Jeffery Pritchett Marianna Paranormal Examiner
March 22nd, 2011
http://www.examiner.com/paranormal-in-panama-city/the-most-mysterious-state-park-minnesota-little-people-and-ufos-1
In the far northwest corner of Minnesota is one of the state’s most obscure state parks, Lake Bronson State Park. It’s the home of what may be the world’s largest jack pine, some lovely prairie intermixed with scattered oak-aspen savanna, a sparkling lake -- and fairies?
You know, the “real” kind of fairies -- those mythical little folks with seemingly magical powers, who seem to exist in a hazy world possibly only tangential to ours, just on the other side of the mystical “veil.”
One man claims to have sighted what he calls a “colony” of “elementals.” And elemental is a variety of fairy-like creature. He says they have a “fairy mound” not far from the park’s legendary jack pine. In fairy lore, a fairy mound indicates a home base, of sorts, for fairies or elves. Minnesota resident Jubal Cranch said he doesn’t want people to think he’s wacky, but his experience with Lake Bronson fairies changed his life, he claims.
In fact, his story is so extraordinary, it has been documented in a short novel, “The Fairy Redemption of Jubal Cranch.” Mr. Cranch was not involved in writing the book, he said, and receives no income from it. He told his story to Minnesota journalist Ken Korczak. Korczak said the last thing Jubal wants is publicity or to cash in on the story.
“This is just something that happened to him,” Korczak said. “He wanted to tell his story to someone. He’s happy with the short book I wrote about his fairy encounter. He just thinks the world should know that, in his opinion, fairies are real.”
Many writers and thinkers today have made the case that the traditional “little folk” of so-called myth are actually the very same “little green men” of modern UFO lore. And yes, there have been a number of UFO sightings in and around Lake Bronson State Park.
It was the late 1950s and Ted Lockman said that he was parking by the lake with his girlfriend in his Pontiac, when they got the fright of their life. Silver disk-shaped UFO rose out of the water of the little lake, and serenely sailed off into the moonlight.
“Neither my girlfriend or I were drinking or on anything at all,” Lockman recalls. “We were sitting there, you know, mind our own business, or I should say, minding each other’s business, when this things just sprouts out of the lake. It didn’t make a sound. It glinted silver in the moonlight. We were stunned!”
The mysteries of Lake Bronson State Park have not caught on, making it a Mecca for the paranormal, perhaps like Loch Ness. Local residents don’t like to talk about “strange goings on” within the park. Some will get upset if you mention it. This area of mostly small town, conservative folk of Lutheran Scandinavian descent, deal with such things like they always have -- just shut up about it.
To find out more about this story check out the ebook!
http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Redemption-Jubal-Cranch-ebook/dp/B004QTOOBW/thekonformist
Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
When Domes Collapse
Dave Zirin
I have long believed that it would take an “Act of God” for Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf to get a new publicly financed football stadium. After all, despite Wilf’s pleadings and threats, taxpayers are less than eager these days to subsidize the billionaires among us. This is particularly true in Minnesota, where the Twins just opened a new publicly funded ballpark despite the fact that in 2007 a freaking bridge collapsed in the Twin Cities, sending 13 people to their deaths. Clearly there are other priorities for public funds.
Cue the Neoliberal Almighty. In a scene that looked like an outtake from Kirk Cameron's latest Left Behind epic, the Metrodome’s roof collapsed under 17 inches of snow. The debris hadn’t even been cleared before team president Mark Wilf (no relation to Zygi… just kidding it’s his kid brother) said that it would be "premature to discuss" whether the collapse "changes the debate over a new stadium.” In other words, the Wilf family wants you to know that it’s absolutely premature to discuss this thing that they don’t want to discuss. His fellow owner John Mara of the New York Giants was only too happy to be “premature”, saying that the roof-rupture "bolsters their argument why they need a new stadium. For this to happen nowadays is pretty incredible."
Their press minions beat the drum as well. Kurt Badenhausen, who writes a blog for Forbes Magazine called, rather revoltingly, Jock Rich wrote within hours of the roof’s collapse, “The Vikings more than any other NFL team need a new stadium from a financial perspective and now apparently from a structural perspective If Wilf can’t get public funding for a new stadium after Sunday’s collapse, Minneapolis can kiss the NFL goodbye.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune also frantically put up a poll where they posed the question, “Does the Metrodome roof collapse convince you that the Vikings do indeed need a new stadium?” Currently 66% of the roughly 15,000 respondents say YES the team does need a new stadium.
Somewhere Naomi Klein is shaking her head. This is Shock Doctrine 101: a calamitous event propels the priorities of those in power. The Internet is now abuzz with conspiracy theorists asking if this wasn’t an Act of God but an act of Wilf – an artful piece of stadium sabotage (after all, 17 inches of snow is known in Minnesota as a “dusting.”) Such theories have no factual basis but it’s not hard to see who benefits from this. As Minnpost.com wrote acidly of the accident, "If you look closely, I believe you can see Zygi Wilf with a box cutter rappelling down the north side."
Why do the otherwise eminently sane people of the Twin Cities leap to the land of conspiracy? I asked Minnesota's finest labor history professor, Peter Rachleff for his take.
“Minnesota has changed," he said. "Once a site for top notch education, well-kept recreational facilities, progressive views about race, and respect for unionized workers have been frayed by two decades of neoliberal practices and policies from the factory floor to the state capitol and from emergency rooms to city halls. Politicians like Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the wannabe-Presidential contender, have shirked their responsibility for this miserable change in climate. Known in other circles as ‘Teflon Tim’ for his fast footwork in the face of the consequences of his (in)actions, such as the collapse on his watch of the I-35 bridge, it is a fitting irony that the recent monster snow storm collapsed the teflon roof of the Metrodome. Where are the poets when we need them?
Poets are always welcome, but the answer here barely even requires prose. Despite the optical dramatics, the reality of the collapse is much more banal. As Neil DeMause explained, the roof may even be patched up in time for next week’s game, one of the advantages of the Metrodome’s cheaply made inflatable roof.
If Wilf doesn’t like his bargain basement digs, let him pay for his own new stadium. Or just remove the rest of the roof and have the Vikings play outdoors before an open sky. After all, the team went to four Super Bowls before they entered the dome. Since they’ve played under a roof, zero. It’s Minnesota for goodness sakes. If they can play outdoors in Green Bay, they should be able to do it in the Twin Cities. Or we can just build another stadium and play America’s favorite car game, “Will this bridge I’m driving on collapse.”
Zygi Wilf may threaten to move the team to Los Angeles so he can be known for time immemorial as the Walter O’Malley of the Mid-west. But the Vikings were ours long before they were ever his. If Mr. Wilf wants partial public funds for his new stadium, we should demand public ownership of the team. And if Zygi doesn't like it, he can talk to the complaints department.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
I have long believed that it would take an “Act of God” for Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf to get a new publicly financed football stadium. After all, despite Wilf’s pleadings and threats, taxpayers are less than eager these days to subsidize the billionaires among us. This is particularly true in Minnesota, where the Twins just opened a new publicly funded ballpark despite the fact that in 2007 a freaking bridge collapsed in the Twin Cities, sending 13 people to their deaths. Clearly there are other priorities for public funds.
Cue the Neoliberal Almighty. In a scene that looked like an outtake from Kirk Cameron's latest Left Behind epic, the Metrodome’s roof collapsed under 17 inches of snow. The debris hadn’t even been cleared before team president Mark Wilf (no relation to Zygi… just kidding it’s his kid brother) said that it would be "premature to discuss" whether the collapse "changes the debate over a new stadium.” In other words, the Wilf family wants you to know that it’s absolutely premature to discuss this thing that they don’t want to discuss. His fellow owner John Mara of the New York Giants was only too happy to be “premature”, saying that the roof-rupture "bolsters their argument why they need a new stadium. For this to happen nowadays is pretty incredible."
Their press minions beat the drum as well. Kurt Badenhausen, who writes a blog for Forbes Magazine called, rather revoltingly, Jock Rich wrote within hours of the roof’s collapse, “The Vikings more than any other NFL team need a new stadium from a financial perspective and now apparently from a structural perspective If Wilf can’t get public funding for a new stadium after Sunday’s collapse, Minneapolis can kiss the NFL goodbye.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune also frantically put up a poll where they posed the question, “Does the Metrodome roof collapse convince you that the Vikings do indeed need a new stadium?” Currently 66% of the roughly 15,000 respondents say YES the team does need a new stadium.
Somewhere Naomi Klein is shaking her head. This is Shock Doctrine 101: a calamitous event propels the priorities of those in power. The Internet is now abuzz with conspiracy theorists asking if this wasn’t an Act of God but an act of Wilf – an artful piece of stadium sabotage (after all, 17 inches of snow is known in Minnesota as a “dusting.”) Such theories have no factual basis but it’s not hard to see who benefits from this. As Minnpost.com wrote acidly of the accident, "If you look closely, I believe you can see Zygi Wilf with a box cutter rappelling down the north side."
Why do the otherwise eminently sane people of the Twin Cities leap to the land of conspiracy? I asked Minnesota's finest labor history professor, Peter Rachleff for his take.
“Minnesota has changed," he said. "Once a site for top notch education, well-kept recreational facilities, progressive views about race, and respect for unionized workers have been frayed by two decades of neoliberal practices and policies from the factory floor to the state capitol and from emergency rooms to city halls. Politicians like Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the wannabe-Presidential contender, have shirked their responsibility for this miserable change in climate. Known in other circles as ‘Teflon Tim’ for his fast footwork in the face of the consequences of his (in)actions, such as the collapse on his watch of the I-35 bridge, it is a fitting irony that the recent monster snow storm collapsed the teflon roof of the Metrodome. Where are the poets when we need them?
Poets are always welcome, but the answer here barely even requires prose. Despite the optical dramatics, the reality of the collapse is much more banal. As Neil DeMause explained, the roof may even be patched up in time for next week’s game, one of the advantages of the Metrodome’s cheaply made inflatable roof.
If Wilf doesn’t like his bargain basement digs, let him pay for his own new stadium. Or just remove the rest of the roof and have the Vikings play outdoors before an open sky. After all, the team went to four Super Bowls before they entered the dome. Since they’ve played under a roof, zero. It’s Minnesota for goodness sakes. If they can play outdoors in Green Bay, they should be able to do it in the Twin Cities. Or we can just build another stadium and play America’s favorite car game, “Will this bridge I’m driving on collapse.”
Zygi Wilf may threaten to move the team to Los Angeles so he can be known for time immemorial as the Walter O’Malley of the Mid-west. But the Vikings were ours long before they were ever his. If Mr. Wilf wants partial public funds for his new stadium, we should demand public ownership of the team. And if Zygi doesn't like it, he can talk to the complaints department.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Sadly, Favre’s streak ends with little fanfare
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=ApfRyDUzadesxy2wXegEZI9DubYF?slug=dw-favresits121310
Sadly, Favre’s streak ends with little fanfare
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
12-13-10
DETROIT – Talked out of another retirement in August, Brett Favre found a public that had long tired of his summer dramas. He found in his return to the Minnesota Vikings a receiving corps that was battered, a defense that was defenseless and a losing streak he couldn’t fix.
He found a coach he couldn’t coexist with (Brad Childress was fired by midseason). He found Randy Moss(notes), for a month. He found a body that couldn’t heal like it once did. He found an off-field scandal that was more humiliating than his most ill-fated interception. He found a home stadium with a collapsed roof.
And finally Brett Favre found himself here, on a bizarre, bitter cold night in snow-packed Detroit, in front of a two-thirds full stadium with the Vikings logo hastily painted over the Detroit Lion.
He found himself on the sideline, in black workout pants, a black T-shirt and a purple ski hat watching the start of an NFL game for the first time since Sept. 13, 1992. It ended the NFL-record ironman streak at 297 regular-season games (321 if you count the playoffs).
In 1939, not two miles from here at the old Briggs Stadium, the New York Yankees’ Lou Gehrig benched himself, ending baseball’s then-record 2,130 consecutive game mark. Seventy-one years later, Favre essentially did the same by declaring himself unfit to play.
“I’ve played through a lot of stuff,” he said softly postgame, a 21-3 Giants victory over the listless Vikings. “This is something different.”
Favre claimed he’d never envisioned how the streak would end, but this certainly couldn’t have been it. Both metaphorically and meteorologically it had all caved in on him this season.
Maybe he figured it would’ve happened back in Green Bay, when he was beloved by Packers fans and he could’ve taken a rollicking curtain call. Or maybe it would’ve been during a promising season where a one-game injury couldn’t quiet the promise of a potential Super Bowl. Or maybe it would’ve never come at all and Favre could’ve just happily mowed his lawn back in Mississippi, grinning that generations of NFL linebackers never could get him.
Instead a Buffalo Bill named Arthur Moats did, nailing Favre last Sunday and leaving his shoulder hurt and his hands tingling. All week Favre kept expecting his health to improve, kept figuring he’d be out there ready to play.
“I had broken my foot and walked in a boot,” he said of one injury. “I broke my thumb and ended up playing the best nine-, 10-week stretch of my career,” he said of another.
This was different, though. This was the end. His website was selling commemorative items celebrating the streak before kickoff. He spent the game casually talking on the sideline. There was little reaction from the neutral site crowd of 45,910, lured in by free tickets and a heated Ford Field.
With Favre, the end was just the end. Quiet. Uneventful. Passionless.
For a quarterback that has never been any of those things, that, perhaps more than anything, was the surprise.
“Today it wasn’t all of a sudden a flood of emotions, memories,” he said.
Favre couldn’t commit to playing again. He’s sure to call it quits for good at season’s end – three more games. He said he won’t play if he can’t feel his hand. He hadn’t thought about whether or not he’d stick around the team if he has to shut it down. The NFL still hasn’t ruled on a potential sexual harassment case – and would likely welcome his retirement.
Brett Favre shares a moment with the Giants' Eli Manning after New York beat Minnesota in Detroit. It was the first time since 1992 that Brett Favre missed a start.
The Vikings are a horrible 5-8, their performance Monday so spiritless that tight end Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) teared up in the locker room discussing the embarrassment. The season has no hope, plenty of misery.
