Well indeed, you're right, Mr. Lambert. I'm right here in Minneapolis and have seen nothing from either paper to the contrary. The PiPress even went so far as to allow Ms. Bachmann to write her own commentary which was placed next to the article about her faux pas -- in the news, not Op-Ed section.

I've also observed that the Strib has become a lot more conservative and Conservative since its most recent ownership change. Risking less, and well, obviously slanting the news in favor of right-wing ideology. I know correlation does not equal causality, but if it quacks like a duck...

LAMBERT: For as little as I've come to expect of our two papers I gotta tell ya, I never thought it'd get this bad.

Muchacho: while you've been away, fashion reporting has joined the big boys (and the Strib is getting pwned again on a story in its own backyard, naturally).

LAMBERT: Some publications have fashion coverage as their basic audience. Others at least began with both reporting and having a position on civic affairs.

I'd blame it on the vino too...but with or without vino, you nailed it. These papers have never been better fish wrap...if a MN-caught fish would be edible enough to bother wrapping.

Doesn't an Op-Ed piece that does not endorse anyone violate their own definition of Op-Ed? Were they so worried about editing out unintended swear words that they forgot to insert the opinion?

Well, at least the neighborhood free paper that magically appears on my front sidewalk still understands Op-Ed, last week's Southsider torched Norm (but I have no idea if they painted his garage). ;)

But, we are too harsh, aren't we? They are no different than any other corporation that lowers the bar and risk-reward to float until profits disappear, management is shuffled, a new marketing idea is inserted that puffs up a profit until the cycle of status quo repeats.

Tell me again, why is the big corporate capitalist model considered better again...I keep forgetting. Maybe if the media would do a thorough expose of the pro-american versus anti-american newspapers, we could solve this malaise of forgetful readers!

LAMBERT: Of course, the PiPress is very much concerned that it perpetually coddle the crowd ferreting out "anti-American" newspapers, politicians, plumbers ... whatever.

Maybe they're working on this story instead:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/this_could_be_the_game_changer.html

LAMBERT: Have you ever considered product devlopment for some giant company? you have a certain ... um ... uncanny ... knack for knowing what people want ... or not.

Easy there, Daddy Pulitzer. I meant fashion reporting like this:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/wardrobe-mysteries-linger/

LAMBERT: OoooOOooooh. Much different, compadre. So what do we think? Are they laundering money with bogus clothing receipts?

I don't know anything about the pipress, but it seems to me that two things are wrong with the strib. (1) a series of owners who, not knowing the difference between a newspaper and a used car lot, choose to run the paper like a used car lot. They dump off talented people like Eric Black and Jeremy Iggers and then just promote the j-v's. Like a lot of businesses they assume that they can make their product more marketable by making it crappier hence all the idiocy about fashion. (2)They are victims of what Eric Alterman calls "working the refs"; the incessant right wing whining about the liberal media and accusing the paper of being the Pravda of the upper midwest, got to them so they started packing the paper with conservative content whether it had any value or not, so much so that former editor Anders whatshisname confessed to me that he put the witless Mallard Filmore on the comic pages because he needed a conservative strip. That was the time they also switched the op-ed page to automatically include what one former editor called the CODpiece (for Conservative of the Day). Apparently they've switched swill vendors; it used to be that one could rely on a daily dose of Debra Saunders or Jonah Goldberg, but now it's Michael Gerson, Wm. Kristol or George Will. About the only entertainment from the op-ed pages these days is watching one of the back-to-Burke gravitas conservatives hack up a hairball at having to pretend that Palin is anything but a yahoo.

LAMBERT: And now top editor Nancy Barnes is admonishing her columnists (read: Coleman) to avoid making "partisan" comments until the election. God forbid we wouldn't want to hear what anyone over there thinks. (Or if they do.)

who is in doubt that obama's a citizen? his mother's an american, a real one.

what is wrong with you?

LAMBERT: Now THAT is asking to open a box of horrors ...

The Strib's" calling for a federal inquiry into "ACORN" editorial the week before was ludicrous and, well, just sad, really.

LAMBERT: Every entity has its "jump the shark" moment. The Strib just had their's.

At that level of couture, I'd say they're dry cleaning the money.

