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spicedogsWell, I certainly don't want to see her as the next president. Don't ge me wrong. I would love to see a woman in the White House. However, from 2009—2018, I want to see Barack Obama in the White House.
The title in this essay is a bit distracting. Keillor doesn't talk about her much. He just lets us know that the choice was bad, that's all. Then he goes on talking about the Minnesota Senatorial race. The title certainly doesn't fit. I wish he had an editor who read his essays. (I'll volunteer.)
The Republicans are meeting down the hill from my house. What are they trying to say?
By Garrison Keillor
Sept. 3, 2008 |
The Republicans are meeting down the hill from my house, helicopters are pounding the air, and there are more suits on the streets and big black SUVs and a brownish cloud venting from the hockey arena where the convention is assembled. A large moment for little old St. Paul, which is more accustomed to visitations by conventions of morticians and foundation garment salesmen and the Sons of the Desert, and so we are thrilled. It makes no difference that the city is Democratic. What matters is that, for a few days, TV will show a few pictures of the big bend in the Mississippi, the limestone bluffs, the capitol and cathedral, and a tree-shaded avenue or two, and some of the world will know that we exist.
Too bad that the Current Occupant and Mr. Cheney canceled their St. Paul appearances so they could focus on hurricane-threatened New Orleans and lend their expertise to rescue operations. As it turned out, they weren't needed, which has been generally true for a long time. Their reporting for duty now only served to remind everyone of what happened three years ago. And Mr. McCain, as of this writing, seemed torn between coming to St. Paul to address the convention and comforting hurricane victims in Mississippi, if any could be found.
Meanwhile, he posed a stark question for voters to ponder: How much would you like to see Sarah Palin of Wasilla, Alaska, as the next president of the United States? And what does the question say about Mr. McCain's love of the country that she might suddenly need to lead? No need to discuss these things at length, really. The gentleman played his card, a two of hearts. Make of it what you will.
The challenge for Republicans is how to change the subject from the dismal story of Republican triumph the past eight years and get voters to focus on, say, the old man's war record or Mrs. Palin's perkiness or the oddity of the skinny guy's last name. If they can succeed there, hey can win this thing.
The Senate race in Minnesota is a good example. The Republican, Norm Coleman, has scored points by whooping up a couple tiny scandalettes -- some old jokes that, like a lot of old jokes, aren't so funny, and a tax snafu by some bookkeeper with dandruff on his shoulders -- against Democrat Al Franken, which may yet succeed in distracting voters from Coleman's important role as whistle-plugger in the $23 billion Iraq scandal.
From 2003 to 2006, Coleman was chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is responsible for investigating, among other things, "fraud, waste, and abuse in government contracting," and on his watch, the subcommittee held no hearings on the disappearance of billions of tax dollars into "reconstruction projects" in Iraq that didn't seem to reconstruct anything whatsoever. Bundles of newly minted $100 bills on pallets in Baghdad that simply vanished. No-bid contracts lavished on people with connections. What may be the biggest case of war profiteering in the history of buzzardry.
The PSI is a big hammer. It's the subcommittee Joe McCarthy used to go after the U.S. Army and Sen. John McClellan used to go after labor racketeers with the young Bobby Kennedy as chief counsel, but as the Coleman subcommittee it went after federal employees who were traveling business class instead of economy, meanwhile money was pouring out of the Treasury for any Republican who could write "Iraq" with fewer than two spelling errors, and an old Bush retainer was appointed special inspector general to oversee the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, but without authority to oversee money spent on reconstruction by the Pentagon, which was where most of the money went. All of this Sen. Coleman watched with a cool eye, and he now calculates that Minnesota voters won't have the attention span to read a story with a lot of dollar amounts and acronyms like PSI and IRRF and SIG. Maybe, maybe not.
The simple truth is that, while more than 4,000 Americans gave their lives in the war in Iraq, the war was an enormous financial opportunity for neocons and their friends, and Sen. Coleman was a passive observer of one of the biggest heists in history. The cynicism is staggering to the normal person. He was the cop who busted the hot dog vendor for obstructing the sidewalk while the McGurks were cleaning out the bank. This is no joke. A crook is walking around looking for votes. And the truth is marching on.
SOURCE: Salon.com
The title in this essay is a bit distracting. Keillor doesn't talk about her much. He just lets us know that the choice was bad, that's all. Then he goes on talking about the Minnesota Senatorial race. The title certainly doesn't fit. I wish he had an editor who read his essays. (I'll volunteer.)
The Republicans are meeting down the hill from my house. What are they trying to say?
By Garrison Keillor
Sept. 3, 2008 |
The Republicans are meeting down the hill from my house, helicopters are pounding the air, and there are more suits on the streets and big black SUVs and a brownish cloud venting from the hockey arena where the convention is assembled. A large moment for little old St. Paul, which is more accustomed to visitations by conventions of morticians and foundation garment salesmen and the Sons of the Desert, and so we are thrilled. It makes no difference that the city is Democratic. What matters is that, for a few days, TV will show a few pictures of the big bend in the Mississippi, the limestone bluffs, the capitol and cathedral, and a tree-shaded avenue or two, and some of the world will know that we exist.
Too bad that the Current Occupant and Mr. Cheney canceled their St. Paul appearances so they could focus on hurricane-threatened New Orleans and lend their expertise to rescue operations. As it turned out, they weren't needed, which has been generally true for a long time. Their reporting for duty now only served to remind everyone of what happened three years ago. And Mr. McCain, as of this writing, seemed torn between coming to St. Paul to address the convention and comforting hurricane victims in Mississippi, if any could be found.
