Book 'Em, Danno

It looks like the guy who hacked Sarah Palin's e-mail account may be identified. Apparently a 20-year old University of Tennessee student, David Kernell, is being investigated. Click on the link concerning more about the background of this individual.

It's too soon to tell if this is the guy, or if it's someone else. I don't care who it is - the person who did this needs to go to jail.

Fearless Dilettante Football Predictions - Gratuitous Joe Paterno Bashing Edition

Football rivalries tend to be passionate, especially if they have a long history. This week's slate has some of that, but not as much as we'll see later on.





Xavier Hawks 17, Ripon Tigers 3. This year the mighty Hawks have been playing defense like it really matters, pitching two consecutive shutouts. There's very little history between the Hawks and Ripon, but what history there is favors the Blue and White.

ACTUAL RESULT: RIPON 39, XAVIER 22. Ripon pulled out a spread offense and was just too fast for the Hawks. Next weeked hated Clintonville comes to XHS for Homecoming.

Irondale Knights 41, North Branch Vikings 6. North Branch is a nice town on the outskirts of the metro area and there's very little history between these two schools, either. North Branch had a dismal season last year and so far things haven't improved much. The Knights should cruise in this one.

ACTUAL RESULT: IRONDALE 51, NORTH BRANCH 0. This just in -- North Branch is still dismal.





Mounds View Mustangs 31, Roseville Raiders 17. This is a good rivalry but historically Mounds View has had the better of it. Since the game is in Roseville, it may be close, but there's little reason to expect the Mustangs to fall.

ACTUAL RESULT: MOUNDS VIEW 35, ROSEVILLE 0. Surprisingly easy win. Those Mustangs might be pretty good.





Monmouth Scots 42, Beloit Bucs 10. Beloit and Monmouth have been playing for years and while from this distance it looks like the Bucs are getting better, they are not ready for this challenge. The Scots will battle hated St. Norbert for league supremacy and the Bucs will be spectators at best.

ACTUAL RESULT: MONMOUTH 51, BELOIT 3. Next!





Badgers have a Bye. Looking at the schedule, so does a lot of the Big Ten, especially Penn State, which is playing Temple. Penn State can consider itself ripped, especially since it also played Coastal Seafoods, I mean Coastal Carolina a few weeks back. Next year I believe JoePa has scheduled these guys for a game, and he won't stop until the Lions have cut a path through all of the Seven Sisters.





Minnesota Golden Gophers 31, Florida Atlantic Owls 28. Last year the Gophers got beat down in Florida by these guys, but the Owls aren't as good this year. Give the Gophers the nod based on the home field and the chance that ancient Owls coach Howard Schnellenberger will be distracted by the cannon fire in the end zone after the Gophers score.




ACTUAL RESULT: MINNESOTA 37, FAU 3. It has to be said - the Gophers are making a lot of progress. Next week they go to Columbus - that will tell us a lot.


Carolina Panthers 21, Purple Helmeted Love Warriors 17. My Appleton readers are disappointed that the Vikings have decided to start Gus Frerotte instead of this guy. But it won't really matter much - the Vikings will rise or fall on the production of Adrian Peterson. The Panthers will likely have 8 guys in the box and until the Vikings can get their offensive line straightened out, Peterson will continue to run wild between the 20s and have little room in the red zone. Sorry, Purple.

ACTUAL RESULT: VIKINGS 20, PANTHERS 10. Good win for the Purple. Antoine Winfield may have saved their season. Tough trip next week, though, so caution is advised, oh manic Purple fans.



Green Bay Packers 31, Dallas Cowboys 28. Aaron Rodgers almost beat these guys in Dallas last year. This time the game is in Green Bay. The Cowboys have never won in Lambeau Field and the last two times they've come up they've been blown out. It won't be a blowout this time, but the guess here is that Tony Romo will try a little too hard and throw a key pick late.

ACTUAL RESULT: COWBOAHS 27, PACKERS 16. Nothing too complicated here - it looked like a Packers/Cowboys game from around 1993-94, with Romo in the Aikman role, Barber in the Emmitt Smith role and Owens in the Irvin role. Irvin didn't usually hurt the Packers that much - it was always Alvin Harper in those days, and so it was yesterday - the other guy was the one with the dagger. Packers just have to get better, like they did after 1994.

The New Bridge

Took the new 35W bridge this morning. It's very nice, well designed and the traffic flow was outstanding. I won't miss 280, that's for sure.

Don't Need to Discuss Much

Gus Frerotte takes over for Tarvaris Jackson. The Vikings have apparently bailed for now on their great experiment. As always, the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in most NFL towns and we're no different here in the Land of Purple. Viking fans dimly remember that Frerotte had some success as an injury replacement for Daunte Culpepper a few years back and they are perhaps hoping that magic can return.

I'm skeptical. There's a reason why Frerotte has bounced around a lot in his career. He has a good arm and he's smart, but he has always tended to wear down as the season goes on. He's also 37 years old and largely immobile, which is trouble given the current state of the Vikings offensive line. Some of Jackson's best plays have been with his feet, plays that Frerotte probably can't make. My guess is that Viking opponents will continue to stack things up to stop Adrian Peterson and that they will continue to strugle offensively.

In theory, Jackson will be benched for the rest of the season while Frerotte takes over. The guess here is that Frerotte will get hurt and we'll see T-Jack back under center by midseason. And by then, the Vikings will have settled into 3rd place in the division, where they will remain for the rest of the season.

Feel the Love

What on earth would have possessed the Gawker gang to accept the results of a hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail account and post the results for the world to see? I don't really want you to click on that link, because what's there is none of your business. Nor is it mine. But there it is. And it probably will reside on caches on computers forever, even if Gawker eventually takes this scurrility down.

The good news is that the FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter and these enterprising people who did this are probably all going to be headed for jail. It's a pretty open and shut case, after all, because they posted the stuff on a website. While they likely tried to hide the actual IP addresses involved, the Secret Service is very good at figuring this sort of thing out. They will.

I already see that the spin coming from the port side is that Palin shouldn't have been using personal e-mail for state business. What's been published thus far doesn't support that conclusion, but that doesn't matter. It's long since been clear that anything can be done to Sarah Palin and her family and she simply has to live with it. It's a good thing that she's tough, because she has been put through something that is unbelievably shameful.

Timelines

• October 11, 2002: The United States Senate passes Public Law 107-243, more commonly known as the Iraq War Resolution, with a vote of 77-23. Senator Paul Wellstone, involved in a re-election campaign against challenger Norm Coleman, votes against the measure.


• October 25, 2002: Sen. Wellstone dies in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota.
• October 29, 2002: A memorial service honoring Sen. Wellstone is televised throughout Minnesota. It turns deeply partisan, with speakers including Rick Kahn and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) openly campaigning for replacement candidate Walter Mondale.
• The backlash against the memorial service proves costly to the Democrats as Norm Coleman wins election. Polling suggests that the tone of the event may have cost other Democrats running in elections elsewhere in the country.
• January 7, 2006: a helicopter crash kills Maj. Stuart Anderson near Tal Afar, Iraq. Seven other soldiers and four civilians are killed as well. Major Anderson is survived by his wife, two daughters and his parents. "He was very proud of being in the military,” his father, Claremont Anderson, of Hoffman, Minn., said earlier this month.
• September 16, 2008: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee runs an ad featuring Maj. Anderson's parents, including the aforementioned Mr. Anderson. In the ad, the grieving parents blame Sen. Coleman for voting for the war. As noted in the timeline, when the war was authorized, Sen. Coleman was a private citizen.

