Oh, Missouri!!!

Who won -- Barack Obama or John McCain?

They're taking a sweet long time to figure that one out in Missouri, where officials in the "show me" state are still counting election results two weeks after the polls closed.

So far, McCain is ahead by more than 4,300 votes out of 2.9 million votes cast. But four (rather large) areas still have yet to get their results in.

Obama can rest easy, however. While he didn't do gangbusters in Missouri, he won 93 percent of the vote in Washington, D.C.


MORE FROM:

Examiner.com

Electoral-vote.com

Eviction Notice -- a little free write about love and stuff

I sat through a couple of half-day writing seminars at the LOFT literary center (a.ka. OPEN BOOK) in Minneapolis recently. One of them was a bit repetitive, so as I sat in the audience, I got inspired to work on a little piece.

Here it is. Don't know what, if anything, I will do with this, but I'm thinking of calling it "Eviction Notice":


EVICTION NOTICE

Back when we were living together, but shortly before the end, my last serious girlfriend angrily informed me I was not 'detail-oriented' enough. She was territorial about the kitchen and offered this criticism as we shelved canned vegetables together in a lower cabinet. She had more than a tone. Soon afterward, I called my older sister in New York to complain.

"You're not," she confirmed.

Ah, well.

I have learned this much from love: There are things we try to police in ourselves and improve in ourselves, but ultimately we are who we are, until we are changed. I still think my ex-love over-reacted. They were, after all, just vegetables.

Before I keep going, I should say that I am writing this in a certain context: sitting through an eight-hour writing seminar to which I've shown up 39 minutes late on a chilly Saturday morning in downtown Minneapolis; the elections of 2008 are just behind us; my rent is not due but the alarm clock we all keep at the back of our minds keeps fluttering back to the date, as if it were.

An hour's drive north, a 28-year-old man I interviewed in prison on Wednesday must at this moment be by laying in bed in his cell, no doubt meditating on his 2-year-old son, dreaming of his next visit. The prison unit is on "lockdown" because of acts of violence between prisoners, and except for my interview, he and the other men have not left their cells in days.

I had met his child for the first time two days earlier; he called every man "dada," even those flat images of men he saw flickering by on the television screen. Mother had divorced father months earlier. I'd written about them both, back before the child was born, in more hopeful days.

Last night, over goodbye drinks for a departing co-worker, I heard an old story about a school administrator who had a habit of popping Viagra pills and then walking down supermarket aisles in his spandex shorts. My co-workers thought they got him, eventually, on indecent exposure.

I am imagining a middle-aged man, hair like Caesar, pale as most Minnesotans are pale, round at the waist, dressed like an entrant in the Tour de France, trundling to a wide-eyed older woman in the dairy aisle, she of the big blue hat and the winter scarf, the crisp, refrigerator air doing nothing to cool the chemical want between his legs, his offering obvious but never mentioned, a silent hello protruding from beneath small talk about the rising price of Kemps milk.

What no one will understand later and what he cannot fully explain is that this is more than a thrill ride, an obscene bat attack on an unsuspecting mailbox, a sexualized cow tipping. He is not doing this because he can. He is doing this because he must.

I am glad I am not him. Or her.

But I am not sure how it was determined that I be neither of them, that I am me and not them. The soul is unique; our actions are self-chosen; but that's not the half of it. What more, I can't say.

-- cut: There was something else I was going to tell you here, but I have forgotten. --

But consider this:

At the prison I mentioned earlier, the very large associate warden came out to the guest lobby to talk to my photographer before the interview. "You're wanted in New Mexico," the very large associate warden said. "There's a warrant for you -- something about a moving violation."

"But!" my photographer said. "That was! Years ago! I thought! I paid that!"

My photographer has two or three kids. He has a wife he took to the hospital on Monday with what he prays is a cold. He did not want to be locked up with the hurt and the deadly here in Minnesota, not for breaking the speed limit a lifetime ago in New Mexico. His heart beat faster.

They did not arrest him. He promised to get to the bottom of things, to make amends.

Do you know this joke?: "How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans." The writing coach is now telling this joke to the class, and it is apropos.

That is life though. All that planning that we who call ourselves professionals pour into ourselves, it's to move us forward in one direction. But we only set the compass and head out and pray. Where we end up -- that's fate or chance or what have you.

Here's another thought: Who we are when we're miserable or tired and who we are when the sun hits us after a long gray morning are sometimes so different, it's like we've forgotten ourselves and suddenly noticed the forgetting. "I'm back," you want to say. "I feel myself again. I didn't realize I was gone but I'm back."

This may be how an alcoholic feels during lucid times. This feeling hits me often.