Nearby Favre sat at his locker eating a slice of pepperoni from Bosco Pizza (“Quality Since 1988”). He’d showered postgame and then grimaced as he slipped a T-shirt and olive green sweater over his head. His No. 4 Viking equipment bag sat in front of his locker, unzipped and untouched. There had never really been a chance he would play.
He has gray hair, looks bored and actually sounded concerned about how all these NFL beatings are going to affect him in retirement.
From the outside, this entire season has been a disaster and this was a fitting conclusion.
A year ago he was the kid who wouldn’t grow up, leading a wild locker room playoff victory celebration by singing the joke song “Pants on the Ground.” Today, that’s just a punch line. He couldn’t even be hurt in peace – the Internet was full of conspiracy theories and jokes.
In the end, nothing’s the same.
“Not at all,” he said when asked if he regretted returning. “I knew coming in there was nothing left to prove. I knew duplicating what we did last year was going to be very difficult.”
He wasn’t making this season out to be better than it was. It was a gamble he admitted. The chance he might regret not giving it one more try had sucked him in, he said. He went to the wall. It didn’t budge when he hit it. Most players would be forgiven for trying. Favre has apparently used up his goodwill with many fans, who reveled in his failure, enjoyed watching his perceived ego do him in.
“[I heard people say] ‘Hate for the streak to end like this,’” Favre said. “End like what? It’s been a great run.”
For years he’d been one of the NFL’s most popular players, this dashing, daring quarterback up in Green Bay. The streak should say enough about him. In a sport defined by toughness, he might be the toughest of them all. Only then came the annual tearful retirements; the test of wills; the text messages. He somehow became a polarizing figure. Maybe it was his true self finally revealed. Maybe it was society’s interest in tearing apart its heroes.
In 1939, when Gehrig sat for the first time in years, the Detroit crowd gave him a standing ovation as he sat slumped in the dugout, his eyes welling with tears.
There was no such touching moment for Brett Favre. There was no such heartfelt gesture. The atmosphere was too sterile, the soap opera too fresh, the hero too modern.
Brett Favre’s streak just ended.
After all the glory and all the games, he just returned to the depressed locker room of a bad football team, grabbed his jacket and headed out into the cold, cold night air.
Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. He is the co-author of the new book "Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series."
Sadly, Favre’s streak ends with little fanfare
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
12-13-10
DETROIT – Talked out of another retirement in August, Brett Favre found a public that had long tired of his summer dramas. He found in his return to the Minnesota Vikings a receiving corps that was battered, a defense that was defenseless and a losing streak he couldn’t fix.
He found a coach he couldn’t coexist with (Brad Childress was fired by midseason). He found Randy Moss(notes), for a month. He found a body that couldn’t heal like it once did. He found an off-field scandal that was more humiliating than his most ill-fated interception. He found a home stadium with a collapsed roof.
And finally Brett Favre found himself here, on a bizarre, bitter cold night in snow-packed Detroit, in front of a two-thirds full stadium with the Vikings logo hastily painted over the Detroit Lion.
He found himself on the sideline, in black workout pants, a black T-shirt and a purple ski hat watching the start of an NFL game for the first time since Sept. 13, 1992. It ended the NFL-record ironman streak at 297 regular-season games (321 if you count the playoffs).
In 1939, not two miles from here at the old Briggs Stadium, the New York Yankees’ Lou Gehrig benched himself, ending baseball’s then-record 2,130 consecutive game mark. Seventy-one years later, Favre essentially did the same by declaring himself unfit to play.
“I’ve played through a lot of stuff,” he said softly postgame, a 21-3 Giants victory over the listless Vikings. “This is something different.”
Favre claimed he’d never envisioned how the streak would end, but this certainly couldn’t have been it. Both metaphorically and meteorologically it had all caved in on him this season.
Maybe he figured it would’ve happened back in Green Bay, when he was beloved by Packers fans and he could’ve taken a rollicking curtain call. Or maybe it would’ve been during a promising season where a one-game injury couldn’t quiet the promise of a potential Super Bowl. Or maybe it would’ve never come at all and Favre could’ve just happily mowed his lawn back in Mississippi, grinning that generations of NFL linebackers never could get him.
Instead a Buffalo Bill named Arthur Moats did, nailing Favre last Sunday and leaving his shoulder hurt and his hands tingling. All week Favre kept expecting his health to improve, kept figuring he’d be out there ready to play.
“I had broken my foot and walked in a boot,” he said of one injury. “I broke my thumb and ended up playing the best nine-, 10-week stretch of my career,” he said of another.
This was different, though. This was the end. His website was selling commemorative items celebrating the streak before kickoff. He spent the game casually talking on the sideline. There was little reaction from the neutral site crowd of 45,910, lured in by free tickets and a heated Ford Field.
With Favre, the end was just the end. Quiet. Uneventful. Passionless.
For a quarterback that has never been any of those things, that, perhaps more than anything, was the surprise.
“Today it wasn’t all of a sudden a flood of emotions, memories,” he said.
Favre couldn’t commit to playing again. He’s sure to call it quits for good at season’s end – three more games. He said he won’t play if he can’t feel his hand. He hadn’t thought about whether or not he’d stick around the team if he has to shut it down. The NFL still hasn’t ruled on a potential sexual harassment case – and would likely welcome his retirement.
Brett Favre shares a moment with the Giants' Eli Manning after New York beat Minnesota in Detroit. It was the first time since 1992 that Brett Favre missed a start.
The Vikings are a horrible 5-8, their performance Monday so spiritless that tight end Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) teared up in the locker room discussing the embarrassment. The season has no hope, plenty of misery.
Nearby Favre sat at his locker eating a slice of pepperoni from Bosco Pizza (“Quality Since 1988”). He’d showered postgame and then grimaced as he slipped a T-shirt and olive green sweater over his head. His No. 4 Viking equipment bag sat in front of his locker, unzipped and untouched. There had never really been a chance he would play.
He has gray hair, looks bored and actually sounded concerned about how all these NFL beatings are going to affect him in retirement.
From the outside, this entire season has been a disaster and this was a fitting conclusion.
A year ago he was the kid who wouldn’t grow up, leading a wild locker room playoff victory celebration by singing the joke song “Pants on the Ground.” Today, that’s just a punch line. He couldn’t even be hurt in peace – the Internet was full of conspiracy theories and jokes.
In the end, nothing’s the same.
“Not at all,” he said when asked if he regretted returning. “I knew coming in there was nothing left to prove. I knew duplicating what we did last year was going to be very difficult.”
He wasn’t making this season out to be better than it was. It was a gamble he admitted. The chance he might regret not giving it one more try had sucked him in, he said. He went to the wall. It didn’t budge when he hit it. Most players would be forgiven for trying. Favre has apparently used up his goodwill with many fans, who reveled in his failure, enjoyed watching his perceived ego do him in.
“[I heard people say] ‘Hate for the streak to end like this,’” Favre said. “End like what? It’s been a great run.”
For years he’d been one of the NFL’s most popular players, this dashing, daring quarterback up in Green Bay. The streak should say enough about him. In a sport defined by toughness, he might be the toughest of them all. Only then came the annual tearful retirements; the test of wills; the text messages. He somehow became a polarizing figure. Maybe it was his true self finally revealed. Maybe it was society’s interest in tearing apart its heroes.
In 1939, when Gehrig sat for the first time in years, the Detroit crowd gave him a standing ovation as he sat slumped in the dugout, his eyes welling with tears.
There was no such touching moment for Brett Favre. There was no such heartfelt gesture. The atmosphere was too sterile, the soap opera too fresh, the hero too modern.
Brett Favre’s streak just ended.
After all the glory and all the games, he just returned to the depressed locker room of a bad football team, grabbed his jacket and headed out into the cold, cold night air.
Dan Wetzel is Yahoo! Sports' national columnist. He is the co-author of the new book "Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series."
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Boorish behavior also contributed to Moss’ demise
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AoFHHaIXnUHg8ICTr20q011DubYF?slug=ms-mossbehavior110210
Boorish behavior also contributed to Moss’ demise
Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
Nov 2, 2010
When Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress told his players Monday afternoon that Randy Moss would be released because “we want good people that are good football players, and this just doesn’t fit,” several of them nodded their approval. Though Childress isn’t especially popular in the locker room, some Vikings were on board with his decision to move on without Moss four weeks after the polarizing wideout was reacquired in a trade with the New England Patriots.
Even before Sunday’s surreal address to the media following the Vikings’ 28-18 defeat to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium – during which he questioned Childress’ leadership while effusively praising his former coach, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots’ organization – Moss had alienated some of his teammates with his brash, entitled behavior, most glaringly in an incident that occurred in the team’s locker room last Friday afternoon, Yahoo! Sports has learned.
As is the team’s custom on Fridays, a local food establishment was invited to the training facility to serve a catered, post-practice meal in the locker room. In this case, a St. Paul restaurant that is a favorite of former Vikings center Matt Birk. As the proprietors helped serve chicken, ribs, pasta and other dishes to Vikings players, Moss paced up and down the serving line and loudly expressed his displeasure with the offerings.
According to one player who witnessed the scene, Moss yelled, “What the [expletive]? Who ordered this crap? I wouldn’t feed this to my dog!”
Said the witness: “It was brutal. The truth is, he deserved to be cut after that. It was such an uncomfortable moment. You know that feeling where you just can tell someone feels so small? That’s what it was like being there.
“This wasn’t a chain – it was a mom-and-pop restaurant, and you could tell it was their best stuff. They had a special carving station set up, and there were players and other support staff lining up to eat it. And [Moss] is at his locker saying, ‘You know, I used to have to eat that crap – but now I’ve got money.’ You just felt so sad for them. I had never seen anyone treated like that.
“And by the way, the food was actually really good.”
While Moss had his share of supporters in the locker room, some Vikings had grown disillusioned with his attitude. From the receiver’s uneven effort in practice to his displays of self-centeredness off the field, some veterans believed Moss was becoming a bad influence to young players like second-year wideout Percy Harvin.
There was also locker room speculation about Moss’ effort – or lack thereof – on two plays in recent games. With the Vikes facing a last-gasp fourth-down pass in a 28-24 defeat to the Packers in Green Bay two Sundays ago, quarterback Brett Favre threw a high pass in the back of the end zone that sailed over Moss’ head, though it didn’t appear as though the receiver made an effort to jump for the ball.
In Sunday’s game against the Patriots, with the Vikings trailing by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, Moss drew a pass-interference penalty on Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather while streaking down the left sideline. It appeared as though Moss might have been able to catch the pass for a touchdown after the penalty occurred but that he broke off the route once the flag was thrown.
The Vikings got the ball at the New England 9 and scored four plays later, though not before Favre sustained a lacerated chin that knocked him from the game.
Most of all, however, Moss’ treatment of the restauranteurs in the locker room convinced some teammates that he wasn’t worth the trouble. Since becoming the Vikings’ coach in 2006, Childress has consistently preached that he wants “good people who are good football players,” and Moss clearly didn’t seem to be projecting himself as someone who fits in the former category.
When Childress, according to one person in Monday’s meeting, said of Moss, “This just doesn’t fit with how we treat people, how we talk to people and how we act,” it was clear that he was referring to the incident that occurred last Friday. Sunday’s stream-of-consciousness statement to the media only reinforced the internal perception that Moss was going out of his way to disrespect the organization.
With all of that said, Childress still has major credibility issues with his players, most of whom side with Favre in his ongoing clash with the coach. And there’s no guarantee Childress will stay the coach for the remainder of the season. However, his decision to part ways with Moss was, for some, viewed as an understandable consequence of the receiver’s behavior.
Boorish behavior also contributed to Moss’ demise
Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
Nov 2, 2010
When Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress told his players Monday afternoon that Randy Moss would be released because “we want good people that are good football players, and this just doesn’t fit,” several of them nodded their approval. Though Childress isn’t especially popular in the locker room, some Vikings were on board with his decision to move on without Moss four weeks after the polarizing wideout was reacquired in a trade with the New England Patriots.
Even before Sunday’s surreal address to the media following the Vikings’ 28-18 defeat to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium – during which he questioned Childress’ leadership while effusively praising his former coach, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots’ organization – Moss had alienated some of his teammates with his brash, entitled behavior, most glaringly in an incident that occurred in the team’s locker room last Friday afternoon, Yahoo! Sports has learned.
As is the team’s custom on Fridays, a local food establishment was invited to the training facility to serve a catered, post-practice meal in the locker room. In this case, a St. Paul restaurant that is a favorite of former Vikings center Matt Birk. As the proprietors helped serve chicken, ribs, pasta and other dishes to Vikings players, Moss paced up and down the serving line and loudly expressed his displeasure with the offerings.
According to one player who witnessed the scene, Moss yelled, “What the [expletive]? Who ordered this crap? I wouldn’t feed this to my dog!”
Said the witness: “It was brutal. The truth is, he deserved to be cut after that. It was such an uncomfortable moment. You know that feeling where you just can tell someone feels so small? That’s what it was like being there.
“This wasn’t a chain – it was a mom-and-pop restaurant, and you could tell it was their best stuff. They had a special carving station set up, and there were players and other support staff lining up to eat it. And [Moss] is at his locker saying, ‘You know, I used to have to eat that crap – but now I’ve got money.’ You just felt so sad for them. I had never seen anyone treated like that.
“And by the way, the food was actually really good.”
While Moss had his share of supporters in the locker room, some Vikings had grown disillusioned with his attitude. From the receiver’s uneven effort in practice to his displays of self-centeredness off the field, some veterans believed Moss was becoming a bad influence to young players like second-year wideout Percy Harvin.
There was also locker room speculation about Moss’ effort – or lack thereof – on two plays in recent games. With the Vikes facing a last-gasp fourth-down pass in a 28-24 defeat to the Packers in Green Bay two Sundays ago, quarterback Brett Favre threw a high pass in the back of the end zone that sailed over Moss’ head, though it didn’t appear as though the receiver made an effort to jump for the ball.
In Sunday’s game against the Patriots, with the Vikings trailing by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, Moss drew a pass-interference penalty on Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather while streaking down the left sideline. It appeared as though Moss might have been able to catch the pass for a touchdown after the penalty occurred but that he broke off the route once the flag was thrown.