Cross-posted on True North

The Keyser Sose of Washington

I don't usually post during the day, but you really owe it to yourself to read this blog post about Jamie Gorelick, the former Clinton operative who seems to be at the scene of every disaster that happens in the 202 area code. Truly astonishing.

(h/t: Instapundit)

A Coyote on Rolls Road

Saw something unusual today as I was coming home. My usual path takes me through our residential neighborhood and I was traveling north on Rolls Road when I saw it, standing in between two houses about 15 feet from the road. A coyote, staring nonchalantly at me while I drove past. It was a little smaller than an Irish Setter but had the unmistakable muzzle of a coyote. It had probably wandered up into the neighborhood from Mirror Lake, the large pond that sits at the end of my street.

I've seen foxes, deer and even bald eagles in the neighborhood before, but never a coyote. Our neighborhood is Wonder Years suburban vintage, with a variety of 60s era houses plotted along winding streets that are named after autmobiles (Rolls Road, Continental Drive, Cord Circle, Riviera Drive and Benz Road). It's not exactly a place where one would expect to see anything other than a squirrel or rabbit, but nature has learned to adapt to the urban setting and you see all manner of fauna these days.

It doesn't surprise me that a coyote might live in the neighborhood. They are smart, resourceful animals that will eat whatever they can find. They might prefer a squirrel, but they will raid the garbage if they have to. They find a way to survive.

Sometimes I wonder why we give people less respect for their resourcefulness than we give coyotes. Today was a tough day in the financial markets, with Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch seeking shelter from my former employer, Bank of America. There was a certain measure of panic in the market, but rationality was ultimately maintained. While it is hard to imagine a world without a firm like Lehman Brothers and I certainly emphatize with those who lost their jobs today, you have to believe that we can adapt to the changes that are afoot. Both of the presidential campaigns were alternatively promising help and casting aspersions about the good will of the other. They need to do that sort of thing right now - it probably won't do to pretend that a hands-off approach is the wisest. But I suspect it is.

We don't know how much rot there is among the major financial firms right now, although we'll eventually find out. But this much is certain - like the coyote on Rolls Road, we'll adapt. We may eat some garbage in the short term, but the hunting will improve.

We're Desperate

Do you remember Michael Dukakis? Watch this ad and tell me if it sounds like things we're hearing now.

And for a special bonus -- check out the sources listed on the second link, then tell me when left-wing columnists like Joe Klein and E. J. Dionne's views became dispositive on an issue. Do you suppose that if McCain ran an ad citing Sean Hannity's views as evidence for an assertion that most people would accept it?

(H/T: Hot Air)

Ned the Dead (Part Two)

Brewers fire Ned Yost. Man, that was fast. Let's see what ol' Dale Sveum can do for them.

Ned the Dead (and other thoughts)

Haven't done a bullet post in a while, but a drizzly day seems like a good day for a drizzle of thoughts. All sports, though - let's give politics a rest for a day.

• It's increasingly looking like my beloved Milwaukee Brewers are going to choke yet again. They went into the weekend up three games in the wild card race to Philadelphia and are in the process of getting swept by the Phillies while dodging the raindrops that have been falling all over the Eastern Seaboard. When it matters, the Brewers are falling apart. Goodness, it's irritating. This team has more talent than any since the lone World Series team in Brewers history but has had an awful penchant of blowing games in the late innings. It may not be entirely fair to blame this on manager Ned Yost, but it's pretty clear that if the Brewers miss the playoffs again, Ned will be gone. As for the picture, my friends back home in Wisconsin will remember.


• The football season has been a lot of fun so far, but things will start getting interesting this week. The Badgers passed a major test last night at Fresno, but begin a really nasty stretch after a bye week. They go to Michigan, then entertain Ohio State and Penn State on successive weekends, then face a trip to Iowa, a home game against Illinois and a trip to Michigan State. Can the Badgers run that gauntlet unscathed? If they do, you'll have to look at them as a BCS team for sure. At this point, Penn State looks like the toughest foe they will face but trips to East Lansing and Iowa City are usually highly problematic.


• Can we now put a rest to all the Favre longing, Packer fans? Aaron Rodgers played a pretty darned good game today in Detroit and it's increasingly clear that he is the best quarterback in the division. If the Packers can beat the Cowboys in Green Bay next weekend, it will set the tone for the rest of the season. And it sure will be nice to have the Cowboys play the Packers someplace other than Dallas for a change.


• After a Vikings loss, it's often entertaining to listen to the carping on the "Vikings Fan Line" post-game show in KFAN, because it's usually a festival of schadenfreude. I didn't get the chance today but my sense is that the natives are really restless about the Purple being 0-2. If you look at things objectively, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Vikes are where they are. We've heard all summer long about how the Vikings would be vastly improved, but those assertions never made a lot of sense. Jared Allen is an excellent speed rusher, but he can pushed around at the point of attack. Nose tackle Pat Williams has played at a very high level since he's come to Minnesota but he's an old guy by NFL standards playing a very punishing position and it's reasonable to assume that he will wear down. Darren Sharper is getting up there, too. Upshot -- there was reason to suspect that the defense, while generally stout, could be exploited. And it has been. On the offensive side of the ball, T-Jack is still a work in progress and is in danger of moving from prospect to suspect, while the offensive line has only two good players on it right now. Bryant McKinnie will come back eventually but it's doubtful that he'll play at the level needed to make a big difference. This team's ceiling has probably always been 9 wins. I'll say this -- I'd rather be a blogger than Brad Childress round about now.


• We had a little fun jawing about scheduling patsies on the prediction thread. I chided the Gophers for having lowly Montana State on the schedule, prompting a commenter to also chide the Badgers for having might Cal Poly on the schedule at the end of the season. It's an interesting question - whom should you schedule? I've always thought that the ideal non-conference foe is a second-division school from a BCS conference. Good examples of teams to schedule would be Iowa State, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Arizona, Duke, etc. Teams like Fresno are not good choices because they can beat you. For non-Big 10 conferences, the Gophers and Indiana are excellent choices. I did take a peek ahead to the Badgers non-conference opponents in upcoming seasons (the information is available on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website) and see that the Badgers will be looking at Oregon State and Arizona State in upcoming seasons. These are pretty good foes. If Tim Brewster can get the Gophers to a more competitive level, it will be interesting to see who starts to show up on the Gopher slate.

Mrs. Mojo Rising

Sarah Palin really bothers some people. Take Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell. She dumps a 55-gallon drum of vitriol in her latest column. And it's personal, too.

Sarah Palin makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama's mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt.

I hate that she makes Joe Biden look like John McCain and John McCain look like the maverick he is not.

