Pioneer Press reporter Alex Friedrich's heralded State Fair blog, pushing the envelope of toilet humor and gastrointestinal distress, here:
minnesotastatefair.blogspot.com
Friday, May 23, 2008
More on reporter-blogger-intellectual
Pioneer Press reporter Alex Friedrich's heralded State Fair blog, pushing the envelope of toilet humor and gastrointestinal distress, here:
minnesotastatefair.blogspot.com
London School of Economics steals Pioneer Press reporter
My sources at the PiPress have forwarded me a goodbye speech for a good guy and one heck of a good reporter. It's worth reading.
--------
Union organizer and reporter par excellence, Alex Friedrich, is leaving the Pioneer Press today (Friday) to pursue a master's degree in European History at the London School of Economics.
Friedrich was a unit chair with the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, of the Communications Workers of America Local 37002.
More on him here:
http://www.shoptalknet.org/index.php?get=Alex+Friedrich
His co-worker, Fred Melo, sent this email around to everyone in the newsroom, after the 4 p.m. goodbye speeches and cake.
-----
Here's the goodbye-to-Alex speech I would have given 20 minutes ago, had that Q@#$%$^ not cut me off in traffic and had the police chief spoken a little bit faster. Not my fault, I double-pinky swear. (Well....):
Alex was my first male friend at the Pioneer Press and... (Hmmm... Let me try that again with another lede here... )
Alex's reporting life has taken him from Germany and Prague to the rain-soaked streets of a post-Hurricane Katrina Mississippi, not to forget the hazardous byways of Internet blogging (without pooping. If you don't know what I'm taking about, do a search for Friedrich and State Fair).
But this was not my primary way of knowing Alex or accessing the open library inside his head. Truth be told, I rarely read his beat stuff. Washington County? Might as well be Guam to me.
Few people realize how hard Alex worked for all of us -- as a newsroom, as a paper, and as a brave but embattled industry -- once his computer shut off and he "went home" for the day.
On a near-nightly basis, his was the face and voice of reporters, editors and photographers, writing and researching and organizing the stuff that most of us don't have the stomach for. Mondays at noon, week in and week out, he was there come heck or come highwater, meeting with co-workers across departments, planner in hand.
Whatever our remaining challenges as a paper and as an industry, the short-term results have been better than many expected. I truly believe Alex Friedrich and the loyalty he inspired is a signifcant reason why the Pioneer Press is growing circulation, while the competition isn't.
His was leadership with a smile, and he always maintained a forward-thinking, solution-oriented way of figuring how to improve life here for all of us, and not just for a particular segment of the newsroom.
Leave it to a beautiful woman to steal his heart and kidnap him off to the London School of Economics. Not too shabby, young man. Sounds like a permanent contract to me.
Now go forth and multiply....
Frederick Melo
Reporter, St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55101
Office: 651.228.2172 | Mobile: 651.398.5534
Fax: 651.228.5500
fmelo@pioneerpress.com | www.twincities.com
--------
Union organizer and reporter par excellence, Alex Friedrich, is leaving the Pioneer Press today (Friday) to pursue a master's degree in European History at the London School of Economics.
Friedrich was a unit chair with the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, of the Communications Workers of America Local 37002.
More on him here:
http://www.shoptalknet.org/index.php?get=Alex+Friedrich
His co-worker, Fred Melo, sent this email around to everyone in the newsroom, after the 4 p.m. goodbye speeches and cake.
-----
Here's the goodbye-to-Alex speech I would have given 20 minutes ago, had that Q@#$%$^ not cut me off in traffic and had the police chief spoken a little bit faster. Not my fault, I double-pinky swear. (Well....):
Alex was my first male friend at the Pioneer Press and... (Hmmm... Let me try that again with another lede here... )
Alex's reporting life has taken him from Germany and Prague to the rain-soaked streets of a post-Hurricane Katrina Mississippi, not to forget the hazardous byways of Internet blogging (without pooping. If you don't know what I'm taking about, do a search for Friedrich and State Fair).
