The Savage Republican

Don't get a cold in Minnesota

At least not on Mike Hatch's watch anyway. According to this in today's Star Tribune, Attorney General (and Gubernatorial candidate) Hatch is going after the pharmaceuticals companies for making cold medicines that can also be used in making meth.

"Hatch said he plans to sue giant international drugmakers such as Pfizer and Merck on grounds that they long have known that large quantities of their legal products have been diverted to illegal meth labs, spurring an epidemic of addiction, crime and shattered lives across America."

Well shoot....if we are going to go down that road, why don't we sue car manufacturers because they know that their legally manufactured products are being used illegally every day by drunk drivers for one and 100% of all car accidents involve cars...and we can sue the manufacturers of ski masks and nylon stockings because they know that their product is being used illegally every day in robberies. How about we sue the manufacturers of baseball bats and hockey sticks? Their legally manufuctured products are used to illegally assult people.

"It seems that this solution seeks to punish people who make a legitimate and needed product because other people are misusing it," said Wanda Mobius, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group in Washington. "

Count me as one of those people that AG Hatch wants to punish. Cold medicines that I routinely use legally are already behind the counter and everytime I want to by a package of it I have to sign an affidavit that says I am using them legally and I am not allowed to buy too many packages out of the fear that I might do something illegal with it!

I have no doubts that this little bit of grandstanding is calculated to keep his name in the headlines. Every time his name is mentioned in a news story, it has "and gubernatorial candidate" tied to it! Let me ask you this candidate Hatch...much has been made of the rapidly rising costs of health care. Health care is a core DFL issue. How is suing big pharma over the illegal activities of the end users of the their legally manufactured products going to reduce these out of control drug costs?

UPDATE: Midwest Jay points out that S.C. Johnson could be next since they make Ziplocs (tm) bags which are used to package drugs! Who's next Mr. AG??????

Free speech for all?????

Three things have happened recently that, taken separately are relatively unremarkable, but when put together are concerning.

First, when I was at the SD35 DFL meeting to listen to Coleen Rowley speak, one agenda item was "John Kline sending campaign literature at taxpayer expense". Second, much has been made in the last 2 weeks of the Governor's radio program on WCCO. It appears that some are upset that the program is still on the air even though the Governor is "running" for re-election. Third is the reaction to the Progress for America "Midwest Hero's" ad campaign.

The mailings that had the Dems so upset was a flyer that came out in one of the local papers. It was one of those typical "here is what I have accomplished in DC" flyers that all Senators and Congresspeople send out year after year. While I am not a lawyer, I do know that as long as the literature does not say "Vote for John Kline" it is not campaign literature. It is simply a report back to the constituency.

Second is the Governor's radio program. Several of the DFL candidates for Governor are demanding that WCCO pull Governor Pawlenty's weekly radio program, calling it an "illegal campaign contribution". They have been going (almost daily) to their willing accomplices at the Star Tribune to complain. MDE has all of the documentation as to why that is wrong! The bottom line is that the FCC law says that this is not "illegal" campaigning until July 20 which is when his name will be certified for the ballot!

Lastly are the Progress for America ads - I had not posted on these ads, mostly because the rest of my fellow MOBsters have more than adequately covered this issue. It was not until I read about this that I started to really get upset. The fact that one of our major political parties would activly campaign to stifle free speech that they do not agree with set my teeth on edge. For month after month, during the 2004 election, the airwaves were filled with "embellishment and fabrication" (as one commenter on MDE described the video) of thousands of issue ads from all sides of the political spectrum. Were there calls to pull them from the public airwaves? I don't recall any - at least none that were this organized. OK - scratch that....the Swift Boat Vets got the same treatment....do you sense a trend here?????

Nick Coleman wrote at length - devoting two columns to the issue - on these advertisements in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In his second column, he even had the audacity to imply that the step-mother who raised one of our dead soldiers had "no right" to speak for this young man. Several Iraq War Vets, including Eagan's own Col. Joe Repya, have written letters, to the editor to the Strib, to Mr. Coleman directly and to the DFL refuting these assertions. To date the Star Tribune refused to print the letters from Col. Repya.

Putting all of this together, one gets the distinct impression that the Minnesota DFL has no problem with free speech - as long as it is their own.... anyone who disagrees with them apparently has no such rights. And they wonder why they continue to lose elections.

