation and $300 for lodging expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

February 19-21, 2004: Coleman Traveled to Palm Beach, FL; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $555.40. From February 19-21, 2004, Coleman traveled to Palm Beach to be a guest speaker at the Republican Jewish Coalition winter meeting. The RJC reimbursed Coleman $405.40 for transportation and $150.00 for meal expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

August 6-10, 2004: Coleman Traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $7,175. From August 6-10, 2004, Coleman traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel with the Republican Jewish Coalition. The RJC reimbursed Coleman $5,950 for transportation, $1,000 for lodging, and $225 for meal expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

March 12, 2005: Coleman Traveled to West Palm Beach, FL; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $515. On March 12, 2005, Coleman traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida to be the guest speaker for the Republican Jewish Coalition winter meeting. The RJC reimbursed Coleman $515 for transportation expenses. [Secretary of the Senate, Office of Public Records]

July 9-10, 2006: Coleman Traveled to Los Angeles, CA; Republican Jewish Coalition Paid $1,689.37. From July 9-10, 2006, Coleman traveled to Los Angeles to be the keynote speaker at RJC Annual summer Celebration. The RJC reimbursed Coleman for $1131.60 for transportation, $491.77 for lodging and $66.00 for meal expenses. [Secretary of the Senate Travel Records; Star Tribune, 1/21/06]

The group has a stated purpose which is not much in dispute:

We seek to foster and enhance ties between the American Jewish community and Republican decision makers. We work to sensitize Republican leadership in government and the party to the concerns and issues of the Jewish community, while articulating and advocating Republican ideas and policies within the Jewish community. We are committed to building a strong, effective and respected Jewish Republican voice in Washington and across the country.

The dispute lies in the methods that the RJC uses to pursue its failed goal of scaring Jewish voters to vote for Republican candidates.

On September 16, 2008, Salon.com, in collaboration with the Nation and other sites reported that the RJC commissioned a poll to test some very negative messages about Candidate Barack Obama, which some confused as a push-poll. From Salon:

This week, reports began bubbling up about Jewish voters in potential battleground states being called and asked to participate in a poll that featured some unusually negative questions about Barack Obama. Those reports were confirmed when The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn received a call. Now the Republican Jewish Coalition is taking responsibility for the survey.

Some observers -- including Cohn -- initially believed that what was happening is what's known as a push poll. Push polls aren't real polls; they're conducted by people who aren't interested in actually judging voters' opinion so much as they're interested in moving it, and use loaded questions to do so.

Certainly the questions used in this case seemed to have been designed with that in mind. For example, Cohn reported that he was asked whether it would affect his vote if he knew that "Obama has had a decade long relationship with pro-Palestinian leaders in Chicago" or if he knew that "the leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, expressed support for Obama and his hope for Obama's victory."(emphasis added)

and from Tikun (9/19):

The Republican Jewish Coalition admits it funded at least 750 push poll calls to Jewish voters in swing states testing out which lies and smears would be most effective against Barack Obama. I’ve already reported the types of “questions” asked. But The Forward yesterday came up with a few new, and even more infamous ones. One caller asked how the voter would feel about Obama if he knew Mahmoud Ahmadinejad endorsed him; or if Obama’s advisors were “pro-Palestinian.”

This is also a group that flooded Jewish media with advertisements that used unfair and untrue implications such as the the following:

You can see more of these ads at the RJC website.

The RJC also attacked the famously pro-israel Joe Biden as being a risky candidate.

This is also a group that has smeared pro-Israeli democrats over and over.

This is the group that Norm Coleman has chosen to go to work for? Sounds like a good thing that Minnesotans chose Al Franken.

Obama Re-Takes Oath

2009-01-21T22:07:00.002-06:00

Obama has reportedly (CNN) re-taken the oath of office. Chief Justice John Roberts made a pit-stop in the Oval Office today to administer the oath. That's got to be quite an embarrassing moment for the Chief Justice.

In case anyone has forgotten: the Chief flubbed the oath when he placed the word "faithfully" in a constitutionally incorrect position - twice.

No video cameras were allowed in the Office to film the shotgun ceremony but there should be some pictures coming shortly.

Franken to be Seated?

2009-01-21T21:50:00.006-06:00

Update: Not true. Read the update, you can ignore the rest

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says there'll be no move to seat Democrat Al Franken on Thursday.
Spokesman Jim Manley also says Senate Democrats may not make any move for a few weeks. In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Manley says no decisions had been made.
Franken came out on top of Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes in a recount of their U.S. Senate race. But Coleman has filed a lawsuit challenging the result, and the trial is due to begin Monday.
Reid met with Franken in Washington on Wednesday and said Democrats would try to seat Franken, but he didn't say when.

Fresh from the AP, Senate Democrats will try to seat Democrat Al Franken (making him Senator Franken!). Find the article from the AP, and a comment from Majority Leader Reid all from Polinaut:

WASHINGTON (AP) -It's no joke: Senate Democrats are moving toward letting comedian Al Franken join the chamber while Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit is pending.

"We're going to try to seat Al Franken," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters on Wednesday, a few hours before he posed with Franken for photos just off the Senate floor. "There's not a question in anyone's mind, an assertion by anyone, that there's been any fraud or wrongdoing in this election."

Coleman's lawyers are challenging the results of the election and the re-count in a trial set to begin in state district court on Monday. A three-judge panel that will hear the case is considering Franken's argument to dismiss it altogether.

Franken finished the re-count ahead by 225 votes. But Coleman's campaign said it will push for a review of all 12,000 absentee ballots that were not counted in the race. Coleman's attorneys said the new proposal could bring as many as 7,000 ballots to the race.

Reid did not say when Franken would be seated provisionally, but he said the two were meeting to hash out the agenda and Franken's committee assignments. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Reid's comment:

Franken will soon be the next Senator from the great state of Minnesota. Weeks ago, the bipartisan Minnesota state canvassing board has fairly counted all votes and certified Al Franken as the winner. It is important that we start talking about the issues important to the people of Minnesota so their new Senator can hit the ground running. We will talk today about:
our economic recovery plan to strengthen our economy now and strengthen our nation in the long term; and on which committees Mr. Franken can best serve his constituents and the country.

Inauguration Video

2009-01-21T15:17:00.001-06:00

From the very cool new White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Did Coleman's Attorney Vote for Franken?

2009-01-21T13:02:00.002-06:00

This is great story from the pioneer press about Coleman's attorney Joe Friedberg:

Friedberg, a talented criminal defense attorney, pitched in defending Coleman's late father in an unflattering criminal case several years ago, and years earlier, the Republican (then-Democrat) Coleman came to Friedberg's aid in a bar fight.
Now Friedberg is the lead attorney in Coleman's bid to persuade a three-judge panel to throw out the state Canvassing Board's conclusion that Democrat Al Franken earned 225 more votes on Election Day than Coleman for the U.S. Senate seat.
That would make Friedberg Coleman's most important supporter. Except he's not a supporter. Friedberg's a Democrat, and he often disagrees with his friend's politics.
"I would do anything for Norm, except vote for him," Friedberg said in a Pioneer Press interview before the election. "And I’ve told him that."

Senators Kennedy and Byrd Down

2009-01-20T14:52:00.013-06:00

During the luncheon for Congress and President Obama which took place directly after the inauguration ceremony, both Senators Kennedy and Byrd required medical attention. Senator Kennedy has reportedly suffered a seizure and had to be take away by an ambulance. No word on Sen. Byrd (D -WV)
the condition of
Senator Byrd.

Sen. Kennedy (D - MA)

Update 1/21: They're both fine. Senator Kennedy was released from the Hospital. Obviously scary but good news thus far.

The New West Wing

2009-01-20T13:26:00.002-06:00

See the new prominent faces of the White House made to look as though they are part of a new West Wing television show.

The Expectations Game: Are Expectations too High for Our New President?

2009-01-20T13:08:00.003-06:00

Watching the inauguration and listening to the pundits repeatedly claim that 8 in 10 people approve of President Obama when he has yet to take a single action as President of the United States, I can only help but wonder: Are expectations too high?

When expectations are extraordinary, it is more than likely that one will be unable to meet them. The expectations for President Obama are certainly unprecedented. Two million people showed up in Washington D.C. today, while millions more watched from home, desperate for a change in government and a new direction for the country. We have put our hopes one the shoulders of one man and I would only expect his knees to buckle a little form the weight. When they do buckle, and I can only expect that they will, I hope we remember that we asked to much of him in the first place. I believe that he will do great things for us but I cannot expect it immmediately and I certainly cannot expect him to create a perfect solution for all of my problems.

Expectations play a large role in politics. During the debates, campaign staffers for the Vice President could be heard trying to talk down Biden's experience and knowledge while praising Governor Palin. Biden's people worried that he would lose the expectations game. When expectations are set too high for one candidate in a debate, his opposition only has to show up and prove that she can in fact get out a sentence, to win.

I return back to the expectations for President Obama. I hope we do not throw him under the bus when he cannot deliver in a week or a month. It will take a long time for him to deliver but I voted for him because I believe that he will work tirelessly and intelligently to eventually bring us to a higher level of citizenry and government.

The 44th President of the United States: Watch the Swearing In Ceremony

2009-01-20T12:53:00.001-06:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Barack Obama!

2009-01-20T12:17:00.002-06:00

Barack Obama's first official statements as the 44th President of the United States:

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].“

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Biden was First Choice for Secretary of State

2009-01-19T15:36:00.003-06:00

On Oprah today Dr. Jill Biden accidentally revealed that her husband, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, was given the option of Vice Present or Secretary of State in an Obama White House. Depending on the President, the Vice President job can either lack luster or require a policy wonk. By law, the Vice President's job is only to keep his heart going, which leaves a lot of room for a President to create the job for his Number 2 guy. While in discussions over Biden's role in the administration, Biden asked Obama if the Vice President could be the "last guy in the room" - meaning that he would be able to have serious discussions with Obama when important decisions needed to be made.

As we know, Biden was extremely qualified for the job of Secretary of State. He was Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee - the number one guy for foreign relations in Congress. His expertise will still be extremely useful to his role as Vice President, but we'll have to see if he made the right choice.

Gov. Pawlenty's Stale State of the State

2009-01-15T17:42:00.008-06:00

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered his State of the State address in St. Paul today. With the state facing a $4.8 billion deficit, today would have been a great time for the Governor to start demonstrating strong leadership, instead of his usual partisan attacks (not to mention the unnecessary personal trips with his wife on the State's dime).

No such luck. In a speech that was filled with references to the kitchen table but limited on specifics, Pawlenty offered little evidence of innovative ideas:

Cut spending. Cut taxes. Rinse. Repeat.

We should be used to a lack of vision on the part of the Governor. Pawlenty's only current major economic initiative, the JOBZ tax-free business incentive program for Outstate Minnesota, is "unfocused" and poorly administered according to the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor.

For someone hoping to run for President in 2012, today's speech was a disappointing performance. But it's even more disappointing to five million Minnesotans who deserve better. Let's hope that the DFL majorities in the State House and Senate can demonstrate the leadership Tim Pawlenty lacks.

Carleton is Cold Today

2009-01-13T12:07:00.001-06:00

Love it here, but there are some really cold days. Today is one of those days. Basically, what I'm saying is...it's cold. The graph shows the temperature over the past day. That high point? 11 degrees.

Israel Resolution pt. 2

2009-01-13T01:24:00.003-06:00

Remember how I wrote about Ryan Flynn's silly post over at MDE, accusing Representatives McCollum and Ellison of being cowards for voting present on a non-binding resolution supporting Israel's actions in the Gaza strip? Find it here.

Well, Flynn's comments could look sillier in light of this intense condemnation of the resolution over at Juan Cole's blog. Cole's blog is easily one of the most informed blogs on the middle east, and this post has some real bite. Sarah Shields is the author and she doesn't hold back. She sees the resolution that was passed as an action against civilians and against further peace in the middle east. You should really read the full post here, but here's a great nugget:

I accuse you [the 390 who voted for the Resolution] of making our ally, Israel, less secure than ever before, as the orphans of today seek vengeance in the future. Instead of seeking a real peace, a peace of mutual security and prosperity, you have chosen to support only one side in this ongoing struggle, condemning the others to enormous suffering.

I accuse you of putting politics before humanity, of condoning the slaughter of innocents, of supporting war crimes instead of standing up for the most basic human right: the right to live without the terrifying fear of immediate death.

I accuse you of putting politics before humanity, of condoning the slaughter of innocents, of supporting war crimes instead of standing up for the most basic human right: the right to live without the terrifying fear of immediate death.

I hold you responsible, each of these 390 members of America’s 111th Congress. I accuse you of complicity in the most serious transgressions that humans can commit.

I don't agree with all of it, but it is one of the strongest statements (the full text) that I've read in a while. Polemics are useful, if only for clarifying what you believe. Where do you stand?

Bush Wants to Say Bye...

2009-01-13T01:18:00.002-06:00

...on TV.

From the Horse Race:

The White House, through its Press Secretary Dana Perino, has asked major television networks for time on Thursday night for the President to give a farewell address to the nation," CBS News' Washington Bureau Chief Chris Isham reports.

Perino asked for approximately ten to fifteen minutes for the outgoing president to "reflect on his time in office and to look forward to challenges facing the country."

Really? He needs 10-15 minutes to reflect on his time in office? I would be curious about the number of hours he spent (compared to other, more competent people) on each project that he claims as a success as compared to his many many failures.

GOP Chair Candidate Blackwell Can Restrain the Urge (to be gay)

2009-01-13T01:11:00.003-06:00

Sometimes it seems like Republicans simply don't follow science...
Here we have former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell explaining how he could not be gay, if he ever had the urge to be anything other than not gay.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee (RNC), is coming under fire Monday for making remarks this summer that gays and lesbians suffer from a "compulsion" that can be "restrained."

