HometownSource Blogs

The Star Tribune has announced they have let go of Susan Albright, a strong editorial voice for the company. And why would they do that, you ask?

“I believe the role of a metro newspaper is changing radically and rapidly in a world of instant global access to information,” (Publisher Chris) Harte wrote in a memo to staff. “I see the need for our editorial pages, like the rest of the newspaper, to concentrate more heavily than ever on local, state and regional issues.”

Community newspapers be on notice, the Trib is coming after your beats.

A forthcoming novel by Richard Grossman will be more than 3 million pages in length. For convenience, it’ll be broken down into 750-page volumes — 4,000 of them. [via kottke]
Most amazing, the story is based on a single episode of Welcome Back Kotter. (okay, I made that last part up.)

The money NASA global climate warming change crusader James Hansen received - all while running around accusing others of politicizing science - is really starting to pile up.

Between the Heinz Foundation, and extreme leftist George Soros’, Hansen has received almost a million dollars from left leaning organizations over the last couple of years.

He might not have a shred of credibility left, but he…wait for it…raised awareness! 

If Hansen were a right-wing denialist discovered to be on the dole from oil companies, it would be front page news. Instead, it barely cracked the line-up. I found out about it from a blog. No wonder.

A new poll finds that only 2.6 percent of people trust “members of Congress.” Much more startling, only 4.4 percent of people trust “the media.” Even bloggers came in above that dismal figure, with a whopping 5.8 percent.

Believe it or not, George Bush is apparently the most trusted person in America, although it is still an extremely low 14 percent trustworthiness quotient.

Still, the results are surprising.

I had thought Mary Mapes fantasy world at HuffPo yesterday was the pinnacle of selective memory. That is, until I read this quote from Harry Reid after the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the latest Iraq surrender bill:

“We are united,” the Nevada Democrat said. “We vote together all the time…”

Huh?

Reid’s point was that Democrats vote as a bloc against the war, and Republicans vote for it, and therefore the American people can’t help but be aware which party supports Chimpler W. McHitlerburton’s illegal blood war of oil occupation.

While 28 Democrats did support the cutting off of funds from American soldiers in harms way, 20 did not. That’s four votes shy of a straight 50-50 split. Or, in other words, the exact opposite of “united.”

Could Reid be that inept at simple math? That absolutely clueless as to the definition of united? Or did he very purposely lie believing the only casually engaged masses would assume there is far more support for his position than there really is?

Depending on your level of cynicism, Reid is either a very dim bulb or a propagandist. Not exactly a confidence inspiring moment regardless of how you slice it.

Over at City Pages Blotter, they’ve got a nicely-phrased send-up on key legislation enacted this week by our erstwhile federal Senators from Minnesota. It seems that wagging a finger at MoveOn.org was top of the agenda for both our Democratic and Republican operatives in the House of Lords (rather ironic that the Senate home page currently features a celebration of the Constitution.)
This episode continues Senator Klobuchar’s impressive push to out-lame Norm Coleman. Nice work, Senators, both. I’ll be sending another 10 bucks to MoveOn in your honor.

UPDATED AT BOTTOM

There is an interesting story from Tim Budig today, on lawmakers’ questions about a stipend given contractors who lost the bid for the I-35W bridge project:

Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-Lindstrom, and Sen. Jim Carlson, DFL-Eagan, wondered why the stipend was increased from $300,000 to $500,000.

Not included in the story, but sent in a press release is this quote from Kalin:

“The stipend for the losing bidders has increased 66 percent from the original contract before the bids have even been opened,” said Rep. Kalin. “The public has heard no reason given for this huge increase and we’ve heard no criteria for the cost overrun. We’re talking about $600,000 that should be used to invest in our roads, bridges, and transit, not on bonuses for losing bids.”

I have no idea how $500,000 became $600,000 from one paragraph to another, but we’ll assume there is a reason (see update at bottom). More importantly, please do note the inclusion of transit by Kalin: Read more »

A new Zogby poll has come out today showing President Bush’s approval rating at 29 percent. Amazingly, that rating makes him vastly more popular than Congress:

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

The 11 percent approval rating is down from 35 percent (according to Gallup) shortly after Democrats gained the majority in January, and even down from 21 percent last November, which was after a solid year of beating on the GOP led Congress in the election campaign.