Crime wave

I ran across this in the NY Times the other day. It appears that a lot of "smaller" metropolitan areas (they are called tier 2 cities in my industry) are experiencing a sharp rise in violent crime. That statistic is not a surprise to those who live in Minneapolis. Well, I should say that those who live in the Minneapolis area and who read Rambix and the Red Star on a daily basis. Rambix has been detailing the rising crime rate in Minneapolis for quite some time. This blog will (I'm sure) be influential when the 2006 Senatorial race comes along because his posts are great documentation as to just how successful Amy Klobuchar has been in her job as Hennepin County Attorney. Please make it regular reading.

"Those People"

I got this in an email yesterday. As I read it, I was touched by a sense of deja vu. Why deja vu? I grew up a child of the 1960's and specifically the civil rights movement. My father faced discrimination growing up because of the color of his skin. Because of that, the whole mindset of judging anyone by their race is repulsive to me and something I simply can not understand.

"In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. "

Then I came across this in the New York Times. It is along the same line of thought. What caught my eye though, was an exchange that was shared in the article.

"At a coffee bar in Karachi with four of my female friends — two schoolteachers, a lawyer and an interior designer — I asked, "Were the cartoons meant to be provocative?"
"Yes!" The response was unanimous.
"So is there a conspiracy to provoke Muslims into reacting violently?"
Here, everyone's certainty diminished. "No, not a conspiracy," one of the schoolteachers said, and the others signaled agreement...
..."What is the point of the provocation?" I pressed on.
"Who ever knows what's going on?" one of the schoolteachers said. "It's something internal going on in those places. Or something to do with their own politics about, who knows, Iran, Israel. It could be anything."

There it is...It's something internal going on in those places...with those people! The two words that, when put together, cause this child of the '60's to cringe in pain! I thought the whole purpose of the "everybody's beautiful in their own way" generation was to get away from the "those people" kind of comments and yet there it is. It happens, day in and day out throughout this country. "Those people" just don't live like we do..."those people" don't look like we do, "those people" don't think like we do, "those people" don't worship like we do, "those people, "those people".....

The sad thing is that we get a lot of the "those people"s out of the political party that claims to care the most about "those people". However, if you read their statements, you realize that the opposite is true. "We need to keep abortion an option because 'those people' can't be expected to take responsibility for their actions" or "we need to increase welfare spending because 'those people' can't take care of themselves". Oh to be sure, they couch it in pretty language - "it is a woman's choice" or "we want to make sure that they have adequate healthcare" but the bottom line is all the same..."those people" need to be kept dependent on big government to take care of them because they can't! But then again, look at what is being discussed in these articles....it is all couched in pretty double talk.

Please, dear readers, go read both articles and weep with me for the generations that are being taught to hate, who have been taught that there is no hope. For the generations that are taught to be dependent on others and who are being taught to kill.

A WHAT?????

As I said here, I am not a hunter. However, even I know just how laughable this headline is:

Cheney Lacked $7 Hunting Credential

To the authors.....it's called a stamp...a quail stamp....

Hunting 101 class dismissed!

More Al Franken

Hot off of his appearance on the Michael Medved program, Al Franken did a live chat today with the Olympian (H/T MDE). It was a little bit friendlier audience today which made for a couple of softball questions like....

"David, Seattle: After you are elected to the U.S. Senate, who in your opinion will be the second-funniest senator? "

and

"Timothy, Olympia: As a noted comedic writer, you have had a very impressive career. What has been your personal highlight? And can I still get the Lincoln Medallion?"

But there were a couple of good questions:

"Joel, Maple Grove, Minn.: What is it about being in the entertainment industry that makes entertainers such as yourself become heavy-handed political advocates? You starting losing me once you became so partisan. "

Ohhhh good question Joel. Al????

Franken: Well, I guess I started becoming more partisan when I left SNL, because I never felt it was appropriate for the show to have a dog in the race, but once I left I felt free to express my political views. And I feel like the country is going in the wrong direction now. Take Dennis Miller for example, I admire the fact that he chose to have a dog in the fight and he did what he did. There's a difference between a comedian and a satirist and an advocate, and I'm kind of all of the above. I get that from people who are Republican or totally political, and I've chosen to do what I do for a reason and I'm not going to change because of that question.

If there is a difference between a comedian and a satirist and an advocate, how can you be "all of the above"?????

