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

It is my right, under the First Amendment, to walk into a biker bar and tell them that leather chaps look like gay S and M wear. Just because it’s my right doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Billy Joe Tubb, writing in South Carolina Traditional Values blog, takes on the real reasons for not building the [...]

Let's just say I prefer one over the other.

I’d always suspected this was true.   Now, we have documentary evidence. (Not remotely safe for work, or kids, or those with delicate senses of language or decorum).

One of the many pleasures of last Saturday’s MOB party was the formal debut of the MOB’s first baby, “Baby Moose”, who is the child of Hammerschwing Ben and Mall Diva, who – this is the funny part – met at a MOB event. As befits the child, nephew and grandchild of bloggers (the grands are [...]

I ran across this youtube video on NDNation today. It's pretty powerful. If only the Republican creampuffs would sack up and produce an this as an ad, or better yet some leaders that could articulate this message, there might be some hope for us.Nihilist in Golf Pantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14363439123292045651noreply@blogger.com

The obvious solution to today's headlines:

Brett Favre couldn't come back until now because he was on the Rod Blagojevich jury, which also seems to have a very difficult time making up its mind on things.

As my previous post indicated, I now have some free time on my hands, and it occurred to me that this may be a good opportunity to dust off an idea I've had for some time. Basically, I think it would be funny to post some of the more annoying toys that have found their way into our previously quiet household. This first item, I've dubbed "Hell Tractor," because I have no idea how we procured this ridiculous thing, so I can only assume it arrived here via a portal from hell. It arrived sans batteries, which should have tipped me off that even Satan couldn't stand this thing in its fully-functional form. Originally, our son loved the tractor when it was just inanimate and innocent. But then I went and decided to see what the thing would do if I loaded in some batteries. Imagine my surprise when I first wiggled the farmer, which is totally not a euphemism for masturbation, but probably should be: Great howling crash wagons! The first time I fired that thing up, my son started screaming his disapproval, and really, who could blame him. It probably didn't help that the damned thing started cruising right at him. How could you see this coming at you and not start screaming? It also scares the hell out of the cats. When they hear Hell Tractor's engine sputtering to life, they run and hide either under the...

Minnesota's own (at least during the warm months of summer) Gary Larson looks at the real reasons why Target is being boycotted by groups like MoveOn.org and why companies like Target got involved in Minnesota politics in the first place in a piece at The Intellectual Conservative: That Target favors a candidate who wants lower taxes, particularly the state's excessive corporate income tax, is a Chadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

Mark Dayton apparently doesn't like it when people with cameras are trailing him:

DFL gubernatorial hopeful Mark Dayton said Monday that GOP operatives harassed him at an outdoors expo over the weekend and prevented him from talking to Minnesota voters.

By following him at close range with inexpensive Flip cameras, Dayton said the video trackers "made it impossible for me to conduct normal campaign activities."

Republicans say that the staffers they hired to track and record Dayton were polite and that Dayton overreacted to a time-worn tactic that political parties use to keep tabs on rivals.Two quick observations:

• Ever since the "macaca" incident that sunk the political career of George Allen, it's pretty much been a given that political operatives would follow candidates looking for similar slipups. Dayton knows that, of course. And given the amount of grainy footage of Emmer we see on political ads, it's pretty clear that his campaign knows how to use a flip camera.
• If Dayton is camera shy, running for governor seems like a strange thing to do, doncha think? He might consider a career with a less, ahem, public profile. Private citizen, for example. Just sayin'.
  

In  a debate at “Game Fair” over the weekend - a firearm-friendly venue if there ever was one – Tom Emmer pressed Mark Dayton on his record on gun issues. And perhaps it’s a good thing that we’ve come to the point that Mark Dayton, as extreme a liberal as exists in Minnesota, someone so far to the [...]

Lori Sturdevant is doing her most important job; trying to spin the DFL’s sows’ ears into silk purposes to buffalo the thin film of metro liberals and outstate oldsters who still believe the media into thinking they’re looking at a silk purse. Here’s the sow’s ear:  the DFL’s endorsed candidate is a superannuated playboy hobby politician [...]

Last week, staring into my work monitor, with the hissing sound of the "white noise" machine permeating the office, I just kind of hit a brick wall, figuratively speaking. For 26 months, I'd labored at what was supposed to be a dream job: good pay, great benefits, all that good stuff. Yet it was the worst work experience I've ever had in my 12 years out of college, spanning six different jobs. It was a writing job in name only. It was more accurate to characterize it as a mind-numbing, bureaucratic, spin-the-wheels to nowhere abyss. I would be assigned projects that would be tweaked, retweaked and, eventually, just kind of disappear altogether as infighting broke out between parties that weren't even supposed to have input when it was first assigned. I had projects that would get tied up in review so bad, some wouldn't be completed for nearly a year. Worse, processes and procedures would be updated during that time, so even if the projects were finally approved, they would no longer adhere to the most recent templates and style guidelines, so I'd have to go in and change it all. So, it was rather galling to have a performance review that said I tended to miss deadlines. Really? You don't say? It was made all the more surreal when you consider that I had numerous freelance writing requests coming in during those two years, as many as one or...

