Both Jon-David and I are out of town for New Years and our access to computers will be limited. Regular posting will resume next week but until then, have a happy New Years!
Archive for December, 2006
In case you haven’t heard yet:
Former Senator John Edwards chose a devastated neighborhood in this flood-stricken city today to formally begin his quest for the presidency, declaring that his campaign would emphasize the “two Americas” theme he embraced two years ago.
“New Orleans in so many ways shows the two Americas that I’ve talked about,” Mr. Edwards said, standing between two ruined houses. “It’s great to try to see a problem, but it’s more important to actually take action and do something about it, and that’s why I’m in New Orleans.” [NYTimes]
Well, looks like Tom Vilsack isn’t alone in the field anymore (Kucinich doesn’t really count) as Edwards jumped in the race today. And while we all saw it coming, it still feels a little exciting. Edwards straddles an interesting point between the true heavyweights like Hillary, Obama and Gore(?) and the wild cards like Vilsack; it’s a position that could give him a fair amount of leverage in the race.
I can confidently say that Edwards will not be the Presidential candidate (barring some major upsets) but he has a good chance of grabbing the VP spot again. Additionally, Edwards whole “two Americas” schtick is a subject that I would love to have pushed into the mainstream political conversation and there’s not much of a better way to accomplish that then putting it at the forefront of a Presidential campaign.
It’s very unlikely that we’re going to wake up on November 5th of 2008 to President Edwards, but don’t underestimate the impact that he can have this cycle, especially when it’s shaping up to be a clash of the titans. Your thoughts?
I haven’t had much time to post today but I’ll be on Air America’s “Minnesota Matters” with Bob Hill and Mark Heaney this afternoon around 5:15 (about 10 minutes). Tune in.
Don Rose has a very interesting article in the Chicago Tribune that argues that the Democratic gains in the 2006 mid-terms will be long lasting ones. I definitely suggest reading the whole article, but here are some excerpts:
Democrats took control of Congress, making history by taking 30 House and six Senate seats without losing a single incumbent or open race. This was especially impressive against a House so gerrymandered that 95 percent of incumbents tend to keep their seats.
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another dozen House seats that stayed Republican were decided by extremely narrow margins –many under 1,000 votes. In 2008 those seats will again be vulnerable, especially in the larger turnout expected in a presidential year,
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Democrats won 70 percent of the Latino vote and are likely to retain that and gain more in years ahead. This is a factor not only in the Southwest, but also in the Midwest.
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Adding to Republican problems,they will have to defend 22 of the 33 Senate seats up in 2008 , including four or five vulnerable senators such as Minnesota’s Norm Coleman
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a further shift in the electoral-college map.The Southwest and Rocky Mountain states are going purple if not blue
Seriously, read the whole thing. Rose makes some very interesting points and I think he’s dead-on that the Democrats will have a huge opportunity to solidify their gains in 2008 but ultimately the biggest factor will be what happens in the next two years. The Democrats control both the houses of Congress now, so the American people will be watching their actions very closely. I’m feeling optimistic though. With minimum wage and ethics reform bills already in the works, we’re off to a good start.
What do you guys think? Can we hold these gains? Or, better yet, can we further them? Comment below or use the forum topic I’ve created (or copy into both).
Fresh from StarTribune.com:
A private equity firm has reached an agreement to buy the Star Tribune from the McClatchy Co., publisher Keith Moyer announced today.
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Avista’s other media holdings include stakes in filmmaker Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in Visant, a specialty publishing and marketing company known to Minnesotans by its former name, Jostens. The company has offices in New York and Houston.
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Earlier this year, McClatchy completed the acquisition of the former Knight-Ridder chain, becoming the nation’s second-largest newspaper company. Immediately after announcing the $4.5 billion buyout, McClatchy began selling a dozen Knight-Ridder papers, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, in what the company said were slow-growth markets.
It’s not clear what this means for the paper but the most revealing piece of information in the article was that McClatchy & Co. sold the Strib to Avista for $530 million, $900 million less than the $1.4 billion they paid for it in 1998–ouch. Print media is falling on tough times.
I’ll be on Air America’s “Minnesota Matters” with Bob Hill and Mark Heaney this afternoon around 5:15 (about 10 minutes). Tune in.