LAMBERT: If the money hasn't been spent on clothes why would they list it as such, knowing that's part of the public record? It does make you wonder how much more embarrassing the real expense could be.

Now that's great fashion sales reporting Marsh-man.

When the $150G shopping spree story broke, I had to turn to my wife (knowing that I am out of my league with prices for women's clothing) and ask "How would you spend $150G on clothing in ONE month?" Obviously this is a question for Jayne Haugen Oslon but still $150G is a lot of dough and could have bought TV time in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Here is what I think, there must be seasoned Republican pros like Ed Rollins, Colin Powell, and David Gergen scratching their heads wondering what happened to the McCain campaign. It's gone off track. Or as we used to say: "The center has collapsed."

That's not to say they shouldn't have seen it coming. McCain's management of his campaigns has been erratic and wildly misdirectional. Ultimately what happened to his campaign management goes back to the essence of who McCain is as an individual and leader.

Nothing in McCain's experience suggests he is wizened and an old hand at leadership and administration. His years in a jail cell (and I have nothing but respect for his sacrifice) don't give him management qualities that he can translate to being President. I think his friend who started eBay hinted at lis lack of ability to manage a few months ago. The experience in Vietnam makes John McCain a hero but it doesn't mean he has the temperament to run a good campaign or be a good President.

All during the primaries the McCain campaign was erratic and at one time he fired everybody (perhaps only as a PR ploy) but the problems have remained consistent and that goes to the heart of a political campaign. Ultimately, the candidate sets the tone, makes the macro level decisions and his aides and advisors implement.

When the center collapses it means that all of the centralized functions and parts of the organization have fallen off track and the staff don't know where they are headed from one day to the next. It means wildly extreme views predominate the discussions and set a bitter and angry tone. It means you are no longer able to articulate your vision and policies in a way the resonates with the citizenry.

At this point it seems like only kooks and weirdos like bertram jr. and Joe-the-Plumber are setting the tone for the campaign rather than reasoned and competent people who offer solutions to the problems the country faces.

Going around calling people socialists and terrorists only indicates that you have a screw loose and certainly not that you have something constructive to give in terms of serving the country and its best interests.

A $150G Palin monthly clothing bill indicates in the broader scheme of things that they have been wasteful and arrogant while failing to serve their cause and we don't need 8 more years of that for the country.

LAMBERT: I see Chris Matthews pointed out that $150k in clothing is more than the value of Joe the Plumber's house.

Have you discovered Dr. Mengele's whereabouts yet?

LAMBERT: I'm told he has resettled in Medina.

Obama was born overseas to at least one Muslim parent, and apparently can not or will not produce a valid birth certificate.

His "mom" isn't running, Jimbo.

By all means, let's pontificate some more on Palin's wardrobe.

I know how you guys yearn for those oddly colored XL pantsuits...

The visceral hate that you lefty loonies have for Palin is palpable, apparently because she is a real, successful (and attractive) person who gives not two shits for your unicorn dreams of twisted racial guilt propping up an unqualified felon / terrorist associate.

And she just immolated the entire feminist "movement".

Good luck with that illegal voter registration, I see it's lead to even polls...and we know what THAT means!

LAMBERT: You're not operating heavy machinery, are you?

You want smart?

Here is smart:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302867_pf.html

Saturday, the New York Times did a takeout on Cindy McCain that delved back into her problem with prescription pills. Yet when Hillary's campaign manager, Mark Penn, brought up Obama's cocaine use on "Hardball," he was savaged by folks for whom the Times is the gold standard.

The people apparently had a "right to know" of Bush's old DUI arrest a week before the 2000 election, but no right to know about how and when Obama was engaged in the criminal use of cocaine.

The media cannot get enough of the "Saturday Night Live" impersonations of Palin as a bubblehead. News shows pick up the Tina Fey clips and run them and run them to the merriment of all.

Can one imagine "Saturday Night Live" doing weekly send-ups of Michelle Obama and her "I've never been proud" of my country, this "just downright mean" America, using a black comedienne to mimic and mock her voice and accent?

"Saturday Night Live" would be facing hate-crime charges.