But this was not my primary way of knowing Alex or accessing the open library inside his head. Truth be told, I rarely read his beat stuff. Washington County? Might as well be Guam to me.
Few people realize how hard Alex worked for all of us -- as a newsroom, as a paper, and as a brave but embattled industry -- once his computer shut off and he "went home" for the day.
On a near-nightly basis, his was the face and voice of reporters, editors and photographers, writing and researching and organizing the stuff that most of us don't have the stomach for. Mondays at noon, week in and week out, he was there come heck or come highwater, meeting with co-workers across departments, planner in hand.
Whatever our remaining challenges as a paper and as an industry, the short-term results have been better than many expected. I truly believe Alex Friedrich and the loyalty he inspired is a signifcant reason why the Pioneer Press is growing circulation, while the competition isn't.
His was leadership with a smile, and he always maintained a forward-thinking, solution-oriented way of figuring how to improve life here for all of us, and not just for a particular segment of the newsroom.
Leave it to a beautiful woman to steal his heart and kidnap him off to the London School of Economics. Not too shabby, young man. Sounds like a permanent contract to me.
Now go forth and multiply....
Frederick Melo
Reporter, St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55101
Office: 651.228.2172 | Mobile: 651.398.5534
Fax: 651.228.5500
fmelo@pioneerpress.com | www.twincities.com
Friday, May 9, 2008
Michael Bhatia, Brown scholar, killed in Afghanistan
A good man died in Afghanistan on Wednesday. He was an Oxford scholar and an intellectual and I'd like to think of him as a friend, though we hadn't stayed in touch like we should have over the years.
His name was Michael Bhatia, and to call him smart is like calling the Pope a Catholic. Bhatia, of Medway, Massachusetts, did his first mission in sub-Saharan Africa with a United Nations crisis team while he was a sophomore in college. He studied toward his Phd at Oxford and taught at his alma mater, Brown University in Rhode Island, in recent months.
He was 30 or 31 years old.
His subject of choice was war. But his was no mere theoretical or intellectual exercise. He was one of those rare academics that believed in putting the books down at the end of the semester and talking to people -- real, everyday people -- in their homes, in their villages, and seeing the world through their eyes. He was an idealist. He wanted peace.
He traveled to East Timor, Afghanistan, and any number of crisis locations hoping to learn and to help people. The U.S. military hired him as a cultural adviser of sorts in Afghanistan. Scattered blog and media reports indicate his convoy hit some form of explosive. I'm not sure if it was a cast-away boobie trap in the style of a landmine or more of an organized attack.
To say he is mourned and loved is an understatement. We miss you Mike. We'll see you again someday.
More on Michael Bhatia here:
Brown University's Watson Insitute memorial tribute:
http://watsoninstitute.org/news_detail.cfm?id=851
Brown University's alumni magazine posting:
http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/recent_news/michael_bhatia_99_killed_in_afghanistan_1980.html
Reuters describes the attack that likely killed Mike:
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnISL72960.html
Mike's bio on the Globalist:
http://www.theglobalist.com/AuthorBiography.aspx?AuthorId=988
Mike's three-part personal photo series on life in Afghanistan:
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=6416
Zohra, a blog friend from Afghanistan, remembers Mike:
http://kabulkabul.blogspot.com/2008/05/in-memory-of-michael-bhatia.html
A Brown friend and drinking buddy remembers Mike:
http://sethresler.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/michael-bhatia/
FROM THE WATSON INSTITUTE AT BROWN UNIVERSITY:
In Memory of Michael Vinay Bhatia '99
Michael Bhatia
May 08, 2008
Michael Vinay Bhatia ’99 died yesterday in Afghanistan, where he was working as a social scientist in consultation with the US Defense Department.
In addition to graduating magna cum laude in international relations from Brown University, Michael was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute from July 2006 to June 2007. At the Institute, he was involved in a research project on Cultural Awareness in the Military, writing his PhD dissertation, and teaching a senior seminar on "The US Military: Global Supremacy, Democracy and Citizenship."
Over several years, Michael’s research and humanitarian work took him to such conflict zones as Sahrawi refugee camps, East Timor, and Kosovo, in addition to Afghanistan.
