Compare And Contrast

Two arrested in Kentucky for hanging effigy of Obama on Kentucky campus.

West Hollywood homeowners pull down Palin effigy - no arrests made.

Exit question to all you lefties out there - which action was the correct one? Do you support this kind of a double standard?

Happy Halloween

Things are horribly busy in the Logical Household today - posting is likely to be non-existent. I leave you with a cartoon to celebrate today and Tuesday.

Taxing Questions

I got the following from a friend of mine. This friend is an engineer - he works for a firm based in Texas and his combined taxable income falls under the $150,000 thresh hold that Senator Biden mentioned on Monday. Here is what my friend had to say.

Obama says he is going to cut taxes for the middle class. The definition of the middle class varies for $250,000/yr to $150,000/yr, depending on the day of the week and who is talking.

Obama is not talking about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in 2010. Regrettably, neither is McCain. That leaves me to do it for him.

Obama has bitterly criticized the "Bush tax cut for the rich". He has made his intentions clear, implicitly, if not explicitly, that he intends to allow the tax cuts to expire. When that happens, your taxes are going up.

I decided to see how much my taxes would go up. I manually calculated them to be over $4,000 per year. I do not make $250,000/yr. My combined family income is less than $250,000/yr.

I made an Excel spreadsheet to make it easy for everyone to calculate their taxes both with and without the Bush tax cut. Open the attached spreadsheet, fill in your taxable income for the year 2007 and select your filing status. You may be shocked by the results. This spreadsheet is only valid for 2007.

Now first I have to issue a minor correction to my friend. Both candidates have statements on the record about the Bush tax cuts. Senator McCain would renew the Bush tax cuts were Senator Obama says he will allow them to expire on "the rich" but his definition of "rich" has been awfully fluid this week.

Using my friends calculator, I decided I would play around with a few numbers. A married couple with a joint income of go from having a tax liability of $17,847 (before deductions) in 2007 to a tax liability of $19, 719 - an increase of $1,871 just by letting the Bush tax cuts "for the rich" expire. A married couple with a combined income of $42,000.00 will see a $782.00 increase and a married couple making $65,000.00 will see an increase of $821.00. But wait, you say - the tax calculator on the Obama website says that these people pay less taxes! True it does say that, but the Politifact website tells you why you should not take what either candidate has on their websites as set in stone fact!

That said, the spreadsheet that he created is simply for calculating your tax liability before deductions. It does not take into account any of the Bush tax cut deductions that would also expire with the tax cuts. For example, the per child tax credit would drop back down to $1000 per child from the $2500 it is now. That is a significant tax "increase" for the lower and middle class tax payer that is hurting today.

One of the "highlights" of the Obama plan are a series of "refunds" that are designed to go out to those who qualify. These refunds come AFTER you pay your increased taxes. So if your taxes go up $821.00 and you get a $1000 "refund" (based on a joint income of $65,000 a year)
your tax "cut" from the Obama Administration will be less than $200.00. With the cost of living in most states being what it is, that is not going to be a whole lot of help to many "middle class" families now is it. A better idea (for tax parity) would be a flat or "fair" tax system where EVERYONE pays the same percentage of their income with no deductions. However, that will never happen because the same special interests (and that includes the Democrat leadership in Congress) that brought us the mortgage meltdown will never allow that to happen - not in a million years!

Your Daily Dose Of Links

A couple of quick hits while we await THE address from THE One.....

Former ACORN staffer alleges collusion between the Obama Campaign and ACORN.

A former staffer for an affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now testified today that the organization was provided a "donor list" from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in late 2007 for fundraising efforts.

Anita Moncrief, a former Washington, D.C. staffer for Project Vote, which she described as a sister organization of ACORN, said her supervisor told her the list of campaign contributors came from the Obama campaign. Moncrief said she has a copy of a "development plan" that outlines how Obama contributors who had "maxed out" under federal contribution limits would be targeted to give to Project Vote, and that it was her job to identify such contributors.

Speaking of ACORN just who stole this elderly woman's vote? If ACORN is so concerned about voter suppression, why are they working so hard to suppress the votes of the elderly and the mentally disabled?

Last month the tax cuts would go to people who made under $250,000, then last weekend it slipped down to $200,00, then $150,000. Limbo time.....how low will they go?

Is the Obama Campaign Hiden' Biden?

Campaign supporters behaving badly....on the left...and on the right.

Another Dem leaves the fold - this one a former Obama speech writer!

While Obama picks new curtains and Cabinets for the White House. Doncha think we should wait until the votes have actually been cast Senator?????

The Gap encouraging people to "Vote Twice"?

Lastly, the French President calls Senator Obama "arrogant"? It has to be the end of the world!

Unendorsable

A lot of bandwidth went into discussion about the Star Tribune's recent endorsement of Norm Coleman for Senate. Both sides of the political aisle were all taken aback at the Strib's endorsement. However, the one that I find most telling was the one yesterday in the 3rd Congressional District.

All three candidates in the race to replace Republican Jim Ramstad in the Third District are competent. But none inspired the critical mass of confidence required for our endorsement.