Bad, Mojo-stealing Sarah. And there's more - she must be a bad mother:

Even with a supportive husband, I doubt seriously that Palin has time to be a hockey mom unless she is making a personal appearance on a campaign trail.

And while 7-year-old Piper Palin gave the world a fuzzy moment on stage at the convention when she licked her hand and smoothed her baby brother's hair, and when Bristol, 17 and pregnant, held Trig against her chest while her mother shook the hands of adoring fans, I couldn't help but wonder what it's really like for these kids.

After all, there's no such thing as a superwoman, and children of driven moms make their own sacrifices.

The charge is nonsense, of course. Children of driven moms make sacrifices. So do children of indolent moms. And children of driven dads. We all make sacrifices at some point or another. No one gets to choose all the circumstances of their life. Children eventually realize that.

Toward the end, Mitchell gets to the real problem with Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin makes me sick because although black Democrats have been responsible for giving white candidates the boost they needed to beat their Republican opponents in tight races, these voters are now being insulted by feminists who say they will cross over into the McCain camp because of her. How can that be?

See, the problem isn't Sarah Palin. It's that feminists owe black Democrats. It's Time. Obama is Here and these nasty feminists aren't getting in line. And the Dream is slipping away. Never mind that feminists are a subset of all women and that many of the women who will support the McCain-Palin ticket are doing so for reasons that have nothing to do with Palin's gender.

One of the things children eventually learn is that while some dreams do come true, not all dreams do. And most children as they mature come to understand that and adjust to the circumstances of their life, especially regarding the things that they cannot control. Perhaps some day Mary Mitchell will come to understand these things, too.

Cross-posted at True North

Wile E. Obama, Super Genius

The news came out this morning that, for at least the fifth time now, Barack Obama is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. One of Obama's most reliable bobos, Adam Nagourney of the New York Times, read the scroll in this morning's edition:

Senator Barack Obama will intensify his assault against Senator John McCain, with new television advertisements and more forceful attacks by the candidate and surrogates beginning Friday morning, as he confronts an invigorated Republican presidential ticket and increasing nervousness in the Democratic ranks.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was ready to reassure the fretful faithful, although he chose an interesting turn of phrase in his remarks:

“We’re sensitive to the fluid dynamics of the campaign, but we have a game plan and a strategy,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. “We’re familiar with this. And I’m sure between now and Nov. 4 there will be another period of hand-wringing and bed-wetting. It comes with the territory.”

And sure enough it came this morning, the opening volley in the only war that really matters to the Obama campaign. It was an ad that chided McCain for being out of touch because he can't use a computer!

That's right, Grandpa Cancer is so out of touch that he can't use a computer! How could anyone vote for a guy who can't use a computer?

It's a brilliant riposte, except for a few little details.

• The primary reason McCain can't personally use a computer is pretty simple - his arms don't work well because of the injuries he suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Given the frequency that McCain mentions that part of his life, it might have occurred to someone in the Obama braintrust to think about that. And it's an especially risible charge to make given McCain's clear understanding of the power of computers and the net, as documented in this article from Forbes concerning McCain's 2000 campaign.


• What's more, sneering at some for not being able to use a computer is especially misguided considering how many people in this country still have difficulties using a computer. There are a lot of seniors who don't use computers regularly and who are frankly embarrassed about it. I wonder how they might feel about a presidential candidate rubbing someone's nose in the dirt about that. I might also share this experience: when I was between jobs a while back I spent time at the Minnesota Workforce Center. Every day I would see people who came there who had absolutely no idea how to use a computer and needed the staff to basically do everything for them. These people were not doddering idiots; they simply needed help. I wonder how they might feel about this ad.


• One other point regarding e-mail. Do you know how many e-mails a typical executive sends? Not many. You know why? Pretty simple -- e-mail is forever and in our litigious society any correspondence from an executive on any topic can be grist for the lawsuit mill. Perhaps Bill Clinton could have explained that to Obama yesterday, considering he only sent two in his entire 8-year term.

Another unforced error from Sen. Obama.

Seven Years On

I wrote the following two years ago, on the 5th anniversary of the attack on America. I don't think I can say it any better now. Although I do have one thought I'll share after this.

******

It was an especially beautiful morning, and really a gorgeous day, one of those days that make September the best time of year in Minnesota. The sky was clear and the morning air was crisp. I climbed on the 4 bus on Foss Road and began my journey to my office in downtown Minneapolis. I arrived at my desk about the same time the first plane hit.

We all can remember what we were doing that day. I remember thinking that this was different. I remember the first reports coming around as routine office chatter – “did you hear that a small plane hit the World Trade Center?” Then we learned the second plane had hit. And the rumors were flying. Planes were crashing into buildings all over the country. The Air Force was shooting down airliners. We knew the nation was under attack, an attack we couldn’t quite comprehend. Work at my office crawled to a standstill as a single television set showed the smoking buildings. Broadcast e-mails from the top executives imploring everyone to “get back to work” were ignored.

We didn’t know what we should do. A co-worker and fellow Catholic, who knew of my involvement at my home parish because we’d compared our experiences, suggested that we go to St. Olaf for noon Mass. A group of us did and found the downtown church filled to the rafters. We heard the pastor speak of peace, of remaining calm, of God’s love on a day when hatred was streaked across the skies and the airwaves. And we knew that Father Forliti was right. But we also knew that there would be a fight and the world had changed.

I went home that night and turned on the news. My son, freshly arrived from kindergarten, bounded down the steps, looking for his usual dose of Scooby Doo. My wife called down, “No, Benjamin, don’t go down there!” But he was there and he saw the footage of the plane striking the second tower. And he knew, in his child-like way, that this was real, and it was horrible. He started to cry and ran back up the stairs, screaming “I don’t want to see that!” I will never forget the look on his face.

Five years on, I think a lot of us are still screaming “I don’t want to see that!” It’s a rare thing in this life to actually witness evil, to see malevolence on a grand scale, to view an atrocity happen before your eyes. Most of the time, evil tends to happen quietly, in the background, without wide exposure. Because we don’t often see it as it occurs, we tend to either recoil from what we see, or fail to understand what we are seeing, or deny that we see is evil. That’s natural – we call it coping. But coping is not enough. Taking off our shoes in the airport is coping. We can cope indefinitely. But evil remains.

And I think we have to call this thing what it is – evil. Flying planes into buildings is evil. Bombing nightclubs and mosques is evil. Providing a cash stipend to the families of suicide bombers is evil. Pushing elderly men in wheelchairs into the Mediterranean is evil. Blowing up subway trains is evil. This is what we still face, five years on. I cannot predict where we will be in five years from this day, but I can only assume that we will still face evil. And saying “I don’t want to see that” will remain insufficient.

****

Two years on, you know what has changed? I think a lot of people are no longer saying "I don't want to see that." I'm afraid that a lot of people have chosen to be ignorant, or worse. Eternal vigilance, people. Eternal vigilance.

Fearless Dilettante Football Predictions - Fresno Is Lovely This Time of Year Edition

Sometimes you have to go places you'd rather not go. But handicapping must continue no matter the venue. To wit:





Xavier Hawks 31, Little Chute Mustangs 14. Rocky Bleier Field has new sod. Expect the Mustangs to be wearing a lot of it after they leave tomorrow night.