The Vikings got the ball at the New England 9 and scored four plays later, though not before Favre sustained a lacerated chin that knocked him from the game.
Most of all, however, Moss’ treatment of the restauranteurs in the locker room convinced some teammates that he wasn’t worth the trouble. Since becoming the Vikings’ coach in 2006, Childress has consistently preached that he wants “good people who are good football players,” and Moss clearly didn’t seem to be projecting himself as someone who fits in the former category.
When Childress, according to one person in Monday’s meeting, said of Moss, “This just doesn’t fit with how we treat people, how we talk to people and how we act,” it was clear that he was referring to the incident that occurred last Friday. Sunday’s stream-of-consciousness statement to the media only reinforced the internal perception that Moss was going out of his way to disrespect the organization.
With all of that said, Childress still has major credibility issues with his players, most of whom side with Favre in his ongoing clash with the coach. And there’s no guarantee Childress will stay the coach for the remainder of the season. However, his decision to part ways with Moss was, for some, viewed as an understandable consequence of the receiver’s behavior.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
FBI Documents Raise Questions over Paul Wellstone’s Death
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/26/headlines/fbi_documents_raises_questions_over_paul_wellstones_death
October 26, 2010
FBI Documents Raise Questions over Paul Wellstone’s Death
Minnesota Public Radio has obtained the FBI record of the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who died in a plane crash eight years ago this week. The records show the FBI first tracked Wellstone in 1970 after he was arrested at an anti-Vietnam War protest. The records might also raise new questions about the plane crash that killed Wellstone, his wife, his daughter and three staffers. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the crash was caused by pilot error, but the FBI documents reveal for the first time that specific criminal leads were pursued by investigators. Part of the FBI probe focused on problems with the plane’s de-icing equipment. A caller from Florida said members of the American Trucking Association had planned to disconnect the plane’s de-icing equipment because they were upset with Wellstone’s efforts to expose organized crime in the trucking industry. The FBI files also reveal that Wellstone’s St. Paul office received a threatening postcard the day before the plane crash.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
October 26, 2010
FBI Documents Raise Questions over Paul Wellstone’s Death
Minnesota Public Radio has obtained the FBI record of the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who died in a plane crash eight years ago this week. The records show the FBI first tracked Wellstone in 1970 after he was arrested at an anti-Vietnam War protest. The records might also raise new questions about the plane crash that killed Wellstone, his wife, his daughter and three staffers. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the crash was caused by pilot error, but the FBI documents reveal for the first time that specific criminal leads were pursued by investigators. Part of the FBI probe focused on problems with the plane’s de-icing equipment. A caller from Florida said members of the American Trucking Association had planned to disconnect the plane’s de-icing equipment because they were upset with Wellstone’s efforts to expose organized crime in the trucking industry. The FBI files also reveal that Wellstone’s St. Paul office received a threatening postcard the day before the plane crash.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The Randy Moss Trade in all its Idiocy
Dave Zirin
The Patriots trade of super star wide receiver Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round draft pick represents everything I despise about NFL ‘conventional wisdom, the New England Patriots organization, and their dyspeptic toad of a head coach, Bill Belichick.
For 12 years, the football media has derided Moss as a malcontent, a “diva”, even a cancer. And yet, as the hate has been rained down upon his head with annual monotony, do you know who loves Randy Moss? Quarterbacks. Moss is the kind of singular talent who turns average qbs into Pro Bowlers, and Pro Bowlers into Hall of Famers. Just look at his history since coming into the league way back in 1998. In Moss’s first season he caught a rookie-record 17 touchdowns on a Minnesota Vikings team that set the mark for most points scored in a season. His quarterback, Randall Cunningham, had the best season of his star-crossed career and was named Player of the Year. When Cunningham played poorly the following season, his backup the talented but bumbling Jeff George, was finally consistent, which he achieved by tossing up remarkable spirals that Moss snatched out of the air. After George, Moss gave Daunte Culpepper two of the best statistical seasons in NFL history. After Moss left the team for the Oakland Raiders, Culpepper’s career left as well. The two years in Oakland were uneventful – as are most years in Raider-land – but when Moss signed with the Patriots, he showed that he was truly an all-timer.
The already accomplished Tom Brady had a season for the ages, throwing a record 50 touchdowns with 23 of them going to Moss, also an all time mark. That Patriots team broke the record of Moss’s old Vikings team for points in a season. The presence of Moss has opened the field for Brady to find underneath receiver Wes Welker who has more catches over the last three years than any player in the NFL. This is why Tom Brady recently called Moss the greatest deep threat in NFL history. This is why Brady is miserable today and Brett Favre is so elated, you’d think they made Wranglers with an elastic waist. Favre has pined for Moss since the 1998 draft when he begged the Packers to take the Marshall University standout and then watched as Moss tormented the Pack for years.
That last word is key: years. For all the talk of the “mercurial Moss”, his career has actually been one for the ages. Moss has the second most touchdown catches in NFL history and is still just 33 years old. The one receiver picked ahead of him in the 1998 draft, Kevin Dyson, hasn’t played in SEVEN YEARS. And yet, despite 12 years of putting up Hall of Fame numbers and being the object of desire for every qb in the game, he is still branded as a problem player. Every team should have such problems. NFL writers who still beat this dead horse sound like conservatives crying about the end of the gold standard. We’ve seen this again today. Kerry Byrnes of Sports Illustrated, before the bags were even packed, wrote, “At the end of the day, the Patriots were a better team without Moss.” He also dismissed Moss’s impact, writing, “Wide receivers, even the all-time great wide receivers, are little more than shiny hood ornaments on NFL offenses.” For proof of this, Byrnes looked at the Packer teams of the 1960s and the Steeler dynasty of the 1970s, pointing out that they lacked a dominant receiver. This is idiocy writ large and not just because, last I checked, Pittsburgh receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth were in the Hall of Fame. In today’s NFL, where changes in the rules heavily favor the passing game, if you don’t have a top receiving core, you are not going anywhere. Instead of looking at the Canton Bulldogs, or whoever Byrnes was holding up as an example of wide receiver irrelevance, look at the last four Super Bowl teams: In 2009 it was the Arizona Cardinals led by receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the Steelers and their Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. In 2010, the Saints and the Colts passed first and ran the ball just to keep the other side guessing.
But forget the stupidity that the Patriots are better without Moss. This is just another reason why the New England Patriots and their coach Bill Belichick deserve every last dollop of our collective contempt. Over the last five years, Belichick has coldly disemboweled the team that won three Super Bowls in four years from 2002-2005. Remember their clutch kicker Adam Vinatieri, or linebacker Mike Vrabel, or Super Bowl MVP Deon Branch, or All Pro tackle Richard Seymour? They were all expendable. Other than Brady, the only surviving player is - now injured – running back Kevin Faulk who has been on the team so long he must have pictures of Patriots owner Bob Kraft snuggling livestock. For all the talk of Randy Moss being a narcissistic diva, it’s really Belichick who believes that it’s all about him. Until I see that cranky hobbit run past Darrelle Revis and catch a touchdown with one hand, I will continue to think otherwise. As for Moss, he has the chance now to end his career in Minnesota where it all began. As he said to Vikings coach Brad Childress, "I'm just happy to be coming home." So is everyone in the land of a thousand lakes. We should cheer the Vikings and jeer the Patriots for this move. But if you take a moment and listen very carefully, you can hear a very soft thumping sound. It’s Tom Brady banging his head against a wall.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
The Patriots trade of super star wide receiver Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round draft pick represents everything I despise about NFL ‘conventional wisdom, the New England Patriots organization, and their dyspeptic toad of a head coach, Bill Belichick.
For 12 years, the football media has derided Moss as a malcontent, a “diva”, even a cancer. And yet, as the hate has been rained down upon his head with annual monotony, do you know who loves Randy Moss? Quarterbacks. Moss is the kind of singular talent who turns average qbs into Pro Bowlers, and Pro Bowlers into Hall of Famers. Just look at his history since coming into the league way back in 1998. In Moss’s first season he caught a rookie-record 17 touchdowns on a Minnesota Vikings team that set the mark for most points scored in a season. His quarterback, Randall Cunningham, had the best season of his star-crossed career and was named Player of the Year. When Cunningham played poorly the following season, his backup the talented but bumbling Jeff George, was finally consistent, which he achieved by tossing up remarkable spirals that Moss snatched out of the air. After George, Moss gave Daunte Culpepper two of the best statistical seasons in NFL history. After Moss left the team for the Oakland Raiders, Culpepper’s career left as well. The two years in Oakland were uneventful – as are most years in Raider-land – but when Moss signed with the Patriots, he showed that he was truly an all-timer.
The already accomplished Tom Brady had a season for the ages, throwing a record 50 touchdowns with 23 of them going to Moss, also an all time mark. That Patriots team broke the record of Moss’s old Vikings team for points in a season. The presence of Moss has opened the field for Brady to find underneath receiver Wes Welker who has more catches over the last three years than any player in the NFL. This is why Tom Brady recently called Moss the greatest deep threat in NFL history. This is why Brady is miserable today and Brett Favre is so elated, you’d think they made Wranglers with an elastic waist. Favre has pined for Moss since the 1998 draft when he begged the Packers to take the Marshall University standout and then watched as Moss tormented the Pack for years.
That last word is key: years. For all the talk of the “mercurial Moss”, his career has actually been one for the ages. Moss has the second most touchdown catches in NFL history and is still just 33 years old. The one receiver picked ahead of him in the 1998 draft, Kevin Dyson, hasn’t played in SEVEN YEARS. And yet, despite 12 years of putting up Hall of Fame numbers and being the object of desire for every qb in the game, he is still branded as a problem player. Every team should have such problems. NFL writers who still beat this dead horse sound like conservatives crying about the end of the gold standard. We’ve seen this again today. Kerry Byrnes of Sports Illustrated, before the bags were even packed, wrote, “At the end of the day, the Patriots were a better team without Moss.” He also dismissed Moss’s impact, writing, “Wide receivers, even the all-time great wide receivers, are little more than shiny hood ornaments on NFL offenses.” For proof of this, Byrnes looked at the Packer teams of the 1960s and the Steeler dynasty of the 1970s, pointing out that they lacked a dominant receiver. This is idiocy writ large and not just because, last I checked, Pittsburgh receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth were in the Hall of Fame. In today’s NFL, where changes in the rules heavily favor the passing game, if you don’t have a top receiving core, you are not going anywhere. Instead of looking at the Canton Bulldogs, or whoever Byrnes was holding up as an example of wide receiver irrelevance, look at the last four Super Bowl teams: In 2009 it was the Arizona Cardinals led by receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the Steelers and their Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. In 2010, the Saints and the Colts passed first and ran the ball just to keep the other side guessing.
But forget the stupidity that the Patriots are better without Moss. This is just another reason why the New England Patriots and their coach Bill Belichick deserve every last dollop of our collective contempt. Over the last five years, Belichick has coldly disemboweled the team that won three Super Bowls in four years from 2002-2005. Remember their clutch kicker Adam Vinatieri, or linebacker Mike Vrabel, or Super Bowl MVP Deon Branch, or All Pro tackle Richard Seymour? They were all expendable. Other than Brady, the only surviving player is - now injured – running back Kevin Faulk who has been on the team so long he must have pictures of Patriots owner Bob Kraft snuggling livestock. For all the talk of Randy Moss being a narcissistic diva, it’s really Belichick who believes that it’s all about him. Until I see that cranky hobbit run past Darrelle Revis and catch a touchdown with one hand, I will continue to think otherwise. As for Moss, he has the chance now to end his career in Minnesota where it all began. As he said to Vikings coach Brad Childress, "I'm just happy to be coming home." So is everyone in the land of a thousand lakes. We should cheer the Vikings and jeer the Patriots for this move. But if you take a moment and listen very carefully, you can hear a very soft thumping sound. It’s Tom Brady banging his head against a wall.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Friday, September 17, 2010
NFL Opener Becomes Site of Solidarity
http://www.thenation.com/blog/154625/nfl-opener-become-site-solidarity
NFL Opener Becomes Site of Solidarity
by Dave Zirin
When a football player, standing by himself, points a finger to the sky, he is usually either giving praise to God or stating, if you were unaware of this fact, that he is indeed number one. Other players have also been known to raise a different finger in fits of self expression. But last night when two teams, billed as bitter enemies, walked onto the field before the start of the NFL season, holding a finger in the air, you knew that this wasn't business as usual. As the national anthem ended, the defending Super Bowl Champs New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings raised their finger in a gesture directly aimed at the fans and the owners, and the message was clear: “WE are one. We aren’t opponents who want to rip our heads off on the field. We are unionists locked in a bitter labor battle against 32 of the most powerful people in the United States, and we will not be moved.” On the NFL’s website, the heading for this particular clip reads, “Players show solidarity.”
In a country where unions are ignored when they’re not demonized, it was perhaps the most widely-seen, collectively experienced display of labor solidarity in the history of the United States. Hyperbole? Consider that the game garnered the highest opening night ratings in the history of the NFL. 28% of all households were unexpectedly treated to a taste of solidarity.
Predictably, the game’s announcer, Al Michaels, a proud man of the right who loves slipping in political jabs into telecasts, couldn’t hide his disgust saying with serious snark, “There’s nothing like a labor statement to start the season.” Similarly, on this morning’s ESPN radio show, Mike and Mike in the Morning, former NFL player Mike Golic, who described himself as a “proud union guy”, said he hated the gesture, calling it counterproductive and alienating to fans. His partner Mike Greenberg echoed that “99%” of the emails they received made clear that viewers hated the gesture. He said, “In every sports labor battle fans side against the players because they are being paid to play a game and people just want to watch.”
I don't buy it. That may have been true in the past, but this time they’re wrong. For the players, going public was a brilliant move. I don’t know who has the time or energy to email into Mike and Mike in the morning at the crack of dawn, but to judge today’s predicted fallout, the reaction in virtual-land has mirrored the reaction of the crowd at the Louisiana Superdome: one of respect. This shouldn’t surprise us. There are a number of reasons why the political scales tip more toward the players this time around.
