ScaifeNet because we can't let Soros have all the fun...

Tomorrow, Notre Dame opens their 2010 football season at home against Purdue. Things have changed since last year. Jimmy Clausen, possibly the most talented quarterback in Notre Dame history, left early for the NFL, as did his primary receiving target Golden Tate. Head Coach Brian Kelly replaces another man who works in the NFL now, Charlie Weis. Weis was considered an offensive genius after Nihilist in Golf Pantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14363439123292045651noreply@blogger.com

The Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute “Poligraph”feature did provide some thorough fact checking on Dayton’s income tax proposals and found they came up short on revenue. The report called Dayton’s plan to raise $4 billion from raising taxes “wishful thinking”; the plan doesn’t account for the fact that people with money will likely change their behavior to [...]

Mark Dayton demanded that GOP trackers start wearing uniforms. That’s not the kind of challenge you put in front of Derek “Chief” Brigham from Freedom Dogs. He’s got 12 potential designs.  My favorite: Check ‘em all out here.  Details of the challenge here. It’s actually a contest put on by the MNGOP.  Contenders will be unveiled Labor Day morning at [...]

I know, it's really mean to do this, but I thought we ought to share this little bit of information:

Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who describe themselves as supporters of the project, according to a New York Times poll.Oh, snap. There's more:

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks ignited a wave of anxiety about Muslims, many in the country’s biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city still have an uneasy relationship with Islam. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims. Thirty-three percent said that compared with other American citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists. And nearly 60 percent said people they know had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.And there's this:

“Freedom of religion is one of the guarantees we give in this country, so they are free to worship where they chose,” Mr. Merton said. “I just think it’s very bad manners on their part to be so insensitive as to put a mosque in that area.”To be fair, there's also this:

While a majority said politicians in New York should take a stand on the issue, most disapprove of those outside the city weighing in: Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, among others, have tried to rally opposition to the center.So what does all this tell us? Just a guess -- the New Yorkers who oppose construction of the mosque in its proposed location aren't really being "Islamaphobic," which would imply that they are reacting in an irrational manner. They are thinking through all the implications involved.

Dayton has changed the rhetoric on his tax plan and now claims the $130,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples was adjusted income, not gross income. I’m being charitable when I say “change”, by the way – on this blog, I busted Dayton a few weeks back, contradicting his own website, in a piece aptly entitled [...]

…you can count on in Minnesota politics, it’s that the Twin Cities media will keep an eagle eye on… …Republican candidates’ kids. Did Mark Dayton fall off the wagon in the past two years?  How severe are his alcoholism and depression?  How far down will Dayton have to push his definition of “the Rich” to close the [...]

“Recovery Summer” is now turning into “Failure Fall“. By all means, Dems; raise taxes.  Turn the screws on all us working people just a little harder.

Florida will see the biggest slime-attack of its entire history… …against Jennifer Carroll. Carroll, a native of Trinidad, a retired Navy Lieutenant-Commander, a mother of three, an immigrant from Trinidad, and a conservative, is Rick Scott’s new running mate on the Florida GOP gubenatorial ticket. Oh, yeah; she’s of African descent: “Jennifer Carroll is the embodiment of the American [...]

…that Michele Bachmann draws a crowd or anything, but this was the scene yesterday…: …at the Patriot booth when the Representative did an interview with Michael Medved. Yep – it’s cameraguys from all three of the local TV stations, pressed up against the glass. By the way – in case you missed it, I’ve upped my prediction of Bachmann’s [...]

Because the headline you’ve all been waiting all your careers to write has been written. It’s all over.

It's yet another round of that ever-popular game, use the politician's kid as a weapon against the politician:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer said Thursday his 20-year-old son made a serious mistake when he was cited for under-age drinking in July, and that the family is dealing with it seriously.

Tom Emmer Jr., who goes by the nickname Tripp, pled guilty to the misdemeanor citation and was fined $100, plus $85 in court fees. The case came to light Thursday in a City Pages article, which included Facebook photo's of Tripp Emmer holding beer cans and bottles at parties last year.

Ooh, can't have that! Two observations:

• I'll only start to worry about this if Tripp Emmer starts hanging around with the Hatch girls; and
• Will the first person on the City Pages staff who refrained from drinking before the age of 21 please pick up the white courtesy phone?

If you are an above average nurse and police officer, or a couple of modestly-successful project managers, or an airline mechanic and a school teacher, or a business analyst and a modestly-successful sanitation equipment salesman, or whatever combination of hard-working Minnesotans you can imagine that are making a combined $150,000 a year, your taxes are [...]

Another edition of Beer of the Week brought to you by the muchachos at Glen Lake Wine & Spirits who can help you take a journey down Mexico way without leaving home. This week's beer is an offering from the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery: Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma Brewery (spanish: Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma) is a major brewery based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, founded in 1890. Currently it Chadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

Almost eighty years ago, the Great Plains – where I was born, a generation later – were pummeled by back-to-back catastrophes.  The first one, the Great Depression, was manmade – a deflating credit bubble whose effects were exacerbated by government intervention in trade (the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which indirectly crippled farm exports) and the market (the [...]

Let’s make no mistake about this; I’m predicting Tom Emmer is going to win this fall’s gubernatorial race.  It’s going to be tight – 3-4 points, very likely less – but he’s going to win.   On the chance – heaven forefend – that he doesn’t?  In the wake of Jesse Ventura and Al Franken, [...]

I do believe Mark Dayton taught high school. I believe it because it’d be grindingly stupid for a public figure to lie about something that is as relatively easy to run down (even given New York City’s sclerotic bureaucracy) as whether he actually taught. And even if Mark Dayton were unaware of how nothing remotely public is [...]

We usually like to keep our beer and our politics separate. Especially since mixing in politics tends to taint the flavor of even the best brews. But sometimes the collision of worlds is unavoidable as in the case of this e-mail from an anonymous reader: Alliance for a Better Minnesota has an office in the building where I work. As I was leaving tonight, two people went into the Alliance offices,Chadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

¡Arizona es i occupado! The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state. But by all means, Left [...]

And lots of it tonight. Many of the local high schools begin their seasons tonight, as do the Gophers, while the Vikings wrap up their preseason against somebody over at the Artist Formerly Known as the Metrodome.

Perhaps the most interesting development is the way the Big Ten decided to split their football programs into two divisions. One division is as follows:

Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern

The other is:

Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Ohio State
Penn State
Wisconsin

When it comes to college football, I'm a Badger fan, so I'm a little disappointed that the Badgers didn't end up in the same division as Minnesota and Iowa. The alignment is designed for competitive balance and living in the same place with Ohio State and Penn State will be a challenge, but I think one that the Badgers can handle. Apparently the Badgers will continue to play the Gophers every year, even though they are in different divisions. They will rotate among the other schools, which means that some years they won't play Iowa. That's too bad, as the Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry is a good one and has been pretty entertaining since the Badgers returned to prominence in the 1990s. The other downside is that it's hard to get too excited about annual games against Indiana and Purdue. Maybe the Badger-Illini series will get more heated, too. There's always been ample reason to hate Illinois, the cheatin' weasels of the Big Ten.

I was also hoping that the Badgers would get to play Nebraska more often, but it turns out that might not happen. All of this could change if the Big Ten expands further, which is likely. The latest rumors are that the conference is looking east and thinking about Rutgers and Maryland. Both would make a lot of sense.

Meanwhile, look for more appearances from our resident prognosticator, Benster, in the coming weeks. He's a year older and has even more opinions than before. I know, I didn't think that was possible, either.