Peggy, Elma: How might we go about changing our economic system to a social system similar to Scandinavian countries'? Is there any chance we can elimination the "personhood" of corporations so people once again can run the country?
Franken: I think that there are certain things we can do that other industrialized countries have done that would be a huge improvement such as national health insurance and public financing of elections. I'm an entrepreneur and I'm a firm believer in entrepreneurship, not that the questioner isn't, and I do think corporations have far too much power in this country.

Well thank goodness Al is a firm believer in entrepreneurship, but what is nationalized healthcare doing to small business in these Scandinavian countries???? Just wondering...

Missing from today's dialog....talk of a nuclear Iran and the cartoon riots and a lot of other things that are really important. Al needs to start becoming aware of these issues if he is indeed going to run, because these are issues that the Senate will be dealing with now and in the very near future. What good will universal heathcare be if the mullah's in Iran drop a nuke on New York City?????

Al Franken on Michael Medved

Well Blogger did not want to co-operate. So rather than live blog, it's going to be reactive blogging.

Michael Medved started out talking about a NY Post article covering the yet to be announced Senate campaign. The Post said the comedian said he is still undecided but that "his reluctance is only a matter of convenience" because when he does announce he will have to give up his 3 hour radio show. Meved asked "do you think the Post is right?" No Franken responded "I really have not decided yet...I don't know." Medved asked was that one of your reasons for moving back to MN to establish residency. I guess sure, Franken said, "I moved back home because I could. I'm an empty nester." When you live in NY people either considers themselves as New Yorkers or from where ever they are from and I have always considered myself to be a Minnesota. Medved asked what will be the main factor in the decision to run? Franken - I would have to see if I was viable as a candidate - I have been traveling around the state and talking to people (Medved commented "you sound like a candidate to me") I am doing the kind of things you have to do if I run." Medved asked "Is this like the Hillary Clinton "Listening Tour"? Franken replied "Not exactly because I'm not listening as much. I just yak at these people and they go "well why are you here then". I am seriously considering it and if I do run I would have had to have done these things. So all of that looks like I have decided, if you were of a suspicious mindset but I really haven't. I'm also doing this stuff for other candidates - progressive candidates and progressive organizations like Wellstone Action. We also have a website "Midwest Values PAC" people can go there and see what we are doing and we are trying to get people to get active. He said that the reason that Sen. Kerry lost in 2004 was that the Republicans were better at organizing their base (ed - no Al it was because the Dems still don't have a message!)

Now to the callers - one caller asked if Al connected with some of the spokespeople for the far left - specifically Michael Moore and Al Gore. He was asked for his reaction to Al Gore's remarks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Al started to follow the DNC talking points ("well there have been cases"). The caller pressed Al for specifics. He danced around the issue until Medved pressed him on the issue. He mentioned a case in Houston where a doctor had been detained for 9 days on a case of mistaken identity. Medved conceded that there may have been some "excesses" at which point Franken jumped in asking Medved to "name them" - classic Democrat "gotcha" games. Franken closed this question by saying that he could not comment on the issue because he had not heard the comments in context! (More on this at the end)

Another caller (from Medina MN) asked Al how he could be taken seriously after all of these years as a humorist. He also asked how Al would address agricultural issues. Al asked if the caller had listened to his show which he admitted he had not. Al mentioned all of the people he had on the program to discuss ag issues, but he did not put forward any answers or proposals. He did mention that he "didn't know about the saw grass" alternative fuel that President Bush just spoke about until he interviewed someone on his program on ag issues.

The book that Franken is promoting "The Truth with Jokes" talks about what Franken considers to be the "profound lies" of the Republican Party and the Bush campaign of 2004. When asked to give an example for the most egregious of those examples Franken said " it's really about how they won - smears, fears and queers" (I think Al forgot just who brought up the gay daughter of the candidate in the VP debates)...the "3 horsemen of the Republican Apocalypse" he called them. Coming back from a break, Medved mentioned that the last time Franken was on his program, Swift Boat Vet John O'Neill was on the program. Franken had listed the Swift Boat Vets under the "smears" category in his book (even though they (the Swift Boat Vets) were there and Al was not). Al didn't like it because Medved had "invited me on and then there was John O'Neill" (this was at the RNC Convention in New York City). "I don't want to debate John O'Neill on a subject he has debated his whole life on (ed - at least he admits that O'Neill knows what the heck he was talking about) - I felt very blindsided". Franken then goes on to discuss the issue in his book - how brave.