That girlfriend I told you about, the one of the canned vegetables. She was beautiful, that one, but it would never have worked between us. When she told me to move out, I asked her why. She said: "I'm not going to tell you. You never listen."

Ah, well.

Let me close the way a good meal starts. Here's my prayer. Here's my constant prayer: I want to let go of self-recrimination without giving up my perpetually-interrupted commitment to self-improvement; to hate my disorganization less while working on it more; to accept me without losing sight of a better me. I want to learn from the past without being tethered to it; I want to forgive everyone, including myself.

I want next year to be better than the last. I want it all fixed up and better. I want all these things and many more. But I expect nothing.

Okie dokie then. Alright. Amen.

"My Antigone" by Chris Drury

A former co-worker has made the big leap to NYC and broken into the acting and movie-making scene out there.

Here's his latest film trailer, which is in search of backers to go into full production:

My Antigone


And a note from Mr. Drury himself:

Dear Friends,

I hope this note finds you well and wallowing in a late autumn bliss.

As some of you know, I was in the San Francisco Bay Area this past summer shooting scenes from my feature length screenplay MY ANTIGONE.

It was an amazing group of people to work with and I'm happy to be able to present an extended trailer for you to watch here -

www.csdrury.com

I'm currently in the process of pitching the project to investors with an eye towards making the film in the summer of 2009.

If you or someone you know would be interested in receiving any of the following materials please let me know:

- DVD with preview scenes
- Project budget and opportunities for investment
- Detailed story synopsis
- Character breakdown
- Copy of the full screenplay

Thanks for all your support and enjoy the trailer.

-csd

www.csdrury.com

Another tragedy for Human Terrain

War entails death. That's true by definition. Doesn't make it easy, right or glorious.

So when I read this crap about a female social scientist being set on fire in Afghanistan by a guy who looked like a friendly local, I get sick to my stomach. This academic worked for the Pentagon's Human Terrain project, which in May claimed the life of an old acquaintance whom I loved and respected very, very much.

Wired article: Army Social Scientist Set Afire in Afghanistan

God, what a war.

"Samson" by Regina Spektor... swoon to this!

Oh. My. God.

I now know love and despair... they are so damn similar!

Samson, by Regina Spektor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62rfWxs6a8


"you are my sweetest downfall... I loved you first, I loved you first ... and the Bible didn't mention us...."

Man, she's good!

From UrbanDictionary.com - Web site worth knowing!

Three amazing definitions from UrbanDictionary.com:


October 10: Shoplift the Pooty

When a man sleeps with a single mother with a small child.

Also, when a man expresses false adornment for a women's child in order to sleep with her.

Dude, look at John and Sara. He straight up shoplifted the pooty.



imaginary bluetooth
October 13 480 up, 642 down

An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types.
a. Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.
b. Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.
by wheaty 36 comments more bluetooth paranoid schizoprenia bus talking to yourself star trek



Shower Tissue
October 12 1699 up, 569 down

When you're in a shower and have to blow your nose. You use your index and thumb and replicate the actions of blowing your nose then letting the shower wash the boogers away.

"Man, the other day I Shower Tissued and it flew onto my face!"
by Jeff Aalms 52 comments more

Newspapers can't be liquidated!

From a co-worker today:

An AP look at the status of newspaper companies, including Strib . . . and if you were here in the '90s, check out the analyst in the last graf . . .


@Body:

BC-Newspapers-Debt, Adv13,1065

adv13

For use Monday, Oct. 13, and thereafter

Liquidation unlikely as papers miss obligations

Eds: Also moved nationally for use Monday; Note Star Tribune angle.

With BC-Newspapers-Debt-Glance

AP Photo NYBZ182, NYBZ183, NYBZ184

By ANICK JESDANUN

AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ Newspaper companies have been skipping loan payments, missing financial targets in debt agreements and accepting higher interest rates in exchange for more flexibility _ and they're not even directly feeling the impact of the credit crisis yet.

But don't expect massive sales or closures of newspapers any time soon, even though at least five newspaper companies overburdened with debt have been forced to confront their lenders over the past few weeks.

With revenue at newspapers shrinking and few investors willing or able to buy them, lenders are loathe to force companies to liquidate assets that are plunging in value. They have few alternatives but to help newspapers stay on track with their payments and hang on until ad prospects improve _ if they ever do.

"This is not a great time to, let's say, repossess the Minneapolis Star Tribune ... and then try to turn around and sell it," said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst with the journalism think tank Poynter Institute.

The Star Tribune said Sept. 30 it skipped a $9 million quarterly debt payment to conserve cash. The next day, the investor group that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News skipped an unspecified interest payment in an apparent bid to force lenders to renegotiate.