Just nine months after talking the helm, it looks as though Democrats’ popularity has been “redeployed.”

Tim from Colorado injects a dose of reality into the Goracle’s Emmy:

I know, I know, you are probably awestruck at the man’s depth, but this was a non-competitive category, i.e., there were no other nominees, kind of like an election under Saddam.

Of course, no one in Hollywood had to be tortured into voting for Al. Unless, of course, you consider An Inconvenient Truth torture.

While obesity in children is a concern we should take seriously, I’m not sure we need body-fat police running around the state:

Wendy Hanson, state obesity prevention coordinator for the Department of Health, says what’s needed is enforcing the physical education requirement in the public school system, creating state-wide nutrition standards, and enforcing the school wellness policies, not just monitoring them. Finally, she believes there should be a statewide surveillance program to see how many obese kids there are and what’s being done about them.

It’s fascinating the civil rights we abuse in the name of “public health;” dictating how private business can function through smoking bans and even menu oversight. Now, Minnesota wants to spy on chubby kids. Read more »

The Star Tribune’s coverage of the Norman Hsu/Hillary Clinton campaign contribution story is exactly on par with what we have come to expect from the paper…which is not much:

In returning $850,000 to donors associated with a disgraced fundraiser, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sets a significant new standard for how campaigns should respond in the face of potential scandal, analysts said.

Our hero! She only keeps donations given by foreign contributors through criminals if she doesn’t get caught! Even for the Trib, this is shameless water hauling.

I had so much more to say about this but Anti-Strib beat me to it: Read more »

EARTHTimes.org has a press release today that might seem shocking to those who believe there is little to no scientific counterpoint to global climate warming change:

A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun’s irradiance.

I guess the science isn’t so settled after all, but let that not be an excuse to refrain from saying it is. Raising awareness trumps any casualties, like truth.

It’s been six years since 9/11 and I marvel now as I marveled then at how detached people can be from the world around them. Back in 2001, I arrived home after a long day and cried together with my wife as we embraced. A client of hers standing nearby, whispered to LeAnn, “Is Pat okay? Did he lose his job or something?” She knew about the towers, but it wasn’t an event that had any affect on her personally nor did she fathom that it would have that affect on another.

Six years later, we are more detached than ever, as evidenced by the unhinged rantings of Keith Olbermann:

Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda - worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.

Before this it would have been hard to fathom an individual so obsessively partisan that he would consider a cable news channel exercising free speech more dangerous than an organization that has killed thousands of Americans, or a group that oppressed countless African Americans for generations. Read more »

Here’s something to keep in mind as General Petraeus tries (likely in vain) to give an accurate picture of events in Iraq:

We’ve reached a grotesque low point when scoring political points means more to our legislators than winning a war.

Sad but true, and also very familiar, which is likely why MoveOn.org felt compelled to take an ad calling the general “General Betray Us?,” and Chuck Schumer feels compelled to credit surge success thusly:

The inability of American soldiers to protect these tribes from Al Qaeda said to these tribes, “We have to fight Al Qaeda ourselves.”

Interestingly enough, Schumer’s characterization of American troops as inept has been removed from his Web site, though we all know what he meant. But hey, don’t question his patriotism. Read more »

Perhaps the news of Good Morning America’s carbon footprint has reached Al Gore, who is now in the uncomfortable position of having to play catch up with his own Sasquatch-like contribution.

No worries. The Nobel nominated eco-prophet can always fire up his luxury Gulfstream jet. Speaking of luxury, check out the Goracle’s computer setup. I haven’t seen that many flat screens since I was last at Best Buy.

It was Gore himself who recently said, “We are in a transition time in history when the only way we can get to where we need to be is by starting from where we are.” Who knew we were going in our personal airplanes?

The first thing we need to do is raise Al Gore’s awareness of the damage caused by private jets and gluttonous electricity consumption.

It’s not cool to burn fuel!