Date

Our boys of summer are simply amazing!

barbara — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:13:48 -0500

by barbara
They did it. They really did it!
Against all odds (and with a fair amount of help from the Kansas City Royals), the Minnesota Twins clinched the AL Central division title today.
On this last day of the regular season, Minnesota topped Chicago, and everyone at the Dome held their breath until the Royals rallied to defeat Detroit.
Oh. My. Dog.
As noted earlier, I'm not a diehard fan. No. Wait. I wasn't a diehard fan. But this team is so compelling, how could you not be a fan! What a fantastic season! Get it? Get it?

Summer, sort of, in the city

susan — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:50:54 -0500

by susan
Well, huzzah for those Twins, our boys of summer. And huzzah for this glorious day, with temperatures in the 80's and the kind of china-blue sky you only get in October.
I rode my bike along the 29th street corridor, which now transects the entire city from west to east, over to the Mississippi, where I loafed on a sandy beach and watched the big river keep on rollin'.
An 8-shell of rowers shot across the surface like a water bug, the river banks behind them iridescent with early fall colors.

Atonement

susan — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:42:44 -0500

by susan
Today is Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, considered to be the holiest and most solemn day of the year. It's a day of prayer and fasting following the Days of Repentance that began with the new year, Rosh Hashana. (Thanks, Wiki)
It's also Ramadan, a month-long period of fasting from dawn to dusk. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, angry and sarcastic retorts, refrain from gambling and betting and gossip. All obscene and irreligious sights and sounds are to be avoided. Purity of both thought and action is important. (Wiki again)

Why I stopped subscribing to the New York Times, Reason #763

lynnell — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 10:21:28 -0500

(or How I stopped screaming at the paper and learned to love the blogosphere.)
by Lynnell Mickelsen
Because of dumb-ass dreck like this little gem from last Sunday's front page.
Can we just review here? Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigns from Congress because he was cyber-stalking young pages. And what does the New York Times decide to run on its front page on Sunday?

One more for the road

barbara — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:02:08 -0500

by barbara
So long. Farewell. Auf wiedersehen. Adieu.
I wont be hanging out much at the Clothesline this month. Car trip. Southwest. Grand Canyon and environs. Looking forward to it. Talking like Bush. Stop it. Now!
Saying goodbye is hard for me. When I was a kid, my parents used to put me on the train (the Empire Builder, actually) several summers in a row to visit my very cool grandparents in Fargo. I was so excited about the trip. Even so, I cried all the way out of the station. I bounced back before we rolled out of the Twin Cities, though. And then, when it was time to come home, I sobbed at the Fargo station. I am an equal opportunity bawl-baby.

Back to baseball.......back to normal, life comes full-circle

lynnell — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:47:16 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
My generous brother-in-law gave me four free tickets to the first play-off game yesterday, so I grabbed my teenage sons from school and headed to the downtown Minneapolis to the Metrodome for the noon game.
I love baseball. I grew up going to Twins games with my dad, a professor of ancient languages at Bethel Seminary and hard-core baseball nerd who always carried his battered old mitt (circa. 1934); a spiral notebook in which he meticulously scored each game, including pitches and a Greek New Testament, in case there was a lull in the action and he needed to explicate the Apostle Pauls second letter to the Corinthians or some other hermeneutical emergency, I swear Im not making this up.

Wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross: a first-hand report from Tuesday's "Stand for the Family"

lynnell — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 19:20:03 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Minnesota Observer, a blogger who writes for Mark Gisleson's marvelous Norwegianity site, went straight into the belly of the beast and attended Dr. James Dobson's "Stand for the Family" rally in St. Paul on Tuesday. He/she reports that attendance for the "Stand for the Family" rallies have been below what organizers hoped. The gathering in St. Paul was moved from the Xcel Center to the Roy Wilkins arena to accommodate a smaller crowd. A rally scheduled for Nashville was cancelled because of predicted low turnout.

Waiting for Denny

lynnell — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:11:32 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Sounds like its getting ugly out in the Chicago burbs today as the press waits for Speaker of the House to emerge from his suburban home.
The local NBC affiliate reports this morning, "As far as we know, Dennis Hastert has not emerged from his home here in at least the last 24 hours. And when he does, then he's gonna have a throng of media waiting for him.... there is so much media here that there's a Hastert security detail assigned to make sure we stay in line."