"You can choose to restrain that compulsion," Blackwell told radio host Michelangelo Signorile, a gay and lesbian advocate, this summer during the Republican National Convention. "And so I think in fact you don't have to give in to the compulsion to be homosexual."

"I've never had to make the choice because I've never had the urge to be other than a heterosexual," Blackwell added, "but if in fact I had the urge to be something else I could have in fact suppressed that urge."

I hope he wins the ~~seatchair~~chairmanship, I think there's a lot he can teach us.

Coulter and The View

2009-01-13T01:07:00.001-06:00

I don't post much of The View and I almost never mention Ann Coulter, but here's a little of both (a lot of cross talk, yelling, and Ann Coulter being very mean to Barbara Walters)

Legislative DFL Priorities

2009-01-12T13:39:00.003-06:00

Minnesota's DFL legislative issued their list of common sense, back on track priorities for this legislative session. Once again, our leaders are making us proud by showing strong pracitical priorities that will help ALL minnesotans in this faltering economy.

Minnesota legislative leaders today discussed their top legislative initiative, a bill designed to maximize Minnesota’s participation in the federal stimulus and recovery plan.

“Economic recovery is at the top of our agenda. We will work to create jobs both in the public and private sector that help Minnesotans and our state work its way back to prosperity,” said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

“As a new administration takes office, it is very important that Minnesota is prepared to act quickly and in cooperation with our federal partners,” said State Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. “Our plan also includes accountability measures so there will be no question taxpayer money is being used properly and effectively.”

The leaders say the legislature will take steps to encourage the private sector growth.

“As we’ve listened to Minnesotans, it’s become clear we need to do more to help businesses in our state,” said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich. “That could mean streamlining a permitting process for companies looking to do business here.”

“The key to fixing this financial mess is getting people back to work. When people are working they can take care of their families and need less help from the government, said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark. “We also want to make sure Minnesota is getting its fair share. Right now we only get back about 70 cents for every dollar we send to Washington.”

Legislative initiatives will continue to be brought forward throughout the session as House and Senate committees work on each area of the state budget.

Save Head Start!

2009-01-12T01:01:00.003-06:00

Ed: This is a guest post by Laura Myers '09.

Head Start is our nation’s premier early childhood education program. While considered a “school readiness program,” Head Start is unique in that it is also a parent empowerment program, a health care program and an anti-poverty program. Since 1965, Head Start has served 25 million children and their families. Unfortunately, our nation no longer seems to care.

For six years, the Head Start program has suffered from decreased funding. Currently, funding is 22% below the level it was promised in the December 2007 program reauthorization. Because of this, Head Start programs across the country are having to cut vital services and reduce enrollment.

With a new Congress and a new administration planning an Economic Recovery Package, we have an immediate opportunity to make sure that Head Start gets the financial support it needs. The National Head Start Association is requesting $4.3 billion from the Economic Recovery Package.

Given all the proposals that Congress is considering, Head Start must be recognized as an essential community strategy for economic recovery. The money requested will create jobs as it is used to fix buildings, buses and playgrounds to improve services for the students. Additionally, by supporting Head Start programs, the funding will help more families get back to work by ensuring that their children have safe, high-quality programs to attend during the work day.

To make sure that Head Start is included in the package, your members of Congress need to hear from you! Go to www.SaveHeadStart.org to send an email to your members of Congress. The website also has information on how to call your local Congressional delegation.

Thanks to all of you for your support. The local Northfield Head Start and all those across the country appreciate your help.

For more questions about Head Start and what you can do, contact Laura Myers at myersl@carleton.edu.

Bush More Nervous About Pitch Than Anything Else in Administration

2009-01-11T23:23:00.004-06:00

Maybe this is taking Bush out of context, frankly I hope it is, but Margret Carlsen in Bloomberg reports that Bush's most nervous moment of his administration was not after 9/11, nor was it during Katrina, not even before his invasion of Iraq, it was before the World Series when he was preparing to throw the first pitch. She reports:

Asked in another interview, “Which moments from the last eight years do you revisit most often?” he brought up “the compassion, love and determination of the families to make sure that the commander-in-chief hears their stories and knows their pride.”

Then he launched into a passionate description of another moment: “I think about throwing out that pitch at the World Series in 2001. My heart was racing when I got to the mound. Didn’t want to bounce it. Didn’t want to let the fans down,” he said. “I never felt that anxious any other time during my presidency, curiously enough.”

She then adds:

That’s more than curious. It’s painful that he puts himself at the center of the families’ grieving and that he felt more nervous on the pitcher’s mound than in the situation room starting a war.

She nailed it. Read the full article for more. If someone can provide some kind of mitigation for this comment, please post below. Either way, 8 days to Bush's departure.

Ryan Flynn Crosses The Line (AGAIN)

2009-01-11T18:07:00.008-06:00

The new blogger over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE) Ryan Flynn, not to be confused with the University of Minnesota hockey player seems to be trying to be noticed by being loud and abrasive, like a petulant teenager. Let me be clear, I was not a big fan of MDE's founder Michael Brodkorb, but he had a sense of decency, and wrote articles like this one about Senator Wellstone.

Flynn wrote what is possibly his most ludicrous post earlier this evening. You can read it below (emphasis mine):

Congressman Keith Ellison and Congresswoman Betty McCollum took the strange, bizarre and downright reckless step of voting “present” in the U.S. House on Friday on a resolution supporting the right of Israel to defend itself as well as supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The amazing thing here is that both Ellison and McCollum, who are self described proponents of peace, are now on record not even supporting the peace process.

The biggest problem with their actions on this vote is that a “present” vote might as well be a “no” vote. They did not have the backbone to just turn their back on Israel, they instead took the cowards way out.

If rockets were flying into the United States, would Ellison and McCollum vote present?

Huh? How did we get from two present votes to questioning how Reps. McCollum and Ellison would vote if "rockets were flying into the US"?

Flynn didn't even take the time to find out why Reps. Ellison and McCollum voted present instead of yes or no.

I went ahead and spent three minutes and two clicks to find out their reasons. From Minnpost, we find out some of Ellison's reasons:

"I come to the floor today torn about this resolution," said Ellison, a Democrat who became the first Muslim member of Congress in 2006 and represents Minnesota's 5th district.

Ellison mentioned his first-hand encounters during a trip to Israel with the "physical and emotional destruction" caused by Hamas, but added that the United States needs "to have compassion for the people of Gaza and the tremendous human suffering there."

[...]

"For the U.S. Congress to simply reiterate its statement that Israel has a right to defend itself, to me misses the critical issue before the world at this moment, which is the humanitarian crisis," Ellison said.

and McCollum's reasons:

"I recognize Israel's right to protect its citizens from the persistent and growing threat of rocket attacks," McCollum said from the House floor. "However, as an unwavering proponent of peace, and as an advocate for the rights and security of the Israeli and Palestinian people, I seriously question the proportionality of Israel's response."

McCollum added that the resolution did not go far enough in immediately calling for a cease-fire. Instead, McCollum said, the resolution "justifies Israel's bombardment of the citizens of Gaza, sanctions the incursion of Israeli troops into Gaza to clear this occupied territory of Hamas fighters regardless of the human cost, and calls for "supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process" while innocent Palestinian women and children are being killed in Gaza."

You might not agree with their reasons, but you can see how they see themselves between the yes and no votes, which was a position shared by 20 other representatives including Republican representative Ron Paul. I'm not quite sure what's cowardly about voting your conscience instead of following the vast majority (390 reps in favor), or misrepresenting your views with a no vote. I'd say there's nothing cowardly about that. Or maybe there is something cowardly about not voting for a bill supported by the Speaker of the House and all of your party's leaders? Didn't think so.

Flynn claims that voting present is the same as voting no, which is not true, they mean different things procedurally and as reflections on one's position. In practice, it is true that voting present can have the same effect as voting no (the same is true for missing a vote, but you didn't hear Flynn mention the 8 Republicans who did that). However, in this instance the vote was 390 in favor, with 5 voting against, 22 voting present, and 16 absent. Additionally, the vote was on a non-binding resolution, which means that a present vote did little more than say that they neither support the resolution in its entirety, nor did they wish to defeat it.

Reps. McCollum and Ellison were anything but reckless, instead they were thoughtful and voted their conscience on an important resolution that gave them less than a day to consider their vote (it was introduced on 1/8 and the vote was at 1:40 pm on 1/9). You can read the full resolution they had to consider here.

Ryan Flynn needs to save the reckless label for himself.

Update 1/12: Flynn responds to criticism:

I stand by this post, by saying that they might as well have voted no means that they hid behind the option of voting present, that is the coward’s way out.

I of course read both of their statements before writing this post, and again I feel the statements are something else to hide behind so they can point and say, “but look at what I said.” [sic] Actions speak louder than words.

As I explained above, there is nothing cowardly about voting present on this non-binding resolution. If he read the statements before writing the post, he should have at least referenced them for the reader (there was not as much as a single link in the original post). Actions do speak louder than words, but that best applies when someone's actions and words don't match. In this case, Representative Ellison and Representative McCollum, said one thing and acted in the same manner. Showing themselves to be both thoughtful and consistent.

Calvin and Hobbes Take on the Economy

2009-01-11T14:07:00.001-06:00

Yes Pe-Did!

2009-01-09T15:57:00.003-06:00

Although the pronunciation may vary with your geographic location, I think we can all agree this is one flavor worth voting for.

IRV

2009-01-08T18:53:00.006-06:00

EDIT: The proposal is actually for a runoff election in place of a hand recount, in which the top-two vote earners advance to a second, independent, contest. I misread the original article. These particular arguments against in terms of voting strategy don't necessarily apply anymore, but I still hold quite firmly that our voting laws have served us quite well during this pretty rare occurrence, even if the hand-recount has been annoying. Spending a ton of extra money to exclude a legitimately filed candidate in the name of decisive victory is still stupid.

Two Minnesota state legislators are proposing instant runoff elections as an alternative to recounts to decide super-close state-wide races. The legislative sponsors of this measure emphasize the increased perception of openness, clarity and trust in an electorate-centric runoff election as opposed to a bureaucrat-centric recount.

While this article cites only the high cost of a second, complete election (they put the tab at "at least a few million dollars"), IRV is more than just financially impractical.

Basically, instant runoff elections work by a system of ranking. Using the U.S. Senate election as an example, each individual voter would rank each of the candidates (we'll use Franken, Coleman, and Barkley for the purposes of this exercise) either 1, 2, or 3, 1 being the most favorable. Then, whichever candidate receives the fewest first-place votes in the first round of voting is eliminated, and whichever of the two remaining candidates has the most first place votes (with the third candidate removed) wins the election. Thus, every time the winning candidate will win with more than 50% of the vote.

There are two reasons in particular that this method seems more desirable than a plurality-wins election. First, it increases the likelihood that individuals will vote their actual preference--especially if that is a third-party candidate--because even if their preferred candidate gets very few votes, their vote can still "count;" that is, their preference is not eliminated from the actual calculus of the race just because their vote went to a candidate who received very little support.

Second, it allows us to vote for more than one candidate if more than one candidate is palatable to them. Suppose you approve of both Al Franken and Dean Barkley, but hate Norm Coleman. Your vote is the "anyone but Coleman" vote, and you could potentially vote for both of the candidates you support, doubling your chances of avoiding the candidate you dislike.

Assuming that the end goal of the democratic process is representation that best reflects the desires of the community, this method, on its face, appears to limit strategic voting, and allow individual voters to offer their electoral support to each candidate they find representative of their will.

In reality, not so much.

The ranking process of IRV has its own set of screwy outcomes. Because it gives second-choice candidates the same weight no matter the preference, several voters may end up offering their votes to candidates they do not actually support. If you were a Barkley voter who hated both Franken and Coleman, for example, you would end up supporting your second-choice Franken just as would a gung-ho Franken voter, or a Barkley voter who also liked Franken. Perhaps this could be fixed by making the ranking system optional, but then your vote for a third party is often eliminated anyway, reinforcing the same strategic voting issues as plurality-wins.

Furthermore, suppose most of the electorate placed either Coleman or Franken in first place, but also approved of Barkley, placing him second. Barkley still loses in the first round because so few put him first, even though the majority of voters thought Barkley could represent their views reasonably well.

And maybe somewhat more cynically, even though Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation, still, just about 77% chose to express one preference. The education costs to create an accurate ranked preference might be significant, and this model works best assuming that individual voters have a clear preference and can articulate it.

This is not to say that IRV is on some level worse than a plurality-wins model, only that it trades in old issues for new issues, and costs a whole heck of a lot to implement in the way these legislators have suggested. Over all, it seems that a more clear and streamlined election process--in either case--would ensure that more individuals are better able to express their preferences in the first place.

Seeing it coming

2009-01-08T17:20:00.002-06:00

Vice President Dick Cheney says that the Bush administration has no obligation to apologize for failing to take action to ward off the economic crisis because no one saw it coming.

Which is interesting first insofar as it's not true, but moreover insofar as it's the continuation of a narrative coming out of the White House in a pretty desperate attempt to absolve themselves of responsibility for incompetent, dangerous, misinformed, or outright malicious decision-making.

John McCain said something similar this past spring, regarding Iraq and WMD this time. It was not a new line for proponents of the war. The President's used it a few times himself.

And I suppose as a (somewhat cynical) student of politics, this oughtn't surprise me, nor am I enough of a party shill to suggest that this is a conservative phenomenon. But, quite simply, the Bush administration messed up. They didn't listen to dissenting (and ultimately correct) voices, and maybe it's time to come clean instead of this childish frustration that the reality doesn't fit the theory.

Strike "chairman" each time it appears and replace it with "chair"

2009-01-07T18:31:00.003-06:00

The new House rules package has made official language of the body gender-neutral. Also, from Feministing.

A woman ran for President last year. A woman was nominated for Vice-President this year. A woman serves as the Speaker of the House, third in the line of succession. A higher percentage of women vote than men.

And not only is this new language inclusive of women, it eliminates gendered pronouns altogether, consciously or not including those who identify outside the male-female binary.