How do we know? When the New Yorker ran a cartoon of Michelle in an Angela-Davis afro with an AK-47 slung over her shoulder, New Yorker editors had to go on national television to swear they were not mocking Michelle, but the conservatives who have so caricatured Michelle and the Messiah.

Is there a media double standard? You betcha.

The photo of Bachmann the Strib chose to run the other day might in a sense be considered an editorial. She looked crazier than ever, mouth contorted, eyes bugging out, etc.

LAMBERT: They caught her in the moment she found an anti-American ...

Maybe if Michele Bachmann was a former wrestler the Strib & PiPress would have had an opinion.

LAMBERT: Even wrestler-politicians would connect the dots between ferreting out "anti-Americans" and Joe McCarthy.

Nancy B. seems to have allowed Kersten to have another batshit moment at the would-be expense of Al Franken.

…It does make you wonder how much more embarrassing the real expense could be.

I bet it’s more mundane than embarrassing. But, this is good enough for today’s good for me, but not for thee moment.

The Obama campaign apparently plays pretty fast and loose with credit card processing, to the point it enables fundraising fraud. No big concern there.

I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of campaign wardrobe. But I wonder if wardrobe is less or more of a legitimate political expense than say, putting a floozy in a no work job on your campaign. (see John Edwards)

I’m also wondering today who’s the better person: Tim Mahoney or Mark Foley

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/10/23/would-obama-dems-kill-401k-plans.html

Do you find this acceptable under some ‘change’ justification? Have the Argentineans been OK with it?

LAMBERT: Even at dinner tonight the Argentines were talking about how the private sector retirement plans have all but collapsed and the (shaky) government is all they can count on.

The Star Tribune calling for an investigation of indicted ACORN (who endorsed Al Franken) is a "jump the shark moment"? An organization that has been indicted in multiple states does not deserve a Federal inquiry? For years the ultra left has complained that there was vote fraud in Ohio and Florida (with no proof), evidence starts emerge of a federally funded partisan group, and this should be ignored?

LAMBERT: Two things:

1- "No proof" in either Florida or Ohio. Do you really want to go there?

2 - In the context of an allegedly "leading" metropolitan daily avoiding commentary on an episode of national interest like Bachmann's -- that would be startling even if it weren't a possible game-changer in an important race -- and instead ("boldly") echo a call for investigation into voter fraud vis a vis ACORN is the meekest, no-skin-in-the-game weinie-ness of the first order.

My point is/was: It would take guts to make a stand on Bachmann -- (hell, SUPPORT her, but offer a sense of your institutional convictions on something that is both newsworthy and relevant to your readers) -- while it takes no guts at all to add a "me, too" to checking out vote fraud in precincts distant from Minnesota. Can we assume the Strib editorial board is still foursquare for motherhood?

Finally, care to risk a bet on the total of game-changing votes ACORN cooked up, as opposed to say the disenfranchised of Dade County, circa 2000?

With this latest flurry of comments, especially these Limbaugh-esque reruns, I couldn't help but be reminded of this Chris Hedges article from the other day--
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081020_the_idiots_who_rule_america/

It seems the short attention spans and shiny object syndrome has been so engrained that no one even pretends to want to confront the real issues facing our country.

Right, BJ? Still no thoughts about the economy, bailout, energy, Iraq/Iran. And why not, when the latest poll is out to mislead us and lesser issues like Palin's extreme makeover on the GOP party tab are there to distract us from the complex ones...and the Strib/PPress fiddle while their Op-Editors burn.

Each day I say thanks for the internet.

LAMBERT: I think helps to remind yourself that to the bertrams and talk radio jocks of the world, this is fundamentally no different than arguing team sports. My guys - good. Your guys -- bad. It keeps things from getting too complicated.

Au contraire, Bertram. My fellow lefties and I absolutely ADORE Mrs. Palin and all she's accomplished for our side. Former Reagan Soliciter General Charles Fried just announced he's voting for Obama. Charles frickin Fried, Bertram! After your gal cashes in on this campaign - with a stint at Fox News, say - I hope your side chooses her to run in 2012. If that's the case, even Alan "mea culpa" Greenspan will be voting to re-elect Obama while your side will be reduced to nativists and know-nothings like yourself.