The Two Marks

susan — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 16:40:48 -0500

by susan lenfestey
It's gotta be tough to stand up as a family values kind of guy in light of the recent folderol surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley's predatory one handed typing. Blame the Clintons, blame the media, blame the bloggers, blame the pages. Who knew? Nobody knew. Everybody knew. Hastert's sorry, stay the course.
Into this maelstrom enter Mark Kennedy, Republican candidate for senate, running a sleazy attack ad campaign against Democrat Amy Klobuchar, the front runner. In today's Star Tribune, there is a recap of where the candidates stand on social issues and values. Each lists ten values-based priorities. Representative "I'm-not-a-Bush-rubber-stamp" Kennedy's priorities almost all have to do with religion, abortion and homosexuality.

Are Evangelicals Teens Abandoning Their Faith in Droves?

lynnell — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:02:08 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Yes, according to this front-page story in today's New York Times.
"Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers" screamed the headline. "Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves, " the story began. "Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be "Bible-believing Christians" as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation."

No Joy in Mudville

susan — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 22:52:24 -0500

Guest post by LeftyMN
Yes, dear readers, there is life other than the continuing saga of Foleygate.
The Minnesota boys of summer have lost and the mythic rise to glory is over. The Twins were swept in 3 straight games by the Oakland Athletics, two of them at home, and never once in the three game series did our lads ever have a lead in a game. In baseball statistics the Oakland Athletics had 26 hits, the Twins 24, but the total runs scored were Oakland 16 and Minnesota 7.

I'm Sorry

susan — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:15:33 -0500

by susan lenfestey
It's too beautiful a day in Minnesota -- temps in high 70's, blue sky, breezy -- to stay inside and write. So I thought I'd just go Republican and say, I'm sorry. Reynolds is sorry, Hastert is sorry, Bush is sorry -- for Hastert. They're all sorry for the pages, sort of.
No word yet on when they'll say sorry for Iraq, Katrina, wiretaps, torture, you know the litany. Waiting to see how the "sorry" strategy pans out on this one. If it clears the gaseous Mark Foley fog and its finger-pointing aftermath out of the capital, I bet we'll see a lot of contrition before the mid-terms. This being America and the media's obsession with sex, I don't think they're going to be that lucky.

Stop who?

susan — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:51:46 -0500

by susan
The stop sign on my corner gives us one more reason why it's important to vote the so-called conservatives out of office. They can't get anything right. Four more weeks. Vote librel and vote often.
(click on photo to see my point)

Hey, who you be calling a Cokie mom?

lynnell — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:27:46 -0500

By Lynnell Mickelsen
Well, it only took about 12 years, but Cokie Roberts finally put down the Republican Kool-Aid for a brief moment and directed her moral outrage at Denny Hastert and his fellow sex predator enablers.
Heres the highlight video from yesterday's appearance on ABCs This Week. Short version: Shes a mom and speaking for Americas moms shes pissed.

Why I'm a Librel

susan — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:59:55 -0500

by susan lenfestey
Watching the old doc about the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, with one eye open. (Because I'm paying bills and also typing.) And I'm realizing that the civil rights movement shaped me -- and thousands of my generation -- more than Kennedy's challenge that we do something for our country, the moonshot or even the Vietnam war, which came into our consciousness later. Okay, the Beatles were up there too.

The Very Last Word on Monica

lynnell — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:27:21 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Sara Robinson, one of my favorite writers, has decreed that the Monica Era is over. Kaput.
I agree. We Democrats have carried that particular cross for eight long years, but now we're done. it's the Republican's turn.
As Sara says over at Orincus.
"What's worse: a little oral sex between consenting adults, behind a closed office door -- or the pages of lurid e-mails in which a 52-year-old man invited multiple 16- and 17-year-old boys to describe their masturbatory habits and measure their penises (and broke actual federal laws in the process)? What's more embarassing: Clinton hugging Monica at a rally, or a drunken Foley howling outside the pages' dorm? Who's the biggest liar: Clinton saying "I did not have sex with that woman," or the half-dozen Congressmen who knew about this for years and denied it all to cover up the fact that they sat on their hands?

The Death of Cursive Writing (As if I care)

lynnell — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:10:17 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
You'd think this story in today's Washngton Post story wouldn't get a lot of play in the blogosphere where, after all, keyboards rule.
But you'd be wrong.
Kos posted about it around 1 p.m. and nine hours later, 565 people had weighed in, far more than usually comment on the weighty events of the nation and world.