Ashwin Madia was recruited and groomed to run for this seat by the DFL. As a Gulf War vet, he was (as Steve Sarvi was in the 2nd) their sure shot at election. After all, a Gulf War vet is unassailable - right? The problem was, Madia ran a horrible campaign. Whether it was staffers spouses stealing Paulsen lawn signs, or running push polls and some of the meanest smear ads seen, Madia has done it all and had it documented for all the world to see by Michael Brodkorb.

What had to hurt Team Madia most were the very words of their friends on the Strib Editorial Staff.

Ashwin Madia, an Iraq veteran and Democrat, is young, bright and energetic. A vote for Madia is a vote for potential. He gets it right on energy policy, and his military service gives him welcome foreign policy perspective.

At the same time, we can't quite shake concerns that Madia's knowledge of key issues is wide, but not deep enough. Health care reform requires more than the efficiencies he emphasizes. His call for more education funding is good, but money alone won't solve school ills. And how does this new funding square with his call to cut spending?

At the last debate, Madia was less polished on policy than his two rivals and repeated an error made in his endorsement interview -- that the Employee Free Choice Act would not allow a unionization drive to bypass a secret ballot.

This has to be the most damaging part of the non-endorsement. For Madia gave the editorial board a glimpse into the heart and soul of the modern progressive movement and what they saw did not impress them at all. In the lexicon of the modern progressive movement, the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" is not a by-passing of the secret ballot. However, denizens of the real world (including the Star Tribune Editorial staff) see it for what it is - a way for unions to force their way into a shop regardless of whether the workers want it or not.

The Star Tribune has seen through Team Madia - now it's up to the voters. We will have to wait and see if they too have seen through the progressive double speak. Hopefully the Strib helped in that effort.

This Is Why People HATE Politics.

Yesterday I felt the need to reiterate my comments policy after some anonymous coward left comments spreading unfounded rumors about Jason Chaffetz in response to my post here. Apparently this anonymous coward decided to leave his (or her to be fair) noxious musings at other locations across the Bloghive prompting JM Bell (not known to be a Chaffetz supporter) to cry foul. Well sometime late yesterday and again today, another anonymous coward decided that since a Spencer supporter (or so he/she thought) was going to slime Chaffetz that it was only "fair" that someone slime Spencer in return - excusing his (or her to be fair) scurrilous charges with...

Hey, if the Dems can sling it around, surely an independant (sic) can pose a few quesstions (sic). The answers to each of these can be verrified (sic) if an entreprising (sic) reporter who DIDN'T work at the Trib were so inclined to followup (sic).

A few posts later another anonymous poster (or perhaps the same coward) put up accusations that were well beyond the pale. I will not do either candidate the disservice of reposting them because they were that bad.

The bottom line is that neither candidate deserves this treatment. I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet both Mr. Chaffetz and Mr. Spencer and I found them to be wonderful, delightful people who simply do not deserve to have their names smeared in so shameful a manner and even if they were hideous, vile, nasty people they still do not deserve this treatment. There is an old adage about doing unto others that these cowards should all be mindful of.

As I said late last week, all people of good will need to stand together to decry this kind of discourse. I certainly do not agree with JM Bell on many issues, but I do agree that this kind of abhorrent behavior needs to be stopped. These kinds of actions do not reflect well on either candidate or their supporters. My plea to both sides is this - let's talk issues not personal peccadilloes and if you simply can not discuss one candidate without being personal then for God's sake do everyone a favor and KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! The rest of the world thanks you in advance.

Guilty!

Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty yesterday in his corruption trial. All I can say is....GOOD! Now we need to go after the rest of the corrupt politicians in DC and Salt Lake!

Speaking Of Those Liens...

A couple of weeks ago, our friends on the left made a lot of noise about a tax lien that had been assessed by the IRS on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber). I wonder what would have happened if the media had dug into others (say ACORN for example) with the vigor that they dug into a private citizen what they would have found. Well one researcher did the job that the media refuses to do and guess what he found....over 200 tax liens totaling over 1.3 million dollars in taxes that ACORN owes to the federal government.

So here you have a group that is dedicated to raising taxes on others in order to give to people that ACORN purports to care about and ACORN won't even pay their own taxes??? Can you say hypocrite?

Comment Policy

Due to a couple of comments posted in the last 24 hours I feel it is necessary to remind people of the comment policy at this site. This is what I posted back in May.

It is my intention that this blog be a place where free speech can take place. However, free speech also includes responsibility. While discussion of the issues is necessary, a line must be drawn between free speech and potential slander. Therefore, effective immediately, all comments will be moderated. Any comment that can be construed by anyone, biased or no, as slanderous or libelous will not be published. If a comment contains profanity, it will not be published. If a comment contains a threat or other undesirable (as defined be ME as this is my blog....in the words of my father...my house - my rules) will not be published.

If you believe that there something going on that I might be interested in researching or publishing on, feel free to email it to me at ladylogician at the domain hope4america dot net. Any story leads left in the comments will not be published.