As much as the freaked out McCain/Palin supporters want to make all the questions that have come up about the shopping spree and Joe-the-Plumber as attacks by the MSM and Liberal media establishment, it is all a cover for the fact that the McCain campaign is suffering almost totally from self-inflected wounds.

Being a staffer for McCain is like going hunting with Dick Cheney -- they seem to be shooting themselves in the face on a daily basis. Palin gaffes and nutters like J-T-P are just the latest in a long line of mistakes and miscalculations by McCain. They keep blowing up in his face just like his stand to cancel the campaign and not debate Obama until the economic crisis is solved. Good thing we didn't hold our breath.

Absent a cohesive policy on the economy and the fact that almost every position McCain is taking in this election is a rehash of Bush's failed policies, they easily get sidetracked, waylaid and unfocused. When this happens the media covering the wachos like Joe-the-Plumber or Palin's clothing allowance as if it were the breaking news.

The McCain campaign keeps talking about shoring up their base. It is clear this base they are trying to shore up is a radical extremist fringe of their own party -- one that like to hear people accused of being "communists" and "Muslims" and fundamentalist Christian fear-mongering.

Now leaders of the extreme right fundamentalist churches are promising they will vilify and demonize Obama and deliver the election to McCain. In exchange they want nothing less than state sponsored religious doctrines and a litmus test for Supreme Court appointments. That sounds like George Wallace and worse in terms of the intensity of hatred and division.

Why does McCain still need to "shore up this base"? In campaigns you are suppose to shore up the base in the spring and summer months and then move on with a vision that appeals to a wide base of the American public. By October a candidate should be presenting a positive unifying vision that will bring all Americans together to deal with the problems confronting the nation.

Instead, McCain is sill trying to shore up his extremist base and has resorted to right-wing fear-mongering and McCarthyism. John McCain has no core, he has no vision, and there isn't leadership in his actions nor his words. He's lost control of his campaign and people in the media are picking away at the corpus.

There is no monolithic "MSM" nor, as much as some people on both sides might wish, is there a bogie-man "Liberal" control over the message of the media. This simplistic finger-pointing is all a cover for failure and the lack of substance of the McCain campaign.

It appears the local newspaper's conservation of precious media resources has reached national attention again--
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200810250003

The Strib can run their conflict of interest absence of journalism, but they can't hide it there.

Times have changed folks...we got options, and when we feel let down by the local fishwrap, it is worse than being let down by the Vikings.

Note: I threw in the sports reference to help BJ get the point...I still have hope for him.

I know it's never pays to get into a rational fight with a liar but...

Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961 and there is a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii (which for habitual manipulators of the truth had become and still is one of the 50 U.S. states) and Obama properly presented his birth certificate to establish his eligibility to be President and the document is published online at the Obama campaign web site.

What far out freak-a-zoid fact will the rabid, foaming at the mouth, extremists invent next? [I already know the answer to this question and they will say Obama is either the Anti-Christ or the Devil, an agent of Islamic extremism and a hater of Jesus.]

It is amazing what lies pass for the truth in the world of internet trolls and flamers who absolutely know they are lying but think if they say it frequently enough it will come true. The guy who made the so-called YouTube Obama birth certificate "documentary" names himself in the credits "Molotov Mitchell" - doesn't that avatar or alias tell you something right there?

I can't believe are having this discussion at all. That's the problem with BJ's claims in this forum. They are so far afield and wacko that it really doesn't merit an rational response. But what he and his extremist cadre represent is fear based politics and in the past it has transformed rational nations with a rule of civil law, freedom and liberty, and basic human justice into tyrannies and brutal nations based on lies and the suppression of the truth.

Bertram jr., Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh and the shock jocks of talk radio, and robocalls, etc. clearly prove that tyranny and ignorance lives right here next to us and we are amidst a form of brutal politics based on lies and a dishonest manipulation of reality.

LAMBERT: I try to apply irrationality to my comments to bertram. I find it cathartic.

You might want to take a look at Eric Boehlert's Saturday's Media Matters post on the strib's treatment of Coleman v. Franken, with which you will find much to agree.

LAMBERT: Just back in town. I'll check it out.