This is small, but exciting. No matter how you vote, it's high time to dispense with the absurd assumption that every federal position will be filled by a man.

2009-01-06T16:40:00.005-06:00

Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

2009-01-06T16:08:00.004-06:00

Stealing a page from Ronald Reagan's book, president-elect (14 days) Barack Obama plans to appoint celebrity physician Sanjay Gupta to be Surgeon General. :

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

Below is the picture of the nation's first celebrity surgeon general, Reagan's C. Everett Koop (looks funny right?). Also, above is Sanjay.

A word from the Senator Elect

2009-01-05T17:16:00.001-06:00

From Al Franken:

“It has been a remarkable couple of months. Our recount brought national attention to Minnesota, and what Americans saw is that we take our democracy seriously. Our recount process was long, it was fair, and it was thorough. We should all be proud of our state, and we should all be grateful for the incredible hard work and dedication of all of our elections officials, from the state canvassing board and the Secretary of State’s office to the officials in the cities and counties and precincts of Minnesota.

“After 62 days, after the careful and painstaking hand inspection of nearly 3 million ballots, after hours and hours of hard work by elections officials and volunteers across the state, I am proud and humbled to stand before you as the next Senator from Minnesota.

“This victory is incredibly humbling - not just because it was so narrow, but because of the tremendous responsibility it gives me on behalf of the people of Minnesota.

“While the recount process played out, the challenges facing our state and our nation have only grown. With tensions in the Middle East reaching the boiling point, our economy facing its worst crisis since the 1930s, and Minnesota’s middle class families being squeezed harder than ever, it’s clear that we have a lot of important work to do.

“I want you all to know that I’m ready to go to Washington and get to work just as soon as possible. And I look forward to joining President-Elect Obama and Senator Klobuchar in getting our country moving in the right direction again.

“I know this is not an easy day for Norm Coleman and his family, and I know that because Franni and I and the kids have had plenty of time over the past two months to contemplate the possibility that this election would turn out differently. Norm has worked hard for this state and this country, and I hope to ask for his help to ensure that Minnesotans can continue to count on receiving excellent constituent services from their two Senators without interruption.

“I also know that this was a hard-fought victory, and that I didn’t win the support of every Minnesotan. I’m going to have to earn it by being a Senator who fights for every Minnesotan, whether you voted for me or not. And I want every Minnesotan to hear me say: I work for you now. And I will work hard to earn your confidence.

“There may still be additional legal proceedings related to our recount. But I’m now in the business of serving the people of Minnesota. And the best way I can serve the people of Minnesota right now is to focus all my attention and all my energies on getting to work for them on the issues we’ll be facing together.

“I would like to close by doing something I wish I’d gotten a chance to do properly on Election Night, and that is to thank some people. My amazing staff and supporters across the state who made this victory possible and stuck with us this whole way. All the volunteers who woke up the morning after Election Day and got right back to work to help our recount effort. Our state’s dedicated elections officials, our tremendous congressional delegation, and our fantastic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, who continues to be a mentor and an inspiration. And, of course, my beautiful wife Franni and our amazing family.

“For our state, today marked the end of a long process that will forever be a part of Minnesota history. But today is also a beginning. The history of our country will be forever altered by what we do together to address the challenges we face together. So, with tremendous gratitude for the victory we have won, I’m ready to get to work.

“Thank you.”

Senator-elect Franken Certified the Winner of Election in Minnesota

2009-01-05T17:06:00.002-06:00

The Minnesota State Canvassing Board has Certified Al Franken the winner of the November 4th Election for Senate.

The lead from USA Today:

Democrat Al Franken has been certified as the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate election, but incumbent Republican Norm Coleman's office says a legal challenge "is now enevitable."
The state Canvassing Board certified the recount this afternoon, showing that Franken had won by 225 votes. But no election certificate can be issued for at least a week.

From MSNBC:

MINNEAPOLIS - A Minnesota board on Monday certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state's U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer promised a legal challenge that probably will keep the race in limbo for months.

The Canvassing Board's declaration started a seven-day clock for Coleman, the incumbent, to file a lawsuit protesting the result. His attorney Tony Trimble said the challenge will be filed within 24 hours. The challenge will keep Franken from getting the election certificate he needs to take the seat in Washington.

"We had hoped that the canvassing board would refrain from reporting out with unanimity a recount total today. That did not happen," said Trimble during a conference call with reporters Monday.

So, now we wait. I don't think that Coleman has much ground for the lawsuit, but we'll find out.

Senator Franken? Canvassing Board Expected to Name Franken Winner.

2009-01-05T10:37:00.002-06:00

After a long recount process, it looks as if Al Franken may be the named the newly elected Senator from Minnesota.

From the Star-Tribune:

The state Canvassing Board was posed to certify the results of the recount in Minnesota's grueling Senate election in Al Franken's favor — but that doesn't mean the race is definitely over.
The board was to meet Monday and was expected to declare which candidate received the most overall votes from nearly 3 million ballots cast. The latest numbers showed Franken, a Democrat, with a 225-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.

... you can rest assured that lawsuits will be filed. It's been a long road, but we just might be reaching a conclusion.

From the Washington Post:

"The Coleman team has laid the groundwork for a real, substantive challenge in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court," said Vin Weber, a former member of Congress from Minnesota and now a lobbyist in Washington. "The race is still a ways from being over."

Democratic strategists, however, say that even if all of Coleman's challenges -- the 654 absentees, the double-counting and the church ballots -- fall the Republican's way, he still will not be able to overcome Franken's lead.
So, why won't Franken be a senator later today? Because of pending legal challenges that the incumbent's campaign thinks can sway the outcome -- the most important of which, dealing with the inclusion of 654 allegedly wrongly rejected absentee ballots (from largely pro-Coleman territory), will be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.

"We remain convinced that this process is broken and, as a result, the numbers being reported will not be accurate or valid," said Coleman's campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan.

Even if the state's highest court disallows the counting of those 654 ballots, expect Coleman's legal team to formally contest the recount, citing alleged irregularities that include the double-counting of roughly 150 votes and the inclusion of 133 ballots (cast, in a Dickensian twist, at a Minneapolis church) that disappeared between election night and the manual recount.

Barack the Magic Negro

2008-12-27T00:30:00.003-06:00

Dear RNC Chairman Candidate Chip Saltsman,

"Satire" and "offensive" are not mutally exclusive categories.

I know you thought you all were being clever when you sent out a CD that contained a "Puff the Magic Dragon" parody called "Barack the Magic Negro". It would have been cleverer if the members of your party had a little more cred addressing racism, or not being horrible bigots generally (see Sarah Palin rallies, fall '08). Just sayin'.

Maybe you did mean it "satirically". Maybe the song wasn't meant to offend anyone, be disrespectful, or ignore the actual experiences of people of color in our country. I'm willing to work under that assumption.

But the point is, Chip, you don't get to decide whether something is hurtful. It might be funny, and in jest, but that doesn't rob it of its power to be damaging. When someone explains to you that they were hurt, sometimes you just need to humble yourself a little and apologize.

Happy Holidays,
Jill

Recount Update: Minnesota Supreme Court Delivers Mixed Judgement

2008-12-18T22:41:00.006-06:00

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.
-Tom Stoppard
quoted in Justice Paul H. Anderson's dissent

The Minnesota Supreme Court has responded to Norm Coleman's lawsuit trying to stop improperly rejected absentee ballots from being counted in the recount. The 3-2 decision declared that:

1. The counties are prohibited from sorting through or counting any rejected absentee ballots on their own, or under the recommendations of the state's Canvassing Board;

2. Instead, the two candidates, the Secretary of State, and the county auditors and canvassing boards should implement a process for identifying and counting wrongfully rejected absentee ballots. But -- and here's the kicker -- both of the candidates and the local elections officials must mutually agree that any given absentee ballot has been rejected in error. If such a consensus emerges about a particular ballot, it will be opened, counted, and the revised results will be forwarded to the state's Canvassing Board.

The New York Times reports that this is a boost to Al Franken (not to mention anyone else who believes legitimate votes ought to be counted):

In a boost for Al Franken, a former comedian and talk show host running as a Democrat for the Senate, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that counties could count additional absentee ballots, despite objections from the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman.

The ruling, which requires the counties to submit amended vote counts to the state Canvassing Board by Dec. 31, means another delay for Minnesotans still waiting for a result in the tight election.

The two dissents object to the court rejecting the county canvassing boards' authority to correct "obvious" errors. Specifically Justices Page and Anderson dissented because they believe that the provisions of state law specifically allow county canvassing boards to correct obvious errors.

My questions:
1. Will the State Canvassing Board establish these guidelines tomorrow before they finish resolving Norm Coleman's challenged ballots?

2. What happens if the counts are not completed by Dec. 31st? Does the counting stop at that point?

3. Will the campaigns come to consensus in good faith? Or will they refuse to agree to open ballots in counties where they are vulnerable?

4. Who will win?

Update:
Nate Silver at 538 has amazing analysis at his blog (it brings in legal analysis, game theory, and more). If you have any time it's a must read.

Previous Recount Coverage:
Recount Update: Can Franken Pull It Off?
Canvassing Update 2
Canvassing Update
December 5th Update
December 4th Update
Dececember 3rd Update
December 1st Update
MPR Ballots
Star-Tribune Ballots

Mistake at the Strib (check out the subhed)

2008-12-18T18:27:00.005-06:00

Here is snarky comment and more here. More snarky comment here and here.

from Lorika13 via MNspeak

Union Hating pt 2; Anti-Union Ad Links Blago and SEIU

2008-12-16T19:17:00.002-06:00

Remember what I said about groups trying to connect the Blagojevich scandal to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)? If not, you can read it all here. Relevant paragraph here:

Why this is silly: the SEIU does not need an Illinois Senator appointed as a favor to Obama. Obama has stated that he supports worker legislation, most controversially (and importantly for the Unions) the Employee Free Choice Act. Maybe the SEIU should have simply said, Blago you're nuts, but instead the official said he or she would "put a flag up." Clearly the SEIU is humouring the Governor. Gov. Blagojevich was already under investigation, proved a bad administrator, and seemed generally incompetent. Who would have hired him? Certainly, not a well connected Union whose candidate is moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The critiques of the SEIU are dumb attacks based solely on the fact that the union's name now appears in the headlines in connection with the governor of Illinois.

Now a group has come out with an ad again trying to make a link:

Unions are NOT taking away the secret ballot, rather they are trying to give employees an option that was taken away. The relevant section of the bill is here:

(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, whenever a petition shall have been filed by an employee or group of employees or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining wish to be represented by an individual or labor organization for such purposes, the Board shall investigate the petition. If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a).

To summarize if a majority of employees take the proactive step of signing a card saying they wish to be unionized then that can take place of an election. Why is this necessary? Because employers use the elections to significantly delay the unionization process by moving election dates, and using voter intimidation to "change the minds" of employees who are in favor or unionization. As the process stands, all the power is in the hand of employees. As George Miller of California stated:

The current process for forming unions is badly broken and so skewed in favor of those who oppose unions, that workers must literally risk their jobs in order to form a union. Although it is illegal, one quarter of employers facing an organizing drive have been found to fire at least one worker who supports a union. In fact, employees who are active union supporters have a one-in-five chance of being fired for legal union activities. Sadly, many employers resort to spying, threats, intimidation, harassment and other illegal activity in their campaigns to oppose unions. The penalty for illegal activity, including firing workers for engaging in protected activity, is so weak that it does little to deter law breakers.

Even when employers don't break the law, the process itself stacks the deck against union supporters. The employer has all the power; they control the information workers can receive, can force workers to attend anti-union meetings during work hours, can force workers to meet with supervisors who deliver anti-union messages, and can even imply that the business will close if the union wins. Union supporters' access to employees, on the other hand, is heavily restricted.

The Employee Free Choice Act would add some fairness to the system…

Recount Update: Can Franken Pull it Off?

2008-12-12T13:17:00.004-06:00

I have to admit, I was very skeptical of Al Franken's chances of winning, however those chances seem to continue improving.

As we reported earlier, the canvassing board recommended that mistakenly rejected ballots be counted, and that the 133 missing ballots from Minneapolis 3-1 be counted (net+46 Franken). The AP explains why counting the absentee ballots is significant to Franken:

"It's a boost to Democrat Al Franken, who has fought hard for their inclusion. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman leads Franken in unofficial tallies. The directions are voluntary because the state board's members say they don't have the power to force counties to do it. At least 630 absentees are known to have been erroneously rejected, but state officials say it could be more than 1,500."

The Pioneer Press reports that in blue leaning Duluth, as many as 40 percent of the absentee ballots were mistakenly rejected:

Franken also received unexpected good news when Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann dropped a mini-bombshell, telling the board that in overwhelmingly Democratic Duluth — which has not officially tallied rejected absentees — about 40 percent of that city's 319 rejected absentee ballots were mistakenly rejected. Gelbmann said the city rejected the votes because either the voter or the witness did not date their signatures. He said he couldn't find any state law to support such a rejection.

Franken for the win? We'll see. As always, we'll keep you updated. The State Canvassing Board meets again on Tuesday to start the process of resolving challenged ballots. They are supposed to finish by the "19th at dusk" according to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Previous Coverage:
Canvassing Update 2
Canvassing Update
December 5th Update
December 4th Update
Dececember 3rd Update
December 1st Update
MPR Ballots
Star-Tribune Ballots

Recount Update: State Canvassing Board Votes to Ask Counties to Correct Absentee Ballot Errors

2008-12-12T10:52:00.003-06:00

The Minnesota Canvassing Board recommends that county canvassing boards reconvene and reconsider "allegedly" incorrectly rejected absentee ballots. Depending on whether they choose to do this or not, each side can go to court and sue if they think they have a case. It will be handled on a county by county basis, not a state wide directive.