1 – The players want to play. Remember, the NFLPA is not threatening a strike. It’s the owners threatening a lockout. NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith has made it clear that the players will play under the existing collective bargaining period until they reach a new deal. If the gates are shut, it’s all on the owners’ shoulders. As Smith said, “I don't really look at this as a battle between millionaires and billionaires. I look at this as a battle between 32 people who can unilaterally shut down our game, and America who digs it.
2 – Fans are more aware of the beatings these guys take. Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns said to me, “We might be the only industry on earth with a 100% injury rate.” The flood of news about concussions, dementia, and all the debilitating realities of the NFL could also mean more sympathy for what players sacrifice in their short careers. It’s the most popular sport by a mile in a country, but a terrible price is paid for our national entertainment. Fans are far more savvy to this reality than the owners realize.
3 – DeMaurice Smith’s message. Smith said to me, “[If there is a lockout], we have 30,000 people who work in our stadiums. They're locked out. The concession workers and the people who are parking cars in the sleet and the rain for forth or fifth job, they're locked out. The bars and the restaurants that rely on football, they're locked out.”
The one-finger-gesture on the field was an expression of common cause and the response in the days ahead might be profoundly more positive than Al Michaels hopes or Mike Golic frets. As Mike Florio from pro football talk wrote this morning, “It’s unknown whether the seed of the idea was planted by anyone from the NFL Players Association. If it was, it wasn't a bad idea. And we have a feeling it's going to catch on.”
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
NFL Opener Becomes Site of Solidarity
by Dave Zirin
When a football player, standing by himself, points a finger to the sky, he is usually either giving praise to God or stating, if you were unaware of this fact, that he is indeed number one. Other players have also been known to raise a different finger in fits of self expression. But last night when two teams, billed as bitter enemies, walked onto the field before the start of the NFL season, holding a finger in the air, you knew that this wasn't business as usual. As the national anthem ended, the defending Super Bowl Champs New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings raised their finger in a gesture directly aimed at the fans and the owners, and the message was clear: “WE are one. We aren’t opponents who want to rip our heads off on the field. We are unionists locked in a bitter labor battle against 32 of the most powerful people in the United States, and we will not be moved.” On the NFL’s website, the heading for this particular clip reads, “Players show solidarity.”
In a country where unions are ignored when they’re not demonized, it was perhaps the most widely-seen, collectively experienced display of labor solidarity in the history of the United States. Hyperbole? Consider that the game garnered the highest opening night ratings in the history of the NFL. 28% of all households were unexpectedly treated to a taste of solidarity.
Predictably, the game’s announcer, Al Michaels, a proud man of the right who loves slipping in political jabs into telecasts, couldn’t hide his disgust saying with serious snark, “There’s nothing like a labor statement to start the season.” Similarly, on this morning’s ESPN radio show, Mike and Mike in the Morning, former NFL player Mike Golic, who described himself as a “proud union guy”, said he hated the gesture, calling it counterproductive and alienating to fans. His partner Mike Greenberg echoed that “99%” of the emails they received made clear that viewers hated the gesture. He said, “In every sports labor battle fans side against the players because they are being paid to play a game and people just want to watch.”
I don't buy it. That may have been true in the past, but this time they’re wrong. For the players, going public was a brilliant move. I don’t know who has the time or energy to email into Mike and Mike in the morning at the crack of dawn, but to judge today’s predicted fallout, the reaction in virtual-land has mirrored the reaction of the crowd at the Louisiana Superdome: one of respect. This shouldn’t surprise us. There are a number of reasons why the political scales tip more toward the players this time around.
1 – The players want to play. Remember, the NFLPA is not threatening a strike. It’s the owners threatening a lockout. NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith has made it clear that the players will play under the existing collective bargaining period until they reach a new deal. If the gates are shut, it’s all on the owners’ shoulders. As Smith said, “I don't really look at this as a battle between millionaires and billionaires. I look at this as a battle between 32 people who can unilaterally shut down our game, and America who digs it.
2 – Fans are more aware of the beatings these guys take. Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns said to me, “We might be the only industry on earth with a 100% injury rate.” The flood of news about concussions, dementia, and all the debilitating realities of the NFL could also mean more sympathy for what players sacrifice in their short careers. It’s the most popular sport by a mile in a country, but a terrible price is paid for our national entertainment. Fans are far more savvy to this reality than the owners realize.
3 – DeMaurice Smith’s message. Smith said to me, “[If there is a lockout], we have 30,000 people who work in our stadiums. They're locked out. The concession workers and the people who are parking cars in the sleet and the rain for forth or fifth job, they're locked out. The bars and the restaurants that rely on football, they're locked out.”
The one-finger-gesture on the field was an expression of common cause and the response in the days ahead might be profoundly more positive than Al Michaels hopes or Mike Golic frets. As Mike Florio from pro football talk wrote this morning, “It’s unknown whether the seed of the idea was planted by anyone from the NFL Players Association. If it was, it wasn't a bad idea. And we have a feeling it's going to catch on.”
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Silver Lining for Vikings Fans (Politically)
by Dave Zirin
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/521374/silver_lining_for_vikings_fans_politically
This is a day to empathize with the agony amongst the long-suffering fans of the Minnesota Vikings. With a trip to the Super Bowl in their buttery grasp, they fumbled it all away. In a game they largely dominated from start-to-finish, the Vikes lost in overtime to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game, 31-28. Miscues, interceptions, and some questionable calls will have Vikings Nation asking "what if" for the next nine months.
Yes, there is misery in Minnesota. But there is also a silver lining, and I'm not talking about the joy in Green Bay at the spectacular fall of Minnesota QB Brett Favre. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was locked and loaded to arrive at the Minnesota State Legislature on February 4 - three days before the Super Bowl - to press for a new $1 billion stadium with $700 million to be paid by the taxpayers. The Vikings, like many teams, is holding up the specter of moving the franchise to Los Angeles if they don't get a nine-figure welfare check. With the state's phony populist absentee governor Tim "Glass Jaw" Pawlenty saying little more than, "We have to keep the Vikings no matter what," Wilf was ready to roll the state's taxpayers. But now that the team has failed to reach the Big Game, the wind is out of Wilf's sails and Zygi is no longer coated with stardust. This isn't to say that Wilf won't emerge triumphant, but without the team in the Super Bowl, it's much more apparent that he will have a fight on his hands.
As Minnesota resident and dogged stadium opponent Willard Shapira wrote, "Most communities around the U.S. have caved in to such outrageous demands but socially concerned Minnesotans are fighting the Vikings tooth and nail. Others around the U.S. battling big-money and establishment power politics would take heart from a public victory over the Vikings and their gang of arrogant, plutocratic conspirators in business, politics and the media."
Remember that Minnesotans repeatedly rejected the Twins billionaire owner Carl Pohlad's efforts to get a new baseball stadium on the public dime. Despite their votes, Pawlenty rammed the $500 million facility through the legislature and it opens for business this spring. Now the owner called "the Big Bad Wilf" wants his piece of the public pie, recession be damned. The Vikings failure to make the Super Bowl makes his effort far more perilous.
On the flip side, and ever so ironically, New Orleans first trip to the Super Bowl makes it a near impossibility for the Saints owners, the Benson family, to fulfill their pre-Katrina dreams of moving their franchise to the City of Angels. If they made that move, I'm convinced that the Crescent City would implode with grief. Now, as a Super Bowl team, that move becomes a political impossibility.
Therefore in one tense contest to see who would ascend to the Super Bowl, two sets of owners saw their most treasured dreams to burn tax payers and break hearts go up in smoke. That's something all fans should cheer. Even in Minnesota.
Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/521374/silver_lining_for_vikings_fans_politically
This is a day to empathize with the agony amongst the long-suffering fans of the Minnesota Vikings. With a trip to the Super Bowl in their buttery grasp, they fumbled it all away. In a game they largely dominated from start-to-finish, the Vikes lost in overtime to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game, 31-28. Miscues, interceptions, and some questionable calls will have Vikings Nation asking "what if" for the next nine months.
Yes, there is misery in Minnesota. But there is also a silver lining, and I'm not talking about the joy in Green Bay at the spectacular fall of Minnesota QB Brett Favre. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf was locked and loaded to arrive at the Minnesota State Legislature on February 4 - three days before the Super Bowl - to press for a new $1 billion stadium with $700 million to be paid by the taxpayers. The Vikings, like many teams, is holding up the specter of moving the franchise to Los Angeles if they don't get a nine-figure welfare check. With the state's phony populist absentee governor Tim "Glass Jaw" Pawlenty saying little more than, "We have to keep the Vikings no matter what," Wilf was ready to roll the state's taxpayers. But now that the team has failed to reach the Big Game, the wind is out of Wilf's sails and Zygi is no longer coated with stardust. This isn't to say that Wilf won't emerge triumphant, but without the team in the Super Bowl, it's much more apparent that he will have a fight on his hands.
As Minnesota resident and dogged stadium opponent Willard Shapira wrote, "Most communities around the U.S. have caved in to such outrageous demands but socially concerned Minnesotans are fighting the Vikings tooth and nail. Others around the U.S. battling big-money and establishment power politics would take heart from a public victory over the Vikings and their gang of arrogant, plutocratic conspirators in business, politics and the media."
Remember that Minnesotans repeatedly rejected the Twins billionaire owner Carl Pohlad's efforts to get a new baseball stadium on the public dime. Despite their votes, Pawlenty rammed the $500 million facility through the legislature and it opens for business this spring. Now the owner called "the Big Bad Wilf" wants his piece of the public pie, recession be damned. The Vikings failure to make the Super Bowl makes his effort far more perilous.
On the flip side, and ever so ironically, New Orleans first trip to the Super Bowl makes it a near impossibility for the Saints owners, the Benson family, to fulfill their pre-Katrina dreams of moving their franchise to the City of Angels. If they made that move, I'm convinced that the Crescent City would implode with grief. Now, as a Super Bowl team, that move becomes a political impossibility.
Therefore in one tense contest to see who would ascend to the Super Bowl, two sets of owners saw their most treasured dreams to burn tax payers and break hearts go up in smoke. That's something all fans should cheer. Even in Minnesota.
Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Curse of the Lutefisk
http://blog.lavacocktail.com/2009/12/31/curse-of-the-lutefisk.aspx
Curse of the Lutefisk
Jaye Beldo
LavaCocktail.com
Curse of the Lutefisk
Jaye Beldo
LavaCocktail.com
An Acquired Taste: Lutefisk
Prior to a Vikings game at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington in 1967, a well meaning Samaritan named Sven Larson tried entering said facility with a case of Lutefisk he intended to give away to fans as a goodwill gesture, one he hoped would insure the team a Superbowl win. However, security guards prevented Sven from entering, primarily because of the strong odor the jellied codfish was giving off and which they feared other fans would find most offensive. As the irate Norwegian walked back towards the parking lot, he turned around and proclaimed for all to hear, that the Vikings would be forever cursed and that they would never win a Superbowl until the end of time.
Obviously Sven Larson's Lutefisk curse has worked quite well, as the Minnesota Vikings have failed a total of four times to win the coveted title. It is even rumored that field goal kicker Gary Anderson, who missed a critical three point try in the 1998 Superbowl game, after a flawless season, caught a whiff of the dreaded fish just before making his field goal attempt that surely would have secured a win for the team if he had made it.
Like the Curse of the Billy Goat waged on the Chicago Cubs by tavern owner Billy Sianis in 1945 at Wrigley Field, the Lutefisk curse will need the help of curse breaking experts, if not a full out exorcism of the Metrodome stadium and whatever stadium is built in the future for the Vikings, for the curse will follow the team wherever it goes, even if it is sold and moved to another state. A little know fact amongst die hard Vikings fans is that the real reason the Metropolitan Stadium was torn down in the first place, was not to make room for the the Mall of America, but rather a desperate attempt to break the Lutefisk Curse.While the Vikings continue to struggle after a critical loss to the Chicago Bears last Monday and millions of devout fans pray for another Superbowl chance for the team, the Lutefisk curse will most likely persist, at least until the soul of Sven Larson finds peace at last and he is allowed to bring his malodorous delicacy into whatever stadium he chooses to enter.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Ventura Delivers Some 9/11 Truth On Larry King Live
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ventura-delivers-some-911-truth-on-larry-king-live.htmlVentura Delivers Some 9/11 Truth On Larry King Live
“Why is it off limits to question and ask questions?”
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
Former Governor of Minnesota, ex-Navy SEAL and retired pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura raised some important unanswered questions regarding the 9/11 attacks in an interview with Larry King on CNN last night.
Ventura spoke about and gave a sneak peak of his new Tru TV show, Conspiracy Theory, set to air Wednesday night.
Footage from the 9/11 based episode showed Ventura attempting to gain access to the infamous hanger 17 at Kennedy International Airport where debris from the World Trade Center is kept away from public scrutiny.
“The 9/11 conspiracy is simply that the government hasn’t been truthful with us.” Ventura stated.
“I mean, Larry, a couple weeks ago, the head of the 9/11 Commission legal, I believe former attorney general Farmer from New Jersey, came out publicly and stated unequivocally that at some point the government decided that the American citizens would not hear the truth about 9/11. I find that very disturbing.” he continued.
“I find it very difficult that those buildings could fall at the speed of gravity without being assisted in some way. And I used to do demolition for a living. And how could those buildings fall as fast as I used to freefall out of an airplane?”
“If you took a billiard ball and dropped it the height of the twin towers and you just merely stopped it and started it every floor in freefall, it would take over a minute and a half to reach the ground. The buildings were down in ten seconds.”
“So you think there was something on the inside.” King replied.
“Here is the big point I make on 9/11,” Ventura asserted.
“Why is it off limits to talk about it? Why is it off limits to question and ask questions? You know when I went through Navy SEAL training I was taught in demolition that there is no dumb question, that if you don’t understand it then it is not dumb. That’s how I have lived my life and I have a lot of questions that the government refuses to answer.”
King also asked Ventura his opinion on the troop escalation in Afghanistan:
“It angers me because it reminds me a great deal of Vietnam.” Ventura answered.