Comment moderation was removed because the rumor monger in question quit posting here. But I want to make something perfectly clear - I will NOT tolerate any rumor or innuendo to be posted in the comments of this blog. PERIOD - END OF DISCUSSION. I would ask all commenters to please respect my request in my "house". Those who can not respect the comment policy will have their comments deleted with all due prejudice. There are consequences to every action including your freedom to spread rumors. If you can't handle the repercussions, don't spread the rumor here. It will not be tolerated!

Politicizing The Classroom

We got an interesting piece in the TN inbox this morning. It appears that a group by the name of "Wildwood Passing Lane" is using Mahtomedi Schools to pass out campaign literature for DFL House Candidate (and former Mahtomedi School board member) Kate Christopher. The MN DFL has Wildwood Passing Lane listed on their website as a local affiliate and on their website they describe themselves as "Grass roots group for MN House District 52B. A group of progressives dedicated to winning elections and influencing public policy in the Mahtomedi area. ". However, when one looks for Wildwood Passing Lane on the MN Campaign and Finance Board records - guess what we found....no listing at all. Rep. Dean has asked the Campaign Finance board to take a look into this to see if any campaign finance laws may (or may not) have been broken.

So one has to ask just what the Mahtomedi School District is doing delivering campaign literature for ANY CANDIDATE to parents in their childrens backpacks? One has to wonder if any school resources (like salary for secretarial staff or teachers) were used to distribute this literature. One also has to wonder if the Mahtomedi School District will offer the same services to Ms. Christopher's opponent, Matt Dean?

We ran into a similar situation last year in ISD 719. ISD 719 used school resources to distribute pro-referendum literature. A group that was questioning the need for the referendum had to go to the school district and demand "equal access". Because you see, schools are not supposed to be campaigning for a single candidate or issue. As a taxpayer funded organization, they are supposed to refrain from campaigning - or if they do decide to engage in campaigning, they need to provide equal access.

Double Standards In Action (Again)

Here we go again. It is abhorrent to put a picture of Barack Obama next to a picture of a noose (see comments), but it is quite OK to hang Sarah Palin in effigy (HT Capt. Ed).

A Halloween decoration showing a mannequin dressed as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hanging by a noose from the roof of a West Hollywood home is drawing giggles from some passers-by and gasps of outrage from others.

The mannequin is dressed in brunet wig, glasses and a red business suit. Another mannequin dressed as John McCain emerges from a flaming chimney.

The homeowner in question, Chad Michael Morrissete claims that the display is "art" and should be taken as a sign of the season.

He says "it should be seen as art, and as within the month of October. It's Halloween, it's time to be scary it's time to be spooky."

At least the "artist" has the stones to admit (in the video report) that there is a massive double standard in action here.

“I know if we had done it with Barack Obama, people would’ve probably thrown things through our windows,” Morrisette said.

But then he tries to excuse it with the comment about the image of a hanged black man being "more intense" than that of a white woman. Talk about your racist codes....it's ok to terrorize white women because of the color of THEIR skin??????? Isn't that specifically what Dr. King preached AGAINST?

What Are They Thinking?

The Salt Lake Tribune saved the best for last apparently. They endorsed candidates for the 1st and 2nd district on Saturday and today they endorsed for the 3rd district. It was not a surprising endorsement.

Utah's 3rd Congressional District hasn't been represented by a Democrat since the early 1990s and is the most Republican of the state's three districts. Right up there with the most conservative in the country, in fact.
The question that 3rd District voters will answer on Nov. 4 is whether they want to be represented in Congress by the radical right-wing idealogue Jason Chaffetz, who is at odds with much of his own party, or Bennion Spencer, a right-of-center Democrat and erstwhile Republican.
But setting aside any consideration of party labels,The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board believes Bennion Spencer would better represent Utah County and the rest of the district than would Chaffetz, who cites party reform, not the drafting and shaping of legislation, as his top priority.

Party reform is needed within the Republican Party (as I noted on Friday) however now is not the time for that discussion. Now is the time to totally dissect the SLTrib's "reasons" for supporting Bennion Spencer.

First is Spencer's "opposition" to drilling in ANWR.

Chaffetz favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Spencer does not.

One has to wonder what exactly Spencer DOES support. In response to a question at the UVU debate, where Spencer was asked specifically about drilling in ANWR he said "Drill everywhere, I say!" If Spencer is so easily swayed between positions depending on who he is speaking to, how can we expect him to stand up for the district in the face of intense lobbying or his caucus leadership?

Then there is his support of the Bush Administration's bail-out. That is not going to sit well with the Bush hating, far left in his base. Then there is the fact that this bail out was horrible policy to begin with. Groups like IBD and Market Watch were opposed to the bail out as were many prominent economists. Especially after the Senate got done adding $150 BILLION in pork projects to the bill.

Then comes the obligatory reference to Chaffetz' purported "xenophobia", a lie that I addressed here, here, here, here and oh yes here.

The next two paragraphs were by far the funniest (although I suspect an attempt at humor was not on the editoral boards mind when they wrote it).