ACTUAL RESULT: XHS 10, LITTLE CHUTE 0. Mrs. D suggests that next year the Hawks consider scheduling a bigger Chute.





Irondale Knights 27, Cooper Hawks 13. These schools are the red-headed stepchildren of their respective school districts and both have a reputation for being also-rans. Things are getting better for the Knights. Cooper, not so much.

ACTUAL RESULT: IRONDALE 41, COOPER 14. A mini Cooper, apparently. Irondale scored the first 40 points before calling off the dogs.

Mounds View Mustangs 21, White Bear Lake ("Go Bears") Bears, 16. This is one of the best and nastiest rivalries in Minnesota high school football. It will be a close game, but go with the home-standing Mustangs.

ACTUAL RESULT: MOUNDS VIEW 42, WBL 7. A most surprising result. Mounds View has a pretty good team this year but the Bears usually put up more of a fight than this.





Carroll University Pioneers 34, Beloit Bucs 17. So apparently Carroll College is now a university. I wasn't aware of that. Doesn't matter what they call themselves, they always beat my Bucs.

ACTUAL RESULT: CARROLL 10, BELOIT 0. Can't win if you can't score. The Bucs kept it close but that doesn't mean much in football. And next week mighty Monmouth comes to town.



Wisconsin Badgers 27, Fresno State Bulldogs 24. Outside of Ohio State, this may be the toughest game the Badgers have all season. Fresno has a long history of knocking off the big boys, including a victory over the Badgers in Madison a few years back. I've had a hunch that this year is the best chance the Badgers will have in a long time to make a run for the national title, with Ohio State, Penn State and Illinois all coming to Madison later on. For that scenario to happen, they need to win on Saturday. The guess here is that they will.

ACTUAL RESULT: WISCONSIN 13, FRESNO STATE 10. Only saw part of the first half, but it apparently turned into a war in the second half. The Badgers did what they had to do to win, though, in a really tough environment.


Minnesota Golden Gophers 56, Montana State University and Christian Science Reading Room 13. Only a truly desperate Big Ten university would schedule a team as weak as Montana State as an opponent. The Gophers have been truly desperate lately. If this goes wrong, look for Brewster to get Lakeland Dental Academy on the docket for 2009.

ACTUAL RESULT: MINNESOTA 35, MONTANA STATE 23. I don't think this will do once they get into the Big Ten. Next week's game against Florida Atlantic (a pretty good team that beat the Gophers last year) should tell us a lot more about these pesky Gophers.

Green Bay Packers 27, Detroit Lions 17. Every year we hear that this is the year the Lions will turn the corner. At some point they may realize they are in a round room.

ACTUAL RESULT: BELOVED PACKERS 48, MOTOR CITY KITTIES 25. Strange game, especially when you aren't able to watch it. The Pack is up 21-0, then down 25-24, then score a bajillion points in the last 7 minutes of the game because the Lions implode. One thing - maybe people will start putting their Favre jerseys away, since it's pretty clear that Aaron Rodgers is a capable NFL quarterback. We'll learn a lot more next week when the Cowboahs come to town.


Purple Helmeted Love Warriors 17, Indianapolis Colts 16. Suddenly the Colts looked old and confused last week against the Bears. Typically those Vikings are simply confused, so give them the edge at home.

ACTUAL RESULT: COLTS 18, PURPLE 15. The idea in the NFL is to score touchdowns. The Vikings only seem dimly aware of this. About the only people who can be happy with this result are people who have Ryan Longwell on their fantasy teams. I'm sure glad that I'm not Brad Childress or Tarvaris Jackson.

An election that truly matters

If you haven't done so, make sure you check out the information over at the Kool-Aid Report regarding the election for the next Mayor of the MOB. I'm personally trying to decide whether to support The Night Writer or this dark horse candidate. All these and more over at Learned Foot's place. Hit that link, MOBsters!

Rick Moses Makes Round Two

Primary results are in and Rick Moses moves on to the general election to face incumbent Jan Parker for the District 2 seat on the Ramsey County Board. Rick will have a tough battle against an entrenched opponent, but he can win. The redoubtable Right Hook at Boots On has the skinny, along with information on two other worthy candidates for the seats in Districts 1 (Jim Schottmuller) and 7 (Dennis Dunnigan). We'll be following the District 2 race closely here.

Biden Agonistes

What a difference a week makes. About this time one week ago, Democrats were openly chortling about the possibility that Sarah Palin would be jettisoned from the Republican ticket. Now, a week later, we have Joe Biden publicly saying that Hillary would have been a better VP pick than he was. As they say at the ballroom:

Whiskey.

Tango.

Foxtrot.

So what to make of this? Biden may as well have been on a milk carton this week for all the good he's done the Barack Obama campaign. Obama has had to do most of the heavy rhetorical lifting himself these last few days and has taken more than a few dings for his trouble. Meanwhile, Palin has become a star and has been helping John McCain peel off key voting blocs that the Obama campaign had reason to believe it had locked up some time ago.

Most of us who follow these things thought the Biden pick was dumb. But none of us would have guessed that Biden would agree with us. And suddenly, it's the portsiders who are wondering about an Eagleton scenario, with Biden dropping out (for some health reason, which is plausible from a guy who has survived two aneurysms) and Hillary Clinton coming to Obama's emotional rescue.

Personally, I don't see it. What does Hillary Clinton gain from the scenario. She wanted to be president and if Obama's campaign craters, she'll have a great argument for why she should get another shot in 2012. If she signs on to the good ship Obama at this point, she might be able to save his bacon, but might not. If she is tied to Obama and they lose, it's over for her.

In addition, adding Hillary now would seem cynical in a way that Obama can't afford to be seen. His entire campaign and his entire raison d'etre is that he is supposed to represent a break from the old politics and is something new. That particular conceit has largely fallen away in recent weeks, in large measure by Obama's own actions. It's tough to show that you represent a new day when your acceptance speech could have been given by Walter Mondale or Michael Dukakis and when you have a bunch of oppo people haunting various locations in Alaska looking for dirt on Palin. Dumping Biden now and adding Hillary would probably backfire.

I am genuinely curious about what my portsider friends think about all this - most of them have been pretty silent about events the last few days. Do you think there's any chance that Obama might make a move to switch out his Veep? As always, starboard side friends are free to chime in as well....

Hello, Petunia

Did he really say that? Did Barack Obama really call Sarah Palin a pig? The video is here.

You know what? He didn't call Sarah Palin a pig. He's clearly talking about his tendentious view regarding change and the meaning of change. But he was inartful (to recycle a word we've heard earlier) and while I do think the lipstick reference is about Palin, but my guess is that he meant that Palin is lipstick designed to gloss over what Obama wants people to believe about McCain.

But you know what? Barack Obama is an idiot. He has spent a hell of a lot of time in the past 10 days going after Sarah Palin, directly and indirectly. It's not working -Palin's popularity is off the charts. And every time he attacks McCain's running-mate, he compares himself implicitly to someone running for the #2 job. Obama is running for the #1 job.