“I mean, the Russians couldn’t beat them, the English couldn’t beat them over there. You are not going to get a military solution in my opinion in Afghanistan. It’s impossible, yet we’re just like in Vietnam, are we propping up a phony government, like we did in Vietnam?”
“Remember, the United States blocked free elections in Vietnam. Had there been elections in Vietnam, Ho Chi Min would have won in a landslide. Well is this the same thing going on?”
“I would pull out of Afghanistan and I would pull out of Iraq and I would bring our boys home. It is our job to protect their safety, and not be sending them off to wars. What are we accomplishing there? I look at it from a personal point of view. I don’t see how these two wars have helped Jesse Ventura or the USA one bit, other than to drain our economy.” Ventura fumed.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Vikings' Favre embarrasses Thompson, Packers
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10175662/Vikings'-Favre-embarrasses-Thompson,-Packers
Vikings' Favre embarrasses Thompson, Packers
by Alex Marvez
Alex Marvez is a Senior NFL Writer for FOXSports.com. He's covered the NFL for the past 15 seasons as a beat writer and is the former president of the Pro Football Writers of America.
October 6, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS - This was the matchup Green Bay never wanted to happen.
Now we know why.
Losing to a hated division rival is painful enough. Being tormented by a Packers legend is an outright embarrassment to the franchise.
Brett Favre got what he wanted.
There is no greater revenge that Favre could have personally extracted on Packers general manager Ted Thompson than the humiliation he delivered Monday night. Wearing a throwback Minnesota Vikings jersey, Favre turned the clock back to the days when he was winning three NFL Most Valuable Player awards in Green Bay before being shipped out of town.
Favre coolly channeled the inner rage toward how his 16-season Packers tenure ended into one of the most rewarding performances in a Hall of Fame career. A 271-yard, three-touchdown effort paced Minnesota's 30-23 home victory.
Just like during the week preceding the game, Favre tried downplaying the personal satisfaction of sticking it to the Packers. That's OK. Favre's teammates spilled the beans on what this game meant to him.
"Just the determination in his eyes, you could tell this was a little extra," Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said.
Peterson then laughed and said, "It wasn't just another game. We can admit that now."
The reason dates back to summer of 2008 when Favre decided to emerge from his first retirement. The Packers had vigorously tried to keep Favre from playing in Minnesota once it became clear the Vikings had interest and Green Bay was moving on with Aaron Rodgers as its starting quarterback. Packers management first tried persuading Favre to stay retired with a lucrative post-football endorsement deal. When that didn't work, Thompson refused to trade Favre to Minnesota and instead dealt him to the New York Jets. Thompson even included language that required New York to provide Green Bay heavy draft-pick compensation if Favre was ever sent to the Vikings.
A bitter Favre took verbal shots at Thompson, a good man who was in a tough spot because of the quarterback's offseason waffling and the much-younger Rodgers being ready to play. Favre never called Rodgers to offer advice on trying to fill his giant shoes. And as first reported by FOXSports.com NFL insider Jay Glazer, Favre spilled secrets about Green Bay to Detroit during a telephone conversation before a 2008 early-season game.
But the most harmful thing he did to the Packers? Favre found a way to Minnesota even if it was one season late. Favre and his agent shrewdly negotiated his outright release from the Jets after New York selected replacement quarterback Mark Sanchez in April's draft. That cleared the way for Favre to do the unthinkable for Packers faithful: Come out of retirement again to wear purple, white and yellow.
"I know there are Packers fans out there who like me and there are those who are unhappy," Favre said during his postgame news conference. "I can understand how they feel."
Favre, though, clearly has no remorse about extending his NFL career elsewhere.
"As long as the guys in the locker room give me a good chance to win, that's all that really matters," Favre said.
With the Vikings at 4-0, it's obvious they do.
Green Bay's defense contained star Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (55 yards on 25 carries) but had no answer for a familiar face. Early in the third quarter, Favre's massive offensive line provided almost eight seconds of protection on a drop-back that he converted into a 25-yard completion to tight end Jeff Dugan. On the next snap, Favre fooled cornerback Al Harris with a pump-fake. That freed wide receiver Bernard Berrian down the sideline for a 31-yard touchdown strike as a trailing Harris pointed at Packers safety Derrick Martin bemoaning the lack of coverage help.
The play that put Minnesota up 28-14 was just a small part of a game-long quarterback clinic. Despite saying he was "about as nervous as I've ever been before a game going into this one," Favre started hot and stayed that way. He connected on all five of his passing attempts on Minnesota's opening drive, capping it with a 1-yard touchdown throw. Favre started the play by rolling right but fullback Naufahu Tahi was covered. Favre, though, didn't hesitate. He stopped and fired back across the field to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe for the score.
A scene Green Bay knows all too well followed: A Favre touchdown celebration. He ran around wildly, stuck his finger in the air and leapt for a body-bump with kicker Ryan Longwell.
So much for the foot injury that limited Favre in last week's practices.
Favre was at it again in the second quarter after Green Bay had tied the score at 7. On third-and-11 from the Packers 14-yard line, Favre dropped back and pumped to his left. He then avoided Green Bay's pass rush by shifting slightly to the right before gunning a touchdown pass down the middle to wide receiver Sidney Rice.
So much for concerns about Favre's arm strength after offseason biceps surgery.
The Packers countered with their second big play of the game, a strip of Peterson and 42-yard fumble return for a touchdown by rookie linebacker Clay Matthews. Peterson, though, was soon making amends with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. That's because Favre quickly marched Minnesota downfield with completions of 16, 19 and 43 yards to Rice, running back Chester Taylor and rookie wideout Percy Harvin. By the time he was done Monday night, Favre had connected with eight receivers.
So much for Favre needing more "bonding" with his targets.
In fact, just about everything Favre has done in 2009 defies conventional NFL wisdom. Nobody returns from two separate retirements. Players — especially quarterbacks — are supposed to need offseason programs for conditioning, mastery of the playbook and bonding with teammates. Plus, Favre's wishy-washy behavior until deciding to return midway through training camp would have alienated other coaches without nearly as much patience — and perhaps desperation — as Minnesota's Brad Childress.
Entering the game, Favre was more caretaker than difference-maker in Minnesota's offense. His average per completion (6.0 yards) was Favre's lowest in 18 seasons. Favre's lack of mobility also was exposed with nine sacks through three contests.
But while not as spry, Favre — who turns 40 Saturday — also is playing smarter football than at maybe any other point in his NFL career. The risk-taking that led to so many roller-coaster Favre moments — mostly good, some bad — is greatly tempered. An efficient Favre has only one interception through four games, his lowest total ever as an NFL starter.
The old Favre magic in crunch time is still there as well. Favre proved that eight days earlier when hitting Greg Lewis on an improbable game-winning touchdown pass against San Francisco.
He didn't need any late heroics this time. A Jared Allen-led defense sacked Rodgers eight times, notched one safety and forced two turnovers that were converted to touchdowns. The Packers (2-2) also doomed themselves by failing to convert on three consecutive plays from the Vikings 1 late in the third quarter. A fourth-down drop by tight end Donald Lee essentially sealed Green Bay's fate despite a rally that fell short in the final minute.
"We wanted to make a statement," Packers linebacker Aaron Kampman said. "It's a frustrating deal. We have to fix this team."
Favre didn't take any extra joy publicly in helping to break the Packers, a team he will be facing again Nov. 1 at Lambeau Field in what will be another emotionally charged encounter. But when asked whether he wanted to keep the football from the final snap that reserve quarterback Sage Rosenfels salvaged from the referee, Favre didn't decline the gift.
Rather than taking a spot on Favre's mantle, the ball actually belongs in the Hall of Fame. Favre is now the first starting quarterback in NFL history to defeat all 32 NFL teams — a scenario Thompson made possible by cutting ties with a player whose bust will be in Canton soon enough.
Vikings' Favre embarrasses Thompson, Packers
by Alex Marvez
Alex Marvez is a Senior NFL Writer for FOXSports.com. He's covered the NFL for the past 15 seasons as a beat writer and is the former president of the Pro Football Writers of America.
October 6, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS - This was the matchup Green Bay never wanted to happen.
Now we know why.
Losing to a hated division rival is painful enough. Being tormented by a Packers legend is an outright embarrassment to the franchise.
Brett Favre got what he wanted.
There is no greater revenge that Favre could have personally extracted on Packers general manager Ted Thompson than the humiliation he delivered Monday night. Wearing a throwback Minnesota Vikings jersey, Favre turned the clock back to the days when he was winning three NFL Most Valuable Player awards in Green Bay before being shipped out of town.
Favre coolly channeled the inner rage toward how his 16-season Packers tenure ended into one of the most rewarding performances in a Hall of Fame career. A 271-yard, three-touchdown effort paced Minnesota's 30-23 home victory.
Just like during the week preceding the game, Favre tried downplaying the personal satisfaction of sticking it to the Packers. That's OK. Favre's teammates spilled the beans on what this game meant to him.
"Just the determination in his eyes, you could tell this was a little extra," Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said.
Peterson then laughed and said, "It wasn't just another game. We can admit that now."
The reason dates back to summer of 2008 when Favre decided to emerge from his first retirement. The Packers had vigorously tried to keep Favre from playing in Minnesota once it became clear the Vikings had interest and Green Bay was moving on with Aaron Rodgers as its starting quarterback. Packers management first tried persuading Favre to stay retired with a lucrative post-football endorsement deal. When that didn't work, Thompson refused to trade Favre to Minnesota and instead dealt him to the New York Jets. Thompson even included language that required New York to provide Green Bay heavy draft-pick compensation if Favre was ever sent to the Vikings.
A bitter Favre took verbal shots at Thompson, a good man who was in a tough spot because of the quarterback's offseason waffling and the much-younger Rodgers being ready to play. Favre never called Rodgers to offer advice on trying to fill his giant shoes. And as first reported by FOXSports.com NFL insider Jay Glazer, Favre spilled secrets about Green Bay to Detroit during a telephone conversation before a 2008 early-season game.
But the most harmful thing he did to the Packers? Favre found a way to Minnesota even if it was one season late. Favre and his agent shrewdly negotiated his outright release from the Jets after New York selected replacement quarterback Mark Sanchez in April's draft. That cleared the way for Favre to do the unthinkable for Packers faithful: Come out of retirement again to wear purple, white and yellow.
"I know there are Packers fans out there who like me and there are those who are unhappy," Favre said during his postgame news conference. "I can understand how they feel."
Favre, though, clearly has no remorse about extending his NFL career elsewhere.
"As long as the guys in the locker room give me a good chance to win, that's all that really matters," Favre said.
With the Vikings at 4-0, it's obvious they do.
Green Bay's defense contained star Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (55 yards on 25 carries) but had no answer for a familiar face. Early in the third quarter, Favre's massive offensive line provided almost eight seconds of protection on a drop-back that he converted into a 25-yard completion to tight end Jeff Dugan. On the next snap, Favre fooled cornerback Al Harris with a pump-fake. That freed wide receiver Bernard Berrian down the sideline for a 31-yard touchdown strike as a trailing Harris pointed at Packers safety Derrick Martin bemoaning the lack of coverage help.
The play that put Minnesota up 28-14 was just a small part of a game-long quarterback clinic. Despite saying he was "about as nervous as I've ever been before a game going into this one," Favre started hot and stayed that way. He connected on all five of his passing attempts on Minnesota's opening drive, capping it with a 1-yard touchdown throw. Favre started the play by rolling right but fullback Naufahu Tahi was covered. Favre, though, didn't hesitate. He stopped and fired back across the field to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe for the score.
A scene Green Bay knows all too well followed: A Favre touchdown celebration. He ran around wildly, stuck his finger in the air and leapt for a body-bump with kicker Ryan Longwell.
So much for the foot injury that limited Favre in last week's practices.
Favre was at it again in the second quarter after Green Bay had tied the score at 7. On third-and-11 from the Packers 14-yard line, Favre dropped back and pumped to his left. He then avoided Green Bay's pass rush by shifting slightly to the right before gunning a touchdown pass down the middle to wide receiver Sidney Rice.
So much for concerns about Favre's arm strength after offseason biceps surgery.
The Packers countered with their second big play of the game, a strip of Peterson and 42-yard fumble return for a touchdown by rookie linebacker Clay Matthews. Peterson, though, was soon making amends with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. That's because Favre quickly marched Minnesota downfield with completions of 16, 19 and 43 yards to Rice, running back Chester Taylor and rookie wideout Percy Harvin. By the time he was done Monday night, Favre had connected with eight receivers.
So much for Favre needing more "bonding" with his targets.
In fact, just about everything Favre has done in 2009 defies conventional NFL wisdom. Nobody returns from two separate retirements. Players — especially quarterbacks — are supposed to need offseason programs for conditioning, mastery of the playbook and bonding with teammates. Plus, Favre's wishy-washy behavior until deciding to return midway through training camp would have alienated other coaches without nearly as much patience — and perhaps desperation — as Minnesota's Brad Childress.
Entering the game, Favre was more caretaker than difference-maker in Minnesota's offense. His average per completion (6.0 yards) was Favre's lowest in 18 seasons. Favre's lack of mobility also was exposed with nine sacks through three contests.
But while not as spry, Favre — who turns 40 Saturday — also is playing smarter football than at maybe any other point in his NFL career. The risk-taking that led to so many roller-coaster Favre moments — mostly good, some bad — is greatly tempered. An efficient Favre has only one interception through four games, his lowest total ever as an NFL starter.
The old Favre magic in crunch time is still there as well. Favre proved that eight days earlier when hitting Greg Lewis on an improbable game-winning touchdown pass against San Francisco.
He didn't need any late heroics this time. A Jared Allen-led defense sacked Rodgers eight times, notched one safety and forced two turnovers that were converted to touchdowns. The Packers (2-2) also doomed themselves by failing to convert on three consecutive plays from the Vikings 1 late in the third quarter. A fourth-down drop by tight end Donald Lee essentially sealed Green Bay's fate despite a rally that fell short in the final minute.
"We wanted to make a statement," Packers linebacker Aaron Kampman said. "It's a frustrating deal. We have to fix this team."
