Weather folks are talking about a change as we settle into the fall campaign season. The political climate seems to be changing as well in the Fighting First.
MANKATO FREE PRESS
The Mankato Free Press editorial board gives a thumbs down to a $20 million PR campaign for Iraq happy news:
To the U.S. Senate for approving a $20 million expense in the Department of Defense budget for a public relations contract to generate positive news out of the war in Iraq.
Senators had proposed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would prohibit spending the money for the public relations contract that had already been awarded.
While it’s important the American public be informed about Iraq, and there may be a need to highlight some positive things that are happening, $20 million seems like an awful lot of money to spend on spin.
Such public relations also would most likely not portray an objective picture of the war in Iraq to the American people since those who would be getting the $20 million might have a tendency to provide the buyer (the Bush administration) what it wants.
An amendment offered by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called for a prohibition on the spending. The Senate voted 51-44 to table (kill) the amendment.
The Senate also voted, 54-44, against requiring the administration to report every three months to Congress on whether Iraq was in a civil war and detail the U.S. plan to protect soldiers from the crossfire.
Sen. Norm Coleman voted to spend the money and Sen. Mark Dayton opposed the spending.
Coleman voted against the requirement for the administration to report to Congress on civil strife and Dayton voted in favor of it.
Reader Carl Meyers of Eagle Lake believes "We need facts about 9/11, not movie that distorts them":
How sad it is that any major network would chose to outright lie about what happened on 9/11. These falsehoods are in a movie designed to distort the facts and created by a group of right wing supporters. [read more]
FILLMORE COUNTY JOURNAL LTE
A doctor in Preston sets the record straight about a comparison of Lincoln and Truman with Dubya:
When I first read Dr. Olson's letter (Aug. 28, Fillmore County Journal) comparing G.W. Bush to Lincoln and Truman I thought it was a parody of Rumsfelds' flight from reality before the veterans. Then it came to me that he was serious. [read more]
WINONA DAILY NEWS LTE
Readers in Winona don't seem any happier with the Bush administration, which it's curious that Gutknecht is bringing Bush liegemen like Hoekstra and Gingrich into the state for fundraising and incumbency campaigning.
Though correspondent Michael Bowler penned his epistle in support of a local DFL state senate candidate, he begins his letter "Going right over the cliff" with a pointed contrast between the Bush and Clinton policies in nation building [emphasis ours]:
In an era of monumental right-wing failures including Iraq, a huge federal deficit, collapsing health care and spiraling local taxes, Stan Gudmundson (Sept. 13) needs to learn that the old lefty scare goes nowhere. Indeed for most Minnesotans, lefty has come to have a pleasant association as we think of our most celebrated Minnesota Twin, Johan Santana, making us all proud in spite of anti-immigrant, right-wing rhetoric. Gudmundson only adds expensive gasoline to his fire by bringing up President Clinton’s Kosovo policy — that in fact halted hideous and rapidly spreading ethnic cleansing without our soldiers losing their lives —because it invites comparison with President Bush’s Iraq policy that has bred civil war, terrorism, global instability and massive casualties, American and Iraqi, but uncovered no weapons of mass destruction.
As the Rochester Post-Bulletin's editorial noted yesterday:
. . . So, yes, Hoekstra was here for Gutknecht, but he was also here for President Bush.
The issue
The future of Gutknecht and Bush are somewhat connected because the issues in Gutknecht's 1st District contest against Democrat Tim Walz are part of the midterm election battle some are trying to make into a referendum on the terrorism agenda of President Bush.
OLLIE OX UPDATE: Digby looks at the parallels between the ramp-up to the Iraq War and the current Iran alarm sounding in First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Worse Tragedy.
D M & E NEWS
The PB's Government Center
blog has more DM & E news: the Mayo Clinic's letter to the WSJ in
response to a column supporting the loan and a press release from the
railroad showing how past upgrades have led to improved rail safety. The Rochester Coalition responds with its own press release noting that New Rail Isn't Panacea for DM&E Derailments.
Vox Verax raises an unpublished letter from its comments: "Is the USDA relying on faulty data to support DM&E?" The Marshall Independent reports on the crusade of the director of economic development in Tracy, MN, for DM & E loan approval.
NETROOTS
Oldie but goodie: we can't get enough of these Bush-Gutknecht bumperstickers. OLLIE UPDATE: Look, Binky, here's another one. Jeepers.
The U-DFL blog reports Facebook At It Again:
Facebook is at it again. They've added a new feature called "Election Pulse" which tracks how many facebookers are supporting each candidate in each state. A brief summary of a few results from Minnesota:
For Senate, Amy Klobuchar over Rep. Mark Kennedy, 63%/34%
In the 1st Congressional District, Tim Walz over Rep. Gil Gutknecht, 69%/31%
We've got Facebook access, and we took a look. Some pretty impressive students supporting Walz, and the percentage of Walz supporters originally from or attending college in MN-01 is quite high. This looks to be genuine grassroots for Tim Walz.
OLLIE OX UPDATE: The Vast Leftwing Conspiracy notes how Al Franken put in a pitch for two Minnesota candidates during a live appearance at a showing of "God Spoke":
Franken made a big pitch for people to support two Minnesota Democrats running for Congress, Patty Wetterling and Tim Walz. He asks that you contribute what you can, even if it's just $15 dollars, because these are great candidates for winnable seats.
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