Of his work in Afghanistan, Michael wrote in November: “The program has a real chance of reducing both the Afghan and American lives lost, as well as ensuring that the US/NATO/ISAF strategy becomes better attuned to the population's concerns, views, criticisms and interests and better supports the Government of Afghanistan.”
Michael had recently published some of his research on Afghanistan.
His co-authored book on Afghanistan, Arms and Conflict: Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society was just released by Routledge in April. It assesses small arms and security-related issues in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
His edited book on Terrorism and the Politics of Naming was published by Routledge last September. Stating that names are not objective, the book seeks the truth behind those assigned in such cases as the US hunt for al-Qaeda, Russia’s demonization of the Chechens, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In August, his personal three-part photo essay, “Shooting Afghanistan: Beyond the Conflict,” was published by theGlobalist. In it, he wrote:
“Afghanistan will soon reach a desperate milestone – the thirtieth anniversary of ongoing conflict. … Though I have spent the majority of my time there researching the wars and those involved in it, conflict is not my primary memory and way of knowing it. I am compelled to write about experiences and ideas that cannot be placed into analytical paradigms, which do not speak to theories of war or peace, to destruction or to reconstruction, but instead to daily interactions that occurred in the course of research.”
His love of photography is revealing. In theGlobalist piece, he also wrote:
“Building on Robert Capa’s statement that 'If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough,' James Nachtwey, the preeminent photo-realist and conflict photographer, once indicated that the primary characteristic of a good war photographer was proximity, closeness and involvement.”
Michael was a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. He was awarded a George C. Marshall Scholarship in 2001 and a Scoville Peace Fellowship in 2000, supporting residence at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, DC.
He was working on his dissertation, titled “The Mujahideen: A Study of Combatant Motives in Afghanistan, 1978-2005,” based on 350 interviews with combatants throughout Afghanistan, as well as archival and media research. He has also conducted research in Afghanistan for the Overseas Development Institute, the Small Arms Survey, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, the UK Department for International Development (via the International Policy Institute, King’s College, London), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Before his fellowship at the Institute, he was a sessional lecturer on the causes of war in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa.
He is the author of War and Intervention: Issues for Contemporary Peace Operations (Kumarian Press, 2003); and of articles in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Global Governance, Review of African Political Economy, The International Journal of Refugee Law, International Peacekeeping, and Middle East Policy. He was the guest editor of The Third World Quarterly Special Issue: “The Politics of Naming: Rebels, Terrorists, Criminals, Bandits and Subversives,” which was then released as a book by Routledge. He received his MSc in international relations research from the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford.
“It's a terrible loss of someone so young, who had already accomplished a great deal, but had so much more to contribute,” said Institute Professor Thomas J. Biersteker, who advised Michael in his studies over the years.
Details about services will be made available.
Read Michael's personal photo essays here:
Globalist essay
Michael's information from Oxford University's St. Antony's College is here.
Read a UN statement given by Michael as an undergraduate here.
His name was Michael Bhatia, and to call him smart is like calling the Pope a Catholic. Bhatia, of Medway, Massachusetts, did his first mission in sub-Saharan Africa with a United Nations crisis team while he was a sophomore in college. He studied toward his Phd at Oxford and taught at his alma mater, Brown University in Rhode Island, in recent months.
He was 30 or 31 years old.
His subject of choice was war. But his was no mere theoretical or intellectual exercise. He was one of those rare academics that believed in putting the books down at the end of the semester and talking to people -- real, everyday people -- in their homes, in their villages, and seeing the world through their eyes. He was an idealist. He wanted peace.
He traveled to East Timor, Afghanistan, and any number of crisis locations hoping to learn and to help people. The U.S. military hired him as a cultural adviser of sorts in Afghanistan. Scattered blog and media reports indicate his convoy hit some form of explosive. I'm not sure if it was a cast-away boobie trap in the style of a landmine or more of an organized attack.
To say he is mourned and loved is an understatement. We miss you Mike. We'll see you again someday.