Meanwhile, he posed a stark question for voters to ponder: How much would you like to see Sarah Palin of Wasilla, Alaska, as the next president of the United States? And what does the question say about Mr. McCain's love of the country that she might suddenly need to lead? No need to discuss these things at length, really. The gentleman played his card, a two of hearts. Make of it what you will.
The challenge for Republicans is how to change the subject from the dismal story of Republican triumph the past eight years and get voters to focus on, say, the old man's war record or Mrs. Palin's perkiness or the oddity of the skinny guy's last name. If they can succeed there, hey can win this thing.
The Senate race in Minnesota is a good example. The Republican, Norm Coleman, has scored points by whooping up a couple tiny scandalettes -- some old jokes that, like a lot of old jokes, aren't so funny, and a tax snafu by some bookkeeper with dandruff on his shoulders -- against Democrat Al Franken, which may yet succeed in distracting voters from Coleman's important role as whistle-plugger in the $23 billion Iraq scandal.
From 2003 to 2006, Coleman was chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is responsible for investigating, among other things, "fraud, waste, and abuse in government contracting," and on his watch, the subcommittee held no hearings on the disappearance of billions of tax dollars into "reconstruction projects" in Iraq that didn't seem to reconstruct anything whatsoever. Bundles of newly minted $100 bills on pallets in Baghdad that simply vanished. No-bid contracts lavished on people with connections. What may be the biggest case of war profiteering in the history of buzzardry.
The PSI is a big hammer. It's the subcommittee Joe McCarthy used to go after the U.S. Army and Sen. John McClellan used to go after labor racketeers with the young Bobby Kennedy as chief counsel, but as the Coleman subcommittee it went after federal employees who were traveling business class instead of economy, meanwhile money was pouring out of the Treasury for any Republican who could write "Iraq" with fewer than two spelling errors, and an old Bush retainer was appointed special inspector general to oversee the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, but without authority to oversee money spent on reconstruction by the Pentagon, which was where most of the money went. All of this Sen. Coleman watched with a cool eye, and he now calculates that Minnesota voters won't have the attention span to read a story with a lot of dollar amounts and acronyms like PSI and IRRF and SIG. Maybe, maybe not.
The simple truth is that, while more than 4,000 Americans gave their lives in the war in Iraq, the war was an enormous financial opportunity for neocons and their friends, and Sen. Coleman was a passive observer of one of the biggest heists in history. The cynicism is staggering to the normal person. He was the cop who busted the hot dog vendor for obstructing the sidewalk while the McGurks were cleaning out the bank. This is no joke. A crook is walking around looking for votes. And the truth is marching on.
SOURCE: Salon.com
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-04 06:14 pm (UTC)But that really isn't what bothered me as a citizen and resident. It was the police presence EVERYWHERE. St. Paul and Minneapolis are relatively quiet, peaceful places and a political convention is prolly unlikely to turn everyone into wild rioters. Sporting events, perhaps; politics? Well, we generally get a high turnout but usually we only average around 40-60 percent for elections, fergossakes. I think once Bush decided not to attend, the police ramped down their gestapo strategies. I'm sure there were worries about agitators coming to town, but did they have to make life hard for us?
Yeah, I am not impressed with Sarah Palin one bit. I can see why McCain picked her. She does neutralize Obama-Biden forces, but that is going to bite him in the endif her presence silences debate to the point that things end up dead in the water. Then once again, the dreaded news media, with nothing to do, will get up to mischief again, finding out things no one wants anyone to know, just to have something to do. ;-). You'd think a seasoned veteran of national politics would know this stuff.
And besides she distracts attention from him. Why would any thinking candidate want that to happen?
Her creationism is just plain kooky. That is my one issue with the Christian right. They can have their opinions and I consider myself a Christian whose views tilt in that direction, but I can't buy into their manic creationist and anti-gay stances. The fact that they refuse to live and let live sort of throws water on their faith, IMO.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-04 07:00 pm (UTC)Getting back to what is happening at the Twin Cities, I am baffled that these two cities (especially, St. Paul) that are known for their peaceful manners are being treated as if they were filled with terrorists. I am wondering (maybe erroneously) that there has been some "professional" agitators thrown in to divert the attention from the negative aspects of the Republican party and make them look like they are miserably misunderstood by this "liberaly leaning" city.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-05 12:15 am (UTC)Originally there were estimates that there might 100,000 of them. I think the police response is just more evidence of the paranoid culture that's been created post 9/11. I counted 5 SUV squad cars parked a place where you take the road to the airport when I was coming to work today, about two to three officers per car. Absolutely no one who even looked like a protestor or agitator in sight. I'll be glad when the convention is over.
The last time Bush was in town. The road I take to go to Mpls. was the one he took to downtown St. Paul. The police had completed blocked it off where I live (about 5 miles from dwntwn St. Paul). Because I was going the other way, I was let through. Everyone else had to turn around.
I don't recall it being that bad in Philadelphia when Clinton was staying in the same hotel as I was. I did have the misfortune of getting locked in because he stopped to rest or to use the exercise room the same time I was there. For a couple hours I had to stay in my room. But I got to study the presidential entourage, which was interesting. I never saw the prez except at his speech to the meeting I was also attending.