Again, from the Polinaut live blog:

10:35 AM Motion passes asking county officials to separate properly and allegedly improperly rejected absentee ballots. Magnuson repeats that the canvassing board can't compel this action. Vote is unanimous.

10:27 AM Ramsey County District Court Judge Ed Cleary says he's inclined to include the improperly rejected absentee ballots. "We do not have authorities to make findings of fact or conclusions of law on the absentee ballots rejected for reasons...Those that have improperly been rejected are uncounted ballots... The bottom line is that I think we're disenfranchising voters that followed the law."

Magnuson suggests that the state courts may be a better place to consider this, since judges can issue orders and assess penalties to make these considerations happen, whereas the canvassing board cannot.

Gearin says she can't understand why a county wouldn't reconsider if the canvassing board asks. "If the local people, in the trenches, if they made a mistake, then that vote should be accepted."

Anderson weighs in and says he's inclined to go along with Cleary's suggestion to ask these ballots be reexamined and reconsidered by the canvassing board. He says there are some ballots rejected without any indication at all that they were in fact rejected. But he seems to be saying he thinks the courts ought to eventually weigh in.

Ritchie rephrases the motion. Cleary offers some clarification. County canvassing boards reconvene, separate rejected absentee ballots into properly and improperly rejected ballots.

10:20 AM Attorney General Lori Swanson says she believes the canvassing board has the authority to recommend local elections officials reconsider their wrongly rejected ballots and correct their vote totals. Ramsey County District Court Judge says some counties seem to have done that already and that the Canvassing Board will have to weigh in on this whether they like it or not.

Recount Update: State Canvassing Board Votes to Accept 133 Missing Ballots

2008-12-12T10:47:00.002-06:00

The Minnesota Canvassing Board voted unanimously to include the 133 missing ballots from Minnesota 3-1 by using the election day tally. This adds a net of 46 votes to Franken's total.

From Polinaut's Liveblog:

10:08 AM Board votes unanimously to include the 133 missing ballots from Minneapolis in the official vote total.

10:07 AM Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson lauds elections officials, says there is no evidence to show the canvassing board should not accept the vote total results Reichert has offered and moves to do so.

10:05 AM"We believe there was 2,028 ballots fed into the counter machine that night," Reichert says. She says the roster shows 2,030 signed in, but that people do occasionally leave without actually voting.

10:00 AMReichert asks canvassing board to use election night totals, rather than hand recount with missing ballots. Attorney General Lori Swanson summarizes the legal situation. She says the canvassing board has the authority to use the election night returns, in her opinion.

9:56 AMAgenda moves to missing ballots from Minneapolis' Ward 3, precinct 1.

City election director Cindy Reichert takes to the witness table to talk about the missing ballots. "We thought as we went through the process... that they would come up," she said. They called the chief election judge at the polling place, but got no further indication of what happened.

A search went though spoiled ballot envelopes, ballot receipt envelopes, but found nothing. Search turned to an audit of the voting statistics, and a second search of the elections warehouse on Dec. 4.

"We determined definitively that the ballots were missing," says Reichert. The custodian at the polling reported he didn't find anything. Search expanded to City Hall, a van used to transport elections materials. Another warehouse search was conducted on Dec. 5.

Interesting Coincidence; "Coleman Renovation Coincides with Lawsuit"

2008-12-12T09:59:00.003-06:00

Minnesota's Fox News 9 has a report that ties Coleman closer to the allegations of corruption from previously filed lawsuits.

According to their report:

ST. PAUL (FOX 9) -- The timing and cost of Sen. Norm Coleman's home renovation has again raised questions about allegations that an Edina, Minn. businessman funneled money to Norm Coleman's wife Laurie.
[...]

Two lawsuits allege that in spring of 2007, Edina businessman Nasser Kazeminy began a series of $25,000 payments to Coleman from Deep Marine Technology, a company he controlled in Texas, to Hays Companies, the Minnesota Insurance company where Laurie Coleman works.

While Coleman didn't agree to sit down for a interview, his campaign did agree to share billing records of the remodeling project. Original projections in 2006 estimated a cost of $328,000, but four months later, the construction cost was estimated at $414,000, over-budget by $86,000.

During that time is when, the lawsuit alleges, Kazeminy was trying to get money to Coleman.

According to the lawsuits, in March of 2007, Kazeminy said that "U.S. Senators don't make s---" and he was going to try to find a way to get money to Coleman.

"On the one level it could just be a coincidence, on the other level this could be one of the reasons he's getting that money from elsewhere, to try to make up for his, to be able to pay off a loan, pay off a line of credit," says Schultz.

What we know is this: the Senator had costly and over-budget renovations to his home at the same time a contributer was allegedly trying to funnel him money. But he's still criticized for walking away from reporters, while the questions aren't going away.

Interesting, right?

Every Vote Should Count

2008-12-12T09:37:00.003-06:00

The Minnesota Canvassing Board is meeting right now to discuss whether the incorrectly rejected absentee ballots ought to be counted.

Votes mean people. Check out this video from the Franken campaign:

Will update as soon as their is a decision, livestreaming at the UPtake, ~~at 9:30~~ right now.

Bush Makes Harming Endangered Animals Easier

2008-12-12T01:19:00.004-06:00

Like the title says:

The Bush administration cleared the way Thursday for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists when embarking on projects that could impact endangered wildlife, the interior secretary said.

The final regulations to the Endangered Species Act take effect before President Bush leaves office in January, but wildlife conservation groups say undoing the damage could take months.

"The responsibility to initiate consultation will still lie with the federal agency undertaking the action," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said, but if the agency in question can satisfy the requirement that no harm will come to an endangered species, then there is no need to consult with either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Services.

The determination of "no harm" will rest with agency bureaucrats instead of scientists, but the agencies can still seek the input of the scientists on a voluntary basis, Kempthorne said.

Agencies can still seek out the input of the scientists? WOW! So benevolent. Awesome. 40 days...40 long days.

Sam Spiteri Gets To Keep Horse; Spirit of the Law More Important than Letter

2008-12-12T01:05:00.003-06:00

For every good law (or zoning code), there's a good exception t0 that law. In this case, the question was "Should this kid get to keep his miniature pony, which he uses for therapy, despite neighbor complaints and zoning violations?"

Thankfully, the answer is yes.

The National Post reports:

A three-year-old disabled boy can keep his pony despite a neighbour’s complaints, Caledon’s committee of adjustment ruled today.

Committee members said the Spiteri family can keep the miniature pony, despite zoning rules prohibiting it, so long as they keep the pen clean.

Sam Spiteri has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, and uses the pony, Emily, as part of his therapy regime.

The dispute wound up before the committee after a neighbour complained about the smell coming from the family’s property, which also borders a cattle farm.

‘‘Pure joy right now,’’ said Antonia Spiteri, Sam’s mother, said today. ‘‘It’s been an extremely stressful last couple of months. Now I can focus my energy back where it belongs — back on Sam’s therapy.’’

Shame on the neighbor. You live near a cattle farm and you complain about the smell of a therapy pony? Please...
Via Boing Boing

Union Hating

2008-12-11T22:52:00.003-06:00

Republicans like to attack.

They seem to think that their current best targets are unions.

There are two prominent attacks on unions that need to be refuted:

1) The ludicrous figure that United Auto Workers earn 70 dollars an hour, and that union labor is the cause of Detroit problems.

2) The silly concept that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was trying to bribe Balgojevich or was party to the deal making going on.

The first concept is just factually wrong, while the second argument uses facts to arrive to an incorrect conclusion.

In the current discussions about problems with the big three automakers, the United Auto Workers have been attacked because of the benefits they have won for their workers.

Many people have falsely stated that one of these benefits is a wage of 70 dollars a day. As factcheck.org explains, the Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) made the claim workers "earn $75 an hour in wages and benefits – almost triple the earnings of the average private sector worker" and then said, "The vast majority of UAW workers in Detroit today still earn $75 an hour."

This was then repeated by Republicans and members of the media. For examples from Factcheck:

At a Nov. 19 House Financial Services Committee hearing on a possible bailout for the auto industry, Alabama Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus said, "Even with recent changes, the average hourly wage at General Motors is still $75 an hour. ..." Two of his GOP colleagues on the panel made similar statements. And in a Nov. 18 column in the New York Times, business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote, "At GM, as of 2007, the average worker was paid about $70 an hour, including health care and pension costs."

Unfortunately, this is also not true. According to the manufacturers, average autoworkers make $29 an hour. This, in fact, is less than some Toyota workers in the United States. The foreign companies with workers in the US pay very close to the UAW wages. The $70 an hour that is cited comes the costs that manufacturers incur from paying for the generations of retired workers that they are obligated to pay (a cost that is covered by governments at oversees factories). These companies created the middle class and were forced to take up the costs of pensions because the American government was unwilling to develop a national health care system.

The Senate failed to pass the $14 Billion bailout because the Republicans were unable to get enough concessions from the autoworkers. I say good for the autoworkers because if we are asking them to take further concessions we would essentially be asking them to take the hit for the development of the middle-class over the past 40 years. That's not fair.

Not only is the $70 figure misleading, it's silly that people are keying in on the cost of labor. Labor makes up 10% of the costs of producing a vehicle. Further, Americans are not complaining about the cost of a vehicle, rather they are complaining about bad design and fuel guzzling vehicles. Clearly, Republicans are using this as a Trojan horse to attack Unions.

The second point of contention is the theory being tossed around that SEIU officials, maybe the president of SEIU, considered making a deal with Blagojevich to get their preferred candidate in the Senate. The specific paragraph critics are pointing to is the following:

On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with SEIU Official, who was in Washington, D.C. Prior intercepted phone conversations indicate that approximately a week before this call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH met with SEIU Official to discuss the vacant Senate seat, and ROD BLAGOJEVICH understood that SEIU Official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1’s interest in the Senate seat. During the conversation with SEIU Official on November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH informed SEIU Official that he had heard the President-elect wanted persons other than Senate Candidate 1 to be considered for the Senate seat. SEIU Official stated that he would find out if Senate Candidate 1 wanted SEIU Official to keep pushing her for Senator with ROD BLAGOJEVICH. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “one thing I’d be interested in” is a 501(c)(4) organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH explained the 501(c)(4) idea to SEIU Official and said that the 501(c)(4)70 could help “our new Senator [Senate Candidate 1].” SEIU Official agreed to “put that flag up and see where it goes.”

Why this is silly: the SEIU does not need an Illinois Senator appointed as a favor to Obama. Obama has stated that he supports worker legislation, most controversially (and importantly for the Unions) the Employee Free Choice Act. Maybe the SEIU should have simply said, Blago you're nuts, but instead the official said he or she would "put a flag up." Clearly the SEIU is humouring the Governor. Gov. Blagojevich was already under investigation, proved a bad administrator, and seemed generally incompetent. Who would have hired him? Certainly, not a well connected Union whose candidate is moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The critiques of the SEIU are dumb attacks based solely on the fact that the union's name now appears in the headlines in connection with the governor of Illinois.

Unions help workers and provide protection for the American middle class, especially in this time of globalization and worker vulnerability. Don't let Republican big business representatives fool you by using bad facts and bad analysis.

By the way, Wall Street Bailout= 700 Billion Dollars; proposed Auto Bailout= 14 Billion. Do the math.

Senate Seat on Ebay

2008-12-11T21:14:00.001-06:00

From the Illinois Policy Institute (click link to see picture)

Not sure if the Chris Dodd comment is necessary but whatever, somewhat entertaining all the same.

Blago's numbers, Bush can Goad

2008-12-11T20:42:00.003-06:00

From the Politico.com:

The poll shows 70 percent of voters believing that Blagojevich should resign now, while only 25 percent should wait until he is proven guilty. A 73 percent majority support the impeachment of the governor – including a majority of Democrats – with 58 percent “strongly supporting” his impeachment. .

His approval rating, meanwhile, has tanked to seven percent. Among Democrats, only 13 percent approve of his performance.
[...]
The poll surveyed 600 registered voters in Illinois from December 9-10, and has a 4 percent margin of error.

Here's what shocking to me, 13% of Democrats and 7% of voters approve of Blogjevich's performance as Governor? Seriously? Are these the people who live under a rock? Did these people hear about what happened on Tuesday? Seriously, these people should be found and, and, and, have their voting rights revoked or something. There's one acceptable possiblity the poll's 4 percent margin of error kicks in, so actually only 3 percent of voters approve of Blagojevich's performance and of those 1 percent are his family, 1 percent are people who live under a rock, and 1 percent are people who thought approve means totally hate.

I'm imagining a meeting between Bush and Blago, where Bush takes advantage of the first time he's able to make fun of someone else's approval rating.

The Cabinet thus Far; 12/7 Update; 12/11 Update

2008-12-11T15:40:00.000-06:00

For your information, I have set up a list of all the official cabinet appointments thus far (plus the director of the National Economic Council Director). I have also included the introductory paragraph(s) of their wikipedia entries and a link to their wikipedia page under their picture. Each position also has a link to their official web page.

Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle

Thomas Andrew Daschle (born December 9, 1947) is a former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in Obama's Cabinet.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Eric Shinseki

Eric Ken Shinseki (born November 28, 1942) was the 34th Chief of Staff of the United States Army, serving from 1999 to 2003, and is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to become the 7th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is the first Asian American in U.S. history to be a four-star general and the first to lead one of the five U.S. military services. During his tenure, Shinseki initiated an innovative but controversial plan to make the Army more strategically deployable and mobile in urban terrain by creating Stryker Interim-Force Brigade Combat Teams. He conceived a long term strategic plan for the Army dubbed Objective Force, which included a program he designed, Future Combat Systems.

Shinseki is famous for publicly clashing with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the planning of the war in Iraq over what troop levels would be necessary once the Iraqi regime was defeated. Many believe General Shinseki correctly estimated that far more troops would be needed than in Rumsfeld's plan. Shinseki testified to the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee that "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would probably be required for postwar Iraq. Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz publicly disagreed with his estimate, Wolfowitz insisting that General Shinseki was "wildly off the mark". Over time, it has become almost universally accepted in U.S. political circles that Shinseki was correct. General Shinseki retired as scheduled from the military in June 2003, just three months after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. After making his critical comments, Shinseki's influence on the Joint Chiefs of Staff was reported to have been significantly reduced.