More on Michael Bhatia here:
Brown University's Watson Insitute memorial tribute:
http://watsoninstitute.org/news_detail.cfm?id=851
Brown University's alumni magazine posting:
http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/recent_news/michael_bhatia_99_killed_in_afghanistan_1980.html
Reuters describes the attack that likely killed Mike:
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnISL72960.html
Mike's bio on the Globalist:
http://www.theglobalist.com/AuthorBiography.aspx?AuthorId=988
Mike's three-part personal photo series on life in Afghanistan:
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=6416
Zohra, a blog friend from Afghanistan, remembers Mike:
http://kabulkabul.blogspot.com/2008/05/in-memory-of-michael-bhatia.html
A Brown friend and drinking buddy remembers Mike:
http://sethresler.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/michael-bhatia/
FROM THE WATSON INSTITUTE AT BROWN UNIVERSITY:
In Memory of Michael Vinay Bhatia '99
Michael Bhatia
May 08, 2008
Michael Vinay Bhatia ’99 died yesterday in Afghanistan, where he was working as a social scientist in consultation with the US Defense Department.
In addition to graduating magna cum laude in international relations from Brown University, Michael was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute from July 2006 to June 2007. At the Institute, he was involved in a research project on Cultural Awareness in the Military, writing his PhD dissertation, and teaching a senior seminar on "The US Military: Global Supremacy, Democracy and Citizenship."
Over several years, Michael’s research and humanitarian work took him to such conflict zones as Sahrawi refugee camps, East Timor, and Kosovo, in addition to Afghanistan.
Of his work in Afghanistan, Michael wrote in November: “The program has a real chance of reducing both the Afghan and American lives lost, as well as ensuring that the US/NATO/ISAF strategy becomes better attuned to the population's concerns, views, criticisms and interests and better supports the Government of Afghanistan.”
Michael had recently published some of his research on Afghanistan.
His co-authored book on Afghanistan, Arms and Conflict: Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society was just released by Routledge in April. It assesses small arms and security-related issues in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
His edited book on Terrorism and the Politics of Naming was published by Routledge last September. Stating that names are not objective, the book seeks the truth behind those assigned in such cases as the US hunt for al-Qaeda, Russia’s demonization of the Chechens, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In August, his personal three-part photo essay, “Shooting Afghanistan: Beyond the Conflict,” was published by theGlobalist. In it, he wrote:
“Afghanistan will soon reach a desperate milestone – the thirtieth anniversary of ongoing conflict. … Though I have spent the majority of my time there researching the wars and those involved in it, conflict is not my primary memory and way of knowing it. I am compelled to write about experiences and ideas that cannot be placed into analytical paradigms, which do not speak to theories of war or peace, to destruction or to reconstruction, but instead to daily interactions that occurred in the course of research.”
His love of photography is revealing. In theGlobalist piece, he also wrote:
“Building on Robert Capa’s statement that 'If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough,' James Nachtwey, the preeminent photo-realist and conflict photographer, once indicated that the primary characteristic of a good war photographer was proximity, closeness and involvement.”
Michael was a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. He was awarded a George C. Marshall Scholarship in 2001 and a Scoville Peace Fellowship in 2000, supporting residence at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, DC.
He was working on his dissertation, titled “The Mujahideen: A Study of Combatant Motives in Afghanistan, 1978-2005,” based on 350 interviews with combatants throughout Afghanistan, as well as archival and media research. He has also conducted research in Afghanistan for the Overseas Development Institute, the Small Arms Survey, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, the UK Department for International Development (via the International Policy Institute, King’s College, London), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Before his fellowship at the Institute, he was a sessional lecturer on the causes of war in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa.
He is the author of War and Intervention: Issues for Contemporary Peace Operations (Kumarian Press, 2003); and of articles in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Global Governance, Review of African Political Economy, The International Journal of Refugee Law, International Peacekeeping, and Middle East Policy. He was the guest editor of The Third World Quarterly Special Issue: “The Politics of Naming: Rebels, Terrorists, Criminals, Bandits and Subversives,” which was then released as a book by Routledge. He received his MSc in international relations research from the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford.