Do they have a choice?

susan — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:55:41 -0500

With a nod to The Plank
The president today, responding to the Lancet study on Iraqi casualties since the US invasion of Iraq:
"I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to -- you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate."
No, great decider, 655,000 people have died from the violence that you're willing to tolerate. But it's probably Bill Clinton's fault.

Iraq for Sale

susan — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 01:10:00 -0500

by susan lenfestey
Boy do I know how to have fun on a Saturday night.
Just got back from a neighbor's house where, with about 10 others, I called voters in Florida, and then watched a screening of Robert Greenwald's film, Iraq for Sale. MoveOn.Org worked its wonders in putting this phone bank/rage-rouser together in living rooms and basements all over America.
First, the phone bank. We showed up with our cell phones, went over an easy script and instructions for coding responses, and then were given two pages to phone. Sounds boring, but bingo, we got to call Florida's 16th congressional district, yes, home of MAF54, aka Mark Foley.

It is all so wrong

susan — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:42:28 -0500

Channelled by susan
Another day, another kid. Airport vignette below sent to me by my sister Eve. (See 'Take the Amtrak' post, September 22. That sister.)
"On the way home we got stuck in a TWO HOUR security check line to get to the gate. Everyone was complaining, irritated, afraid their planes were leaving and so on.
Suddenly a small family group, frazzled but attractive blue jean-and-tee shirt mother, serious forty year old redneck father, baseball hat high school-looking son with girlfriend or wife (also looking about 18 ) appear beside us and with great dignity ask if the boy can break into the line because he is headed to California to be sent to Iraq, and if he misses the plane he will be considered AWOL.

The Coming (dumb, deadly) Demand for "bi-partisanship"

lynnell — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:09:53 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Digby talks. You listen.
Because he's one of the best writers on the web and he's got this one nailed.
".....We are very possibly going to win this election and you can very confidently place a large bet in Las Vegas that the cries to end the partisanship will be deafening. I have little doubt that the entire Washington press corps is gearing up for a full scale vapor-fest if the Democrats attempt to demand even the slightest bit of accountability for the past six years of corruption and failure. The Democrats have to accept that they will once again be fighting the entire political establishment.....

Is the Mayor of San Francisco lucky or lame? (Or creepy?)

lynnell — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:32:05 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, age 39, has a new blonde girlfriend, age 20. Brittanie Mountz, a model and restaurant hostess, was photographed,a wine glass in hand on one of their outings, leading San Francisco Chornicle reporters to ask ..whats the mayor of San Francisco doing dating a girl too young to legally drink?

She Deserved It

susan — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:45:52 -0500

by susan lenfestey
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Im a bit leery of the things our nation decides to focus on for a day or a month. Seems to be an easy sop to the things we ignore the rest of the time. And for many of us, domestic violence is easy to ignore. It shouldnt be.
As Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times (October 16) "The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count. Were all implicated in this carnage because the relentless violence against women and girls is linked at its core to the wider societys casual willingness to dehumanize women and girls . . ."

A Place Called Gozo

susan — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:18:38 -0500

by susan lenfestey
Yesterday I lamented the misogyny that pervades the world, demeaning women and girls and leaving thousands of them raped, battered or dead. I ran a gruesome photo with the post and no one's reading it.
So, lighten up, right? Okay. How about this. The Catholic priest who allegedly abused Mark Foley -- alcoholic, victim and recovering Republican -- now lives on the Maltese Island of Gozo. For some reason, that just sounds so right.

Mark Foley -- Red Herring

susan — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:35:14 -0500

susan, channeling Bill Maher
This is a week old and you've probably all seen it, but it's new to me. Maher takes the point I was toying with at the end of my She Deserves It post about the ways we poison our children and amps it up into the piece I wish I'd written.
From Bill Maher, October 13

A few reasons to vote

susan — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 22:35:46 -0500

Larry Gelbart's memory joggers
For election day, lest we forget. I think his list is dated, but who can keep up? For starters, I don't see Habeus Corpus and Blackwater and 78 American deaths so far this October. And let me add some Minnesota reasons, like Sixth District congressional candidate Michelle Bachman and . . . I was going to add others but Michelle ("I'm a fool for Christ") is in a class by herself.