Treasury Secretary: Tim Geithner, President of the NY Federal Reserve Bank,

Timothy Franz Geithner [pronounced /ˈgaɪtnər/] (born August 18, 1961) is the 9th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In that role he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Geithner is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to succeed Henry Paulson as United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Secretary of State: Sen. Hillary Clinton,

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York and President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of State. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton is also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was reelected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but after a long campaign, she narrowly lost to Senator Barack Obama, who became the party's presumptive nominee in June 2008, and Clinton endorsed and campaigned for him. She is the first First Lady to be subsequently appointed to the Cabinet in any Presidential administration.

Attorney General: Eric Holder,

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. (born January 21, 1951), is a former Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, United States Attorney and Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He is currently a senior legal advisor to President-elect Barack Obama, a position he also held in Obama's campaign. He was one of three members of Obama's vice-presidential selection committee.

On December 1, 2008, Obama announced that Holder would be his nominee for Attorney General in the incoming administration. If confirmed, he will be the first African-American Attorney General of the United States.

Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates, Sec. of Defense in Bush administration,

Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is currently serving as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense. He took office on December 18, 2006. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. Before he joined the CIA, he served with the United States Air Force (USAF). After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton, that has studied the Iraq War. He was also the first pick to serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security when it was created following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but he declined the appointment in order to remain President of Texas A&M University.

Gates accepted the nomination as Secretary of Defense position on November 8, 2006, replacing Donald Rumsfeld. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. In a 2007 profile written by former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Time named Gates one of the year's most influential people. In 2008, Gates was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. President-elect Barack Obama has offered Gates the continued position as Defense Secretary under his administration, and Gates has accepted. Gates will be one of the few people to hold a Cabinet-level position under two Presidents of different parties.

Homeland Security Secretary: Gov. Janet Napolitano (Arizona),

Janet Napolitano (born November 29, 1957) is the current governor of the U.S. state of Arizona, and a member of the Democratic Party, originally elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Napolitano was chair of two state Governors' associations and named by Time as one of the top five Governors in 2005.

She is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security.

National Security Adviser: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones,

General James Logan Jones Jr. (born December 19, 1943) is President-elect Barack Obama’s selection for national security adviser. He is the former supreme allied commander, Europe (SACEUR) (2003–06), and the commander of the United States European Command (COMUSEUCOM) (2003–06. He served as the 32nd commandant of the Marine Corps (July 1999–January 2003). Jones retired from the United States Marine Corps on February 1, 2007, after 40 years of service.

In 2007, Jones served as chairman of the Congressional Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, which investigated the capabilities of the Iraqi police and armed forces. In November 2007, he was appointed by the U.S. secretary of state as special envoy for Middle East security.

He is currently chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States.

Commerce Secretary: Gov. Bill Richardson (New Mexico),

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is a Democratic politician and the current Governor of New Mexico. Prior to being elected governor, Richardson served in the Clinton administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary. Richardson has also served as a U.S. Congressman, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On December 3, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama designated Richardson for appointment to the cabinet-level position of Commerce Secretary.

National Economic Council Director: Lawrence Summers, former treasury
secretary,

Lawrence Henry "Larry" Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist and member of President-elect Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board. On November 24, 2008 he was named the next head of the White House's National Economic Council.

Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the 1993 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal for his work in several fields of economics and was Secretary of the Treasury for the last year and a half of the Bill Clinton administration.

Summers also served as the 27th President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. In three instances during his time as Harvard president, Summers made remarks that touched on political "hot-button" controversies. Environmentalists, affirmative action advocates, and many women and those concerned with women's issues took offense and brought increasing pressure on Harvard, contributing to his resignation. Summers also proposed reforming undergraduate education and requested that professors take greater responsibility in teaching their undergraduate classes, as opposed to delegating to teaching fellows.

Office of Management and Budget Director: Peter Orszag, director of Congressional Budget Office,

Peter R. Orszag (born December 16, 1968) is an American economist and was until recently Director of the Congressional Budget Office. He is President-Elect Barack Obama's choice for Office of Management and Budget Director.

There are many positions left to fill, and since Obama plans to go on an extended vacation, there will be many announcements coming up (and many updates to this post).

Barack Hussein Obama will be inaugurated as Barack Hussein Obama

2008-12-11T02:02:00.002-06:00

In case you missed it, on Jan. 20th Barack Hussein Obama will be inaugurated the 44th President of the United States as Barack Hussein Obama. He explains:

Mr. Obama noted that presidents traditionally take the oath of office using their full and proper names, and he would do the same. “I think the tradition is that they use all three names, and I will follow the tradition,” Mr. Obama said of the swearing-in ceremony. “I’m not trying to make a statement one way or another. I’ll do what everybody else does.”

Although it could also help his other goal of improving relationships with the Muslim world (while Obama is Christian, Hussein is a well-known Muslim name). As he told the Chicago Tribune:

“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,” Mr. Obama told the newspaper Tuesday. He also said he had an “unrelenting” desire to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.”

Mild Mannered Harry Reid

2008-12-10T22:25:00.002-06:00

David passes on a great story about Harry Reid via Ezra Klein:

In July of 1978, a man named Jack Gordon, who was later married to LaToya Jackson, offered Reid twelve thousand dollars to approve two new, carnival-like gaming devices for casino use. Reid reported the attempted bribe to the F.B.I. and arranged a meeting with Gordon in his office. By agreement, F.B.I. agents burst in to arrest Gordon at the point where Reid asked, “Is this the money?” Although he was taking part in a sting, Reid was unable to control his temper; the videotape shows him getting up from his chair and saying, “You son of a bitch, you tried to bribe me!” and attempting to choke Gordon, before startled agents pulled him off. “I was so angry with him for thinking he could bribe me,” Reid said, explaining his theatrical outburst. Gordon was convicted in federal court in 1979 and sentenced to six months in prison.

This is Why Some Bloggers Are Hated

2008-12-10T22:09:00.003-06:00

I guess this is why (the 12/10 9:46pmpost)many people don't bother engaging in discussion w/blogs. I mean this information is public...but also not relevant (although I guess if it's posted on FGO then it's relevant). blech.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Denies Offering Money to Blagojevich

2008-12-10T21:02:00.003-06:00

Jesse Jackson Jr. who is "Candidate 5" in the charges filed against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, claims no attempt to make a deal with the governor, despite the fact that on tape the Governor said that candidate 5 could raise 50,000 now and 50,000 later. Based on this statement, and on his strong service to our country and his district I hope it's true. Worth watching.

Rahm's Inbox

2008-12-10T12:29:00.003-06:00

Famous DC offers what Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel's inbox might look like.

It's priceless. If you don't get it, check out Rahm's wikipedia for some context.

Blago on Tape

2008-12-10T11:33:00.002-06:00

This is from a press conference he gave (on a completely different issue) on Monday.

Go ahead and tape me he says, just give me a warning. Did he know this was coming? Notice he claimed that everything he does is lawful? Is he going to claim that he was just thinking of ideas and never actually tried to do anything? Does he know that conspiracy to corrupt is still a crime? So it goes.

FBI In Minnesota? Federal Investigation Tied to Colman

2008-12-10T11:32:00.002-06:00

Remember how we told you two months ago about stories of Norm Colman supporter Nasser Kazeminy helping out the Senator by buying him suits and potentially funneling almost 100,000 dollars to his wife? If you don't just follow the links.

According to the Pioneer Press, the FBI remembers those allegations and has grown curious. Now, that they're done with the Gov. of Illinois they're investigating Nasser Kazeminy about his gifts to Minnesota's Senior Senator. I'm going to be mad if we go through the this recount simply to get an indicted senator.

From the PiPress:

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that a longtime friend and benefactor tried to steer money to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, the Pioneer Press has learned.

Agents with the FBI have talked to or made efforts to talk to people in Texas familiar with the allegations, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Houston is where the first of two lawsuits was filed alleging Nasser Kazeminy, a Bloomington financier, tried to steer $100,000 to Coleman via his wife's Minneapolis employer. The second suit, filed in Delaware, alleges Kazeminy initially tried to get money directly to the senator.

Of course, let's not jump to conclusions.

Washington Monthly also SLAMS Pawlenty

2008-12-09T18:33:00.003-06:00

In the previous discussion about a columnist slamming Governor Pawlenty, I mentioned that Gov. Pawlenty wrote a silly proposal for a balanced budget amendment. I argued that the proposal was dumb because it would disallow deficit spending under any circumstances.

The Washington Monthly thought even less of his article then I did and said the following:

I honestly don't know where to begin in responding to such an insane policy prescription. The first point, of course, is that trying to balance the budget in the midst of a financial crisis is the exact opposite of what every sane person realizes we need -- a government stimulus to help spur the economy. Why would Pawlenty recommend slashing hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending right now?

Second, that the Minnesota governor sees a similarity between an individual family's budget and that of the United States government suggests he has a child-like understanding of economic basics. As Publius recently explained: "The micro-considerations of an individual family or business has nothing much to do with what governments need to do to get the larger economy moving again. Even worse, it's often affirmatively harmful to adopt microeconomic solutions to macroeconomic problems."

If Pawlenty is a rising star in the Republican Party, the GOP's future is painfully bleak. This piece suggests Pawlenty looked back at the Great Depression, and became convinced that Hoover was right.

I've written about the first point, but the second point deserves some commentary and it can be said rather succinctly. Carleton College (like every school that teaches economics) offers two different "Introduction to Economics" courses. One course is MacroEconomics and the other is MicroEconomics. They are very different, in fact, the study of economics as a whole follows this division to a certain effect.

Point remains: Someone needs to Govern.

Rahm Tipped off Feds?

2008-12-09T16:26:00.004-06:00

There is a hot rumor going around that the federal agents learned of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich attempts to sell off Barack Obama's Senate seat when Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel tipped them off. This was supposedly after Emmanuel was approached about possible favors for Blagojevich in exchange for selecting Obama's "favored" candidate. Possible favors could have included ambassadorships, or being appointed Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Could this have been why Tom Daschle's name was leaked for that position so early? Was it a warning to Blagojevich?

I for one hope that Rahm Emmanuel did out Blago, it would show that while Rahm may be hard-nosed, he has very real principles and that he was not going to let Blagovich try and shake-down the president-elect. From what I hear, there was no love lost between Blago and most people in the Obama administration, so this could also have been a convenient way of getting rid of Blago. Either way, Illinois started to head in the right direction with the filing of these charges.

Update:
Marc Ambinder sounds pretty sure it wasn't Rahm. Check it out here.

America's Least Popular Governer Also a Criminal?

2008-12-09T11:43:00.007-06:00

Three updates at bottom You can read the charges here.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who in October clocked in an approval rate of 4%, has been arrested by federal agents and charged with various corruption charges.

Blagojevich is accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy, including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

Apparently Blagojevich was even contemplating running for President?

Prosecutors also alleged Blagojevich expressed feeling "stuck" as a sitting governor and spent a large amount of time weighing whether he should appoint himself to the vacancy—possibly to avoid impeachment and help remake his image for a potential 2016 run for the presidency.

Who did this guy think he was? Federal Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, "The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."

Even Blagojevich's recently announced $1.8 billion plan for new interchanges and "green lanes" on the Illinois Tollway was subject to corruption, prosecutors alleged. The criminal complaint alleges Blagojevich expected an unnamed highway concrete contractor to raise a half-million dollars for his campaign fund in exchange for state money for the tollway project. "If they don't perform, [expletive] 'em," Blagojevich said, according to the complaint.

Blagojevich and Harris also allegedly conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Blagojevich in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

These charges if true are amazing. This is real old time, classic "Illinois" politics. But even more so, it shows that neither party is free from corrupt pols. Now that Democrats are in power, those who have been honored with the support of the people must take Gov. Blagojevich's case as an example of what goes wrong when you don't respect the people who elected you into office. The 2006 shift in power was largely driven by the Democrats excoriating the Republican party for a "culture of corruption." Democrats have been freed of William Jefferson, and now can hopefully get rid of Blagojevich, but if this becomes a pattern of behavior among elected Democrats, you can bet Republicans will capitalize on it. While Charlie Rangel is a great politician and has done much good during his time in office, his problems continue to further the culture of corruption narrative. Want proof that Republicans are looking to capitalize? Republican house leader John Boehner declared on Monday:

"In the two years ahead, House Republicans will demonstrate our commitment to reform by holding ourselves to the highest possible ethical standard...[and] presenting principled, superior solutions to the challenges facing our country."

I will go out on a limb and say that Republicans will not have the same issues that they had before 2006 for two significant reasons:

1) Most of the Republicans most corrupt politicians were ousted out of office by either federal arrest, resignation, or the ballot box.

2) Parties that have no power, usually are not high targets for those seeking to bribe. Democrats will be the people who are most tempted, the the ones who must most stay on their toes and avoid even the scent of corruption.

The arrest of Blagojevich prompts several questions:

Will Barack Obama and other prominent Illinois politicians call on Balgojevich to resign? While Blagojevich has not been proven guilty on any of these charges, the charges are pretty harsh, seem to come with hard evidence (wire taps).
If Blagojevich does not resign, who will he appoint to the Senate? Who would accept his appointment?
If Blagojevich does resign, who will Pat Quinn, his successo, appoint to the Senate. There is speculation that he, Quinn, was a candidate for the seat. Will he appoint himself? Unclear.

For the sake of the citizens of Illinois, I hope that Blagojevich does the right thing and leaves the public forum as soon as possible.