For us, the chief difference between the candidates is that one has the instincts of a collaborative problem-solver and the other has the markings of a self-righteous zealot.
Chaffetz vows he will be "pounding on lecterns" when he gets to Washington. We acknowledge that this rhetoric plays well with voters justifiably angry with their government. But unbending adherence to political ideology is partly to blame for the current mess, and it surely is no recipe for getting out of it.

Given the fact that Bennion Spencer went from supporting an "all of the above" energy policy on his website to repeating (ad naseum) the Democrat House Leaderships "we can't drill our way out of this crisis" mantra, it sure seems that if anyone is kow towing to the dictates of party purity it is Bennion Spencer.

The SL Trib closes with this.

The art of politics is principled compromise, and it is regrettable that Jason Chaffetz seems to have no eye for complementary colors. Bennion Spencer clearly does, and would take that vision to Congress.

The problem is we have too many people in Washington DC that are compromising their principles in order to "get things done" in Congress. We need people in DC who can stand up to the compromisers and do what is best for the country, rather than what will get them re-elected. That is what propelled Jason Chaffetz past Rep. Chris Cannon in the primary and what (I suspect) will propel Jason to Congress in 9 days.

Patriot (Act) Games

To all of you out there who were ranting about about the destruction of the Constitution by George W. Bush I have a question....whose supporters did this?

Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

Were they Republicans or Democrats? Would Republicans try to demolish the one person who had breathed life into McCain's campaign? Somehow I think not....

The Cover-Up Continues

The National Transportation Safety Board is ready to release it's final report on the cause of the 35W Bridge collapse last year.

Original designers of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis likely neglected to calculate the size of key gusset plates that eventually failed, a human mistake that culminated 40 years later when 13 people died after the span collapsed, federal safety investigators have found.

It also listed some of the things that did NOT cause the collapse....

They also have determined that corrosion of certain gusset plates, extreme heat and shifting piers did not contribute to the bridge's collapse on Aug. 1, 2007, according to sources with direct knowledge of the probe.

Notice that they did not rule Carol Molnau, Governor Pawlenty or a lack of transportation funding, as many have speculated. OK you know that I am being just a tiny bit sarcastic with that comment...

The thing is, the gusset plates have long been a suspect in the collapse of the bridge.

In January, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker was criticized by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., and others for placing too much early emphasis on gusset plate failure as the potential cause. But the investigators' findings appear to validate Rosenker's early stance.

JRoosh and Ed have thoughts up about the report and they both sum it up quite nicely. After you read them, you might want to remember who had warning (in 2000) about the weakness of the gusset plates.....that would be former Transportation Commissioner and current candidate for the 6th CD El Tinklenberg!

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Every four years it seems that we have the same arguments about third parties. Now I am not making any grand announcements (no Bob Barr endorsements Jazz) but there are two columns out today that make great points about how each party is severely damaged this year.

I'll start with the party I am most familiar with. Jazz and I discussed this column in our show this morning.

I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president.

Since then, "fed up" has soured to "given up." The Republican Party has exiled its Goldwater-Reagan wing and given up all pretense of any allegiance to limited government. In the last eight years, the GOP has given us a monstrous new federal bureaucracy in the Department of Homeland Security. In the prescription drug benefit, it's given us the largest new federal entitlement since the Johnson administration. Federal spending—even on items not related to war or national security—has soared. And we now get to watch as the party that's supposed to be "free market" nationalizes huge chunks of the economy's financial sector.

I can not disagree with any comments the author makes about what is wrong with the Republican Party. Heaven knows I have said all of that and then some in the last 3 years. I do however, take issue with his conclusion. The Republican Party HAS walked away from it's core conservative roots as I have written before. However, conservatives walking away from the party will not fix it for one reason. We tried this before in 2006. Conservatives stayed home in droves in 2006, handing traditionally safe seats to the Democrats for the first time in recent memory! In their usual deafness, the RNC (and the MNGOP since that is where I was in 2006) decided that the lesson to be taken from the 2006 election losses was that they needed to be MORE LIBERAL, not less! This attitude has given rise to a phenomenon that I called the "Huckabee Conservatives" on the show today. These are social conservatives who have no problems with government getting involved in the lives of the governed as long as it is for the "right" reason. Yet this same group denounces liberal policies that in essence do the exact same thing. The only way to halt this slide into "socialist lite" disguised as "compassionate conservatism" is for conservatives to come back to the party and take it back. Sadly, walking away (as Mr. Balko suggests) and letting the GOP lose again will not teach them the lessons that the party elites need to learn.

Now on to the Dems.

I talk to them every day.

To call them "disgruntled Hillary supporters" is to drastically underestimate who they are and what has happened to their thinking. To call them "disgruntled Hillary supporters" suggests that they're only upset at Hillary's loss in the primary, and that they'll be back after the anger settles.

Wrong.

Okay, that will undoubtedly be true of some of them—but not the ones I've been talking to. The ones with whom I (and a few fellow conservatives) have been speaking will NOT be back under the Democrats' tent any time soon, and possibly ever.