“It's a terrible loss of someone so young, who had already accomplished a great deal, but had so much more to contribute,” said Institute Professor Thomas J. Biersteker, who advised Michael in his studies over the years.
Details about services will be made available.
Read Michael's personal photo essays here:
Globalist essay
Michael's information from Oxford University's St. Antony's College is here.
Read a UN statement given by Michael as an undergraduate here.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Could the Pioneer Press buy the Star Tribune?
Dean Singleton, the owner of the Media News Group (the Denver-based company that bought the Pioneer Press after Knight Ridder dissolved) has made a career of buying papers in crisis, gutting their staffs, and then cracking the whip. It's publish or perish.
It's a strategy that has supposedly made Singleton a multi-millionaire. Or is that billionaire?
For years, the talk was that the Star Tribune would oneday absorb the Pioneer Press, a stalwart underdog in one of the last great media rivalries in the United States of America.
But if the Avista Corp., which bought the Star Tribune not long ago and has no great love of media holdings, is doing as poorly financially as it claims to be, perhaps things could go the other way around?
City Pages ponders the possibility and dishes on the Star Tribune's meager finances here, as the New York Post did before it:
City Pages article on the Star Tribune
Singleton could, in theory, ride in and buy the Star Tribune, and either merge the two papers or create a joint operating agreement of sorts. Shared content. Shared printing presses. But separate identities, each capitalizing on the loyal fan base for each paper in each city.
A group of eight rival newspapers in Ohio just did something along a similar vein here, sharing content between them as an answer to the Associated Press rate hike:
More on the operating agreement-style parternship here:
Ohio papers share content
It's a strategy that has supposedly made Singleton a multi-millionaire. Or is that billionaire?
For years, the talk was that the Star Tribune would oneday absorb the Pioneer Press, a stalwart underdog in one of the last great media rivalries in the United States of America.
But if the Avista Corp., which bought the Star Tribune not long ago and has no great love of media holdings, is doing as poorly financially as it claims to be, perhaps things could go the other way around?
City Pages ponders the possibility and dishes on the Star Tribune's meager finances here, as the New York Post did before it:
City Pages article on the Star Tribune
Singleton could, in theory, ride in and buy the Star Tribune, and either merge the two papers or create a joint operating agreement of sorts. Shared content. Shared printing presses. But separate identities, each capitalizing on the loyal fan base for each paper in each city.
A group of eight rival newspapers in Ohio just did something along a similar vein here, sharing content between them as an answer to the Associated Press rate hike:
More on the operating agreement-style parternship here:
Ohio papers share content
Hillary, please go away.
Message to Hillary Clinton:
Please. go. away.
You're not helping. You will never defeat John McCain in the general election. Maybe Obama can. Maybe he can't. But at least he's got a shot. You don't. Now go clutch success from the jaws of defeat by rallying women voters and Latinos for Obama. That would get McCain on the ropes. That it would. Yes it would.
The minority vote was a hugely decisive factor in Bill Clinton's two victories. And Gore and Kerry's inability to excite and attract minorities in their close races against Bush are why they failed. Hands down.
You wanna win, go for the 'brown' vote.
More on why minority voters may stay home if Hillary wins, thereby giving McCain the advantage, here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5751006.html
Please. go. away.
You're not helping. You will never defeat John McCain in the general election. Maybe Obama can. Maybe he can't. But at least he's got a shot. You don't. Now go clutch success from the jaws of defeat by rallying women voters and Latinos for Obama. That would get McCain on the ropes. That it would. Yes it would.
The minority vote was a hugely decisive factor in Bill Clinton's two victories. And Gore and Kerry's inability to excite and attract minorities in their close races against Bush are why they failed. Hands down.
You wanna win, go for the 'brown' vote.
More on why minority voters may stay home if Hillary wins, thereby giving McCain the advantage, here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5751006.html
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Save the world!!! ... by starving the poor?
Every policy decision that fixes a problem creates a new one. Ain't that a fact.