Update:
Great quote from Politico:

Blagojevich was caught on tape telling his Deputy Governor that unless he "received 'something real good" for the appointment of a top adviser to Barack Obama to fill the president-elect"s Senate seat he would appoint himself." According to the complaint, he said, "Unless I get something real good [for Senate candidate 1], s***, I"ll just send myself, you know what I"m saying," He added that a Senate seat: "is a f***ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

I might say that a Senate seat is SOOO valuable that it's priceless? That you give it to someone who deserves it? Not someone who buys it? According to Politico, Blagojevich is referring to Obama aid Valerie Jarrett. I just hope that Jarrett wasn't looking to buy it, it doesn't sound like she was.

Update #2:
From the indictment:

Later on November 10, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Advisor A discussed the open Senate seat. Among other things, ROD BLAGOJEVICH raised the issue of whether the President-elect could help get ROD BLAGOJEVICH's wife on "paid corporate boards right now." Advisor A responded that he "think[s] they could" and that a "President-elect. . . can do almost anything he sets his mind to." ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will appoint "[Senate Candidate 1] . . . but if they feel like they can do this and not fucking give me anything . . . then I'll fucking go [Senate Candidate 5]." (Senate Candidate 5 is publicly reported to be interested in the open Senate seat). ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that if his wife could get on some corporate boards and "picks up another 150 grand a year or whatever" it would help ROD BLAGOJEVICH get through the next several years as Governor.

In the words of Marc Ambinder:

Was Blagojevich really trying to shake down the president-elect for something of value in exchange for making his preferred Senate appointment? He has some serious stones.

Further, we learn from the indictment:

In a conversation with Harris [his chief of staff] on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them."

Update #3: IRONY ALERT
Just yesterday Blagojevich said:

"I don't believe there's any cloud that hangs over me. I think there's nothing but sunshine hanging over me," the governor said.

Bailout Agreement

2008-12-09T01:38:00.002-06:00

It seems like the Democrats and Republicans are coming on an agreement about the possible bailout of the Big 3 automakers. Marc Ambinder provides this 13 page word document thats been circulating Capitol Hill detailing the possible terms of agreement.

Big points:

There will be a person in the federal government in charge of overseeing the program, he would not be a "czar"
Detroit automakers must drop lawsuits against 16 states for enforcement of Greenhouse Gas laws:
The terms of any financial assistance under this Act shall prohibit the recipient eligible automobile manufacturer from participating in, pursuing, funding, or supporting in any way, lawsuits any legal challenge (existing or contemplated) challenging to State laws concerning greenhouse gas emission standards)
Money would come from a 2007 Energy Bill provision that set aside money for green technology initiatives.

For the full scoop either visit Ambinder or check out the document.

McCain's Unused Ad

2008-12-09T01:10:00.005-06:00

John McCain said early on that Jeremiah Wright was off-limits. His campaign thought it was best to check, so they produced this ad (go to 1:13 for the ad):

Quick review:
Honestly, this is one of the more effective ads that the McCain campaign used. It is based on incorrect premises which undermine the entire Jeremiah Wright narrative, but it manages to tap into the technique used by the Obama campaign of sounding positive while pointing out the flaws in his opponent. While, I don't think it would have been a game changer by any means, it would have certainly been more effective than the various summer celebrity ads, and more effective than the entire Bill Ayres narrative. I would have been especially interesting in how the Obama campaign woudl have reacted. See Nate Silver's take here.

Star-Trib Columnist Coleman Slams T-Paw

2008-12-09T00:00:00.005-06:00

I am not a big fan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, I think that they have some columnists who simply blather, but yet, like a great athlete the Star-Trib comes through in the clutch. Today, Nick Coleman (no relation to the Senator) comes through and slams Gov. Pawlenty for abandoning ship when the state most needs help. Some of the better excerpts from his column "Avast, Cap'n Tim! The ship of state is sinking - why aren't ye at the wheel?" (which you can read here):

If the state of Minnesota were "Titanic," this would be the part in the movie where some of the rich passengers put dresses on and try to sneak into the lifeboats.

Someone should tell the captain.

Unfortunately, our "captain" isn't often at the helm. On an endless circuit of talk shows and national appearances aimed at puffing his profile for 2012, Gov. Tim Pawlenty leaves Thursday on a trip to Israel that will come in handy during foreign policy debates ("I've visited our friends in Israel") but may not do much for Minnesota's pork producers.

There are fifth-grade civics classes that spend more time at the State Capitol than T-Paw. Too bad. We need a full-time governor.

Of course, my emphasis. Coleman goes on to say:

Pawlenty still is a prisoner to the deceitful "no new tax" cult that has cut income taxes for the wealthy while raising fees and property taxes on everyone else. Even in the face of looming crisis, he can't stop sipping the Kool-Aid.

Does anyone still think that leading Minnesota involves protecting the privileged from paying their fair share? Minnesota might gain $1 billion in revenue if the wealthiest paid the same tax rate as the middle class. (Pawlenty underestimates the true amount.)
Republican legislators are making Mickey Mouse proposals to sell parts of government -- including the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. I suggest we sell legislators instead. Some of these geniuses might make good lawn ornaments.

He saves some rage for the state Dems:

And our wimpy Democrats, meanwhile, are calling for bipartisanship and talking about the importance of not being divisive. Are they kidding?

Let me go ahead and say I don't always agree with Nick Coleman, but he is completely right about both Pawlenty's absenteeism and false bipartisanship.

The state of Minnesota faces something close to a 6 billion dollar deficit, and yet Coleman tried to earn political points at the National Governors Association meeting with Barack Obama by critiquing Obama's plan of using federal funds to help state funds. He said:

“The states should substantially fix their own problems,” the Republican governor told a reporter in Philadelphia, where he and other governors met with President-elect Barack Obama.

As Coleman points out, the question that naturally arises is "Why isn't he fixing Minnesota's Problems?" Isn't he the leader of his state? He's too busy building up his résumé for a potential run in 2012. He doesn't realize that the best way to build that résumé is to actually govern the state, and moreover to govern the state successfully.

Lastly, his critique of Democrats is fair. While Minnesota nice is a good governing paradigm, that doesn't meant that Democrats (who control both houses) can use that as an excuse not to make thier own plans and try to govern. Pawlenty is out, Republicans are down, Democrats should not rub it in, and they are right to avoid creating a divise atmosphere in St. Paul, but that does not mean they cannot create their own plans. They have the votes to override Pawlenty in the Senate and they have shown an ability to bring Republicans along on good legislation.

Someone needs to govern. Minnesotans voted for Democrats, lets see them step up. The best way to stay in power is to prove that you can govern.

Update: Among other things, T-Paw has been spotted writing an editorial for Politico arguing for a Balanced-Budget Amendment which would prohibit the government from using deficit spending to improve our economy. When our economy is at the weakest, Pawlenty wants to take away another tool? Really? Especially a tool that's been proven to work? Read more on this and on how Pawlenty supported a plan that involved deficit spending a short while ago.

Bush Neighborhood Officially Integrated 8 Years Ago

2008-12-08T18:36:00.008-06:00

Apparently, President Bush has become enamored with big city livin' and so has chosen to buy a home in bustlin' dallas, 2 hours and 19 minutes away from his ranch in Crawford (where spent nearly 500 days of his presidency or nearly a year and a half).

His new home is an exclusive neighborhood in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, with neighbors like the owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars, as well as a smattering of lawyers and investment bankers. According to the Dallas News:

The house was purchased with a $3,074,000 loan issued by the Community National Bank in Midland – a note that must be paid in full by October 2012, according to documents signed by Mr. McCleskey.

Traditionally, such purchases also require a cash down payment of at least 10 percent and normally 20 percent, although it is unclear whether such a down payment was made in this case.

The house (which according to Google is the house above) is more than 8,500 square feet and sits on 1.1 acres (which might be considered almost humble for that neighborhood).

Most surprisingly the neighborhood, known as James Meaders Estates, had a paragraph in it's covenant that prohibited non-white non-servants from living in the neighborhood. Paragraph 11 of the covenant (which was removed in July of 2000) read:

11) Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons only except these covenants shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant.

I really hope that the delay is a reflection of the difficulty in changing covenants, or simply the fact that no one had reviewed that document since 1956. I doubt it. Either way, it reflects something very ugly about this neighborhood. I'd be willing to bet it hasn't changed much in 50 years (except for houses getting bigger). You can see the covenant here. There's a full article from raw story here.

Update: It may sound like I'm simply being biased against a southern neighborhood for sins of a by-gone age. If I am biased, it only comes from experience. I come from a town that did not allow African-Americans in town after sundown (a sundown town) until the 1970s and still deals with the legacy of segregation and other racial issues. Any town that ever had these rules has a legacy to deal with, a neighborhood that wrote it into their covenant and did not remove it until the year 2000 has some significant issues.

Othering President Obama

2008-12-08T12:26:00.001-06:00

Salon's Alex Koppelman examines the bogus conspiracy theory that Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S., and therefore cannot be President. As Pablo reported today, the Supreme Court has denied to hear this ridiculous case, but even if it did, and found that it was without a doubt baseless and juvenile, there would still be people out there who refuse to let it go.

By the same token, there are plenty of people out there who like to claim that Obama is not Black: either he is biracial (which is, by these analyses, categorically exclusive from Black) or he is "half-White," as White as he is Black.

These characterizations belie an American political maxim: Black men are not Presidents.

For those who pray over Drudge that Obama's birth certificate is false, Obama as a Black man is nonviable. But even for those supporters who emphasize his biraciality without acknowledging his self-identification, Obama as a Black man is nonviable. He might be "Black," but he's not "too Black"--all Black, or only Black.

The U.S. Census did not allow "biracial" or "multiracial" until the 2000 Census. Nuance in race and ethnicity has never been our country's strong point, try though we may to perpetuate the story of the "melting pot", and perhaps Obama has just proven too complicated for our reductive racial categories.

But there are plenty of people out there who just can't bring themselves to admit that a Black man is President--legitimately President, and legitimately Black.

UPDATE: Ta-Nehisi Coates examines a similar point.

SCOTUS won't review Obama's birth

2008-12-08T12:25:00.003-06:00

The Supreme Court has denied cert. on the case about whether Barack Obama is qualified to be president (due to his place of birth). The AP announcement is here:

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.

This is somewhat disappointing because I was really hoping the court would review this simply so the world would be able to see how silly this whole discussion is. Alas, it will be left to simmer on the Internets.

Good Economic News...For North Dakota.

2008-12-06T23:15:00.003-06:00

I feel like I owe everyone an apology. I have evidently joined the negative nancys of the liberal media in just reporting the negative news about our economy. Well, in order to balance out the news of the collapse of our economic news, I bring you some positive economic news.

Our neighbors to the west (North Dakota) are doing just fine. Basically, up to this point, North Dakota has not seen the economics that are dragging down the rest of the country. They are looking for more workers (they have more jobs then workers) and have a 1.2 billion dollar surplus (out of 7.7 Billion budget), while Minnesota deals with a 5.2 billion dollar deficit.

From the New York Times:

The number of new cars sold statewide was 27 percent higher this year than last, state records through November showed. North Dakota’s foreclosure rate was minuscule, among the lowest in the country. Many homes have still been gaining modestly in value, and, here in Fargo, construction workers can be found on any given day hammering away on a new downtown condominium complex, complete with a $540,000 penthouse (still unsold, but with a steady stream of lookers).
While dozens of states, including neighboring ones, have desperately begun raising fees, firing workers, shuttering tourist attractions and even abolishing holiday displays to overcome gaping deficits, lawmakers this week in Bismarck, the capital, were contemplating what to do with a $1.2 billion budget surplus.

A nifty graph:

But, getting back to reality, the NYT article also tells us the following:

In truth, economic analysts said North Dakota has already begun showing some of the painful ripples seen elsewhere. Some manufacturing companies here have lately made temporary job cuts as orders for products have dropped nationally. Shrinking 401(k)’s — “201(k)’s,” some here grump — are no bigger here than anywhere else. And, most of all, drops in oil prices and farm commodity prices are sure to sink local fortunes, experts said.
An economist at Moody’s Economy.com recently warned that conditions in North Dakota had “slowed measurably in recent months, and the state is now at risk of being dragged into recession.” In an interview, Glenn Wingard, the economist, described North Dakota as “an outlier” up to now in a broad, national slump.

Guess, I won't be moving to North Dakota anytime soon.

Weekly Address from Your Leader (Obama's Youtube Message)

2008-12-06T15:26:00.001-06:00

Bail Out Application

2008-12-05T21:16:00.006-06:00

Down on your luck? Need a little help? Wouldn't be a surprise. Apply for a Government Bailout. Just fill out form EZ-Cash; and make sure you affix correct postage.

(Click to enlarge)

-From Vanity Fair

Recount Update 12/5

2008-12-05T20:22:00.005-06:00

What we know as of this moment with 99.93% of the vote recounted (of course without challenges resolved):

Important numbers:

Coleman has an official lead of .03% of the vote.
Coleman has a lead of 687 votes.
More than 5,000 challenges left to resolve.
Franken claims a 4 vote lead.
Star-Tribune gives Colman a 251 lead.

Important facts:

Hand recount is done EXCEPT:
133 votes still missin g from Minneapolis 3-1 (Recount will officially remain open until December 16 in the hopes that these ballots are found).
Talking Points Memo reports that due to the missing ballots, the Secretary of State's office could opt to accept the election night results rather than the recount numbers, which would give Franken net 46 more votes.
Franken campaign continues to push for 500-1000 improperly rejected absentee ballots to be counted.
Canvasing Board will resolve each challenge on December 16.
The recount has cost both campaigns more than $4 million (combined).

Previous Recount Coverage:
December 4th Update
Dececember 3rd Update
December 1st Update
MPR Ballots
Star-Tribune Ballots

Oh Canada! The Canadian Party Crisis.

2008-12-05T18:01:00.008-06:00

This blog is occasionally prone to cover Canadian politics. Ok, we mentioned Canada once. Anyway, they just shut down their legislature so they're interesting now.