The McClatchy Co., one of the largest U.S. newspaper chains and owner of The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald among other prominent papers, agreed last month to pay higher interest rates and put up more collateral.

Analysts believe McClatchy came close to a technical default under its old loan terms, which required maintaining certain a cash flow as a percentage of its debt level. The new agreement with lenders changes the formula to account for sustained reductions in revenue.

A smaller chain, Morris Publishing Group LLC, said Wednesday it also agreed to pay high interest rates and meet other conditions in exchange for lenders relaxing financial targets for nearly a year.

Meanwhile, Freedom Communications Inc., which owns The Orange County Register in Southern California, said last Monday that it likely fell short of required financial thresholds as well and was in active talks with lenders.

The troubles all result from reduced cash flow caused by advertising revenue plummeting faster than anticipated this year at newspapers across the nation. Readers and ad dollars already were migrating to the Internet; the weakening economy further reduced ad sales.

Many loan agreements were reached back when papers and the economy were relatively healthy. Loan terms call for the two Philadelphia dailies to earn higher profit each year, for instance, something nearly impossible to achieve now.

Though papers ran into trouble well before the bank failures of recent weeks, the ongoing credit crisis is likely to make it harder for newspaper companies to refinance or change the terms of their loans, analysts say. And the crisis is bound to dampen consumer and advertising spending even further, putting even more news companies closer to default.

Tribune Co., for instance, reported $12.5 billion in debt and has a $593 million principal payment due next June. To raise money, the media conglomerate _ which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, television stations and other papers _ is trying to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team and other sports properties. But the credit crunch may hurt bidders' ability to come up with an asking price estimated at more than $1 billion.

Journal Register Co., with $628 million in debt, also has been in talks with lenders. A forbearance agreement it reached with lenders in July expires Oct. 31, after which lenders could prompt a default for missing payments.

"It's possible that some newspaper companies are leveraged beyond the value of their assets," said Mike Simonton, a Fitch Ratings bond analyst who specializes in the media industry. "Some banks may need to restructure their debt and give these entities more time to pay off their obligations."

That is, many newspaper companies may owe sums much greater than the value of their parts.

To a large extent, lenders are forced to make do, Simonton said, "given that the liquidation value of newspaper assets in this market is likely very low."

Newspaper companies' assets are primarily in buildings, equipment and delivery trucks, Simonton said, and lenders typically count on future cash flow in agreeing to let papers take on extensive debt.

The situation is allowed to continue because _ despite the downturn in ad revenue _ most papers remain profitable, just less profitable than they used to be. So lenders, for now, come out ahead in letting papers continue to operate.

"Are lenders going to have to relent in the current environment? To some degree, but not forever," said Chris Donnelly, a vice president at Standard and Poor's Leveraged Commentary and Data unit.

Ultimately, rather than break up or sell a company, investors might decide to forgive some debt in return a partial ownership, Donnelly said. That's true because the entire sector is down, meaning there are few buyers.

In the stock market, too, newspapers' prospects are grim.

McClatchy shares are down 94 percent from three years ago based on Friday's close. The nation's largest U.S. publisher, Gannett Co., is down 81 percent over that period.

Journal Register, which owns 22 daily newspapers, has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and the value of all its outstanding shares stood at $315,000 Friday.

Lenders aren't backing down completely. They typically exert more control over businesses when they renegotiate loan agreements.

The McClatchy agreement, for instance, ties shareholder dividends to the company's ability to meet financial thresholds. The greater its cash flow compared to its debt, the more dividends McClatchy can give out.

There's no evidence of any forced cutbacks yet, but in the case of the Philadelphia newspapers, the current owners seeking a new deal with lenders have proposed selling the papers' headquarters building and using proceeds to reduce debt. Tribune is also considering the sale of its iconic headquarters building in Chicago, Tribune Tower, as well as the headquarters of The Los Angeles Times.

Lenders "are taking a much more active role in a sense in managing the business without having to own it," said Ken Doctor, media analyst with Outsell Inc. "They're saying, "We'll give you some more time, more flexibility, but you have to do x, y and z."

AP-CS-10-10-08 2150EDT

The bailout sinks in Minnesota, according to STRIB poll

STAR TRIBUNE POLL as of 5:30 P.M. THURSDAY
Instant poll: Do you support a bailout for Wall Street?

# of votes % of votes
Yes 1043 26.0 %
No 2963 73.9 %
Total Votes 4006

Editor's note: Instant polls are intended as entertainment. They are not considered to be true measurements of public opinion.