What's worse is that Obama is doing a lot of this stuff himself, instead of using his surrogates to do it. It is amazing that he would do it personally. It is clear that the McCain campaign has gotten to him. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is attracting crickets.

I wouldn't expect Barack Obama to take my advice, especially since I want him to lose. But here it is anyway. About the best thing he could do right now is take a day or two off, regroup with his advisors and rethink what he's been doing. Right now it's pretty obvious that Obama is winging it and not thinking things through. If Obama persists in his current pattern, he'll be headed for Dukakisville. And there's no putting lipstick on that.

Green Bay 24, Minnesota 19

Give the Vikings credit - they didn't get beat 34-0 this time. But as I suspected, my beloved Packers are still the better team overall. Aaron Rodgers did a good job against a good defense, and there is still room for improvement.

On the Purple side of the equation, I'm guessing that Tarvaris Jackson will get a lot of blame for the results, but I'm not sure he should. The thing that would worry me more is that the Vikings have some guys who are starting to show their age, especially on defense. It could go south on Pat Williams and Darren Sharper in a real hurry.

Meanwhile, both teams apparently need to start worrying about the Munsters of the Midway, who won convincingly on Sunday night against the Colts. On the bright side, we'll always have the Lions.

Real Change Begins on Tuesday in Ramsey County

Everyone is promising change in this election. It may not be possible to change Washington, but the citizens of Ramsey County can change a few things that need changing on Tuesday, especially the citizens who live in District 2. The incumbent for this area is Jan Parker, who chairs the County Board and was instrumental in awarding herself a 25% raise. That sort of self-dealing had largely escaped notice until this year. Parker has run without much opposition in the past, but now there's a chance to change the culture of the Ramsey County Board.

Rick Moses is a long-time New Brighton resident and successful businessman who is willing to take on the task of cleaning out the stables on Kellogg Boulevard, where most business is done on 7-0 votes and non-partisanship means that everyone spends money regardless of the wishes of the taxpayers. Rick will challenge all that and won't be shy about it. He isn't looking for a sinecure; instead he is running on the Cincinnatus model: he will go to St. Paul, do his work and then go back to his life after a term or two. Unlike Jan Parker, Rick hasn't tried to blur the distinctions about what he intends to do with a cloak of non-partisanship. And unlike Tony Bennett, the ostensible Republican who represents District 1, Rick doesn't have to remind people that he is committed to fiscal discipline. Rick is committed to reducing spending by at least 1% each year. And this would be an actual reduction, not cutting 1% from a baseline budget that goes up 10%.

In addition, Rick will take a tough look at how the money gets spent. One of the most irritating games that local politicians play is the "I'm not responsible for that" gambit. For years, citizens of New Brighton have lived with one of the most ridiculous main thoroughfares in the metro area, Old Highway 8. The stretch of this road from the intersection of 5th Streeet NW and County Road D is a nightmarish slog riddled with dangerous 4-way stops and often-overwhelming traffic during the rush hours. The neighborhoods adjacent to Old Highway 8 have been suffering through these problems for years. If you ask City Hall for help, they tell you they can't do anything -- it's a county road. If you approach the county, the request goes down the memory hole.

Rick won't be so blithe about such problems. He's committed to devoting funds to helping people throughout Ramsey County, not simply funnelling money into a light rail line that duplicates existing transit services, but at an exponential increase in cost.

If you want change, you need to vote for it. The primary is Tuesday. Go out and vote for Rick Moses.

Cross-posted at True North

Change You Can Believe In

They are the old bulls of Congress. The first gentleman pictured is John Conyers, who has represented his Michigan district since 1965. The second is Robert Byrd, a United States senator representing West Virginia since 1959. And the last is John Dingell, who has represented a district adjacent to Conyers since 1955, succeeding his father, who had represented the district since 1933, meaning a 75 year unbroken succession of Dingells in Washington. They are the change that Barack Obama would like to bring to Washington.

They all have their specialties. Dingell and Conyers are experts at conducting star chamber investigations of political enemies. For many years Dingell was at the the helm of the House Engergy and Commerce Committee, where he essentially reserved the right to bully just about everyone who came across his path.

Conyers, his colleague, is now the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and has busied himself in recent years holding mock impeachments of President Bush, even though he himself had been found to have violated House ethics rules in 2006.

Byrd's primary claim to fame is his unmatched ability to steer pork-barrel projects to the state of West Virginia. Over 30 existing or pending federal projects bear his name.

No matter what you think of George W. Bush, one thing is certain - his presence in the Oval Office has greatly hampered the ability of these gentlemen to raid the public treasury, conduct sham investigations and reroute billions of dollars to their home states. If Barack Obama were serious about bringing change to Washington, he'd be talking about the depredations that careerist politicians of this sort have undertaken over their long, long careers. He isn't, of course.

Off His Game

Ever since Sarah Palin was introduced a week ago, Barack Obama and his campaign have been on their heels. It didn't get any better today.

First, you had Obama deciding to go after Palin personally. It's not a smart move for a number of reasons, but I'll get to that in a moment. Here is what Obama said:

"I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change. And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can't just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear."

Unforced error. Obama has no standing to criticize anyone about earmarks, of course, because he's been involved in it for $740 million, including an especially egregious $1 million for the hospital that employs his wife, Michelle. And of course the McCain campaign took that hanging curveball and promptly swatted it out of the park:

Barack Obama has requested the equivalent of one million dollars in new pork barrel spending for every working day he’s been in the U.S Senate, while John McCain has never once asked for an earmark, and Governor Palin has vetoed hundreds of millions in government spending including killing the infamous “bridge to nowhere”. Just like so many other issues Barack Obama is all talk, has no record to back it up and isn’t ready to make change. — Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

Here's the other part of the problem. Obama isn't running against Sarah Palin. Obama is running against John McCain. Every time he takes a swipe at Palin he does two things: he reminds people that he's even less experienced than his opponent's running-mate, and he also reinforces the notion that he's not especially, shall we say, chivalrous. His campaign threw a lot of elbows at Hillary Clinton and there were plenty of women who noticed. Now he feels compelled to do it to Sarah Palin and every time he does it, it works against him.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign continues to find ways to exploit the ridiculous spectacle that was his performance in Denver. His campaign made another unforced error after the convention was over: they apparently threw away over 10,000 American flags that had been left over after the circus left town. And the Republicans found out. David Harsanyi of the Denver Post tells the rest of the story:

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

Harsanyi says that he is certain that Barack Obama didn't order that 12,000 American flags be thrown away. I am certain of that, too. But they were in garbage bags on a dock, near a dumpster, and no one had come for them in the 10 days since the DNC ended. Further, I don't think it says anything about Obama's patriotism or the campaign's. But I do think it tells us something important about Obama and his campaign -- they are awfully sloppy and they aren't especially careful about husbanding their resources. 12,000 American flags must have some resale value; at a minimum, they could have been scooped up and passed out at future rallies.

Obama's campaign put out a statement about this:

In a statement, Damon Jones with the Democratic National Convention Committee said, "Stories circulating about flags from the Democratic National Convention are false. More than 125,000 American-made flags were distributed at the Convention - any flags removed from the Convention after the event were taken without authorization."