You see, they didn't just get upset at a loss, they saw something in the Democratic Party that they didn't like. Now, you and I will tell them, "oh, that's been there for a long time." I myself, especially after a recent improvement to my education on the subject, might suggest that what they see now has been creeping in since the start of the Wilson administration.

For right now, though, those details don't matter. What matters is that they've seen the leftist rot eating away at an American political party. The ones with whom we are in contact are not leaving the party out of some petulance at a primary loss, they're leaving the party because that rot has been exposed to them. Barack Obama has lifted up the carpet and showed them the rotting floorboards (or teeming roaches—whatever metaphor you like) underneath.

I've talked to the same people that this author speaks of. They are echoing the old Ronald Reagan sentiment "I didn't leave the Democratic Party....IT LEFT ME." a sentiment shared by many including Joe Leiberman, Zell Miller and myself. This is not the Democratic Party of JFK and my youth. This Democratic Party - with it's support of a bill that will strip private balloting rights from workers has become an anathema to the democracy that it claims to support. If nothing else, Senator Clinton has done this nation a greater service than if she had won the nomination - she exposed the rot in the Democrat Party in such a way that it was impossible for all but the most besotted kool-aid drinkers in the party to ignore.

While I honestly do not think that the two parties are irreparably broken, I do think that they are in danger of becoming irrelevant in very short order unless they get their respective houses in order fast. That will only come from reformation from within. That is why I stay active in the Republican Party. I want to fix it from within.

What does this mean for 3rd party candidates? This means that now is their time to start building the groundwork that they will need in two years to start taking back this country. This means that Independents and Libertarians across the country have two huge voting blocks to make inroads with. Most states have vote percentage thresh-holds that 3rd parties must meet in polling or elected races in order to guarantee them a spot on the ballot the next time. It is a heck of a lot easier to get that magic number (usually around 15%) in a county or state wide race than it is in a national race. Don't feel like you must aim for the stars right out of the gate! Get the magic 15% to get on the ballot and then start recruiting. Go to these disgruntled Republicans and Democrats and say "I really think we have more in common than you do with the others." The more you can do to generate a groundswell the better it will be in 4 years for candidates higher up the ticket. The more that you can do in the next two years on a county and state level the easier it will be for your Presidential candidate to get into the debates in 4 years!

The big thing that EVERYONE forgets is that politics is not trickle down - it is bubble up. Libertarians and Independents are never going to see the debates from the podium if they do not have the grassroots support to make the debate commission sit up and take notice.

There is no better time than today to make your contribution toward fixing what is wrong with politics today.

Incivil Discourse

The events of yesterday have highlighted just how poisonous our political landscape has become. Once the initial shock of the events wore off, a lot of people started to reflect on what happened and why. Katherine Kersten (the Strib's much maligned token conservative columnist) has a post up this morning that really hits what I think is the heart of the problem.

In decades past, Americans often disagreed strongly with their political leaders, but they did so in civil debate.

Today, a new coarseness permeates our public life. We no longer view our political opponents as merely wrong or misguided — now they’re “liars.” Radio talk shows and blogs spew invective at political leaders, while the parties themselves scheme to “criminalize” the public policy actions of their opponents...

Don’t get me wrong – it’s crucial to hold political leaders to a high standard. It’s imperative to point out their foibles, and to disagree with what we view as misguided policies. But the coarse, bitter and hyperbolic tone of today’s political arena poses a real threat to our common life as democratic citizens.

No one side has the market cornered when it comes to this incivility. It runs across the board. Just take a look at what is going on with lawn signs being stolen and defaced in your neighborhood.

Some think that there could be a backlash come November 4.

Democrats have a lot going for them when it comes to the tide of politics right now, but could images like these have a backlash? The vandalism early seemed to hitting mostly Republicans (yes, we now know that Ellison and Klobuchar were hit too). I don't take a lot a strong opinions here, but everyone can agree there is no place for vandalism. If these images get a lot of attention especially on the Republican side, I wonder if this could evolve into something like the Rick Kahn comments at Wellstone's memorial.

For those who don't remember (or weren't in MN in 2002), Norm Coleman was locked in a very tight race for the Senate seat he holds today with incumbent Paul Wellstone. Eleven days before the election, Senator Wellstone died when the plane he was taking to a debate in Duluth crashed outside of Eveleth MN. Because Senator Wellstone was so well respected by everyone in Minnesota (this staunch conservative could not contain the tears that day) the entire state went into mourning. Then on October 29, the dynamic changed. On October 29, a memorial service for Senator Wellstone turned into a partisan political rally. Sen. Wellstone's Republican colleagues, who had come to pay their respects to a man of great character, were loudly boo'd by the crowd as they arrived. It culminated in the remarks of Wellstone family friend and campaign worker Rick Kahn who urged those in attendance and watching on television to go out and "win this election for Paul". It was so out of control by then that Governor Jesse Ventura, in one of his more coherent moments said that while he at first favored appointing a Democrat to fill the remainder of Wellstone's term, he would no longer even consider a Democrat for the position after the event and instead appointed Independence Party founder Dean Barley to fill the final two months of Wellstone's term.