An easy solution to twin problems that bedevil us:

We allow gay marriages, but only if the ceremony is performed in the proposed Cordoba Center mosque.

From 2004, Lex Green at the Chicago Boys blog – the best political/economics blog that I never have time to read – worked over the “United States of Canada” meme – the sore losers who sprang up after John Kerry got sent back to Ville de Palooque: The basic idea is that the Blue Staters are [...]

I have a quick question for the Twin Cities’ leftyblog buildup. Since gay marriage has emerged, at least for the DFL, as the most important issue in the gubernatorial election – at least as re the perceived record of the GOP’s candidate – I think it’s only fair to ask “why has the DFL been such [...]

Uncomfortable conversations edition:

• One of the most important issues around is the state of our pension system. There are a lot of pensions out there, especially ones that are the province of organized labor, that are seriously underfunded. Someone is going to take it in the shorts -- will it be the beneficiaries, or will it be the taxpayers? The excellent blog Yid With Lid has a comprehensive and deeply disturbing roundup, which includes at least two Minnesota-based pension funds.
• Via the magic of video, Ronald Reagan has a discussion with the current leadership of our country. How I wish I could trust the Republican Party to actually live up to the principles that Reagan espouses here.
• I haven't written about the Ground Zero Mosque controversy because there's a lot of kabuki theater in the discussion, but I'm amused at how certain politicians have responded, especially since President Obama weighed in over the weekend.

All through American history, there have been those who asked “what’s it all about?” The answer, whether stated or (usually) implicit, is “to beat your opponent”. In 1776, we had a tyrannical king and his troops to send packing. In 1864, it was the slave-owning secessionistic southern Brahmins. In 1945, it was the Nazis and the bombers of Pearl [...]

The 9th Circuit stops the process in California:

A federal appeals court has extended a stay on same-sex marriages in California until it decides whether a ban on such unions is constitutional.

It is just the latest turn in a protracted legal battle over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban. The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, came less than a week after a federal district court
judge, Vaughn R. Walker, lifted a stay that he imposed himself after ruling Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Even when lifting his stay on Thursday, Judge Walker allowed six days for the Ninth Circuit to review his ruling. That left many gay and lesbian couples and their supporters hopeful that same-sex marriages would resume on Wednesday at 5 P.M. when Judge Walker’s stay would have expired.

That will not happen. Now, such weddings will not resume until, at least, the appeal court hears the case.

Here's the interesting part. The current governor and attorney general in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, respectively, were not going to defend the statute. By the time the debate happens, it's possible that there will be new players in those positions, as William Jacobson points out:

Obviously it is interesting that the Court has ordered briefing on the standing issue, although the parties certainly would have done so anyway.

Equally interesting is the political impact, because there will be a new Governor and Attorney General elected in California, and possibly seated (not sure of California law on this, but Schwarzennegger was sworn into office on November 17, 2003).

The standing issue may go away if the new Governor or Attorney General chooses to defend the constitutionality (but not necessarily the wisdom - heh) of Prop. 8. And the position on the lawsuit clearly now is an issue in those elections.

I kinda think Professor Jacobson has a penchant for understatement with that last bit. Just so we're clear, the reason standing is an issue is that the appellant in the case right now is a private organization that favors Prop 8, not the State of California, because Schwarzenegger and Brown chose not to defend their own state constitution in this instance.

Jerry Brown wants to be governor again. He'll now have to talk about his opposition to Prop 8 in his campaign, and he'll have to talk about it rather a lot. It will be interesting to see how that works out for him.

While being interviewed by WCCO's Esme Murphy, DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton explained why it's so difficult to determine the details of the impact that his plans to increase taxes would have on Minnesotans (starts at about 6:20--via Shot in the Dark): MURPHY: Going back to this issue of taxing people making $200,000. What percentage would a couple making $175,000. What percentage wouldChadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03781053410876242483noreply@blogger.com

So Saturday night was the sixth annual Minnesota Organization of Bloggers summer party. It was a gorgeous night, except for a little rainstorm that swept through about two hours into the party. And even that was pretty nice.  But we’ll come back to that. The party focused out at Keegans’ “Druid’s Glen”, their wonderful new cigar patio. It’s hard [...]