Jones continued by saying, "It's disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe their intended purpose. We have the utmost respect for the American flag and it's sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt."

Okay, but think about it: does that explanation make any sense? It sure didn't to Ed Morrissey:

They claim that the flags were “bundled” for return to their manufacturer. If so, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone bundling returned merchandise in Hefty bags and storing them “in and around dumpsters” while awaiting the RMA. . . . I sincerely doubt that these flags got sold to Team Obama in Hefty bags. And let’s try to parse this story down with some common sense:

Why would a manufacturer provide a refund on open product? They certainly couldn’t resell them, especially not after being left like this at Invesco.

12,000 flags must have cost at least $2,000 or so, and probably more. Once Democrats discovered the “theft”, why didn’t they report it to the police? It’s been more than a week apparently since they were “stolen”, and Team Obama just discovered it?

Leaving material in and around dumpsters, especially in Hefty bags, makes it look like trash. That’s hardly a way to store American flags, and it’s certainly not a way to keep janitors and waste management people from taking them to landfills.

Instead of just saying that their people made a really stupid error and apologizing, though, Team Obama decided to tell a ridiculous lie to get themselves off the hook.

That's sure what it looks like to me. Maybe one of my portsider friends can disabuse me of this notion. But in the end, what it looks like is that Obama and his campaign are really off their game right now. And they'd better figure start figuring things out soon, because right now they look pretty dumb.

Maybe We've Been Too Hard on Community Organizers

Here's a stirring defense of this noble profession from one of its finest practitioners, David Burge, a/k/a the Iowahawk.

Random Crap from the 70s - Odd Kid Shows

We've been talking about politics all week long. Enough - time for some random crap from the 70s.

If you are my age, chances are pretty good you'll remember all this stuff. If not, it's a powerful reminder how fortunate you were not to grow up in such an addled time.

First up, it's teen hearthrobs/Saturday morning superstars the Hudson Brothers, with perhaps the most redundant song in rock 'n roll history.

Rendezvous

If you were lucky, you might have been able to see this after you watched the Hudson Brothers

Harlem Globetrotters

But if you wanted to see something really special, you needed to see this, often featured on the Ray Rayner show on WGN in Chicago back in the day:

Clutch Cargo

And when in doubt, you needed this Claymation Superstar

Gumby

I didn't remember the doomy sitar music part at the beginning of the intro, did you?

Then there was the especially strange world of Sid and Marty Krofft, who brought a certain measure of lysergic majesty to Saturday mornings (and really long intros):

There was Lidsville, featuring the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly

And we had H.R. Pufnstuf, featuring Jack Wild and Billie Hayes as the dreaded Witchiepoo

And who could forget The Bugaloos with Martha Raye as Benita Bizarre

To say nothing of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, which gave us Billy Barty, Johnny Whitaker and sometimes a visit or two from the immortal Rip Taylor.

There are times that I am concerned about the quality of the fare that my kids are watching on Cartoon Network. But when I remember what we watched, I'm not sure I have standing to say anything. So did you watch any of these growing up?

McCain's Speech

John McCain made his speech tonight. It was a very different performance than what we saw from Sarah Palin last night and the constrast was effective. A few quick thoughts.

• As always, biography is a key part of McCain's argument. While it's possible that some people are by now tired of hearing about McCain's stint as a POW in Vietnam, it is crucial to understanding who he is and what motivates him. Fred Thompson told the gruesome details in his stemwinder on Tuesday and what we heard tonight from McCain was more about the interior monologue of that experience. Given who his opponent is, McCain would be foolish not to use his life experience.


• In some respects, I got a John Kennedy vibe from the speech. There was a lot about honor, duty, love of country and giving back to the country. It's a theme that has not been out front for a long time now - while just about every candidate since JFK has paid lip service to these notions, McCain's presentation was far more explicit than anything we heard on the subject from Obama, or from W or Bill Clinton for that matter in previous campaigns. I don't know if it will resonate or not -- we are now nearly 50 years from that time and much has changed.


• The atmospherics couldn't have been more different. Obama gave his speech from a distant podium in a football stadium; McCain built a thrust stage that put him in the lap of his audience. Obama was distant; McCain was intimate. I suspect that the intimate approach is the better one.

Some of the early polling indicated that whatever bounce Obama got from his convention was largely eroded by today. My guess is that McCain and Palin will be in the lead, narrowly, by the time the weekend polling is done. People are paying attention now and the dynamics that have driven the race up to this point are going to change. As we've been saying all week -- game on.

Subterranean Community Organizer Blues

It would appear that the Republicans have gotten to Barack Obama, based on the amount of whining that has been emanating from his campaign today. As you likely noticed, a fair dollop of both the speeches of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin were devoted to mockery of Obama's record and somewhat gauzy record of accomplishments up to this point.

Obama's minions have been out complaining about it in force today. They are especially exercised about the cracks that have been made at Obama's expense concerning his real job, that of "community organizer." A widely circulated e-mail from Obama operative David Plouffe contains the following:

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed. …

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

Those rat bastard Republicans - how can they rip on something as noble as that?

Tell you what -- let's stipulate that government is often quite unresponsive to ordinary people. I don't think you'll get too many rat bastard Republicans who would disagree with that statement. If you accept the narrative, Obama's experience in community organizing is what ultimately led to his decision to enter politics. And for the purposes of this exercise, let's accept it.

What did Obama do? If you'd like to know, I'd suggest you take a look at this piece, written by Ryan Lizza for the New Yorker. Lizza carefully reports on Obama's rise through the mottled politics of Chicago. Along the way, he takes the testimony of a number of Chicago politicians who were witnesses to Obama's rise. Among those is Toni Preckwinkle, who represents part of the South Side. From the article:

Preckwinkle is a tall, commanding woman with a clipped gray Afro. She has represented her slice of the South Side for seventeen years and expresses no interest in higher office. On Chicago’s City Council, she is often a dissenter against the wishes of Mayor Richard M. Daley. For anyone trying to understand Obama’sbreathtakingly rapid political ascent, Preckwinkle is an indispensable witness—a close observer, friend, and confidante during a period of Obama’s life to which he rarely calls attention.

Although many of Obama’s recent supporters have been surprised by signs of political opportunism, Preckwinkle wasn’t. “I think he was very strategic in his choice of friends and mentors,” she told me. “I spent ten years of my adult life working to be alderman. I finally got elected. This is a job I love. And I’m perfectly happy with it. I’m not sure that’s the way that he approached his public life—that he was going to try for a job and stay there for one period of time. In retrospect, I think he saw the positions he held as stepping stones to other things and therefore approached his public life differently than other people might have.”

There's a lot more in the piece. The Obama that emerges from Lizza's reporting is a fellow of great ambition, with no lack of self-regard. He has been very strategic in his rise and hasn't been especially careful to pay attention to the job that he has. Chicago politics is Byzantine and often corrupt, but the primary requirement for a successful career in politics in Chicago, besides having a magic surname, is that you do provide a certain measure of constituent service. Obama's community organizing stint came at a time in Chicago when the Machine was out of power and there was a lot of dysfunction. But if you read Lizza's piece carefully, it becomes clear that when Obama had an opportunity to do something about the dysfunction, he was more interested in his next move than in fixing the problem. The truth of the matter is this -- he hasn't left a lot of footprints, either in the Illinois legislature or in the United States Senate. No one would argue that John McCain hasn't left footprints in his career. That was a point Sarah Palin drove home quite effectively last night.