"I wanted to hear the sons. But Rick Kahn's, I found his so offensive to me as an Independent, or to anyone who is not necessarily going to vote for Senator Wellstone who still respects him and came to pay their respects," Ventura said. "It drove the first lady to tears."

It drove a lot of people to tears that night. That is the problem with the vitriol that is infecting our discourse today.

The electorate needs to grow up and learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. On MSR, we have a conservative, a libertarian and a liberal on the show and while we do disagree on a lot of issues, we still walk away as friends. It's time to tone down the "election rage" and remember that we are all adults and we are all in this together. We can disagree....no we expect to disagree, but that does not mean that we need to be uncivil in the process.

Today On MidStream Radio

Jazz and I are on one hour earlier today due to scheduling conflicts. Please join us as we talk about the state of the election and my posts yesterday about the threats to the Minnesota Congressional Delegation. Join us in chat live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/msr or call in at 646-595-3963. We would love to hear from you.

Unhinged

As Lassie reported earlier, there have been multiple reports of vandalism involving the metro Congressional delegation. Both Senators Coleman and Klobuchar and Reps. Kline, Bachman, Ellison and Ramstad are reporting similar threats being spraypainted on their garages or homes. The threat "you are a traitor/sell-out/criminal resign or die" is being taken very seriously by local law enforcment - as it should be.

Condemnation came quickly (before all reports of vandalism were in) from the Franken and Barkley campaigns as well as the MNDFL. However, not everyone in the metro thinks that this behavior is reprehensable and deserving of condemnation. One City Pages blogger thinks she understands the passions driving the vandal.

We're not surprised. A mean and dirty campaign season from all candidates will likely lead to response that is undesirable. Have we learned our lesson yet?

Please Emily - mean campaigns have nothing to do with this. Remember that Rep. Ramstad is not running for re-election as he is retiring this year and Sen. Klobuchar is not up for re-election for another 4 years! These actions are NOT excusable - they are criminal and they have absolutely no place in our political discourse.

I hope that the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments are able to solve this quickly...for the sake of our elected officials, for the sake of our cities and for the sake of our society! We simply can not excuse this type of activity. It is not healthy for our country.

The Audacity of.....Rage?????

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting the stunning story.

When Laurie Coleman, wife of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, hauled her trash to the alley at 7:30 this morning, a chilling sight greeted her.

Spray-painted in black on the wooden siding of the garage in the couple’s Summit Hill neighborhood was this angry graffiti, in letters nearly a foot high: “U R A CRIMINAL RESIGN OR ELSE! PSALM 2”

On the alley side, each double-bay stall door had the word “SCUM” spray painted in black ink, as a did a wooden partition in between.

St. Paul police say Coleman is at least the fourth Minnesota member of Congress to be targeted in a similar fashion. Police spokesman Pete Panos says detectives are aware of U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann, Jim Ramstad and John Kline each having their property vandalized.

Now I am not going to claim that this is the doing of partisan Democrats, but I will point out that the 4 targeted Legislators ARE the only Republicans in Minnesota's federal delegation so many are already making that particular link. I will say that this has no place whatsoever in political discourse. It is one thing to disagree on the issues - that we should all be able to handle. It is another thing to spray paint threats on the homes of elected officials.

I know several people, including Michael from MDE are running down the story so stay tuned. As I find out updates I will post them.

The Star Tribune has updated their story with this quote from Congressman Kline's press spokesman Troy Young.

A spokesman for Kline, Troy Young, said similar language was spray painted on the congressman's garage door, although he declined to say what the words were or when the incident occurred. He said that what was written wasn't phrased a threat. Young would not say whether Kline was home at the time.

I wonder if we will hear the same from Bachman and Ramstad? Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2: Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Keith Ellison are on the list now.

Also vandalized in similar fashion: U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison, John Kline, Michelle Bachmann and Jim Ramstad. Klobuchar and Ellison are Democrats; Coleman, Kline, Bachmann and Ramstad, Republicans.

Ellison's appears to be the only incident so far in which the home itself was vandalized. Campaign manager Larry Weiss said that Ellison's wife, Kim, went out this morning and found graffiti that said "Traitor. Resign now. Psalm 2" across the side of their corner home. The word "SCUM" was spraypainted above the garage door -- high enough, Weiss said, that the culprit probably would have needed a stepstool.

So this now appears to be a bi-partisan vandal. It appears that the MN LEO's are going to have their work cut out for them.

Michael has pictures of the vandalism at Rep. Bachman's home and it is frightening.

The verbiage that has been used in this is telling. The tagger called Rep. Ellison a "traitor" and Rep. Ramstad a "sell-out" which possibly indicates that the person involved in this had some expectation for the two on an issue and it didn't come to fruition, thus invoking the taggers ire. The comment "still a target" in front of Rep. Bachman's home indicates that the person responsible may have had a previous dealing with Rep. Bachman. Are there other threats that were never reported? It seems that what ever is driving this person is personal and not political which makes it all the more chilling.