I’ve read that the Argentinean wine industry is cautiously optimistic that the US financial crisis may actually increase their exports since it’s unlikely that Americans will stop drinking wine, but very likely that they will start paying more attention to the price-quality ratio. Are you planning to publish the results of your recent research in this area?

LAMBERT: Thus far I can report each and every glass/copa/ penguino/liter I consumed was "superb", with the afterglow of a passionate tryst. Now ... getting all this back into the country.

They might be silent on Bachmann but they've both endorsed Coleman.

Endorsing Coleman?

They finally got one right.

LAMBERT: Fascinating rationale: "Over the last [election] year he's been better."

Yesterday I watched McCain on Meet the Press and it was a sad spectacle.

You can tell my his facial expressions, his body language, his defensiveness, his stuttering and halting answers that this election has long since gone beyond his control.

When asked about Palin and the complicating issues like Troopergate, clothes shopping, and the tensions between his staff and her (the DIVA comments by McCain staff) he had no answers evolved to the point of being credible. He just went back to old platitudes that she's a maverick and Todd's a north shore oil field man. Why are we talking about Todd? Sarah Palin is your running mate John.

When asked about pinpointing a strategy for victory and where the campaign was focusing its energy to bring a turnabout victory, he had no clue and just resorted to shallow slogans "it will be a late night" and just completely evaded the specifics of that question.

I almost felt like I wanted to put words in McCain's mouth to avoid the embarrassment like, say, "Western Pennsylvania!" Just say something smart John, this is getting hard to watch.

Tom Brokaw would ask McCain a question and then after John tried to substantiate, for instance his charge that Obama is a socialist. Brokaw would show a clip of McCain supporting and defending the progressive income tax. Then, McCain responded, oh I know how you guys like to show clips and come back but he was not going to respond to that.

This kind of evasiveness, the lack of attention and preparation for detail was really hard to watch. It felt like a college kid who overstated his credentials on his resume is finally asked to explain a specific knowledge of the subject and cannot during a job interview.

The whole thing felt like McCain knew he is slipping away and just wanted to get the whole thing over with and out of the chair. I wanted it to be over with and Brokaw wasn't really pushing McCain for hard answers and specifics. In fact, near the end of the interview, Brokaw did a tribute to McCain's heroism and noted that it has been 40 years ago that McCain was shot down and captured.

Still, it was pretty sad to watch McCain try to unsuccessfully answer the questions that needed to be asked.

LAMBERT: Your point about McCain seeming unprepared is what has been startling me. This guy has been around DC culture for three decades and yet more often than not he seems nearly clueless about policy specifics. But then this may be the Republicans' last gasp of Reagan Redux, where they throw up a "CEO"candidate who they assume -- even though he knows next to nothing about the fine print -- can get away with having his minions do all his reading and studying for him.

Ahhh, the frenzy on the left is reaching a fever pitch - Palin hung in effigy in Hollywood, Dowd ferociously ripping at Palin's wardrobe, Obama, not even making any more press conferences, lest he be further "exposed", Biden cutting off TV stations for asking legitimate questions about Obambi's socialist bent....

Ah, it's so very, very rich.

And the polls are swingng right....watch out, libs, your time is almost up!

The folly and failure of a socialist Marxist done-nothing is almost at hand.

LAMBERT: Send us a postcard when you pass through the Oort Cloud will you?

Say, any comment on today's top of page 1 Strib headline:

"Want to get a little behind?"

They must have inadvertantly left that one off yesterday's really awesome syphillis /clamydia column by my guys, the "Withering Glancers" ClaudeNRick (TM).

You really can't make this stuff up....

LAMBERT: If you'll show up I'll arrange drinks with Claude and Rick. Very pleasant guys, both of them.

Even if Norm only showed one year of "being better" (I disagree with that assesment from the Star Tribune) it is more leadership and character than Al Franken has shown in his entire career. In a year that should have been a landslide year for Democrats, the DFL picks the only guy that could possibly lose.

LAMBERT: One (election) year of, uh, "leadership" behavior vs. a consistent pattern of thinking and judgment?

Last night I watched the PBS American Experience documentary on Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. How chilling are these memories? The situation in Vietnam and the gravitas of history at that time are, fortunately, very different than today. Yet, there are chilling parallels in thinking between the Johnson execution of the war and Iraq.