The best explanation on why W. invaded Iraq

lynnell — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 21:34:28 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
Steve Gilliard, a 41-year-old African-American blogger from Manhattan writes about everything---food, politics, chicks, Iraq and military history. I especially like his stuff on Iraq.
Anyhow, his post today is the best explanation I've read so far on why the hell W. invaded Iraq. Here's some excerpts below, but really, go read the whole thing.

Stay the course, or don't

susan — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:17:08 -0500

Brain-dead Susan, busy Lynnell.
Everything today is borrowed, even the photo, from Billmon.
Below is a preview; click on Billmon to read the whole piece.
Babbling Idiots
Up until now I've resolutely ignored the mindless media chatter about a possible "change of course" in Iraq, both because of the absurdity of the metaphor (sinking ships can have only one course -- straight down) and because so much of it appears designed simply to take the heat off the Republicans in the run up to the election. It sometimes seems as if Lee Hamilton's main purpose in life is to serve as the bipartisan front man for GOP political machinations.

Missing Paul and Sheila

susan — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:28:10 -0500

by susan lenfestey
Sheila Wellstone called me in early September, 2002. "I know y'all done a lot for Paul, but how do you feel about one more fundraiser?"
Jim and I were taking an anniversary trip to Turkey and wouldn't be back until October 17, two days before the proposed fundraiser. I told her it was too soon, the house would be a mess, and besides, it wasn't big enough to hold all the "Women for Wellstone" they planned to invite. And then it struck me. "I guess if you and Paul can haul your asses out of bed each day to win this thing, then I can get my house in order for a fundraiser."

Signs of hope

lynnell — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:42:14 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
With two weeks to go before the election, I'm making the regular commute between hope and despair, riding the polling roller-coaster. Some days, I can practically smell the coming victory. Other days, (like today) I see how much work we still have to do.
Right now, I agree with the number-crunching of Chris Bowers

Defining ourselves on our own terms instead of Republican ones

lynnell — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:33:32 -0500

by Lynnell Mickelsen
When the media and the dominant culture have been demonizing you for years, it's easy to start internalizing their crap.
For the last decade or more, the Republicans and their media pals have depicted Democrats as hopelessly weak, divided, hysterical, bereft of ideas or a plan, a drifting group of losers destined for the dustbin of history.
I swear, you hear the junk long enough and you start taking it in, sort of like second-hand cigarette smoke. Which is why it's important to define ourselves on our own terms, not in reaction to Republican ones.

The Google and God

susan — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:30:11 -0500

by susan lenfestey
Like most of us, I get my news in bits and drabs. Unlike Lynnell, Im still slavishly devoted to the morning papers -- the New York Times and even the Strib. I like to catch an occasional Jim Lehrer news hour, and I also skip around the blogosphere for updates and cheeky opinions. Its like eating a baguette and then picking up the crumbs with a sticky finger. To go to the web I sometimes use a different server where the home page is set to CNN. I dont know why it is. I dont think I made this choice, so probably god wanted it that way.

Election Tick-Tock Tension

susan — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:50:35 -0600

by susan lenfestey
Against the numbing backdrop of lurid and exaggerated TV ads warning us of the perils we face, from sexual predators in Congress to Jihadists on our streets, the soft din of voters massing for the stampede to the polls can be heard. The dust rises across the prairie, the mini-vans circle suburbia, urban warriors trudge door-to-door to get out the vote. Well, maybe not. In the last 20 years, less than forty percent of eligible voters have turned out for mid-term elections. But theres no denying that this year theres a buzz out there, a tension, all pointing to a record heavy turnout.

She's back, kinda, sorta

barbara — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:47:38 -0600

(Photo taken at Bryce Canyon--I think)
by barbara
The chickadee has landed. Our southwestern odyssey is history. Not for the first time, I was awed by the enormity of this country. Also by the complete freedom we have to move from place to place, across borders and boundaries, states and counties, watershed districts, state and national parks, the whole enchilada.
We took in New Mexico, Arizona, the Grand Canyon (south and north rims). Moved on into Utah where we tent camped (yes, really) in Zion National Park. Nearly froze my toochis in Bryce Canyon National Park. On to Arches National Park (motel), the Colorado Rockies (motel) and then home, just ahead of the blizzard that buried the mountains and Colorado Springs.