Gen. Odom Details How Iraq Is Like Vietnam
Wed Mar 08, 2006 at 04:38:48 PM PDT
Obama is Smart
Sat Sep 24, 2005 at 08:34:37 AM PDT
Or... Why Obama's scold is good, but not for the reason you think
Obama yesterday released his Remarks on the confirmation of Judge John Roberts, which has promoted a flurry of responses.
I was caught by this diary up on the recommended list by wu ming, who articulated an argument that Obama's scold was a defensive posture because grassroots was annoying the beltway Democrats.
I think wu ming is wrong. I understand the point, and perhaps it is a good example of positive reinforcing thinking. But it's not clear to me that wu ming understood what Obama was saying, or perhaps they were only interested in saying what the dKos sphere wanted to be said. I don't know.
St. Paul primary: Clark supporter beats Bush supporter
Wed Sep 14, 2005 at 06:55:25 AM PDT
There have been two other diaries on the St. Paul primaries.
nihilix and
brandonp Neither mentioned the important point I give today.
Yesterday St. Paul held it's primary for the Mayoral race. Since the race is technically non-partisan, the top two vote getters from the primary go on to the general. As it turns out, Randy Kelly(the incumbent) barely passed the Green Party endorsed candidate Elizabeth Dickinson.
Chris Coleman 52%
Randy Kelly 27%
Elizabeth Dickinson 19%
MN Politics: GOP Fragmenting...
Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 05:21:36 PM PDT
The Republican party here in Minnesota decided to kick their Governor around a bit.
GOP dumps Eibensteiner for Shoreview businessman
The Minnesota Republican Party on Saturday rejected the personally delivered advice of Gov. Tim Pawlenty not to "switch horses in the middle of the stream" and dumped Ron Eibensteiner, its chairman and a Pawlenty ally, for Ron Carey, a Shoreview businessman and party secretary-treasurer.
What was Eibensteiner's crime? Why were people miffed at him?
MN Democratic State Senator's son killed in Iraq
Fri May 27, 2005 at 08:31:46 AM PDT
Our prayers go out to the Lourey family.
State Senators son killed in Iraq: Helicopter shot down
Matthew Lourey, son of state Sen. Becky Lourey, has been killed in Iraq, a senate spokesman said.
Details of the death of the helicopter pilot were not immediately available, said John Pollard, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson.
Johnson was expected to convene a news conference later today.
Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, had 12 children. Two had died before Lourey's death.
Becky Lourey, 61, was not immediately available for comment.
The military said earlier today that two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday when their helicopter was shot down and crashed in central Iraq, but it was not clear if Lourey was involved in that crash near Buhriz, about 35 miles south of Baghdad.
Matthew Lourey's death brings to 22 the number of Minnesotans who have died in the Mideast during the war in Iraq.
Goodbye Cruel World
Fri Apr 29, 2005 at 12:36:00 PM PDT
I've been looking at the amount of time I spend reading this website and responding to posts, and I now realize it's quite substantial. Probably a good 3-4 hours a day.
This is becoming a substantial waste of my time, and the problem is I'm addicted.
So I have to cut this off.
The National Security Advisory Group
Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 10:23:52 PM PDT
Via Yglesias From The Note:
Spotted on Capitol Hill yesterday: Wes Clark, speaking, according to a source who was there, to a standing-room-only gathering of Democratic Senate staffers with a national security bent. Clark gave an upbeat account of the Party's fight to forge policy alternatives to President Bush's plans. He urged Democrats to stop talking about exit strategies and timelines and focus on how to win in Iraq.
He also joined Leaders Reid and Pelosi for a closed-door meeting of their newly announced National Security Advisory Group, including bold-faced names Perry and Albright.
US Contractors from Iraq allege Abuse
Wed Feb 16, 2005 at 07:05:32 AM PDT
MSNBC has a new article up that interviews four men who were with a merc firm Custer Battles. Apparently all four quit after only being over there a short time, because of the abuses they were witnessing.
link here
Support a two-person chair for DNC
Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 10:09:39 AM PDT
The other night, one of our state's(Minnesota) DNC members came by our Senate District meeting to solicit comments.