At my last meeting of my Spanish-language discussion group, the subject was literature and the environment.
A Costa Rican economic development dude who works with Latin businesses up and down Lake Street, brought up ethanol and biofuels, and how they've been a double-edged sword for developing countries, and probably for the U.S., too. It was once foreseen that increased demand for corn-based fuel products would give poor countries something they could market to the world.
Corn is relatively common and inexpensive to grow, after all.
That plan has worked -- in a strange way, almost too well. The growing price of corn is hitting the poor where it hurts most by raising food costs everywhere.
For more on that, here's an article from the Star Tribune:
"Rush to biofuels leaves a world of emptier plates
In 2007, two University of Minnesota economists forecast that biofuels would sharply increase food prices by 2020, leading to many more empty bellies in the world. How wrong they were. It took only a year. Updated 20 minutes ago"
Here's what I have to say, and the world had better by god damn listening:
Ouch!
At my last meeting of my Spanish-language discussion group, the subject was literature and the environment.
A Costa Rican economic development dude who works with Latin businesses up and down Lake Street, brought up ethanol and biofuels, and how they've been a double-edged sword for developing countries, and probably for the U.S., too. It was once foreseen that increased demand for corn-based fuel products would give poor countries something they could market to the world.
Corn is relatively common and inexpensive to grow, after all.
That plan has worked -- in a strange way, almost too well. The growing price of corn is hitting the poor where it hurts most by raising food costs everywhere.
For more on that, here's an article from the Star Tribune:
"Rush to biofuels leaves a world of emptier plates
In 2007, two University of Minnesota economists forecast that biofuels would sharply increase food prices by 2020, leading to many more empty bellies in the world. How wrong they were. It took only a year. Updated 20 minutes ago"
Here's what I have to say, and the world had better by god damn listening:
Ouch!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hillary stands a better chance nationally against McCain????
DREAM ON!
Obama won purple state Iowa. Obama TROUNCED Hillary in purple state Minnesota.
Now Hillary thinks she'll play better to the purple-staters? Where is the proof of this utter nonsense?
Without a handful of purple states, the Dems will lose. And Hillary ain't winnin' em over.
Obama won purple state Iowa. Obama TROUNCED Hillary in purple state Minnesota.
Now Hillary thinks she'll play better to the purple-staters? Where is the proof of this utter nonsense?
Without a handful of purple states, the Dems will lose. And Hillary ain't winnin' em over.
Everything I have predicted....
....is coming true. All hail my powers of political divination. Romney did not stand a chance.
Onward to the future: In a match-up between McCain and Hillary, the moderate McCain beats the H.C.-polarizer to a political pulp.
But in a match-up between McCain and Obama, it's a tad more even-steven. Here's where Barack loses ground, however: Obama never seems to speak in specific details, just rhetoric. He's an incredible orator, but once he's challenged on how he'll make his populist rhetoric a practical reality, he'll lose a little steam.
And anti-black wingnuts will appear out of the woodwork to vote against him. The racists and "Hey, I'm not racist, I'm friends with a guy who golfed with Clarence Thomas" types will surely grit their teeth and vote McCain, no matter what people say. A war hero? It's not tough for the typical nationalistic flag-waver to swing that way, and justify that vote to himself.
So I give McCain the edge for the moment. But if Obama can drag Latinos, blacks and college students to the polls, and the Greatest Generation is feeling too old or disillusioned and stays home in their assisted living facilities, he could make it. Make it, he could.
Onward to the future: In a match-up between McCain and Hillary, the moderate McCain beats the H.C.-polarizer to a political pulp.
But in a match-up between McCain and Obama, it's a tad more even-steven. Here's where Barack loses ground, however: Obama never seems to speak in specific details, just rhetoric. He's an incredible orator, but once he's challenged on how he'll make his populist rhetoric a practical reality, he'll lose a little steam.
And anti-black wingnuts will appear out of the woodwork to vote against him. The racists and "Hey, I'm not racist, I'm friends with a guy who golfed with Clarence Thomas" types will surely grit their teeth and vote McCain, no matter what people say. A war hero? It's not tough for the typical nationalistic flag-waver to swing that way, and justify that vote to himself.