UPDATE: Welcome Hot Air readers. Check back often as this is a very fluid story.

She Apparently DIdn't Get The Memo

During the Elliot Spitzer prostitute scandal, my radio partner in crime Jazz Shaw noted that it seems that anytime a Democrat gets into marital trouble his wife would "stand by her man" - usually in a sky blue suit and pearls. Apparently Rep. Tim Mahoney's wife didn't get that particular memo.

Six days after sitting silently at Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney's side as he acknowledged causing ''pain'' in their marriage, Terry Mahoney filed for divorce Monday.

She filed a petition in Palm Beach County Court seeking the dissolution of their 23-year marriage, possession of their Palm Beach Gardens home and ''a full accounting of all funds spent or dissipated by the husband within the last two years'' -- the period since Mahoney was elected to Congress on a ''faith, family and personal responsibility'' platform in the aftermath of the Mark Foley sex scandal.

The irony that Mahoney took this seat in the aftermath of Mark Foley's sexcapades is not lost on most honest political observers.

No doubt Jazz and I will be talking about this and all the other election news on our BTR show tomorrow. I hope you will join us at 1pm Eastern, 11am Mountain.

Prayers For The Obama Family

Feh - there is no room in civil discourse for this kind of crap. I will not even sully the pages of this site with many excerpts other than this one....

Obama announced that his grandmother is very sick and that he will visit her Thursday and Friday after she came home from the hospital last week.

Which lead an acquaintance to quip "why wait until Thursday if she is that sick? It's just another ploy..." at which point I must say I blew up. We do not know the circumstances of Mrs. Dunham's illness...for all we know she could be in ICU with no visitors allowed! It is entirely possible (as I know from personal experience) that the doctors will keep visitors out due to infection concerns (which are guaranteed in most elderly people). Then again, maybe it was nothing major at all which would again allow for the delayed visit!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Obama family. I know what it is like to have an ailing relative in the hospital and it is never fun - especially someone Mrs. Dunham's age. Let's pray that she recovers quickly and fully so that she can witness the final two weeks of her grandson's historic race for the Presidency.

The Pre-Election Roller Coaster

I meant to get this up yesterday but domestic work got in the way so here it is today!

For polling data released during the week of October 19-25, 2008, the partisan weighting targets will be 39.7% Democratic, 33.0% Republican, and 27.3% unaffiliated. For the preceding week, the partisan weighting targets were 39.3% Democratic, 33.0% Republican, and 27.7% unaffiliated.

You have to read the whole thing to understand where they are getting their numbers, but it confirms a lot of what I wrote last Wednesday. However, as I also said last week, these numbers do not take into account the large number of Republicans and Independents who re-registered as Democrats this year in order to take part in the Democrats primaries nor does it take into account the smaller number of Democrats and Independents who registered early on as Republicans to vote in the early Republican primaries.

While Rasmussen does not necessarily take this into account, they do (in a different article) talk about the reasons for the wide array of results in the multitude of polls out there.

At the core of this flap is a polling industry disagreement about the best way to deal with partisan identification in constructing a poll. Just about everyone agrees that party identification is one of the strongest indicators as to how a person will vote. A Republican is overwhelmingly likely to vote for a GOP candidate and a Democrat is overwhelmingly likely to do the opposite.

However, the challenge lies in finding the “right” mix of Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters. Some pollsters, including many academic and media pollsters, argue that partisan identification is fluid and changes frequently. This approach suggests that whatever partisan mix falls out from the results of a random sample is the “right” answer. In the case of the recent L.A. Times poll, this mix was 39% Democrats and 22% Republicans.

Polls that use this approach tend to produce a more volatile set of results (during Election 2004, one national firm reported results days apart that showed more than a ten-point swing in voter preference).

Others, including most political polling firms and Rasmussen Reports, argue that people rarely change their partisan affiliation (how many people do you know who consider themselves a Republican one day and a Democrat the next?)...

Under normal circumstances, that is a very valid question, but (as we all know) 2008 has been a far from normal year. This election has been a "long strange trip" and it will probably get stranger as we get closer to election day. However, it behooves us all to remember that the polls will only give us a small glimpse of the overall picture. While this glimpse leads us to suspect an overall royal blue picture, it could be that the overall picture is redder (in all the "right" places) than the polls think and that could cause their results to be off badly.

The bottom line is don't take it as a fore gone conclusion - this race is still wide open and with two weeks left (and if Senator Biden is still on the campaign trail) anything could and probably will happen.

These Dreams

When I left Minnesota, I dreamed that I would finally be going to a city where the local newspaper employed real journalists and left partisan hacks like Nick Coleman behind. Sadly, that dream died when I got to Salt Lake and read Nick Coleman wanna-be Glen Warchol's partisan slams in the Salt Lake Tribune. For my Utah readers, you can get a glimpse of the insanity that is Nick Coleman at places like Powerline, Shot In The Dark, Fraters Libertas, Bogus Gold (who did the ultimate explanation of Nick and his war with the blogs) and yours truly. For my Minnesota readers, here is your introduction to Glen. In an otherwise rather humorous post on why voters should take newspaper and other endorsements with a very large grain of salt, Glen throws in the slam of the campaign on 3rd CD candidate Jason Chaffetz.

