It's another Tuesday morning on the prairie. Looks like more duck hunting weather this afternoon and tomorrow, so grab your decoys and favorite bird dog and head to a favorite marsh. We'll watch the web for low-flying news while you savor the perfume of duckweed, a wet lab and spent gunpowder. Let's see what we've called in so far this morning.
WINONA DAILY NEWS: KEILLOR DRAWS CROWD AT DFL EVENT
One good draw among Minnesotans is an evening of music and Garrison Keillor. Last night was no exception, the WDN's Tony Borreson reports:
Carl Erwin cannot vote in Minnesota, but he came to a Winona County DFL rally Thursday night anyway.
The main draw for Erwin and many others at Winona State University’s Somsen Hall Auditorium was Garrison Keillor, Minnesota-born entertainer and supporter of the Democratic Party.
Erwin, a Democrat from Alma, Wis., said he attended the rally partly to help fill the auditorium and show his support for the party through the $15 admission price, and partly to hear Keillor’s folksy, yet accessible brand of storytelling.
“He can present people, present a story, present a thought and put it in all terms,” said Erwin.
Erwin got just what he was expecting out of Keillor.
Keillor, wearing a dark suit with red tennis shoes, told the audience about the pleasant and friendly Texans, who shake a stranger’s hand and call them “darling” or “sunshine” before getting to know them.
“How do these wonderful people elect some of the most regressive politicians,” he asked the crowd, eliciting a roar of laughter and applause.
Keillor mused on his youth in Minnesota, where he said, “Nature, two or three times a year, is going to make a serious attempt to kill us.”
As Keillor continued his stories of gargantuan icicles and the adventures of getting to school in the impossibly deep snow, he said, “Life was struggle. Life was difficult.”
And it still is, he said. “My fellow democrats, do we not know this?”
Moving away from times past when life had a certain innocence, Keillor spoke about America’s current culture of fear, a culture in which even the old wives of soybean farmers have to take off their shoes at an airport security check.
“For what,” he asked. “For toe bombs?”
America’s current government, with Republicans in the majority, commits atrocities. He wants to see change, Keillor said.
Standing in front of a row of state and federal candidates that included Sharon Ropes, Gene Pelowski and Tim Walz, and a sign that read, “Vote Democratic and everybody wins,” Keillor announced, “I look forward to the day this will be corrected, and I believe that will be next year.”
AP: REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE TO RUN ADS IN MN-01
It's a good thing DFLers are flocking to fundraisers. Forbes runs an Associated Press article by Jim Kuhnhenn about fundraising and spending in competitive races. In the sunny account of Democratic senate fundraising, we flush out this item, grim as an Armistice Day blizzard:
In the struggle for control of the House, the Republican campaign committee signaled it intends to begin airing television commercials in GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht's re-election race in Minnesota, a campaign not previously viewed as competitive.
Ah yes, that passive voice, "not previously viewed" that provides cover for those who weren't paying attention to the contest.
WINONA DAILY NEWS: STOP CONGRESSIONAL GIVEAWAYS
Letter writer William Harris draws a bead on another target: a Republican congress that will not control spending in "Stop Congressional Giveways":
Recent news focuses on the party that has been going on in Washington and the scandals of lobbyists paying off congressmen and the congressmen chasing young pages up and down the aisles. But the real issue for the upcoming election is the spending by those congressmen with the goal of bankrupting our country.
The national debt has risen from $5.7 trillion in 2000 to $8.5 trillion at the present time, and it is rising hourly at an unprecedented rate. The previous administration had reversed this trend, actually posting surpluses in 1998 and 1999 ($69 billion and $124 billion respectively). This was immediately changed by the Bush administration with the support of Congress, which is now running deficits of $230 billion per year.
The war and Katrina have been used as excuses, but they mask the transfer of our nation’s wealth to the richest citizens and corporations through selective tax cuts and no-bid contracts. The Bush administration and Congress gave $630 billion in tax cuts to the top one percent of earners in our country. It gave countless billions to defense contractors, oil companies and other corporate sponsors who have record earnings in the process, with no benefit returning to the citizens of this country.
Harry Truman famously said “war profiteering is a crime.” This administration has turned it into a policy and added disaster relief as well. The policy is to bankrupt the federal government, to leave it at the mercy of large corporations that hold the debt. Ultraconservatives have long wanted to do away with Social Security; the increasing national debt can achieve that.
We need to fight this policy. America’s strength lies in a broad base, open-market economy, with a strong middle class and small business base. To achieve this, we need to invest in education, effective social programs and defense. We need to stop the giveaway of our national wealth that is the current administration’s policy. Please support candidates who will do that.
Give to Tim Walz directly or via the ActBlue Netroots Candidate page. Contributions at the latter have topped $27,000.
WORTHINGTON DAILY GLOBE: DEMOCRATS NEED SUPPORT ON NOV. 7
This piece in the opinion section of the online version of the Worthington Globe isn't signed, but we think it's an LTE, rather than an editorial. We check back later to see whether an author has been added:
It’s bad enough that we have been in Iraq for several years, that thousands of our brave soldiers have been wounded, and over 2700 killed.
It’s bad enough that recent leaked intelligence estimates show that we are creating terrorists in Iraq at an alarming rate and making ourselves and the world less safe.
It’s bad enough that we now live in a country that has embraced warrantless wiretaps, has rejected rights of habeus corpus and the Geneva Conventions, and has endorsed torture.
It’s bad enough that the Bush/Republican administration lied and misled us into this war.
It’s bad enough that our national debt is skyrocketing under the Bush/Republican leadership.
It’s bad enough that this Republican leadership tried to privatize Social Security.
It’s bad enough that at almost every turn, this Republican leadership has been inept at best and corrupt at worst.
It is a fact that we have two more years of President Bush. But what if he still has a Republican Congress and there is no one to hold him in check? Two more years of a war in Iraq with no exit strategy. A war with Iran or Syria. Increased anger and distrust of the U.S. all over the world. Increased debt to hand down to our children and grandchildren. More assaults on our Constitution. Privatization of Social Security. Rep. Gil Gutknecht has supported President Bush at every turn. In the November election it is essential that we vote for the Democrat, Tim Walz. In fact, vote for all the Democrats. It is our only hope.
MINNESOTA CENTRAL
Minnesota Central looks at how "Gutknecht Points Finger at Republican Failures."
NEW ULM JOURNAL: LET THE BOA FLY
The rumpus in New Ulm? Let the editorial board of the Journal frame the issue for you:
Forget the Congressional Page scandals, the wall along the Mexican border and North Korean nuclear test. The real controversy in New Ulm this past week seems to be whether to let the statue of Hermann the German be draped with a red boa for a weekend. [read more]
More news and netroots later as our schedule permits.
Comments