She mentioned a few interesting things...
Towards a unified theory of liberalism
Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 08:24:15 AM PDT
Matt Yglesias linked to an interesting article over in the British Prospect, titled
Red State Sneer
Unfortunately most dKos type liberals will most likely immediately reject this article because it talks about various liberal stereotypes. I think that would be a mistake, for contained within are a variety of gems.
Scott Ritter says Missile Defense is already obsolete
Wed Jan 05, 2005 at 09:55:46 PM PDT
This came via Eric Alterman's latest blog entry over at msnbc.com, a link to
Rude Awakening to missile-defense dream
I, along with many others have been pushing the notion that the Star Wars missile defense program is the equivalent of the Maginot line. That is an incredible waste of money to build a defensive line that our enemies can easily circumvent if they so desire.
While Russia is no longer our enemy, they are also not quite our friends. (With the obvious exception of my girlfriend Tanya from Omsk)
And apparently they are still developing missile delivery systems...
Presbyterian Church divests from Israel violence
Wed Dec 08, 2004 at 08:16:26 AM PDT
Now I heard about this first last night on CBC's As It Happens.
The CS Monitor has the story
A vote by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to use economic sanctions against certain companies doing business with Israel - namely those that profit from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza - has set off a quiet firestorm within the American religious community.
The Alabama Project
Mon Dec 06, 2004 at 08:01:46 AM PDT
For those of us living in solid blue states, but still unfortunately having Republican elected officials who follow the national party traditions, I think it's time we start fighting back. The key is to compare and contrast, and showing how successful our policies have been compared to the failed Republican ones.
The Democrats aren't going to carry the south, but we can sure as hell focus on the northern states, the farm belt, the western states. We've made signifigant inroads into Colorado and Montana. We can divide and conquer the dakotas. We need to point out to these states what is happening as a result of the failed Republican policies.
And I apologize to those who might live down South, but when people up here think of failure, they think...
Alabama
A Clark supporter still reflects...
Fri Nov 05, 2004 at 03:35:54 AM PDT
I came back to check some of the hand wringing, and apparently the consensus once again is still that we need to swing to the left in order to win. To differentiate, blah blah.
Yet it was pretty clear that we had differentiated, and as a result we lost just as many voters as we gained.
I think this misses the broader point, that it's all about language and framing the issues.
My Response to Glenn Reynolds
Sun Oct 31, 2004 at 06:52:02 AM PDT
I'm not a fan of Glenn Reynolds. I find it hard to believe he's a lawyer, much less a professor of law. His entire blog consists primarily of the construction of strawman arguments that he can tear apart, and it's hard to believe that he would ever survive in a courtroom.
He lives in a bubble of misconceptions.
But periodically I read instapundit when I'm bored, and I find something to be outraged about. Today I responded, for it's time to start popping the bubble of preconceived notions and strawman arguments.
Bob Edwards is leaving NPR
Thu Jul 29, 2004 at 11:12:33 AM PDT
Just saw this on
CNN
Bob Edwards, who recently was removed as host of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" after nearly a quarter-century, is leaving the network to start a new morning show for distribution on satellite radio.
Labor Unions: Do we really need them?
Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 09:53:01 PM PDT
It's a snarky title, and I'm not going to address the question. But I think it's a proper response to Stern's accusation...
SEIU chief says Dems lack fresh ideas
Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep crisis," devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures.
Tinfoil hats in Minnesota
Tue Jul 13, 2004 at 07:50:11 PM PDT
Ok, I just thought this was bizarre, and I wanted to let others know to be on the lookout for this dirty trick in other states.
We had a special election here in Minnesota today for state senate district 37. Republican wingnut up against an independence party nice young lady. It looks like she lost by about 60-40%... on a very low turnout election.
but that's not what I want to talk about