The Poll

Here's my thoughts:
This plan may be gaining more traction with Democrats than Republicans in the House, but on the street, it's unpopular with everyone. Minnesota voters are a relatively liberal bunch, at least in the urban core. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is considered a left-leaning newspaper. And online readers are, arguably, younger and more liberal than print readers. (That's highly debatable, but still...)

So when these relatively liberal readers are polled about the Wall Street bail-out plan -- and they shoot it down 3-1 -- that means the plan is in trouble. If Wall Street can't win hearts and minds in Minnesota, good luck in the heartland. They'll eat you alive.

Corrollary 1: To the degree that Bush is pushing this plan -- and McCain is associated with Bush -- this hurts McCain more than it hurts Obama. Liberals are expected to support bailouts and government intervention; conservatives are not. Whatever McCain's stance on the bailout, you'll see some conservative diehards staying home on election day because of disgust with and division within the party over this. McCain looks uncertain about this plan, which means he looks uncertain about economic issues in general, already a weak spot in his campaign. And it's a bad time for the decider-in-chief to look uncertain. At a time when economic issues are at the forefront of voters' minds, he does not look like he's at the forefront of economic issues. In fact, he looks like what he is -- a rich old white man with an even wealthier wife, oblivious and impervious to downturns in the economy. Not a good thing for his campaign.

Corrollary 2: Disgusted with the bailout plan and with Bush, conservative voters are going to stay home on election day. That's going to hurt GOP races across the country. Obama will win; Dems will control the House by wider margins than at any other time in recent history. Mark my words.

Held at pepper-spray-point during Republican National Convention, Rage Against the Machine aftermath

Oh. Man.

I almost got arrested tonight while on assignment covering RNC-related protestors. I had to kneel in the middle of the street with my hands on my head and a pepper spray gun trained pretty much directly on me. I then had to beg my way out of a mass arrest that netted 30 others. I'm glad I didn't have to spend the night in jail, but it all worked out swimmingly given that I have such a beautiful and trustworthy smile... :)

Last night it was tear gas (which hurts like a mother f%^ker!) that got ignited a few feet behind me while I was covering a protest march. Tonight, the "on your knees! hands on head!" treatment. I hate to say it, but the kookiness of the RNC has actually been kinda fun....

Covering the protests and security skirmishes surrounding the Republican National Convention is a bit like being a kid in Disney Land trying to chase a paper airplane that keeps flying away.

You almost catch up to the airplane, but a giant spectacle or security roadblock of some sort gets in your way, and you end up detouring in and out and under novelties of all strange shapes and sizes to get back to where you wanted to go. Only by that time, the paper airplane has flown somewhere else.

Tonight the airplane I was assigned to chase was not in St. Paul but in Minneapolis. A bunch of us reporters were told to be ready for possible confrontation between police and the self-described anarchists coming into and / or out of the "Rage Against the Machine" concert at the Target Center in the bar / club district of downtown Minneapolis. I got there at 6:30 p.m. and waited and waited and waited; nothing happened until nearly midnight.

When the concert let out around 10:30 p.m., a fair number of drunk hooligans blocked First Avenue outside the performance center, trying to excite the crowd. Police had been waiting in droves for such an occurrence; they lined the sidewalk of First Avenue in large numbers and blocked off the avenue across 6th Street and 7th Street in even larger numbers, with helmeted cops on horses, bike cops, SWAT, and all kinds of vehicles. We're talking dozens, if not hundreds of officers armed with large wooden sticks, pepper spray and more.

After more than an hour, and several rebellious chants of "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me," the 6th Street crowd eventually dispersed with only one arrest. The 7th Street side was more heavily saturated with anarchists, as opposed to silly drunks, and they seemed to feel that if they could only push back the police and force them to let them march in the middle of the street, they would ignite the revolution that changes the world. Who am I to question such logic? So they marched. The police stood their ground for a while, then fell back, unwilling to unleash force.

About 200 or so marched for blocks and blocks, weaving between cars, but eventually stopping at 7th and 2nd Avenue, in front of the WCCO / Ameriprise Financial buildings in the financial district. That's where two bike cops kinda drew a line in the sand, stopping the front dozen or so in the crowd with their bikes. I thought, this crowd (which was down to about 75 at this point, all told, I bet) is going to overwhelm these guys.

Suddenly, an all-terrain vehicle with two cops on the back of it zoomed into the intersection, one guy had his beanbag or rubber bullet or pellet gun raised at us, and I heard two pops. I ran down half a block down 2nd Avenue like a #$%Q# bat outta hell. Scar-eee.