What stood out most obviously is the momentum of being in a war and the inability to extract a nation from its horrific grips. And most of the flaws in thinking and tactics revolve around the notion of WINNING the WAR.

All these brilliant an smart men in the White House were completely blinded by the notion they could and HAD to win the war. Like in Iraq today, they had no notion of what a victory meant. The Generals had no specific plan and timetable. Johnson became completely consumed, day in and day out, waking in the middle of the night to go down to the situation room and get body counts. And, like Bush, they lied about the war itself.

Just like Iraq today, the idea of winning the war without knowing what winning meant and having no strategy or specifics to achieve it was Americas undoing. And Nixon continued the same shapeless, goalless, endless strategy until finally Gerald Ford pulled the last troops off the roof of our U.S. Embassy in 1975.

The amazing thing about this election, as it finally enters the last week, it there has been no serious and focused discussion anywhere in the media: print, radio, broadcast, etc. about the war in Iraq. All it has been is a series of slogans, empty rhetoric, and fear.

What I would like to have heard from McCain is if he really thinks he will achieve all our victory how would he define victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, what is the strategic plan, what is the timetable, and what are his terms?

Just like Johnson, McCain is living in a quandary of vagueness and under the delusion that might will make right. And without specifics McCain's "we will win" is just hollow sloganeering and chest pounding bravado. That's the dark and dangerous vortex Johnson fell into in Vietnam.

LAMBERT: Similarly, Obama needs to continue avoiding talk of "victory" in Afghanistan. These aren't military conflicts a foreign power ever "wins". The best you can hope for is that you temporarily diminish the influence of the insurgents and give the local government room to provide security and improve basic services. Either way, sooner rather than later, we have to leave.

I'll pass, wouldn't want them trying to "recruit" us...

I am speechless at how the Strib has left it's remaining credibility far, far behind....just like the other MSMs.

This election will mark the final straw, the veritable end of the MSM.

The obvious and ridiculous tanking for Obama is all too transparent now, even to the "uninformed".

Are you actually stating that Franken has a "consistent pattern of thinking and judgement"?

Please provide details, by all means. Unless you meant about porn and misogyny.

Norman has results.

Franken has....Stuart Smalley.

What do your Argentinean friends think of porn writers running for office?

LAMBERT: Really ... "porn writers"? It was a satire about pornography, you know. (Then again, you probably don't.)

Consistent thinking and judgement?
Would it be Franken's great mind that took Air America to bankrupcy? The salary he was paid from an illegal $900,000 loan? Spending his entire career smearing and distorting the truth of those he disagreed with? (In the same manner of the "right wing" talk radio) His great thinking and judgement that bombed two movies and a tv series?
As I said I do not agree that Coleman has only shown one year of leadership. The talking points on Coleman being the "lap dog" with Iraq doesn't work. Franken is trying the same strategy Ned Lamont tried with Joe Liberman and it isn't working as well as he thought.. Judgement? Franken has publicly said he would have supported the invsaion as did Democratic heroes of Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, Reid... He has flip flopped not only on what he thought about going to war but about the timelines. Franken did go to Harvard, but then again they also gave Bill O'Reilley a degree. As a person who lives on the other side of the river I have seen first hand that Coleman did in fact show leadership as Mayor. Neighborhoods that were going down the tube fast are revitalized because of positions and leadership taken by Coleman. As a US senator he has been on the right side of energy, business, rural issues, and healthcare. The Star Tribune which last enorsed a Republican Senate candidate in 1988 should be applauded for it's independent judgement for not falling into the lemmings of other DFLers who are voting for a washed up comedian simply because he has a "D" by his name. Thinking and judgement - it's not coming from the mind of Al Franken. This was the most qualified DFL candidate in a Democrat year? Thats questionalbe judgement.

LAMBERT: Every voting decision involves comparative virtues. If Norm had followed along the path he started as Mayor I'd have fewer problems with him. But he became a sycophant to a highly incompetent-to-corrupt regime, "evolving" only when it was clear that relationship was perilous to him. Franken -- who is hardly to blame for Air America's financial state -- has remained far more consistent in his positions. The war ... you got him there. But hell, there were a lot of us who, while we knew Cheney to be deceptive and highly manipulative, couldn't imagine he'd lie about taking the country to war.