A liberal caller called in trashing the Bush Administration's "compassionate conservatism" He really didn't "ask" a question, so Medved said "Al's the candidate, let's let him answer" (Al did not correct Medved's statement as an aside). Franken gave the Bush administration credit in foreign policy however, he took the administration to task for "cutting student loans when he is looking to make the tax cuts to the wealthy permanent". That led Medved to ask "why is it fair for people who will not send a child to college to tax them for sending your child or my child to college." Franken came back with the "Bush tax cuts only benefit the rich" canard. Medved countered that it was a regressive tax on the poor to pay for college loans that they can not or will not use. Medved turned it around so that it looked like Franken was for the rich and against the poor.....

Another caller asked about the Peter Switzer accusations that Franken does not practice what he preaches. The Switzer accusation is that Al Franken says he is all for affirmative action, but he does not hire minorities. To wit he says that Franken has 114 employees and only 1 is black - what do you say about that? "Not true - absurd" He said that Switzer takes projects that he was involved in as "producer or something" and he counts me every time but he did not count every employee. How many black employees now the caller asked. "2 out of 10" Franken replied. Medved asked don't you think these conversations are stupid - don't you hire the best available? Franken said "I believe in affirmative action". Medved - I'm shocked because I only have 2 employees, to which Franken replied "I am the hardest working guy in show biz/politics". Medved responded "I'd argue that".

The next caller said getting back to Michael Moore, Al Gore and the far left (AF - "Al Gore is hardly on the far left") the caller commented that it seemed surprising that these guys are saying things that Franken "did not much know about and that it your job to know about it". The caller finished with "I don't know is not a option for you as a political commentator" GREAT CALL! Franken admits that the left hears the "outrageous things" that the right says where the right hears the "outrageous things" the left says.

Another caller asked "can this administration is capable of ever telling the truth ". Franken responded "They have a hard time telling the truth...the worst was in the lead up to war in Iraq". Medved asked "you don't believe that the president deliberately lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction?" Franken responded "I believe that he wanted to go to war and that he didn't want to hear anything" contrary to that then they cut to the break. When they came back from break Medved resumed on the point - "Why did GWB want to go to war?" Franken responded "I don't know why...I didn't say that I said that...I said that he closed his mind to alternatives." Part of it was an "adolescent" want to "do something great". Medved asked "do you think he was sincere...that he took us to war because he thought it would help the United States of America?" Franken responded yes but that he thinks the President was "deluded" in that thinking.

The last caller was one of the best. He said that you hear all of this talk about the about the Democrats hating George Bush. The caller said that he thought that they were "profoundly jealous that a dumb hick from Texas could be elected President" and not an elitist like him. Franken's answer "my dad didn't graduate from High School and his dad was President". Now I don't know what that has to do with anything, but I do know that Franken does not realize that "elitist" is not a state but an attitude. An attitude that "I know better than you how you should live your life" and that is something that the left is full of and until they get that idea through their heads, they will continue to loose elections.

Sometimes being ill is good

I have been battling bronchitis and laryngitis for the last couple of days. I was sitting at home listening to AM1280 the Patriot when the Michael Medved program started. Michael announced at the start of the program that Al (I want to be Senator) Franken will be on the program later today. I will try to live blog the program so that those of you who are unable to listen to the program will be able to see what this man is all about. Stay tuned dear readers....this could be fun!

Why I blog as Amendment X

Ya know, there are times like this I don't even know where to begin.
I'm listening to Rush and he's on a roll about the fraud from Hurricane Katrina relief.
Not to mention 10,000 trailers stuck in the mud and absolutely unusable. $250,000 spent per household in relief (what would you be able to do if you had been given $250,000 in the last five months?). Even Snopes has an entry on the fraud!
And all the lefties will scream that this waste is the fault of GWB, Chertoff, mean and nasty Republicans. And they continue to believe that the government can be, should be or can be made to be efficient and effective. That big is only good when it comes to government. That their ideal model is the UN ( yah-read what Mark Steyn has to say about the UN and incredible corruption that you'll never hear about).
Again, the only reason that lefties will tell you that big government doesn't work are one or more of the following:
1. Not enough time has been given to socialism/communism (150 years just isn't quite there yet).
2.Not enough money has been spent ($7,000,000,000,000 on the War on Poverty Programs and we still have the same % of "poor people" . So, we lost the war).
3. The right people just haven't been in charge (the corollary to this is that the program just needs to be "fine tuned").
The truth is so clear, so obvious, so pronounced.
And so ignored.