Now Barack Obama wants to be president. The community that he aided is not significantly better today than it was 20 years ago. He's mocked because his record is one of personal ambition first. The question for Barack Obama is not whether he helped people as a community organizer. The question is whether or not the help he provided had any lasting impact. The evidence is lacking; if it weren't, we'd have heard more about it in this campaign. And Senator Obama cannot change the past, no matter how compelling his vision for the future might be.

There have been many, many questions about whether Sarah Palin is ready to be Vice President of the United States in the last few days. In the next two months, there will be many, many questions about whether or not Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States. And as these two months tick on, Sen. Obama will need a better answer than what he's currently providing.

Fearless Dilettante Football Predictions - Double Indemnity Edition

If you haven't seen it, go out and rent a copy of Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir masterpiece Double Indemnity. It's a great movie, with outstanding performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson and Fred MacMurray. What does that have to do with football? If you have to ask, you haven't been reading this feature too closely. Anyway, on with the picks!





Xavier Hawks 34, Winneconne Wolves 7. Our beloved Hawks had an easy time of it against Freedom last week. While I understand that Winneconne is lovely this time of year, the Blue and White don't tend to be very nice visitors.

ACTUAL RESULT: XAVIER 20, WINNECONNE 0. It turns out that in the six times these schools have played, Winneconne hasn't scored in five of the games. That's pretty counter-intuitive, since historically it's been Catholic school boys who have a hard time scoring.

Spring Lake Park Panthers 21, Irondale Knights 14. Unfortunately for the Knights, they end up playing the two toughest teams on their schedule to open. SLP should be strong again this year and while the Knights played them tough last year, it won't be easy to win on their opponent's field. The funny thing is, Irondale could easily run the table after this week.

ACTUAL RESULT: IRONDALE 21, SLP 14. Right score, wrong teams. I'm delighted to be wrong about this. The Knights look like they'll be pretty formidable after all.



Mounds View Mustangs 21, Stillwater Ponies 20. A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and these two teams have had some memorable battles over the years. Mounds View lost a heartbreaker last week and will be looking for redemption. Stillwater is down a bit from their glory years but still must be considered tough.

ACTUAL RESULT: MOUNDS VIEW 41, STILLWATER 10. Apparently these ponies were Pintos. Nice win for the Green, especially at what is historically a very tough place to win.



Fred MacMurray 31, Beloit Bucs 24. Oops, I think I got that wrong. Turns out Beloit is playing MacMurray College, a small school someplace in downstate Illinois. Don't know a thing about them, but I do know Beloit. And the smart money is always against my beloved Bucs. No word from Uncle Charley on this one.

ACTUAL RESULT: BELOIT 27, FRED MACMURRAY 17. Guess this was the Walter Neff verson of Fred MacMurray. I'm happy for the Bucs, who have been really struggling in recent years. Perhaps a return to blissful mediocrity is nigh?

Wisconsin Badgers 34, Marshall Thundering Herd 14. A few years ago this would have been a game. Not now - Marshall is down. The Badgers didn't exactly wipe the floor with Akron last week, but there's little reason to imagine that the Herd will put up much resistance this time around.

ACTUAL RESULT: WISCONSIN 51, MARSHALL 14. Bucky got off to a bad start but put up 51 unanswered points. That's not bad. Next week we'll find out if Bucky is any good or not - unlike Winneconne, Wisconsin, Fresno is not lovely this time of year.



Bowling Green Falcons 24, Minnesota Golden Gophers 21. We actually got a lot of traffic from puzzled visitors from the Daily Gopher last week after we picked the Gophers to win. Thanks for visiting, guys. But I saw the Gophs last week at the Dome and they weren't ready for prime time. Bowling Green is probably the class of the MAC. Unless Tim Brewster found a few d-backs wandering around Dinkytown this week, I'm afraid this won't end well.

ACTUAL RESULT: GOLDEN GOPHAS 42, BOWLING GREEN 17. Real progress. And by the way, Adam Weber is a very good quarterback.



Green Bay Packers 24, Purple Helmeted Love Warriors 14. I know, I know, the Viking fans have been telling me that it's ALL GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR. But here's the number they must deal with: 34. That was the point differential the last time these two teams met. If you are a Vikings fan, ask yourself this: have your heroes really made up all those points? My guess is that Aaron Rodgers will play well enough and that Adrian Peterson won't have a big game, especially with Bryant McKinnie in dry dock. Until the Vikings prove that Tarvaris Jackson can win a game, look for a lot of 8- and 9-man fronts. And remember, the Packers play defense pretty well.

ACTUAL RESULT: PACKERS 24, PURPLE 19. Yep - Aaron Rodgers did enough to win and T-Jack didn't. It may be different in November, but I suspect my beloved Packers have more upside than the Vikings do. Meanwhile, apparently we have to pay attention to the Munsters of the Midway after all....

The Speech

The pressure was really on Sarah Palin tonight, given the incredible series of events that have been buzzing around her this week. So how did she do?

Just fine, I think. She may be new to the national scene, but she clearly knows how to give a speech and her command from the podium is at least as good as some of the other more seasoned politicians we've seen on the stump this year. She also flashed a sense of humor and, when necessary, a little well-placed scorn. The small-town hick meme probably won't be operative any more. She is not a refugee from Hee Haw by any means and that should now be clear to everyone, despite the media filter she's been subjected to in the past week.

I did have one concern about the tone of the speech -- while it was good and proper to celebrate her small-town roots and the importance of small towns in American life, the Republicans need to understand that there are a lot of people who live in urban America who might be congenial to their views as well. It is my view that the elites in this country have been driving a lot of the garbage that Sarah Palin had to deal with this week and a lot of what has been said and done has been disgraceful. The elites deserve all the mockery they received tonight but it would have been smarter politics to acknowledge that there are a lot of citizens who live in places like New York, or Philadelphia, or even Chicago who share the same ethos that Palin extolled tonight.

There are many things that bring us together as a nation but there are many cleavages as well. As a Midwesterner who grew up in a medium-sized city, I think I understand Sarah Palin fairly well. But I'm not the person she needs to convince. The McCain/Palin ticket needs to erode the advantages that the Obama/Biden ticket will have in urban centers. Perhaps John McCain will make that sale tomorrow. It would behoove him to.

High Drama in St. Paul

Yep, the stakes are high tonight. The kids and I have picked our fantasy football teams.