After minority parties came together to oust conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, Harper decided that he could avoid the vote by having their parliament closed. How would he do this you ask? Apparently, by turning to the Canadian Governor General.

Didn't know that Canada had a Governor General did you? I didn't. You probably also didn't know that the Governor General had the power to suspend the Parliament? She does. Did you know that the current Governor General is named Michaëlle Jean? Yeah me neither. Or that she was appointed by the Queen (of the United Kingdom)[with the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada]? Unlike some, I did know that the Queen is not Helen Mirren.

(Mirren on left)

Getting back to our story, Stephen Harper convinced the Governor General to prorogue (close) Parliament until January 26. In other words, during the beginning of a world wide economic catastrophe (see previous economic posts), Canada has no national government.

In the words of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union leader Dave Coles:

"For us, it's total chaos because there's no government to talk to. We may not have an industry left the way this is going." [speaking of the forestry industry]

Maybe Quebec will finally leave Canada? [This isn't funny to Canadians.]

Full coverage from Slate.

Want a Job? Tough, Economy Continues To Contract

2008-12-05T12:17:00.002-06:00

Hey college seniors, looking for a job? Well, get in line.

From the New York Times:

Unemployment Rate Rises to 6.7%

New figures from the Labor Department show a much sharper
worsening of employment conditions than economists expected.
Some 533,000 nonfarm jobs were eliminated in November, the
most in one month since the mid-1970s, and figures for the
prior two months were revised upward by 199,000. The
unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a point to 6.7 percent
in November; it would have been even higher if large numbers
of discouraged workers had not given up looking for work.

Note that last line, this rate would have been even higher if people had not GIVEN UP looking for work.

If you have any doubt about this, talk to any Carleton seniors, employers are not hiring. Many employers have hiring freezes or are filling open positions at a much slower rate then they once would. There are fewer open positions because no one is leaving their jobs. Those who continue to hire (the government) have massively increased competition. This is not good.

I'm listening to a show about the working poor and unemployed in Boston. A food pantry and heating assistance organization's (ABCD) director is talking about how his clients used to be those who were elderly, and ill and/or disabled. Now his clients include all of those, plus working poor who can no longer afford food, heat, housing, and newly unemployed young professionals. Read and listen here.

Silver lining: Carleton College and a liberal arts education provides knowledge of how to do things not just what to do. In other words we are not trained as advertisers, or consultants, but we know how to write (often on a short deadline), we know how to take initiative, lead, work on teams. If you get hired, you're likely to be indispensable to your employer...right? Hire me?

Recount Update 12/4

2008-12-04T21:38:00.003-06:00

What we know as of this moment with 98.88% of the vote recounted (of course without challenges resolved):

Important numbers:

Star-Tribune gives Coleman a lead of 251.
Coleman withdraws 650 challenges following Franken's lead (see yesterday's update).
Franken claims a 10 vote lead.
32,704 votes left to count.

Important facts:

Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert late last night admitted to the Star Tribune that the ballots were missing, saying that her earlier theory (that the missing 133 ballots were simply run twice) "doesn't jibe with the numbers we have" and "wasn't valid speculation."
Franken campaign calls for an intensive search for those ballots. From Minnpost:
With 133 votes from a Minneapolis precinct in student-heavy Dinkytown stll missing, the Al Franken campaign today reiterated its call for an "immediate and intensive search" for an envelope containing the ballots.
MN GOP sent out a press release attacking Franken's request for an intensive search with this headline: Franken Campaign Calls For Government Invasion Of A Church!
Franken campaign explains their methods:
By our count, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 10 votes with roughly 56,000 ballots left to be hand counted. Many media outlets are calculating the margin by a different method, relying on raw data from the Secretary of State’s website to conclude that Coleman holds a lead of over 300 votes. However, that calculation assumes that every challenge will be upheld by the state canvassing board, whereas our calculation assumes that the original call by the impartial election judge will stand. So, if the judge calls it for Franken, we say it’s a Franken ballot. Likewise, if the judge calls it for Coleman, we treat it as a Coleman ballot - even if we have challenged it.
MN Canvassing Board will meet next friday (12/12) "to discuss possible options for dealing with mistakenly rejected absentee ballots being sorted by county and local election officials."

Previous Recount Coverage:
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/12/recount-update-123-franken-claims-lead.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/12/recount-update.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/interactive-recount-choose-ballot.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-ballots.html

Va. Man Spends 1 Million So That Others May Enjoy Inauguration

2008-12-04T15:08:00.006-06:00

The election of Barack Obama was a moment when traditionally marginalized people were able to elect someone to represent them in the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, those same people are the ones who are least likely to be able to make it Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20th.

In an attempt to ameliorate that problem, a Virginia man has spent 1 million dollars for more than 300 rooms and more than $200,000 worth of food and drink for what he is calling the People's Inaugural Project. Let's hope the "people" were able to get tickets to the inauguration (from their Congresspeople or Senators).

If you are planning on attending the Inauguration please do let us know.

From the AP:

WASHINGTON - A businessman who bought a $1 million inauguration ball package plans to invite disadvantaged people, wounded soldiers and others to the prime event on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Earl Stafford announced plans Thursday for what he's calling the People's Inaugural Project at the JW Marriott Hotel.

The package includes 300 rooms, four suites and $200,000 worth of food and drink at the hotel overlooking the inaugural parade route. Stafford also plans to stage two balls.

Nixon Tapes Commentary

2008-12-04T13:31:00.004-06:00

Another round of Nixon Tapes were released two days ago by the National Archives. Truth listened to them and wrote up the following. I think it serves as an example of the intense hatred Nixon had for the press (the Washington Post in particular) and an indication of Nixon's personality.

Check it out:

Nixon said: “Nobody from the Washington Post is ever to be in that house when I am there. Just work out the pools. The pools are invited. The Post is never never never never to be present.”

A few days later, Nixon saw someone from the Washington Post in the White House. He wasn’t happy.

Nixon called Ziegler.

“Today there were four people from the Washington Post looking at the Christmas tree, I had given an order which you may recall quite clearly that nobody in the Washington Post was ever to be in this house again. And I want it enforced. I want you to call Connie, call me back. Ask her why they were there. And tell her if there’s ever anybody that’s there her ass is out in five minutes.”

Ziegler responded: “She fully understands the Washington Post situation. There was no reporter today at the…ceremony. There was a photographer there but apparently they screwed up on their desk assignment. There was no reporter present from the Post.”

Nixon commanded: “I want it clearly understood that from now on. Ever. No reporter from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House unless its a press conference. Never in the White House. No church service. Nothing with Mrs. Nixon. You tell Connie don’t tell Mrs. Nixon cause she’ll approve it. No reporter from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House again. And no photographer either. Is that clear? None ever to be in. Now that is a total order and if necessary I’ll fire you. Do you understand?”

“I do understand,” Ziegler said.

Recount Update 12/3; Franken Claims Lead

2008-12-03T23:12:00.006-06:00

What we know as of this moment with 97.58% of the vote recounted (of course without challenges resolved):

Important numbers:

More than 6,000 ballots challenged,
Franken will withdraw/has withdrawn 633 challenged ballots (not counted in numbers above),
Franken claims a 22 vote lead (using their methodology of resolving challenges with the opinion of local election judges),
Star-Tribune has Coleman ahead 317 votes.
70,644 ballots left to count.

Important facts (news):

133 ballots missing from Minneapolis Ward-1 Precinct 3,
171 ballots were found that were not counted on November 4, in Maplewood, giving Franken net 37 votes,
Sec. of State Ritchie's office asked election officials to examine 12,000 rejected absentee ballots and determine whether their rejection fell under one of four reasons for rejection defined in state law. This is a possible path to have those ballots that did not fit those four reasons be counted as part of the recount (advantage Franken).
Ballots from Wright County (Republican) will be counted tomorrow.

Previous posts on recount here:

http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/12/recount-update.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/interactive-recount-choose-ballot.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-ballots.html

Prop-8 The Musical: Jack Black, John C. Reilly and Friends Take a Stand

2008-12-03T22:13:00.004-06:00

Some musical commentary about proposition 8 from Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and the woman who plays CJ on the West Wing:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Full Cast: Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Kathy Najimy, Jenifer Lewis, Craig Robinson, Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke, Katharine “Kooks” Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise “Esi!” Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, Tate Taylor, Jack Black and Neil Patrick Harris.

Oklahoma Republicans Rub It In

2008-12-03T20:36:00.005-06:00

If you look at the maps of the US showing the November 4th results, you'll find a pattern of counties that alternate red and blue with one significant exception, Oklahoma. My home state went entirely red. Every single county voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. The state went so Republican that the Republicans gained seats in both chambers of the legislature. The state Republicans could have been gracious (and accurate) and credited racism, or a booming oil economy, but instead they decided to claim the credit and rub it in. Watch their cute flash animation here:

Some Commentary from former Oklahoma Governor (D) David Walters*:

What's the Matter with Oklahoma?

I waited three days in the hopes that my fuming at Oklahoma's counter performance to the collective heave ho that the rest of the nation gave to the Republicans would subside.

It has not.

Amending the title of Thomas Franks' insightful book about how conservatives won the heart of Kansas … "What's the Matter with Oklahoma?" Did we really just do this?
We're the winner of the national championship for the highest McCain/Palin margin at 65.6 percent; the only state where Republicans gained ground in the state house, senate and statewide offices; and the only state in which McCain/Palin carried every county.

Not one of our 77 counties went democratic, not a single blue dot (see chart). Sen. Obama polled 10.8 percent in Beaver County. This was not out of 100 votes where percentages are easily distorted, but out of 2,462 votes cast.

Now you are thinking that we cannot expect much progressive thought out of a county best known for its cow-chip throwing contest (two tries if you lick your fingers after the first). But I have been to Beaver county and met good people and don't understand how 89.2% decided Sarah Palin should be vice president of the United States.

It's not just our friends in Beaver scouring the landscape for aerodynamic cow patties. Twenty-one counties fell below 25 percent for Obama and 39 counties, more than half of the 77, fell below 30 percent.

The top bastion of democratic performance? Cherokee county, where they used to spray for Republicans, held McCain/Palin to "only" 56.percent. The heart of our most democratic county only allowed Obama to get within 12.2 percent of a single county victory. Howard Dean called me as I was looking at these numbers. He wanted to say, "thank you" … for what I have no earthly idea.

I unloaded about our local results, but Howard didn't take the bait. His politically correct language has been finely honed from thousands of scathing attacks on each of his utterances. He opined that the economy is much better in Oklahoma than most states and that many other states have a sizable portion of their population that would normally be concerned about leaders who are "different" than they are. But in those states the economy and the need for change overwhelmed their normal reticence to select someone "unlike" them.

Man that guy can talk.

While I am fuming, foaming, uttering and mumbling obscenities, he sounds like he just graduated from The Obama School of Cool. So should we do anything?
Of course we should. Not just for competitive partisan reasons, but because it's not good for Oklahoma to run so counter.

One national media service recently said based on the polls, the future of the Republican Party lies with "old white people and hayseed states." I don't believe that, but much of the nation does and we don't need to be in that category.

Another pundit said that to understand the current Republican Party one has to "understand the unique culture and politics of Appalachia."

Are you kidding me? Hayseed states and Appalachia! Call your local chamber and ask them if they think this is somehow good for us.

From a national image it's a disaster. From a local basis can you imagine how this emboldens republicans in the state house, now firmly in control of the legislature. Do you think we are going to hear much about education, health care and jobs -- or are we simply going to get a double dose of Guns, God, and Gays?

Gun sales in Oklahoma skyrocketed immediately prior to the election and particularly afterwards. The vast majority of these Oklahoma voters really believe that Obama -- in addition to not being a Christian, being affiliated with terrorists and intent on doubling our taxes -- is also going to take their guns!
What was that comment during the campaign about clinging? So what do we do?

Before we start shouting and stepping all over each other like the national Republicans, we should first calmly talk about process. How do we determine what are the highest contributing factors to this unusual trend in Oklahoma. Let's assume that we can identify with polling and focus groups the top 20 contributing factors, and then perhaps we can identify that half of these we cannot do anything about … but a plan to address the other half may have merit. I have lots of ideas … but I really have to cool off first.

* This was sent in an email which refers to a blog post, several people confirmed that it was David Walters, but I could not confirm.

###
Cross-posted at Poli-Think

Georgia Gives GOP Senator #41 - But All Is Not Lost

2008-12-02T23:22:00.004-06:00

It's over: the Dems' hopes for a filibuster-proof majority have disappeared with Saxby Chambliss prevailing over Jim Martin. Disappointing, to be sure, but not unsurprising. That Martin was even competitive in this race is a testament to the strength of the Obama wave in the Deep South.

And let's keep this in context. A 58 (and possibly 59) seat majority is an incredibly powerful mandate. It's been 30 years since either party held this many seats in the Senate. Even at the peak of the conservative "revival" this decade, Republicans never held more than 55. Harry Reid and the Democratic leadership have the popular backing of the country to an extent unprecdented in recent political history.

The real question is, Will Senate Dems choose to govern like they hold the commanding majority they do? Republicans will try to manipulate the myriad rules and customs of the Senate to throw up a roadblock to progress, as has been done throughout history. But rules can be changed, and customs altered - as the Republicans threatened to do over judicial appointments earlier this decade, with a smaller majority.

It's important that the opposition receives a fair chance to present its case. But Harry, for all our sakes, don't let the GOP get in the way of the Change Train.

Bush Unsure about Iraq War (kinda)

2008-12-02T23:04:00.004-06:00

Our current president (remember him? The one in the way of Barack Obama fixing things?) had an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson in which he talked about a wide variety of things and spent most of the interview insisting that he was right and of course, inspiring confidence. Here he is inspiring confidence about the economy:

GIBSON: When you add it all up, you've got about $7.5 trillion in funded and unfunded backing of securities now.

BUSH: Yes.

GIBSON: And that's about half of what our economy is in its whole. Does that scare the willikers out of you?