So I give McCain the edge for the moment. But if Obama can drag Latinos, blacks and college students to the polls, and the Greatest Generation is feeling too old or disillusioned and stays home in their assisted living facilities, he could make it. Make it, he could.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Handy Washington Post caucus map, and my little predictions
This political mapping site on WashingtonPost.com makes all this caucus-schmockus stuff so much easier to follow:
Washington Post interative caucus map
So it looks like a candidate needs about 2,000 votes to win. We're still in the double-digits on the GOP side and just breaking the triple-digits on the Democratic side, so the numbers showing Huckabee ahead of McCain I think are misleading at this point. But what do I know?
I predict:
FOR THE DEMS:
Obama the orator will beat the pants off of Hillary "stiff, tired and no fun at a party" Clinton. She seems to have picked up nothing from her husband but a funny-looking child.
FOR THE GOP:
McCain the war hero will beat the pants off of Mitt "I was born rich and look the part, which is a liability in a recession" Romney. Huckabee will garner a few hundred delegates on Super Tuesday and win some headlines, but won't really register after too long. We do not mix God and politics in this country as much as people think.
END RESULT:
In a general election race between Obama and McCain, the "war on terrorism" gun-nuts will square off against the "let's pull out and leave the middle east in even more chaos" defeatists, each calling the other wimps or Nazis. Whoever yells the loudest wins.
THE SAD PART:
Bill Richardson was the only viable candidate with international experience (former ambassador to the U.N., and hostage negotiator!), executive-level experience (Governor of New Mexico), immigration experience (Governor of New Mexico), and federal experience in a field that really affects our daily lives (former Energy Secretary). And he's out of the race.
The rest are all sad-sacks and I just don't care anymore...
THOUGHTS?
Washington Post interative caucus map
So it looks like a candidate needs about 2,000 votes to win. We're still in the double-digits on the GOP side and just breaking the triple-digits on the Democratic side, so the numbers showing Huckabee ahead of McCain I think are misleading at this point. But what do I know?
I predict:
FOR THE DEMS:
Obama the orator will beat the pants off of Hillary "stiff, tired and no fun at a party" Clinton. She seems to have picked up nothing from her husband but a funny-looking child.
FOR THE GOP:
McCain the war hero will beat the pants off of Mitt "I was born rich and look the part, which is a liability in a recession" Romney. Huckabee will garner a few hundred delegates on Super Tuesday and win some headlines, but won't really register after too long. We do not mix God and politics in this country as much as people think.
END RESULT:
In a general election race between Obama and McCain, the "war on terrorism" gun-nuts will square off against the "let's pull out and leave the middle east in even more chaos" defeatists, each calling the other wimps or Nazis. Whoever yells the loudest wins.
THE SAD PART:
Bill Richardson was the only viable candidate with international experience (former ambassador to the U.N., and hostage negotiator!), executive-level experience (Governor of New Mexico), immigration experience (Governor of New Mexico), and federal experience in a field that really affects our daily lives (former Energy Secretary). And he's out of the race.
The rest are all sad-sacks and I just don't care anymore...
THOUGHTS?
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Aqua vs. Aura
I was just invited to party tonight at Aqua, the trendy, dress-to-get-sexed downtown Minneapolis club.
I momentarily confused it with Aura, the intimate martini bar in Calhoun Square, Uptown Minneapolis, which is very Brooklyn-esque: http://www.mndaily.com/drinkanddine/details/88/Aura
Either way, I'm a bit of a fish out of water at either venue. But it's time to test my comfort zones and booty-bump with the beautiful people. Right after I do two months worth of laundry.
I momentarily confused it with Aura, the intimate martini bar in Calhoun Square, Uptown Minneapolis, which is very Brooklyn-esque: http://www.mndaily.com/drinkanddine/details/88/Aura
Either way, I'm a bit of a fish out of water at either venue. But it's time to test my comfort zones and booty-bump with the beautiful people. Right after I do two months worth of laundry.
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