First, here is Ben and Maria's squad, the Santana Dominators, named after my son's favorite player, Santana Moss:

QB Drew Brees

QB Matt Schaub

RB Frank Gore

RB Maurice Jones-Drew

RB Ahmad Bradshaw

RB Michael Turner

WR Santana Moss

WR Reggie Wayne

WR Reggie Brown

WR Bryant Johnson

TE Antonio Gates

TE Tony Scheffler

K Neil Rackers

K Chris Brown

D San Diego Chargers

D Green Bay Packers

They will play against my squad, Dilettante Nation

QB Tom Brady

QB Vince Young

RB Marion Barber III

RB Ryan Grant

RB Fred Taylor

RB Laurence Maroney

WR Larry Fitzgerald

WR Andre Johnson

WR Wes Welker

WR Bobby Engram

TE Owen Daniels

TE Dustin Keller

K Mason Crosby

K Phil Dawson

D New York Giants

D Pittsburgh Steelers

Should be fun. I hear there's something else going on tonight. Maybe we'll check in on that one later....

Real Brief Impressions of First Real Night of Convention

Very quick impressions:

• Fred Thompson gave a very good speech. I doubt most people will see it, though. But those who were watching got a very good reminder of McCain's undeniable courage - the description Thompson offered was gripping. Fred was so good that you almost wonder why he didn't do better when he was campaigning for himself.
• Joe Lieberman is probably dead to all Democrats now, if he wasn't already. He's a credible witness to both of the candidates and his description of Obama was damning, in a polite way.
• The Republicans only ran one minute over and let the local stations get to their network news pretty much on time. For a convention that was thrown into chaos, that's pretty good stage management.
• None of this really matters, though. What will make or break this thing will be the appearance of Gov. Palin. If she comes off as credible, it will make a lot of the frenzy surrounding her look pretty damned silly. If she doesn't, well. . . .

Game On

Democrats and their pals in the blogosphere are really going to regret what they are doing to Sarah Palin and her family. We were treated today to a bunch of reports that alleged that Palin was a member of the secessionist Alaska Independence Party. One of my regular commenters made reference to this today, providing a link to an article from ABC's Jake Tapper as a source (after I had asked for a link). The link to the initial article is here.

Well, Tapper had to back off today. Not just a little, a lot. In the face of evidence provided by the McCain camp, we are now treated to this headline:

Todd Palin, Longtime Former AIP Member

You caught that, right? Now it's the husband who is a former member of the party. You recognize this, right? It's called guilt by association. And as a former resident of Appleton, Wisconsin, let's just say that I know a little bit about how that works.

But you know the best part about this? If Todd Palin and by extension Cindy McCain are fair game, that means that Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are, too, right?

It's a dangerous game, kids. The portside would be well advised to stop it now, because once the genie is out of the bottle, there's no telling what might come out.

Update: here's a little something that tells you a lot about the mindset of the loyal opposition these days.

Making Themselves at Home

I appreciate polite guests, don't you? Here's a little look at the, ahem, deportment of some of our guests today in the streets of downtown St. Paul from Andy Aplikowski and our friends at Anti-Strib, along with a little taste of the fun from KSTP.

The Bristol Stomp

Up until this weekend, if you had asked what the name Bristol Palin meant, I'd have assumed it was the name of a law firm in Pittsburgh. It turns out that Bristol Palin is the teenaged daughter of the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who will be John McCain's running mate. And for reasons that tell you a lot more about the obsessions of the Left than about the Palin family itself, Bristol Palin's love life has come under a whole lot of scrutiny.

Almost before her mother's introductory speech was completed in Dayton last Friday, the portside blogosphere was trafficking in some pretty nasty rumor-mongering about young Bristol. The story went that Bristol, portrayed as a wanton child who apparently hadn't accepted the overarching family value of absolute chastity, had been pregnant and that, for reasons that only make sense if you accept the gospel of Kos, the pregnancy was being concealed.

Worse, Governor Palin was faking a pregnancy to shield her irresponsible child's perfidy and would then raise her granddaughter as her own child, a child with Down's Syndrome yet. I further understand that the baby would have been born in the World Trade Center except that the government had toppled it as an inside job to justify the installation of the fascist government of the United States of Halliburton. I may not have that last part right, but it's not easy following the logic over there sometimes. It's possible that this baby might even be John Connor and that there will shortly be a plague of Terminators chasing him and blowing up random stretches of urban Blue America, but I have yet to independently verify that.

The portsiders had stories like that up on their sites all weekend long, but eventually they decided to back away from it. I'd give you the links but I have no interest in giving these people any more traffic than they already get. But today it turns out that while Bristol Palin was not the mother of her baby brother, she is indeed five months pregnant today. It also turns out that she is planning to marry the father of the child and will carry the baby to term.

Apparently, I'm supposed to be aghast at all this. How could a Good Republican Family have a Jamie Lynn Spears for a daughter? THERE MUST BE SOME HYPOCRISY HERE, RIGHT???!!!! WELL???????? Surely this means that Sarah Palin is an unfit mother, besides being worse than Dan Quayle. Surely we judgmental conservatives want Sarah Palin gone! At a minimum, shouldn't her daughter be forced to wear a Scarlet A on her maternity dress?

Well, no. Conservatives, especially those who have strong religious views, are usually more understanding about such things than they get credit for. Christians are called to follow Jesus and to live life by Jesus's example. Do we fall short of that? Yes. Of course we do. We are all sinners and that is why we all have to ask for God's forgiveness, often more times that we'd care to. There's a reason why sainthood is pretty select club.

There's no doubt that Bristol Palin and her boyfriend would have been better off if they had found a way to abstain from giving in to their passion. Life will be more complicated for them and the child that they are bringing into the world. But does anyone doubt that the child will not have love and support and that the child will have the chance to thrive in a family that chooses life? And no matter your view on abortion, would it not be better if more people viewed the arrival of a child as a blessing and not a punishment?

Cross-posted at True North

Uncle Ben Backs Away

Blogs are by definition idiosyncratic but they inevitably reveal the character of the blogger. One of the best people I've met in the blogosphere is Ben Worley, who has decided to turn out the lights at his blog Hammerswing75. His reasons are many -- he's in the homestretch in divinity school, he's recently engaged and has plenty to do on that front, but his ultimate reason tells you something about Ben's character, and his wisdom.

I think there are some other things that I need to learn and blogging is going to get in the way. I've often been pretty opinionated; now I need to get better at holding my peace. It's hard to listen well when I'm trying to think of what to say.

Ben will eventually be a minister and I have no doubt that he will be a very good one. While Ben is opinionated, he is one of the most patient listeners I've encountered in the blogosphere. He clearly was listening when he heard God's call and decided to devote his life to service. And the community that gathered around his blog include some wonderful people. Our mutual friend Gino put it quite well:

There are millions of blogs, but few are the bright lights that stand out. Ben was one of those. Never an unkind word for those he disagreed with. Always open to what you had to say before he politely countered it. Always open to a exchanging a few ribs pokes and lighthearted banter. It was never personal with Ben. And he was always entertaining.

It always was. But in my case, there's more. Ben was one of the first bloggers who found my blog and he encouraged me to get more involved. He was very kind in recommending my work to others and he gave me crucial advice at varying times over the past few years. Every blogger has a "blogfather," a blogger who provides inspiration and support and helps get the blogger to the next level. For me, Ben was that guy. Ben's generosity has made a difference for Mr. Dilettante, but his friendship has been even more important. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Ben. While your blog may go silent, I have no doubt that you will continue to share your wisdom, kindness and great example as you go forward to meet the next challenges in your life.