But being stupid -- and being paid to be stupid -- I just had to venture back. A group of 30 - to - 50 people were in the intersection now, including one of my coworkers. After a few minutes, a row of bike cops swooped in and circled the intersection. We were surrounded on all sides.

My co-worker and I ventured to one end of the intersection and politely asked if we could be excused from the circle. The cop said, "No, go the other way." So we did. At the other end of the intersection, we made the same request. That cop also said, "No, go the other way." We suddenly realized we weren't going to be let out.

And the bike cops were only perimeter people. They were the fence. Next came the enforcers.

The bike cops were quickly joined by armed, helmeted, Storm Trooper-like SWAT types all in black, with weapons out. A cop with a pepper spray gun was screaming at me to get down on my knees and put my hands on my head.

So I did.

I couldn't stop smiling a nervous smile. They announced that "everyone in this intersection is being put under arrest." I thought, oh man, my first night in jail!!

But then I noticed that a bunch of cameramen were walking out of the circle. "Hey, I'm media too! They're letting those guys go!" I yelled over to one of the officers. They directed me out of the circle, and I mentioned that my co-worker was media too and on his knees not far behind me. I was free! He was too! Yippeee!

That was about it.

Most everyone else got arrested, though the police chief met with the now large crowd of gathering reporters and said they'd only be charged with misdemeanors. A handful of juveniles and concert-goers who had been looking for their parking ramps were also let go.

the end bye bye see ya later!

P.S. Looks like the Pioneer Press was also there:

FROM:

30 arrested

All Headlines

Thirty people arrested in Minneapolis following Rage Against the Machine concert
Pioneer Press

Article Last Updated: 09/04/2008 01:09:17 AM CDT


Roughly 30 people were arrested in downtown Minneapolis Wednesday evening as they marched through the streets after a much-anticipated Rage Against the Machine concert.

It began when a group of about 200 people began slowly marching from the Target Center on First Avenue, where the concert ended about 10:30 p.m., chanting slogans about democracy and "taking the streets."

The Target Center had been surrounded by dozens of police in full riot gear, anticipating trouble following clashes with protesters in St. Paul on prior days during the Republican National Convention.

As the group walked southeast down Seventh Street, police began tapping the ankles of stragglers, telling them to get off the street and onto the sidewalk. At one point, a group of officers in a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle fired two rounds from what appeared to be either a beanbag or pellet gun.

Several people who were at the concert said they also saw police use pepper spray on individuals walking from the concert.

By the time the marchers reached the corner Seventh Street and 2nd Avenue South, they were down to about 75 people. The group stopped and started cheering, before a few called out "let's keep on taking the streets."

Some of the crowd dispersed as more police arrived on bikes and horses. Just after midnight, police circled the group, ordered them to the ground and cuffed them.

"We are free citizens of America, and we are here because we love our country," said a girl


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who was leading the crowd, who refused to give her name.
"We were at the Rage concert, and they are taking it of context. We were just marching," said Dan Rarick, of Hutchinson, immediately before the arrests. Rarick said he was a U.S. Marine veteran who served in Iraq.

"They're taking it a little to the extreme," added his friend, Joe Tschumperlin, of Shakopee, also a Marine veteran. Seconds later, the arrests began.

Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan, who was on the streets monitoring the situation, said "I'm surprised it wasn't a little worse based on the last few days in St. Paul."

He estimated about 30 people were arrested for blocking traffic, and expected them to be charged with misdemeanors.

Fred Melo, John Brewer, Mara H. Gottfried and Tad Vezner contributed to this story.

Strib has tentative labor deal, Pioneer Press to combine sections

The Star Tribune's newspaper guild has apparently accepted a three-year labor deal that preserves most jobs for a few years yet, without pay raises. It's still tentative, though.

Sounds pretty good at first blush, but MinnPost's David Brauer reports there's no layoff protection in the contract. Not so good at second blush.

And across the river...

The Pioneer Press says the rising cost of newsprint is forcing it to combine the A section (national, World news, A-1 stories) with the B section (Local news) on Mondays and Tuesdays.

In other words, that thin paper you've been seeing toward the beginning of the week? It might get a tad bit thinner, by about four to six pages a week. The number of stories, however, is not projected to shrink much (though their length might).

More here:
Minn Post's David Brauer on the PiPress combining sections

This is also probably good news. It was getting pretty depressing opening the local section and seeing a string of obituaries staring back at you from B-3.

They've also announced they're putting more energy into niche publications, like mini-magazine-style glossies with a few articles about sports, homebuying or entertainment and lots and lots and lots of advertisements.

This last part is a good thing. Advertisers like a targeted audience, and audiences like a targeted product!