BUSH: What scared me is not doing anything, which would have caused there to be a huge financial meltdown and the conceivable scenario that we'd have been in a depression greater than the Great Depression.

On the other hand, a lot of the -- you know, these -- some of these are investments. I've got faith that the economy will recover. As a matter of fact, I'm confident it will recover. I can't tell you exactly the moment, but when it does recover, a lot of the assets now owned by the government will be sold. And I can't guarantee that we'll get all our money back, but it's conceivable we could.

Emphasis mine. You can read the full interview here. The most remarkable point in the interview is when he almost admits that the Iraq war was based on bad intelligence and then says that he doesn't know if the war would have happened had he known that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Catch it below:

GIBSON: You've always said there's no do-overs as President. If you had one?

BUSH: I don't know -- the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.

GIBSON: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?

BUSH: Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld. In other words, if he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely.

GIBSON: No, if you had known he didn't.

BUSH: Oh, I see what you're saying. You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate.

Seriously, I don't get this man. I don't understand him. "That's an intersting question?" Wow.

Yeah, I'd like to have a beer with him, maybe, but how did he win an election? How did he technically win two elections? Will historians regard him as a passing blip in history? Will he be a president the teacher makes fun of on the way to studying our first black president? The equivalent of Herbert Hoover? Because this is what I learned about Herbert Hoover:

"From 1929-1933 there was a President named Herbert Hoover. People became poor, lost their houses and created shanty towns called hoovervilles. He battled the bonus army. Most importantly he ushered in FDR and the New Deal, which we'll now spend the next month discussing." -My US History Teacher

Just saying...49 days. Also for those who will be in the area, DC has extended last call at all area bars to 5 a.m. for the days around the inauguration. Again, just saying.

Help Democrats in the Senate; Phone for Jim Martin

2008-12-02T09:10:00.003-06:00

Update: Chambliss has defeated Jim Martin 57-43%. 10:55 PM

It is unclear what the results of the Minnesota Recount will be, and we won't know for a while. So in the meantime , consider helping Democrat Jim Martin of Georgia defeat veteran hating Saxby Chambliss.

Here's a message from ex-Obama staffer James Hannaway:

if you have some time to spare, you should make phonecalls for jim martin in his georgia runoff senate race.

barack needs a congress he can work with to get things done, and the way we get that is by electing martin. these are get-out-the-vote calls, so they're pretty easy ("hey- have you voted? no? well, you vote here...")

did i mention the election was TODAY?? let's get these calls done.

you can use one of two websites- my.barackobama.com/call4martin or http://ga.nationalfield.org do it!

-James

ex-Dems prez
ex-Obama guy

Again, the websites are:
http://my.barackobama.com/call4martin
http://ga.nationalfield.org

They were virtually tied last time, it's just a question of getting out the vote.

An Ad from the Race:
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/lil-bit-from-georgia.html

Minnesota Majority; Dr. Laura; and Obama the Anti-Christ

2008-12-01T15:42:00.006-06:00

After the election, I shared my facebook feed to provide a look at the views of the individuals who weren't so happy about Barack Obama's win. Many of the people from that feed were my friends, said some strong things, but are honest people who had honest (if misconceived) problems with Barack Obama his potential presidency. Today I'm presenting three things from "the other side" which I don't think meets the standard of an honest or responsible critique.

First, I present to you a group called "MN Majority," which you can find among the links for Christian Voters in Minnesota at the the Christian Voter Guide. This group claims to track key votes and to critique those who voted in ways that differed from their supported points. What were these votes?

Among the things that they took a stance on (partial list above) they supported:

banning funding for International Baccalaureate Program (essentially banning the IB program),
eliminating comprehensive sex-ed education (they prefer the guess and check method?),
eliminating in-state tuition for the children of undocumented workers (make those Minnesotans with the most need, pay the most?).

While not supporting:

a cap and trade environmental bill,
the renewable energy standard,
increasing the minimum wage.

I'm confused...what exactly is christian about any of that? Also, given that most of the bills they did not support passed, does that really mean that they represent the Minnesota Majority?

NEXT...

Dr. Laura Schlessinger provides her opinion on feminists "place":

I’m all for feminists…in their place, of course (which clearly isn’t in the kitchen; but I digress).

Instead of marching in public to make sure that babies born even up to, but not including, their heads can be killed (also known as late term abortion), and that minors can abort their babies without mommy and daddy knowing, and demanding that the world provide day-care so that all mothers can dump their kids into the arms of hired help, and also that unmarried women can adopt babies in spite of the need of children for a daddy…how ‘bout having these well- meaning activists go to Afghanistan and protect girls whose only wish is to go to school and be educated so they can participate in their society?
[...]
Activism is an important quality of people motivated with a mission to preserve and protect innocents. Feminists go after fetuses…let them instead go after the Taliban. I think it would make a huge statement and impact to have American women locked and loaded and protecting these young women who strive for the basic right to an education.

If America’s feminists would commit to such missions, I would respect and support them wholeheartedly.

Update for Dr. Schlessinger: American feminists are working on these and many other issues of women's rights around the world, and have done so for a long time now.

Some examples:
MADRE
International Women's Rights Action Watch
Amnesty International
Alliance for International Women's Rights

And yes, there are American feminists working in all three organizations. By the way, I am no expert on this issue (as Jill can tell you), and so, I am willing to bet that there are a plethora of organizations that I have not included. Additionally, Laura Schlessinger doesn't understand that just like women in the Middle East fight for their own rights, many American feminists are busy fighting for the rights of American women in many situations where their rights, here in America, where their rights are not respected. So, not only is Dr. Laura wrong, she continues to misunderstand the situation of women in the USA.

Fake Dr. Laura vs. Fake American President

Lastly,

Screenshot from AM Talk Show Host Bill Handel.

via (daily dish)

Handel says he's joking. Maybe he is...he has a history of bad jokes.

New update on the other side next month.

AIDS crisis overblown? Only if you ignore the poor and Africa.

2008-12-01T15:41:00.000-06:00

Get a load of this article out ofthe Associated Press:

LONDON (AP) — As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.

They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.

"AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.

Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the disease, has outlived its purpose and should be disbanded.
[...]

U.N. officials roughly estimate that about 33 million people worldwide have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists say infections peaked in the late 1990s and are unlikely to spark big epidemics beyond Africa.

In developed countries, AIDS drugs have turned the once-fatal disease into a manageable illness.

AIDS advocates say their projects do more than curb the virus; their efforts strengthen other health programs by providing basic health services.

But across Africa, about 1.5 million doctors and nurses are still needed, and hospitals regularly run out of basic medicines.

It is true that HIV/AIDS has become a cause célèbre, mostly because of the way it unexpectedly ravaged populations in the developed countries, especially after it started to affect prominent people in Western Europe, and the US.

HIV/AIDS remains a very serious problem and a problem that continues to grow (1.9 million new infections this year) in Africa. The graph below (from the United Nations Development Indicators) shows the massive effect of AIDS in Africa.

The article points out that there are various other diseases, not to mention crime and war, that ravage the African population. However, a disease like HIV/AIDS has a terrible cost to the health care system that needs to address many of the problems listed above. Direct medical costs of AIDS (NOT including anti-retroviral drugs) is approximately $30 dollars a person/year "at a time when overall public health spending is less than US$10 per year for most African countries."

AIDS has become something people CAN live with (if you don't mind taking a daily cocktail of drugs with various side-effects), if you can afford it. However, most Africans are unable to pay the $300-$1200 required for the Antiretroviral therapy. So, now that the developed countries have successfully shunted the disease off to Africa, the experts in the AP article are looking to funnel HIV/AIDS funds to other diseases. This is not the correct approach, rather these experts ought to look for more funds to fight off other diseases, not try and leach off funds that remain much needed.

These funds are not just needed abroad. This discussion also tends to ignore marginalized populations within American borders. African-Americans in the US have a high infection rate and in particular populations have six times the infection rate than other races. Robert Gallo, a leading voice in AIDS research, prevention, and therapy, wrote a letter to the editor advocating a renewed focus on fighting HIV/AIDS in America's inner cities. Gallo writes:

Sadly, in 2008, some places in the United States, chiefly poor urban areas, are home to the same rising HIV/AIDS statistics as those of some Third World countries. Our institute is in the epicenter of the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic in Baltimore; it provides medication and therapy to more than 5,000 HIV-positive city residents.

The most recent statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Maryland leads the 50 states per capita in the rise of HIV/AIDS. Baltimore is one of many cities in need of a Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-style program to reduce infection rates and increase longevity. Though this pandemic is most prevalent in cities along the Interstate 95 corridor, including Miami, the Baltimore metropolitan area and the Washington metro area, infection rates show that it has spread throughout the nation.
[...]

At the same time that many in this country and around the world are working diligently to develop an AIDS vaccine, we must actively address the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic in the United States. When an AIDS vaccine does become available, a program to reduce HIV infection in our inner cities would ensure that our nation is educated and positioned to readily distribute the medicine, helping to put an end to this terrible disease. In the meantime, the program would help stabilize our growing HIV pandemic and stop the spread of HIV.

Unless we develop a program to fight HIV infection in America's inner cities, our urban centers will continue to face an even more daunting pandemic. To improve the health of millions of Americans and to reduce our HIV infection rates, the next administration should craft and implement a PEPFAR plan targeting our inner cities.

If we spend ~~billions~~ trillions on failed banks, automakers, and mortgages the government has an obligation to make a more serious commitment towards this global pandemic that effects marginalized populations both at home and abroad. And yes, they should also commit to fighting pneumonia, malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrhea, but not at the expense of AIDS funding.

New Report from NBER; Spoiler Alert: We're in a Recession

2008-12-01T15:35:00.000-06:00

We're in a recession, and have been for the past year. Surprised? Yeah, me too.

Update: From a conversation with Bethany:

She said, "This announcement reminds me of the following conversation":

Guy: "hey, you dumped me...last December"
Girl: "yeah, you didn't notice? everyone else did"

Recount Update

2008-12-01T15:30:00.001-06:00

Minnesota remains embroiled in our recount in the race for Senate (remember? Franken v. Coleman?)

What we know at this moment:

The results (as posted on the Minnesota Secretary of State's Site) with 91% of ballots counted are as follows:

Important numbers:

Almost 6,000 Ballots Challenged
191 more ballots challenged by Coleman than Franken

Important facts:

Nate Silver creates model for recount (initially calculates Franken would win by 27 votes; now calculates Coleman win)
Minnesota Board of Canvassers rules that it will not consider improperly disqualified ballots
Franken attorney alludes to possibly taking disqualified ballots problems to the Senate (which has final authority over this matter)
Franken and Coleman agree to reduce "frivolous" ballots

Get commentary here (blue) or here (red)
Previous posts:
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/interactive-recount-choose-ballot.html
http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-ballots.html

Bail Out > Louisiana Purchase and most other big projects...ever!

2008-11-28T17:39:00.002-06:00

Click to enlarge

A Moment for India; Updates

2008-11-28T12:41:00.002-06:00

Update 3:20PM CST:
Several Americans dead in India. Fighting continues.

Update 2:00AM CST:
Adding on to what Michelle said, if you want to stay informed on what is happening in India check out the New York Times site. They have a reporter at the Nariman House (follow link for full story), giving a minute by minute (well ten minute by ten minute) account of what is happening in that standoff. You can follow his updates at the New York Times blog The LEDE. As if the human connection weren't enough, Carleton has many students from India, and several from Mumbai itself. As you follow these stories, keep them in your thoughts.

Hey guys,

I know we have been really bad about updating lately. For all you Carls out there you know that we have been been taking lots of finals and writing final papers. But we are finally done and we will be back in fighting form and up to the minute posts shortly.

But right now, I want to take a moment to reflect on the situation in India. When the planes hit the World Trade Center we saw many nations and their citizens reach out to us. I wasn't quite sure how those people felt. Something terrible happened far away from home. It was scary, but not ever-present. Now, I think I get it. At least some of that feeling. A terrorist group attacked Mumbai killing more people than we know at the moment. They targeted a tourist area looking for us, Americans, and British. But they killed many belonging to different ethnicities and nations. The terrorists took over a historic hotel going person to person looking for American and British passport holders. Once they were found they were taken hostage or shot. This crisis continues. Below is a picture of the hotel, on fire, from the suicide bombers.

More Ballots

2008-11-28T08:08:00.003-06:00

The Star-Trib has almost 600 ballots on which you can render judgment.

Spoiler alert: Most are not clear cut and require either a very subjective measure or the tossing of nearly all the votes. Give it a shot though.

Happy Thanksgiving; turgooduccochiqua

2008-11-28T02:27:00.006-06:00

Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. We're done with finals and so should move back into a regular ~~cooking~~ blogging schedule soon. Until then here's a picture of a turgooduccochiqua- It’s a quail inside a cornish game hen inside a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey inside a goose. Oh, and with bacon between the layers.

via neatorama

And the cross-sections:

Obama's Weekly Address:He has news he wants to share!

2008-11-23T01:28:00.003-06:00

Not sure how long, we'll post all of these, but they're still new and kinda cool so...here ya go!

President-elect Barack Obama announces he has directed his economic team to assemble an Economic Recovery Plan that will save or create 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011. For more information, visit http://change.gov.

Live Feed Puppies in the White House: The Puppy Sensation

2008-11-21T19:35:00.007-06:00

"Live Feed Puppies" are sweeping the nation.

As I walk through the library during finals week I consistently see students writing a paper on one half of the computer screen and watching these puppies on the right. The New York Times just published an article about these delectable puppies being viewed constantly by 10's of 1,000's across the world. To read the NYT article click here.

Obama should have a live feed puppy cam when he moves into the White House!

He will be adored not only by millions of college students but also the very young....wait! The college students already adore him and the very young can't vote. Maybe there is no White House live feed puppy cam in our future.

Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce?

2008-11-21T19:32:00.003-06:00

There is serious buzz going around that Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and former White House contender, will soon be named as Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary. Stay tuned.