Obama-lovin' Esquire says re-elect Jon Huntsman and congressmen Rob Bishop and Jim Matheson. As for the Third Congressional seat, the men's magazine recommends Democrat Bennion Spencer over "reactionary" Kamp Kommandant Jason Chaffetz. But considering that Esquire also describes ousted Chris Cannon as a "reasonable" Republican, maybe it should just stick to picking the Sexiest Woman Alive,...

Bringing up, yet again, the lie perpetuated by Chaffetz' opponent and the local media that he wants to lock all illegal immigrants up in razor wire. They refuse to admit that Chaffetz has repeatedly said (ad nasuem thanks to the local media and Rep. Mike Honda and La Raza) that his proposal would NOT just randomly lock people up, it would lock up ALL (regardless of race or national origin) illegal immigrants who have broken other laws in this country. People like Frank Benavidez, an illegal immigrant who stands indicted in the drive by murder of a 7 year old girl and was deported once before after being convicted in ANOTHER drive by shooting! However, the local media (and Chaffetz' opponent) don't talk about that because after all enforcing our immigration law simply does not fall into their meme that enforcement advocates are xenophobic doncha know......"Kamp Kommandant" on the other hand fits nicely into the meme that they are trying to sell the voters.

About the only good thing about Warchol is that the SLTrib puts this drivel out on their blogs and not in a twice weekly column. After all, in the world according to Nick, bloggers are just "hobby hacks", "graffiti artists" with no oversight or editors - unlike real journalists like Nick who "know stuff". At least Glen has something to work toward in his career.....

Buyer Beware (Or Read The Fine Print)

We are almost to the silly end of this very silly election season. That's right folks - the endorsements are coming fast and furious. The one that seems to be generating the most local buzz (besides the SLTrib endorsements) is probably the Esquire endorsement.

Esquire endorsed candidates in every federal race nationwide - even Utah. The winners of the coveted backing: Rep. Rob Bishop, Rep. Jim Matheson and 3rd District challenger Bennion Spencer. And, in Utah's biggest state contest, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

The SLTrib goes out of it's way to make sure that they mention the flaky Citizens Against Government Waste endorsement of Chris Cannon (instead of Jason Chaffetz who is on the ballot and not Cannon) for the 3rd CD race.

Citizens Against Government Waste, an aggressive watchdog group that fights against increased government spending and earmarks, has a crush on Rep. Chris Cannon.
So much so that the group's political-action committee last week formally endorsed Cannon in the 3rd District race, calling him "a true fiscal conservative" and saying he would "work for the best interest of citizens in the 3rd District in Utah and for taxpayers nationwide."
Only one problem: Cannon won't be on the ballot.
The incumbent lost in a primary months ago to Republican Jason Chaffetz. Apparently Citizens Against Government Waste didn't get the memo.

What the didn't mention is the endorsement that Jason Chaffetz received from the National Federation of Independent Business.

The National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's leading small business association, has endorsed Jason Chaffetz for the open seat in Utah's 3rd Congressional District.

The endorsement comes from NFIB's Save America's Free Enterprise (SAFE) Trust, the organization's political action committee, and is based on evaluations of the candidates' views on legislative issues affecting small business.

"Jason Chaffetz is the proven pro-small business candidate in this race," said Lisa Goeas, NFIB's vice president, political. "A small business owner himself, Chaffetz is well-versed on the issues facing our members. In addition, his policy positions have indicated his support of many of NFIB's priority issues including healthcare and tax reform, as well as opposing labor initiatives such as card check that would hamper an entrepreneur's ability to run a business without union interference."

Of course there is no bias here. I'm sure that the NFIB endorsement - an endorsement that probably means more to more 3rd district voters than the Esquire endorsement does - was just an oversight on the SLTribs part. Right?????

To be fair, the SLTrib's Culture Vulture blog asked the most pressing question of the week. What are endorsements really worth?

But will the Tribune's endorsement move Utah from the red column to the blue? Will it have any more effect on Utah voters than the number of lawn signs each candidate has (Obama is well ahead in that count in Utah) or how many 7-Eleven coffee cups were sold with each candidates' names on them (Obama came out ahead there, too)?

Which brings me to this....regardless of who you are voting for this November, do your OWN research. Don't rely on what the paper says alone or what your friends and neighbors say......look at the records (where there are records) and look at how the candidate lives their life. If they are honest and truthful about their controversial friends, they will be honest and truthful when the get to the state or national capital. If they have a 30 year track record of supporting (or not supporting) a certain issue well then you can be sure that they are not going to vote the opposite way just because someone takes them out to lunch. Don't listen to what everyone else say - do your own due diligence and decide for yourself. Take things like endorsements into account, but make sure you take them ALL into account before you decide - not just the ones that the SLTrib decides to report on.