Cheney v ALMOST President Gore- and a near hit!

OK. In contrast to the Lady Logician, I AM a hunter. And I may be defined as a gun nut.
And I know that you never lag behind your hunting party. One of the first things I was told when I started walking the fields with my Dad, Grandpa Johnson and my Uncles at age six was you never walked ahead or behind the hunting party. That you knew where everyone was. So, shame on at least one member and possibly two in that party.
And now, to the Washington press corps-what a bunch of self absorbed twits! What a gaggle of whiney brats! Missing (nah, they were ignoring) the real story of substance in Saudi Arabia. The ALMOST President Gore was in Saudi Arabia inflaming radicals in the hotbed of radical Islamists (Whabiism) by lying about American abuse of Arabs.
Way to go ALMOST President Gore! I'm sure it just eluded you that more than half of all the 9-11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. Perhaps you were thinking that...you know, I really haven't a clue what ALMOST President Gore was thinking.
By the way, wouldn't it be much more consistent with ALMOST President Gore's usual ranting to be excoriating the Saudis as what they export to America is the primary source of supposed global warming? Why isn't he screaming at them for killing snail darters and spotted owls and the Amazon and melting the polar ice caps?
Looks like we dodged a real bullet (pun intended) when Vice President Gore became ALMOST President Gore.

Hunting accidents

I preface this post by saying I am not a hunter. I am not a "gun nut", I am dreadfully uncomfortable around guns in spite of the good intentions of the Logical Husband and many, many friends. Disclaimers thus out of the way.....

Vice President Cheney (aka the "Prince of Darkness") was involved in a hunting accident this weekend. The VP's party was out shooting quail, which I am told is a difficult game bird to hunt, when a member of the party walked into the VP's line of fire and was shot. The press reports that I have read, seen and heard say that the man shot had left the party to try to find a bird that he had shot and when he returned to the party unannounced he came up out of the VP's line of vision.

I emphasize "unannounced" for a reason. Even I, a non-hunter, know that you do not leave your hunting party and if you do leave the party, you let them know where you are when you return for this very reason! I also know (thanks to living in Minnesota and Wisconsin where hunting and fishing are rights of passage) that hunting accidents happen every gun season. It is a given.

Now the White House Press corp is up in arms. It seems that they were not told of the accident for 18-24 hours after the accident had occurred. Helen Thomas even asked if the VP had or intended to "tender his resignation?" In answer to the question "what took him so long to notify somebody?", Scott McClellan (White House Press Secretary) answered:

"You know what [the vice president's] first reaction was? His first reaction was: Go to Mr. Whittington and get his team in there to provide him medical care,"

Get the man medical care or call the press? What to do, what to do??? Call the police (and an ambulance or Helen Thomas? Dang, that's a toughie...

The MSM is in high umbrage over the delay in telling them about the accident. I certainly don't remember such umbrage back in 1969, when Senator Teddy Kennedy accidentially drove his car into Poucha Pond. If you recall, Senator Kennedy waited until the next morning (after he had talked to several people including his lawyer) to report that Mary Jo Kopechne was still in the submerged car.

The Truth is out there

One of my favorite political websites is a site called Project Vote Smart. It allows the average voter to look up the record of politicians (mostly state level and up) on specific votes. No spin, no glorification, no shading - just a straight "did they vote? how?" and what was the bill about. Now while this is generally a bad thing for incumbents (Sen Kerry for example) it can, on occasion, bite a challenger or two. Thus may be the case with Coleen Rowley.

The Rowley campaign has accused Congressman Kline of voting against Veterans benefits 11 times. Now the Vote Smart site is partially under construction so the records are not complete, but the records seem to be closer to Congressman Kline's version of the story (here) than they do Ms. Rowley's version.

I have asked the Kline campaign for a list of the votes in question so that we can do our due diligence, but based on what I have seen so far, the "truth" seems to be in the Congressman's corner.

The Savage Republican

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Saturday, February 18, 2006