This election will mark the end of a free and critical press in America.

I bet the right-wing Republicans would love that to happen.

Then they could truly RULE like tin-horn dictators without McCain or Palin having to answer difficult questions.

Republican Utopia!

LAMBERT: Freedom and openness as defined by ... Hugh Hewitt.

Even being solidly consistent in positions and opinions does not qualify you for elected office. If consistency were a huge factor than George Bush would win on that contest. Coleman has bucked his own party more than the top superstars on the Democratic side - this didn't just happen in 2008. Coleman has also shown he is more willing to buck his party's agenda than superstars on the left.
Franken was the frontman for Air America, had his show been a succsess there would not have been a financial disaster that it turned into - and he would be taking bows for his foward and progressive venture.
I believe it was on this board that hard right wing conservatives and Michael Moore democrats were halting the 700 billion bailout. Do we now refer to this group as right wing radio and Al Franken Democrats? The leadership and judgement was apparent when he made his position public after his opponent had voted on the bill. Leadership at it's best.
Let's not be an apologist for Al Franken on this war positions. If he is the true visionary of judgement and thinking he would have spoken out against the war in the begining. I thought this was the generation that spoke up and questioned their government? Is it only when it is politically fashionable? In a state with Obama 10 points ahead the DFL could have done better.

LAMBERT: There is an emotional quality to some of the animosity toward Franken, isn't there? As for Bush's "consistency", wasn't he the guy who was coming in as a "uniter"?

Like Robb, I too would have liked a better discussion of Iraq--well beyond McCain's pandering 'victory' slogan. Maybe debates and election campaigns just do not provide the right settings for such, too busy shaping talking point messages, sloganeering, and gotcha moments. To say nothing of distractions like $150,000 wardrobes and Ayers...some character issues we have, eh?

My two cents on Iraq is there is no way to 'win'. Period. Any time you put 100,000 soldiers into a foreign country, there will be no clearly marked lines to define when a local goes from being sad to mad when--
--occupying soldiers are on every corner,
--whistling (and worse) at the local women,
--demeaning the local men,
--taking up the local food and business resources,
--building walls and 'services' and bases the locals don't want,
--throwing political weight in the country's politics against the local wishes, and
--generally interferring with their lives.

And labelmakers are quick to call people who speak out against these conditions to be 'radicals', and if any violence occurs they become 'terrorists' or 'anarchists'. They become 'wrong' because of course we are 'right'. When in fact, we here in MN would do the same thing if soldiers from IA or WI did the same thing here...it is human nature, it is the wish to be free that we supposedly were giving them, but instead took from them.

This is not Japan after WWII where we won a war against their obvious aggression. We attacked them under false pretenses, were never welcomed and far more resented, especially after Abu Ghraib and other abuses surfaced. With our actions, we created more terrorists than we found, both in the war and post-war insurgency. But, now that is history, and we are stuck where some say the surge worked and some say we cannot leave...often it is the same person in the same conversation--which tells me the surge did not work.

But maybe time is working, Iraqis have killed as many Iraqis as they cared to kill, and now it has progressed to a normal level of middle eastern killing and we should take advantage of such to complete the transfer of power and reduce our political influence as soon as possible.

To transfer into Afghanistan? Pakistan? I say no--the time to clean Afghanistan was in 2002-3, not now. Instead I recommend more (1) U.N. flags over these unsettled areas, and more (2) U.S. special ops over any terrorist cells. Both recommendations should be better coordinated with the existing governments in these countries. Cowboys be damned.

Given the economy, the ultimate goal now should be a reduction of military spending--
--missle shield=no thanks;
--star wars funding=no thanks;
--mars funding=no thanks
--any questions=see Wall Street Bailout and VA Spending (which is the next unspoken burden we will take on).

And the world is free to be terrorized? I think not. If so, it is not because of Iraq, it is in spite of Iraq. Billions of dollars that should have gone into Homeland Security instead went into defense (actually, offensive) spending and Halliburton/Blackwater mercenary contractors.