Favre didn't take any extra joy publicly in helping to break the Packers, a team he will be facing again Nov. 1 at Lambeau Field in what will be another emotionally charged encounter. But when asked whether he wanted to keep the football from the final snap that reserve quarterback Sage Rosenfels salvaged from the referee, Favre didn't decline the gift.
Rather than taking a spot on Favre's mantle, the ball actually belongs in the Hall of Fame. Favre is now the first starting quarterback in NFL history to defeat all 32 NFL teams — a scenario Thompson made possible by cutting ties with a player whose bust will be in Canton soon enough.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40 below zero
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090114/D95MTUBO0.html
Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40 below zero
Jan 14, 2009
By AMY FORLITI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Temperatures crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. Early Wednesday, the cold front swept into New York, sending temperatures falling from the 30s a day before to single digits or below zero. It hit 8 below in Massena, on the St. Lawrence River in northern New York, with the wind chill making it feel like minus 25 degrees.
In Michigan, temperatures Wednesday morning ranged from minus 17 at Ironwood in the western Upper Peninsula to 10 degrees in the southwestern Lower Peninsula and 12 on Beaver Island. Ironwood earlier recorded a temperature of minus 23.
Thermometers read single digits early in the day as far south as Kansas and Missouri, where some areas warmed only into the teens by midday.
The ice and snow that glazed pavement was blamed for numerous traffic accidents from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp during the night in the Gary area.
The bitter cold snap was responsible for at least one death Tuesday.
A 51-year-old man in northern Wisconsin died from exposure after wandering from his Hayward home early Tuesday, authorities said. His son reported him missing and said he was prone to sleepwalking, and deputies followed footprints in the snow to find the man about 190 yards from his house, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said.
Some Minnesotans took it as just another winter day, even in the state's extreme northwest corner where thermometers bottomed out at 38 degrees below zero at the town of Hallock and the National Weather Service said the wind chill was a shocking 58 below.
"It's really not so bad," Robert Cameron, 75, said as he and several friends gathered for morning coffee at the Cenex service station in Hallock. "We've got clothing that goes with the weather. ... We're ready and rolling, no matter what."
"It's so beautiful. There's not a cloud in the sky," said Keith Anderson, 66. But he said that's not stopping him from skipping town at the end of the week to spend a couple of months in Nevada and Arizona.
Outside, one of the station's gas pumps froze up at least once, and assistant manager Terrie Franks had to go out to apply deicer spray.
"You definitely have to have gloves on because touching the cold metal - your hands are frozen," Franks said by telephone.
The weather service warned that exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when the wind chill is 40 degrees below zero or colder.
At about 8 a.m., temperatures were minus 40 in International Falls and minus 35 in Roseau. Farther south, Minneapolis hit 18 below zero with a wind chill of 32 below and black ice was blamed for numerous accidents.
Two northern Minnesota ski areas, Spirit Mountain in Duluth and Giants Ridge near Biwabik, announced they would close for a second straight day Wednesday because of the dangerously low windchill.
In neighboring North Dakota, Grand Forks dropped to a record low of 37 below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.
Schools were closed because of the cold as far south as Iowa, and authorities in Grand Rapids, Mich., issued an extreme cold weather alert and went out urging the homeless to seek shelter.
AAA Michigan responded to 1,450 motorists across the state Tuesday morning, mostly to assist with dead batteries, spinouts and minor accidents after an early snowfall, said spokeswoman Nancy Cain.
The leading edge of the cold air was expected to strike the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South late Tuesday and Wednesday. And meteorologists warned that a second wave could drop temperatures into the single digits Thursday and Friday in the mid-Atlantic region.
The storm that blew through the upper Midwest on Monday dropped 6 inches of snow on Minot, N.D., on top of about a foot that fell late last week, and Bismarck collected 4 inches. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks all broke snow records for December, each with more than 30 inches. They were outdone by Madison, Wis., which accumulated a record 40 inches for the month, the weather service said Tuesday.
Road departments have had little time to clear away the snow between storms, and North Dakota officials said snowplows would be pulled off the roads Tuesday night in the central and western parts of the state because of strong winds.
"Four-wheel drives are useless - people are just snowed in," said Rhonda Woodhams, office manager for Williams County, N.D. "People are calling in saying they're out of milk and diapers for their kids, or they have doctor appointments they need to get to. We're doing our best. And we don't need no more snow."
"It's like a sea of whiteness; people can't see the road," said Rebecca Arndt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Mankato. "When the white fluffy stuff starts to blow, it is not pretty."
What was left of that snowstorm was blowing eastward along the Great Lakes, and the weather service posted winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio's northwest corner. Up to 11 inches of new snow was possible in Detroit.
Winter weather advisories were in effect from North Dakota to Ohio and northeast into northern New England.
---
Associated Press writers Roger Petterson in New York and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
Weather Service warnings: http://tinyurl.com/yfjlyf
Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40 below zero
Jan 14, 2009
By AMY FORLITI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Temperatures crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. Early Wednesday, the cold front swept into New York, sending temperatures falling from the 30s a day before to single digits or below zero. It hit 8 below in Massena, on the St. Lawrence River in northern New York, with the wind chill making it feel like minus 25 degrees.
In Michigan, temperatures Wednesday morning ranged from minus 17 at Ironwood in the western Upper Peninsula to 10 degrees in the southwestern Lower Peninsula and 12 on Beaver Island. Ironwood earlier recorded a temperature of minus 23.
Thermometers read single digits early in the day as far south as Kansas and Missouri, where some areas warmed only into the teens by midday.
The ice and snow that glazed pavement was blamed for numerous traffic accidents from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp during the night in the Gary area.
The bitter cold snap was responsible for at least one death Tuesday.
A 51-year-old man in northern Wisconsin died from exposure after wandering from his Hayward home early Tuesday, authorities said. His son reported him missing and said he was prone to sleepwalking, and deputies followed footprints in the snow to find the man about 190 yards from his house, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said.
Some Minnesotans took it as just another winter day, even in the state's extreme northwest corner where thermometers bottomed out at 38 degrees below zero at the town of Hallock and the National Weather Service said the wind chill was a shocking 58 below.
"It's really not so bad," Robert Cameron, 75, said as he and several friends gathered for morning coffee at the Cenex service station in Hallock. "We've got clothing that goes with the weather. ... We're ready and rolling, no matter what."
"It's so beautiful. There's not a cloud in the sky," said Keith Anderson, 66. But he said that's not stopping him from skipping town at the end of the week to spend a couple of months in Nevada and Arizona.
Outside, one of the station's gas pumps froze up at least once, and assistant manager Terrie Franks had to go out to apply deicer spray.
"You definitely have to have gloves on because touching the cold metal - your hands are frozen," Franks said by telephone.
The weather service warned that exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when the wind chill is 40 degrees below zero or colder.
At about 8 a.m., temperatures were minus 40 in International Falls and minus 35 in Roseau. Farther south, Minneapolis hit 18 below zero with a wind chill of 32 below and black ice was blamed for numerous accidents.
Two northern Minnesota ski areas, Spirit Mountain in Duluth and Giants Ridge near Biwabik, announced they would close for a second straight day Wednesday because of the dangerously low windchill.
In neighboring North Dakota, Grand Forks dropped to a record low of 37 below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.
Schools were closed because of the cold as far south as Iowa, and authorities in Grand Rapids, Mich., issued an extreme cold weather alert and went out urging the homeless to seek shelter.
AAA Michigan responded to 1,450 motorists across the state Tuesday morning, mostly to assist with dead batteries, spinouts and minor accidents after an early snowfall, said spokeswoman Nancy Cain.
The leading edge of the cold air was expected to strike the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South late Tuesday and Wednesday. And meteorologists warned that a second wave could drop temperatures into the single digits Thursday and Friday in the mid-Atlantic region.
The storm that blew through the upper Midwest on Monday dropped 6 inches of snow on Minot, N.D., on top of about a foot that fell late last week, and Bismarck collected 4 inches. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks all broke snow records for December, each with more than 30 inches. They were outdone by Madison, Wis., which accumulated a record 40 inches for the month, the weather service said Tuesday.
Road departments have had little time to clear away the snow between storms, and North Dakota officials said snowplows would be pulled off the roads Tuesday night in the central and western parts of the state because of strong winds.
"Four-wheel drives are useless - people are just snowed in," said Rhonda Woodhams, office manager for Williams County, N.D. "People are calling in saying they're out of milk and diapers for their kids, or they have doctor appointments they need to get to. We're doing our best. And we don't need no more snow."
"It's like a sea of whiteness; people can't see the road," said Rebecca Arndt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Mankato. "When the white fluffy stuff starts to blow, it is not pretty."
What was left of that snowstorm was blowing eastward along the Great Lakes, and the weather service posted winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio's northwest corner. Up to 11 inches of new snow was possible in Detroit.
Winter weather advisories were in effect from North Dakota to Ohio and northeast into northern New England.
---
Associated Press writers Roger Petterson in New York and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
Weather Service warnings: http://tinyurl.com/yfjlyf
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Democrat Is Winner in Recount of Minnesota
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/us/politics/06minnesota.html
Democrat Is Winner in Recount of Minnesota Senate Race
By KIRK JOHNSON
January 5, 2009
ST. PAUL — Al Franken, the comedian who became a Democratic pundit and then a politician, won November’s election for the United States Senate by 225 votes out of 2.9 million cast, according to the finally completed recount results certified on Monday by the state’s independent canvassing board.
But even as the board members were leaving the state office building across the street from the Capitol, Mr. Franken’s opponent, the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, said through his lawyers that the board’s work had been flawed and that he would challenge the recount in court.
“This process isn’t at an end — it is now just at the beginning,” said Tony Trimble, a lawyer for Mr. Coleman. “We will contest the results.”
Minnesota residents have probably become somewhat inured to revolving-door news days like this — an advance by one side countered by a bayonet charge from the other, each battling for inches.
But Monday’s certified recount number is a new chapter in the story. Before the board’s certification, the questions were broad: Had the election been conducted properly? Did the system as a whole work? And the geography extended to every county and city.
The Minnesota secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, who is also head of the canvassing board, said he believed good things were revealed about the democratic process in the state. The voting process had worked, Mr. Ritchie said, and while mistakes had been found by some local elections officials in throwing out perfectly good ballots, no evidence turned up of widespread fraud or malfeasance. The recount team had then done a good job retracing the steps of what voters had wanted on Election Day, he said.
“It was as accurate as humanly possible within Minnesota law,” said Mr. Ritchie, a Democrat, referring to the recount. “I believe all lawful votes were counted.”
Mr. Coleman’s lawyers said the lawsuit would focus much more narrowly on batches of absentee votes that the campaign believed were either not recounted or recounted incorrectly. Under Minnesota law, Mr. Coleman has seven calendar days to file a contested election lawsuit, and there are some political experts who think he might change his mind and concede.
Mr. Trimble sounded anything but hesitant, though, and said the papers would be ready within 24 hours, mandating the creation of a three-judge panel to be chosen by the chief justice of the State Supreme Court.
For Mr. Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, who was elected to the Senate in 2002, the political calculus of whether to contest the election legally involves both national and state considerations. A contested election could take months to resolve, which might earn him some points with national Republican leaders, even if he failed to overturn the canvassing board’s decision, because it would keep one more Democrat out of the Senate through at least the early days of the Obama administration as immense issues like an economic stimulus and taxes are debated.
Countering that is how much a continued battle could affect his political future within the state — he is 59 years old — if residents simply become fed up and blame him for having only one senator at a crucial moment in history.
And while 225 votes might seem like the narrowest of margins, some political experts say that finding a net shift of that margin in Mr. Coleman’s favor could be a big hill to climb.
“The big issue is where do you net 225?” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, a professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “He needs to factor in that Franken is also likely to pick up votes — the absentees are not going to be only for Coleman.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 6, 2009, on page A15 of the New York edition.
Democrat Is Winner in Recount of Minnesota Senate Race
By KIRK JOHNSON
January 5, 2009
ST. PAUL — Al Franken, the comedian who became a Democratic pundit and then a politician, won November’s election for the United States Senate by 225 votes out of 2.9 million cast, according to the finally completed recount results certified on Monday by the state’s independent canvassing board.
But even as the board members were leaving the state office building across the street from the Capitol, Mr. Franken’s opponent, the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, said through his lawyers that the board’s work had been flawed and that he would challenge the recount in court.
“This process isn’t at an end — it is now just at the beginning,” said Tony Trimble, a lawyer for Mr. Coleman. “We will contest the results.”
Minnesota residents have probably become somewhat inured to revolving-door news days like this — an advance by one side countered by a bayonet charge from the other, each battling for inches.
But Monday’s certified recount number is a new chapter in the story. Before the board’s certification, the questions were broad: Had the election been conducted properly? Did the system as a whole work? And the geography extended to every county and city.
The Minnesota secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, who is also head of the canvassing board, said he believed good things were revealed about the democratic process in the state. The voting process had worked, Mr. Ritchie said, and while mistakes had been found by some local elections officials in throwing out perfectly good ballots, no evidence turned up of widespread fraud or malfeasance. The recount team had then done a good job retracing the steps of what voters had wanted on Election Day, he said.
“It was as accurate as humanly possible within Minnesota law,” said Mr. Ritchie, a Democrat, referring to the recount. “I believe all lawful votes were counted.”
Mr. Coleman’s lawyers said the lawsuit would focus much more narrowly on batches of absentee votes that the campaign believed were either not recounted or recounted incorrectly. Under Minnesota law, Mr. Coleman has seven calendar days to file a contested election lawsuit, and there are some political experts who think he might change his mind and concede.
Mr. Trimble sounded anything but hesitant, though, and said the papers would be ready within 24 hours, mandating the creation of a three-judge panel to be chosen by the chief justice of the State Supreme Court.
For Mr. Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, who was elected to the Senate in 2002, the political calculus of whether to contest the election legally involves both national and state considerations. A contested election could take months to resolve, which might earn him some points with national Republican leaders, even if he failed to overturn the canvassing board’s decision, because it would keep one more Democrat out of the Senate through at least the early days of the Obama administration as immense issues like an economic stimulus and taxes are debated.
Countering that is how much a continued battle could affect his political future within the state — he is 59 years old — if residents simply become fed up and blame him for having only one senator at a crucial moment in history.