Senator-elect Amy Klobuchar is already hard at work in Washington pushing a plan to make
Her Minnesota colleague,
Sen. Norm Coleman, R, opposes a ban . He justifies taking the free rides because, he says, “the work of a senator is not just done by sitting behind a desk in Washington, it is done by listening to the people affected every day by the decisions we make.” He added, “I believe it is incumbent upon myself and other senators to meet with people at home and abroad to hear directly from those folks closest to the issues we confront.”Fair enough. But why should those meetings take place in Hawaii in February or on the golf links in Scotland in July? If well-heeled special interests – drug companies, environmental activists, multinational oil giants, pro-choice lobbyists, farm organizations – need to get a senator’s ear, they can visit his or her office in Washington. Or, as Sen. Coleman says, a senator needs to meet with “people at home and abroad,”
surely such face-to-face sessions need not take place in Aspen, Paris, Cancun or Honolulu . [In-Forum]
Once again Senator Coleman attempts to side-step the issue and confuse voters.
Remember how Mike Hatch got a little peeved towards the end of the campaign about a shadow group that filed after the last disclosure period of the election? Well, turns out that his frustration was more than justified because now that the group’s financial disclosures have been made public, it turns out that
Perry’s political profile has been growing since 2004. That’s when he helped bankroll “The SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth” ads that criticized then Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s military record.
Perry has been a key financial backer of President Bush, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and other Texas politicians . White House political director Karl Rove says he’s known Perry since 1978.
This is a bit over-the-top. And while I don’t challenge Perry’s legal right to give this money,
We all have to showcase our stupidity from time to time but I love to do it whenever I get the chance. If you didn’t catch it, there’s an obvious typo in our banner. I made it lickity-split and seeing how there’s 2 hours left in Christmas… oh well.
So, from MN Publius to all of you: Merry Chrsitmas
As you may or may not have noticed, we’ve been decorating our site with some advertisements for the spanking new MN Publius Forums. Problem is, they’ve been stuck in beta. Well, after some tinkering and some consulting with the “PHP for Dummies” book, we’re feeling confident that they’re ready to roll off the assembly line. So we present you with our Christmas present: MN Publius Forums.
Ideally this will grow into a place where people from all walks of life can come and discuss the topics of the day on there own terms. Maybe it will just devolve into endless arguing, but that might be just as fun too. Point is, it’s up to you guys what becomes of them. The tools are there to start a discussion or pick a fight, you just have to jump over and use them. So I guess we’ll just sit back and see where this little experiment goes.
And being that the holiday season is upon us posting will likely is a little light. We’ll continue posting but it is certainly a fantastic time to check out the user-generated content on the forums! (see how I did that).
Representative Goode should check himself, fore’ he wrecks himself. Tragically, this assface used to be a Democrat. Like Senator Coleman, we’re happy to be rid of him.
In 2005, Goode again faced controversy when a major corporate campaign donor, defense contractor MZM, Inc., was implicated in a bribery scandal that resulted in the criminal conviction and resignation of California congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Although Goode insisted that his relations with MZM were motivated solely by his interest in bringing high-paying skilled jobs to his district, in December of that year he donated the $88,000 received in MZM contributions to regional charities.
On July 21, 2006 Richard Berglund a former supervisor of the Martinsville, Va. office of MZM Inc., pleaded guilty to making illegal donations to Goode’s campaign. Court papers indicated that he and MZM owner Mitchell Wade (who previously pleaded guilty) engaged in a scheme to reimburse MZM employees for campaign donations .
Bigoted:
“The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”
“We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country,”
“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America”
Want to vent about this pathetic hatemonger? Go here if you’re so inclined…
[AP via CNN]:
South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson has been exceeding expectations in his recovery from emergency brain surgery last week
The final point in the wire piece was that there exists ‘ample precedent for senators to continue to hold office while incapacitated’. Sen. Johnson’s successor would be appointed by Governor Mike Rounds. a Republican, so it’s safe to say that Sen. Johnson stepping down would swing control of the Senate back to Republicans [50-50 + Cheney].
I would think that Senator Johnson should stay in office as long as there is ample hope he will return.
Katherine Kersten has published three pieces on the flying imams in two weeks, the third discussing “
Kersten seems convinced the imams are terrorists, were definitely planning something on Flight 300, and in a shocking twist - are in cahoots with…wait for it…Democrats:
“The End of Racial Profiling Act has languished until now. What did it need to reinvigorate it? New congressional leadership, and that’s coming in January. But it needed something else in this media age: a high-profile incident to jump-start it.”What better than the media circus at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Nov. 20?
Does Katherine Kersten really believe that supporting the rights of individuals not to be searched, detained, or pulled-over based on their race or faith means you’re in cahoots with terrorists?
People are Shouting