And without our clout, the rest of the world will drink up all the oil leaving the USA energy-free? Puh-leeze. We should be well along our way off of oil. And we would be now if only for the complete lack of vision in the USA this past decade, crying about global warming being a hoax, instead of seeing it for what is truly is--which is the greatest business opportunity of our generation.

Every house in the USA should have little wind generators and a couple solar panels on the roof instead of people whining about the big energy company is not taking care of me...we should be saying screw you and building our own energy providing systems. Is it that much different than having a furnace or a washer?

But, I digress. Just like the entire GOP party this election cycle...digressing off topic, showing no focus on solutions to the current problems, chasing shiny object character issues while bridges, wall street, and the economy collapsed. Is it fair to saddle the GOP with those problems--YES, when they refuse to address them in the election campaign!

If you don't like my discussion, don't blame me. The GOP had the chance to define these issues for me, they had their chance, and they blew it. So a nobody like me has to fill the void I guess. Then, after the elections and the GOP loses another 40 seats in congress and the presidency, it will become the Dems turn and let's work to ensure they do better...because it is too important to leave it to chance.

While you geniuses are genuflecting towards Mecca, tell me why Joe Biden voted against the Gulf War, and why that little gem isn't being discussed as ardently by the liberal buffoon-ditocracy as the cost of Palin's tailored jackets.

Oh, and I was looking for anything Obama authored at Harvard Law Review.

Anyone, Beuler?

Norm Coleman has been in his career a radical leftist, a Democrat, a conservative Republican and is currently impersonating a moderate Republican; tomorrow he will be anything from an anarchist to monarchist as he thinks it serves his self interest. The strib calls this pragmatism, but opportunism seems to fit the facts better.

Franken is a descendant of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement; he has been that, he is that and the likelihood is that he will continue to be that.

LAMBERT: But will Franken devote five of six years to pandering to Sixth District gun clubs, you know, the "new" Strib's base?

Emotional animosity was the foundation for Al Franken moving to Minnesota to run for Senate.

LAMBERT: As in his horror at what Coleman had helped Cheney do to the country?

Curious to know how the conculsion of Al Franken a New York millionaire is a descendant of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement - any more than Coleman, a 32 year resident of St Paul, Minnesota living on a modest income in a middle class neighborhood.

"But will Franken devote five of six years to pandering to Sixth District gun clubs, you know, the "new" Strib's base?"

On the Almanac debate last week Franken said he has never rejected gun ownership, the amount of guns that someone can own for hunting or self defense. Rural or urban, Franken said he has never been for gun control. Is that the kind of pandering we are talking about?

LAMBERT: From the Strib's point of view, you just can't depend on Franken to pander to the gunners on a steady, consistent basis.

"As in his horror at what Coleman had helped Cheney do to the country? "

Once again, if we are talking about war, the Democartic majority Senate in 2002 voted to go to war, with Al Franken on board. Arkansas/Illinois/New York native Senator Clinton came to do a commercial for Al - did he give her a free pass on her 2002 vote?
Social Security , Energy, and taxes have all been issues where Coleman has been on the side of growth and long term solutions. Could he have investigated more in the Iraq War finances? yes. Did he uncover scandal in the oil for food program? Yes. Where is Galloway now? Not seeing a lot of ground shaking from Coleman's succsessor as lead investigator.

LAMBERT: I'll put you down as "leaning Coleman".

"From the Strib's point of view, you just can't depend on Franken to pander to the gunners on a steady, consistent basis."

Sort of debunks the Franken consistency argument?
Never thought I would be defending the Star Tribune, but don't seem to recall the gun position as their rationale for endorsement.

LAMBERT: I'm thinking "bi-partisan" is code for Linden Hills and Sixth District gunners.

As an ex-Linden Hills "gunner", I left when the city decided that certain "citizens" were exempt from city ordinances, based essentially on their skin color.

Oh, and Minneapolis kept wanting more and more tax money for "the schools" (read: certain uneducable students, now accounting for nearly 80% of the school enrollment).

What is up with your sudden fixation with "gunner" term?

Are you against the 2nd Amendment, too?

This guy bertram jr. is a skin-head Nazi white supremacist isn't he? With guns...

LAMBERT: I believe he sees himself as one of Sarah Palin's "real Americans", in which case it goes without saying that he is armed to the teeth.