And while 225 votes might seem like the narrowest of margins, some political experts say that finding a net shift of that margin in Mr. Coleman’s favor could be a big hill to climb.
“The big issue is where do you net 225?” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, a professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “He needs to factor in that Franken is also likely to pick up votes — the absentees are not going to be only for Coleman.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 6, 2009, on page A15 of the New York edition.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Al Franken's Race Counted on Flawed Systems
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6641Al Franken's Razor-Thin MN Senate Race Counted on Flawed Optical-Scan Systems
PLUS: Details on 'What in the Hell Happened in Alaska' and Georgia and Oregon...
Posted By Brad Friedman On 5th November 2008
Diebold/Premier, Oregon, Georgia, Alaska, Election 2008, Minnesota, Al Franken 38 Comments
I'm exhausted, so forgive me if I make this quicker than it deserves. And if I haven't yet been able to jump into a myriad of other elections of serious concern around the country still today.
But just a few quick facts on the Al Franken (D) / Norm Coleman (R) U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, which we noted last night [1] (with some updates today) stands at some 700 votes currently between them. More hopefully after I've figured out how to sneak in some rest.
Here are three quick, bullet-point facts that Franken may want to know, since his was the only show on Air America which never had me on as a guest, as he simply refused to discuss serious issues concerning Election Integrity, now - ironically enough.
(And see below these for some quick skinny on serious concerns about the outstanding Senate races in AK, OR and GA...)
While all of Minnesota [2] votes on paper ballots, thankfully. Though all of those ballots are scanned, rather than counted, on proprietary optical-scan systems made by either ES&S or Diebold. Both companies produce systems that regularly fail to count and/or record ballots correctly.
The majority of counties use the ES&S M-100, precinct-based optical scanner. As we noted on Monday [3], that same scanner was found, according to a letter sent to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by a county in MI, to have failed pre-election "logic and accuracy testing". The M-100, according to the letter from county officials, “reported inconsistent vote totals", such that “The same ballots run through the same machines, yielded different results each time.” Public Record has more details tonight [4].
Two of Minnesota's three largest counties (Anoka and Dakota) use the Diebold AccuVote OS scanners to "count" their ballots. That system is the same one seen being hacked via its memory card in the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Hacking Democracy [5]. You can watch the actual hack from the film below (appx 9 mins)
(By the way, the Diebold op-scanner used above, and in MN, was also used in January's New Hampshire primary when pre-election polls and exit polls determined Obama would be the winner, only to see him lose to Hillary Clinton. Obama was found to have won in the 20% of NH which counts their ballots by hand. While Clinton won, by an almost precisely flipped margin, in the 80% of NH that used the Diebold op-scan system seen being hacked in the mock-election seen being manipulated in the clip above.)
In late August of this year, Diebold admitted [6], while being sued because of it by the state of Ohio, that their GEMS central tabulator system routinely drops thousands of votes, without giving notice, while they are being uploaded from memory cards to the main server. That failed GEMS tabulator model was used yesterday, with both Diebold's touch-screen and op-scan systems, in some 34 states across the country.
An automatic recount has been triggered in the Franken/Coleman race, and will take place mid-November. I haven't checked yet as to whether it'll be a machine or hand recount --- hopefully the latter --- but it looks like I have time to find out later (Updated: News accounts say it will be by hand). Either way, hopefully the ballots --- both voted and unvoted --- will be carefully guarded and their chain of custody will be secure, transparent and well-documented between now and then.
If you'd like more details on all of these concerns, Al, feel free to contact me. All is forgiven. Sorta. Just as long as you don't concede before every vote is counted, and counted accurately.
Other U.S. Senate Races of Concern...
While I was writing this, Kim Zetter at WIRED posted a similar story [7] on the failed ES&S scanners used across much of MN. She also tosses in a quick summary of several of the other outstanding Senate races still in question in Alaska, Georgia and Oregon, and the types of voting systems used in each. Given my exhaustion, I'll hope both she and you will forgive if I simply repost those summaries here, along with a couple of my own quick additional points on each...
Alaska
Republican Senator, and convicted felon [8], Ted Stevens is leading Democratic challenger and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 48.2 percent to 46.7 percent. Some 49,000 absentee, early votes and provisional ballots remain to be counted. If Stevens wins, it's unclear if he'll resign or face possible expulsion by his Senate peers. If either happens, there's talk of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin running for his seat. Voting System: Alaska uses optical-scan machines made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold) statewide.
Note: Alaska is one of the few places where the Democratic Party actually went to court to fight for transparency against the Electoral-Industrial Complex, successfully suing the state for the release of Diebold databases detailing how voters voted in the 2004 election. The state fought tooth and nail, including the invocation of "security threat" claims, to avoid releasing the information, even after they'd lost the suit. Alaska is very much a Diebold "company town."
Additional Note: A source of ours in Alaska, has contacted us to let us know about concerns of "shenanigans" in the counting up there. I hope to get more soon, but I'm told that Palin's Lt. Governor is in charge of overseeing the counting and that some are being denied access from observing the counting. So what's happening up there?
We're not the only ones wondering, as Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com asks today [9]: "What in the Hell Happened in Alaska?"...
Although Ted Stevens holds a small lead in Alaska and is the favorite to retain his seat, the outcome is not as inevitable as it might appear to be. Stevens currently holds a lead of 3,353 votes, or about 1.5 percent of the votes tallied so far. But, there are quite a large number of ballots yet to count. According to Roll Call [10], these include "at least 40,000 absentee ballot, 9,000 early voting ballots, and an undetermined number of questionable ballots".
Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220 thousand votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313 thousand votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270 thousand ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket.
But even if Begich were to make up ground and win a narrow victory, this would seem to represent a catastrophic failure of polling, as three polls conducted following the guilty verdict in Stevens' corruption trial had Begich leading by margins of 7, 8 and 22 points, respectively.
...
[T]he polling failures in Alaska weren't unique to Stevens. They also applied to the presidential race, as well as Alaska's at-large House seat. In each case, the Republican outperformed his pre-election polling by margins ranging from 12 to 14 points.
Troubling? Um, yup. Silver offers some more numbers and details.
But back to Zetter's summaries...
Georgia
Incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss seized only 49.9 percent of votes [11] so far, narrowly missing the 50 percent majority that is required in Georgia to avoid a runoff race. Therefore he'll likely face off against Democratic challenger Jim Martin in a December 2 runoff election if some 50,000 absentee and other ballots that are still being counted fail to tip his percentage numbers. Voting System: Georgia uses AccuVote paperless touchscreen machines made by Premier Election Solutions statewide.
Note: Speaking of "company towns", GA was the first, along with MD, to adopt Diebold's wholly unverifiable touch-screen systems across the entire state. MD has since decided to replace the system with paper-based optical-systems, following scientific report after report warning about failure after failure with those Diebold touch-screen systems. MD will be replacing them for the 2010 election. The error-prone, easily-hacked, inaccurate touch-screens were first used in 2002 in GA, when Chambliss defeated incumbent Max Cleland in a surprising and controversial upset which has raised many questions about the machines, and Diebold's now-admitted secret patching of the systems, with uncertified software, just before the election.
Oregon
Incumbent Republican Senator Gordon Smith is currently leading Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley by less than 1 percent. Voting System: Oregon uses mail-in paper ballots statewide [12]. It's the only state that has gone entirely postal.
Note: The move to Vote-by-Mail is one of the unfortunate side-effects of the raised awareness about problems with touch-screen voting machines. It's a bad idea for democracy, as we detailed some months ago here [13]. (Special note for Oregon readers: You needn't send me emails disagreeing with my position. I already realize many of you love your VBM system very much and don't share my concerns with it. Nonetheless, I stand fully by the points made in that referenced article.)
As long promised, The BRAD BLOG [14] has covered your electoral system 2008, fiercely and independently, like no other media outlet in the nation. Please support our work with a donation [15] to help us keep going. If you like, we'll send you some great election integrity documentary films in return. Details on that right here... [16]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URLs in this post:
[1] we noted last night: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6634
[2] all of Minnesota: http://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/searched.php?ec=standard&state=MN&equipment_type%5B%5D=All+Types&vendor%5B%5D=All+Vendors&model%5B%5D=All+Models&vvpat=all&submit=Search&rowspp=50&topicText=&county=St.+Louis&stateText=
[3] we noted on Monday: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6613
[4] Public Record has more details tonight: http://pubrecord.org/politics/474-e-voting-machines-used-in-disputed-franken-coleman-race-failed-tests.html
[5] Hacking Democracy: http://HackingDemocracy.com
[6] Diebold admitted: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6309
[7] Kim Zetter at WIRED posted a similar story: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/ess-machines-th.html
[8] convicted felon: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6088781&page=1
[9] Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com asks today: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/what-in-hell-happened-in-alaska.html
[10] Roll Call: http://www.rollcall.com/news/29893-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
[11] seized only 49.9 percent of votes: http://www.sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_1104/swscroll.htm
[12] mail-in paper ballots statewide: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88074936
[13] detailed some months ago here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6003
[14] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[15] a donation: http://www.bradblog.comhttps://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=Brad@BradBlog.com&item_name=Support+for+The+BRAD+BLOG&item_number=2008
[16] Details on that right here...: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6472
[4] Public Record has more details tonight: http://pubrecord.org/politics/474-e-voting-machines-used-in-disputed-franken-coleman-race-failed-tests.html
[5] Hacking Democracy: http://HackingDemocracy.com
[6] Diebold admitted: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6309
[7] Kim Zetter at WIRED posted a similar story: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/ess-machines-th.html
[8] convicted felon: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6088781&page=1
[9] Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com asks today: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/what-in-hell-happened-in-alaska.html
[10] Roll Call: http://www.rollcall.com/news/29893-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
[11] seized only 49.9 percent of votes: http://www.sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_1104/swscroll.htm
[12] mail-in paper ballots statewide: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88074936
[13] detailed some months ago here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6003
[14] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[15] a donation: http://www.bradblog.comhttps://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=Brad@BradBlog.com&item_name=Support+for+The+BRAD+BLOG&item_number=2008
[16] Details on that right here...: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6472
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Al Franken wins Senate nod amid 7 state primaries
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_el_ge/state_primaries_15
Al Franken wins Senate nod amid 7 state primaries
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
9-9-8
Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.
Franken, who gained fame as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.
Minnesota voters joined those in six other states and the District of Columbia in deciding general election matchups. Nominations for House, Senate and governor were on the line, along with the fate of another TV celebrity: Kevin Powell, a former cast member on MTV's "Real World," who lost his bid for Congress in New York.
Franken's celebrity has both helped and hurt him. His coast-to-coast recognition enabled him to amass an impressive bankroll for a first-time candidate, but archives full of racy material provided ammunition to Republicans and his most visible Democratic rival, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris.
Lord Faris, part of a well-regarded family in state Democratic politics, criticized Franken for "angry and offensive public behavior" and said he'd be too easy a target for Coleman and his allies.
With 33 percent of precincts reporting, Franken had 68 percent of the vote to Lord Faris' 28 percent.
"Norm Coleman has become Washington," Franken said. "He's the Washington guy and I'm going to be fighting for Minnesotans."
Coleman sought to make the race about experience in public office.
"Minnesotans have a clear choice on experience," Coleman said. "Minnesotans have a clear choice in terms of record of working with others."
Also factoring into the Senate race, Dean Barkley won a spot on the ballot for the Independence Party, which is a major party in Minnesota.
Al Franken wins Senate nod amid 7 state primaries
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
9-9-8
Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.
Franken, who gained fame as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.
Minnesota voters joined those in six other states and the District of Columbia in deciding general election matchups. Nominations for House, Senate and governor were on the line, along with the fate of another TV celebrity: Kevin Powell, a former cast member on MTV's "Real World," who lost his bid for Congress in New York.
Franken's celebrity has both helped and hurt him. His coast-to-coast recognition enabled him to amass an impressive bankroll for a first-time candidate, but archives full of racy material provided ammunition to Republicans and his most visible Democratic rival, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris.
Lord Faris, part of a well-regarded family in state Democratic politics, criticized Franken for "angry and offensive public behavior" and said he'd be too easy a target for Coleman and his allies.
With 33 percent of precincts reporting, Franken had 68 percent of the vote to Lord Faris' 28 percent.
"Norm Coleman has become Washington," Franken said. "He's the Washington guy and I'm going to be fighting for Minnesotans."
Coleman sought to make the race about experience in public office.
"Minnesotans have a clear choice on experience," Coleman said. "Minnesotans have a clear choice in terms of record of working with others."
Also factoring into the Senate race, Dean Barkley won a spot on the ballot for the Independence Party, which is a major party in Minnesota.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jan05/0,4670,VenturaBook,00.html
Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book
Saturday, January 05, 2008
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Former Gov. Jesse Ventura may prefer Mexico to Minnesota these days, but his ex-constituents will still recognize his style if they pick up his upcoming book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!"
Ventura uses the book _ part personal memoir, part political rant _ to rail against organized religion and the media, detail his brushes with celebrities and suggest that he should be viewed as a possible presidential candidate.
"Is it worth it to put my family and me out there, to take on a force that most of the American people are willing to go along with?" Ventura writes in the book, due in stores in April. "The government is supposed to be us, and it's not us anymore. It's been hijacked. Just when is somebody going to do something?"
The former pro wrestler hasn't reined in the outrageous opinions that often got him in trouble when he was governor from 1999 to 2003. The book is constructed as a loose travelogue of his and wife Terry's drive from Minnesota to Baja California, Mexico, where they now spend much of their time, but it leaves plenty of room for Ventura to digress into his obsessions.
He discusses at length the assassination of President Kennedy. He scorns the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and claims that during a trip to Dallas as governor a police officer warned him to avoid talking too much about "things that certain people don't want brought to light."
Ventura also airs his suspicion that "somebody in the government" sent people to infiltrate a government course he taught at Harvard University in 2004, on a day he discussed Kennedy's assassination. He repeatedly shows a fascination with conspiracy theories and surveillance, recalling several encounters he had with CIA agents while governor and claiming that his wife found an electronic listening device at their private home during his term.
He also discusses what he sees as the folly of organized religion. He argues that Catholic Church leaders should face racketeering charges for covering up sexual abuse by priests, then writes: "If Jesus came back today, I think he'd throw up."
Ventura recounts meeting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, with whom he spent time during a trade mission and found to be engaging and perceptive. He says he asked Castro about Kennedy's assassination and that the Cuban leader denied involvement but also believed Oswald did not act alone.
A harsh critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ventura says his doubts "have grown steadily" about the backstory to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"I think that bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for September 11th," Ventura writes. "But I also think it wasn't without some knowledge from our side."
Still, for someone who scorns all sides of the political debate, Ventura speculates on how his presidential bid would unfold. He ends the book with a series of fictional newspaper articles describing an insurgent 2008 campaign, with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr. as his running mate.
While the scenario starts off lighthearted _ Ventura kicks off his candidacy at a Wrestlemania event _ it takes a macabre turn in the end when he is shot by a Cuban exile upset over his opposition to the U.S. economic boycott against Cuba.
"While independent presidential candidate Jesse Ventura _ in a coma for the fourth consecutive day _ clung to life with family members gathered at his bedside, a White House press spokesman denied mounting allegations that accused assassin Raul Santana was part of a wider plot," one entry reads.
Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book
Saturday, January 05, 2008
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Former Gov. Jesse Ventura may prefer Mexico to Minnesota these days, but his ex-constituents will still recognize his style if they pick up his upcoming book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!"
Ventura uses the book _ part personal memoir, part political rant _ to rail against organized religion and the media, detail his brushes with celebrities and suggest that he should be viewed as a possible presidential candidate.
"Is it worth it to put my family and me out there, to take on a force that most of the American people are willing to go along with?" Ventura writes in the book, due in stores in April. "The government is supposed to be us, and it's not us anymore. It's been hijacked. Just when is somebody going to do something?"
The former pro wrestler hasn't reined in the outrageous opinions that often got him in trouble when he was governor from 1999 to 2003. The book is constructed as a loose travelogue of his and wife Terry's drive from Minnesota to Baja California, Mexico, where they now spend much of their time, but it leaves plenty of room for Ventura to digress into his obsessions.
He discusses at length the assassination of President Kennedy. He scorns the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and claims that during a trip to Dallas as governor a police officer warned him to avoid talking too much about "things that certain people don't want brought to light."
Ventura also airs his suspicion that "somebody in the government" sent people to infiltrate a government course he taught at Harvard University in 2004, on a day he discussed Kennedy's assassination. He repeatedly shows a fascination with conspiracy theories and surveillance, recalling several encounters he had with CIA agents while governor and claiming that his wife found an electronic listening device at their private home during his term.
He also discusses what he sees as the folly of organized religion. He argues that Catholic Church leaders should face racketeering charges for covering up sexual abuse by priests, then writes: "If Jesus came back today, I think he'd throw up."
Ventura recounts meeting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, with whom he spent time during a trade mission and found to be engaging and perceptive. He says he asked Castro about Kennedy's assassination and that the Cuban leader denied involvement but also believed Oswald did not act alone.
A harsh critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ventura says his doubts "have grown steadily" about the backstory to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"I think that bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for September 11th," Ventura writes. "But I also think it wasn't without some knowledge from our side."
Still, for someone who scorns all sides of the political debate, Ventura speculates on how his presidential bid would unfold. He ends the book with a series of fictional newspaper articles describing an insurgent 2008 campaign, with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr. as his running mate.
While the scenario starts off lighthearted _ Ventura kicks off his candidacy at a Wrestlemania event _ it takes a macabre turn in the end when he is shot by a Cuban exile upset over his opposition to the U.S. economic boycott against Cuba.
"While independent presidential candidate Jesse Ventura _ in a coma for the fourth consecutive day _ clung to life with family members gathered at his bedside, a White House press spokesman denied mounting allegations that accused assassin Raul Santana was part of a wider plot," one entry reads.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Cooking Light names top 20 U.S. cities
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/20/cl.best.cities/index.html
Cooking Light names cities that best fit its philosophy
Story Highlights
Cooking Light magazine marks 20th anniversary by naming top 20 U.S. cities
15 criteria were grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well
Seattle tops list with lots of fresh local foods, pedestrian-friendly streets
To celebrate our 20th year of publication, Cooking Light wanted to know what places best fit our philosophy to eat smart, be fit, and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, we ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria. The result, we think, is a ranking of U.S. cities that best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives.
"Each city reflects the full spectrum of living well in its own unique way -- innovative restaurants and markets with nutritious local foods, abundant spaces for walking and other exercise, and a population that takes advantage of both," says senior editor Phillip Rhodes, who headed up the project. "It's great to know that so many people all over the country have the tools they need to eat smart, be fit, and live well," Rhodes says.
1. Seattle, Washington
An abundance of fresh local foods, walker-friendly streets, and inclusive attitudes helps make Seattle America's best city for healthy living.
2. Portland, Oregon
Life is good in our second-ranked city, thanks to its seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities, cutting-edge restaurants, and vibrant environmental consciousness.
3. Washington, D.C.
Our capital city sets an accommodating agenda with farm-fresh dining, diverse cultures, and ample opportunity for exploration on foot.
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
In our fourth-ranked best city, lush parks and shimmering lakes provide a natural backdrop to a rich cultural landscape.
5. San Francisco, California
Our fifth-ranked city steps up with one of the world's most unforgettable settings--along with great cuisine and an energetic spirit.
6. Boston, Massachusetts
Strolling historic parks and swanning around the water are but two of the pastimes that make summer prime time to enjoy our sixth-ranked city.
7. Denver, Colorado
The Mile-High City ranked seventh on our list for an outdoorsy Western lifestyle that makes living well accessible and irresistible.
8. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Our eighth-ranked city proves a worthy destination for food lovers, adventure seekers, and culture aficionados alike.
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In America's fifth-largest city, the historic past provides a backdrop for a present that's healthful and happening.
10. Tucson, Arizona
Tucson offers a taste of the authentic Southwest in a desert setting that's ideal for a warm winter getaway.
11. Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, it turns out, has lots of people who eat five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day--27 percent.
12. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Graced with bountiful trail systems, no wonder 91 percent of the city's population claims to be in good health.
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Skies, once dark with factory smoke, open above crystal-towered downtown Pittsburgh, bound on three sides by the rivers Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio.
14. St. Louis, Missouri
A love for local produce and healthful activities keeps this urban center well fed and on the move.
15. New York, New York
New Yorkers walk far more than most Americans, and they do it quickly. But they slow down for green markets--25 in Manhattan alone.
16. Atlanta, Georgia
Approximately 55,000 people gather on the Fourth of July at the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the world.
17. Austin, Texas
You can't swing a yoga mat in Austin without hitting a cool place to exercise--whether it's inside a gym or outdoors in a natural, spring-fed pool.
18. Chicago, Illinois
The city's environmentally friendly mentality is one of the reasons why it is home to the 2007 Cooking Light FitHouse.
19. Las Vegas, Nevada
In our list, the city ranks third in restaurants rated "extraordinary to perfection" and third in nominations for James Beard awards.
20. Kansas City, Missouri
A recent study revealed Kansas City has the purest water of any major city in the country.
Cooking Light names cities that best fit its philosophy
Story Highlights
Cooking Light magazine marks 20th anniversary by naming top 20 U.S. cities
15 criteria were grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well
Seattle tops list with lots of fresh local foods, pedestrian-friendly streets
To celebrate our 20th year of publication, Cooking Light wanted to know what places best fit our philosophy to eat smart, be fit, and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, we ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria. The result, we think, is a ranking of U.S. cities that best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives.
"Each city reflects the full spectrum of living well in its own unique way -- innovative restaurants and markets with nutritious local foods, abundant spaces for walking and other exercise, and a population that takes advantage of both," says senior editor Phillip Rhodes, who headed up the project. "It's great to know that so many people all over the country have the tools they need to eat smart, be fit, and live well," Rhodes says.
1. Seattle, Washington
An abundance of fresh local foods, walker-friendly streets, and inclusive attitudes helps make Seattle America's best city for healthy living.
2. Portland, Oregon
Life is good in our second-ranked city, thanks to its seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities, cutting-edge restaurants, and vibrant environmental consciousness.
3. Washington, D.C.
Our capital city sets an accommodating agenda with farm-fresh dining, diverse cultures, and ample opportunity for exploration on foot.
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
In our fourth-ranked best city, lush parks and shimmering lakes provide a natural backdrop to a rich cultural landscape.
5. San Francisco, California
Our fifth-ranked city steps up with one of the world's most unforgettable settings--along with great cuisine and an energetic spirit.
6. Boston, Massachusetts
Strolling historic parks and swanning around the water are but two of the pastimes that make summer prime time to enjoy our sixth-ranked city.
7. Denver, Colorado
The Mile-High City ranked seventh on our list for an outdoorsy Western lifestyle that makes living well accessible and irresistible.
8. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Our eighth-ranked city proves a worthy destination for food lovers, adventure seekers, and culture aficionados alike.
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In America's fifth-largest city, the historic past provides a backdrop for a present that's healthful and happening.
10. Tucson, Arizona
Tucson offers a taste of the authentic Southwest in a desert setting that's ideal for a warm winter getaway.
11. Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, it turns out, has lots of people who eat five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day--27 percent.
12. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Graced with bountiful trail systems, no wonder 91 percent of the city's population claims to be in good health.
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Skies, once dark with factory smoke, open above crystal-towered downtown Pittsburgh, bound on three sides by the rivers Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio.
14. St. Louis, Missouri
A love for local produce and healthful activities keeps this urban center well fed and on the move.
15. New York, New York
New Yorkers walk far more than most Americans, and they do it quickly. But they slow down for green markets--25 in Manhattan alone.
16. Atlanta, Georgia
Approximately 55,000 people gather on the Fourth of July at the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the world.
17. Austin, Texas
You can't swing a yoga mat in Austin without hitting a cool place to exercise--whether it's inside a gym or outdoors in a natural, spring-fed pool.
18. Chicago, Illinois
The city's environmentally friendly mentality is one of the reasons why it is home to the 2007 Cooking Light FitHouse.
19. Las Vegas, Nevada
In our list, the city ranks third in restaurants rated "extraordinary to perfection" and third in nominations for James Beard awards.
20. Kansas City, Missouri
A recent study revealed Kansas City has the purest water of any major city in the country.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Record cold for northern Minn.: 40 below
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_re_us/cold_weather
Record cold for northern Minn.: 40 below
By JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 11, 2008
It lived up to its name: The temperature in International Falls fell to 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation."
It was so cold that resident Nick McDougall couldn't get his car trunk to close after he got out his charger to kick-start his dead battery. By late morning, the temperature had risen all the way to 18 — below zero.
"This is about as cold as it gets, this is bad. There's no wind — it's just cold," said McDougall, 48, a worker at The Fisherman, a convenience store and gas station in the town on the Canadian border. "People just don't go out, unless you have to go to work."
Residents of the area use electric engine block heaters to keep their cars from freezing.
"You plug in your car, for sure, and you put the car in the garage if you can," McDougall said. His garage is full of other things, so he had to park outside — a "big mistake."
The previous record low for Feb. 11 in International Falls was 37 below, set in 1967, said meteorologist Mike Stewart at the weather service in Duluth.
The temperature also fell to 40 below in Embarrass, 80 miles southeast of International Falls. That's just one degree above the all-time record in Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south, that was set in January 1888, the weather service said.
It was also a cold day in Winter. The town in northwest Wisconsin chilled to a low of 25 below.
"You don't want to be out there too long," said Winter area resident Bill Warner, 37.
The chilly air also blew into the Northeast on Monday and many schools in New York state between Buffalo and Syracuse closed or opened late. Single-digit temperatures plus wind drove the wind chill factor to nearly 20 below across much of upstate New York.
New York state got more than 3 feet of lake-effect snow Monday along the east end of Lake Ontario as the cold wind picked up moisture from the lake. "The highway crews are having a difficult time keeping up with the amount of snow and blowing conditions," said Oswego Town Supervisor Victoria Mullen.
South of the coldest air mass, freezing rain hit southwest Missouri, making roads hazardous and closing schools. Ice was more than an inch thick in places, authorities said. Several thousand lost electricity in the Springfield area when lines iced over and ice-covered limbs crashed onto power lines.
"It's treacherous" Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Bracker said in Springfield.
As the precipitation moved eastward out of Missouri, the weather service posted winter storm and snow warnings for parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
Hundreds of West Virginia homes and businesses had no electricity Monday, down from several thousand, after weekend wind gusts of up to 55 mph. At least nine counties closed schools because of power outages and the cold. The mountain city of Elkins had a low of 6 above.
Classes also were canceled Monday for a number of schools in Michigan, which remained in a deep freeze after a weekend of single-digit temperatures and gusty wind. One death was blamed on the weather there.
___
Associated Press writer Marcus Kabel in Springfield, Mo., contributed to this report.
Record cold for northern Minn.: 40 below
By JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 11, 2008
It lived up to its name: The temperature in International Falls fell to 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation."
It was so cold that resident Nick McDougall couldn't get his car trunk to close after he got out his charger to kick-start his dead battery. By late morning, the temperature had risen all the way to 18 — below zero.
"This is about as cold as it gets, this is bad. There's no wind — it's just cold," said McDougall, 48, a worker at The Fisherman, a convenience store and gas station in the town on the Canadian border. "People just don't go out, unless you have to go to work."
Residents of the area use electric engine block heaters to keep their cars from freezing.
"You plug in your car, for sure, and you put the car in the garage if you can," McDougall said. His garage is full of other things, so he had to park outside — a "big mistake."
The previous record low for Feb. 11 in International Falls was 37 below, set in 1967, said meteorologist Mike Stewart at the weather service in Duluth.
The temperature also fell to 40 below in Embarrass, 80 miles southeast of International Falls. That's just one degree above the all-time record in Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south, that was set in January 1888, the weather service said.
It was also a cold day in Winter. The town in northwest Wisconsin chilled to a low of 25 below.
"You don't want to be out there too long," said Winter area resident Bill Warner, 37.
The chilly air also blew into the Northeast on Monday and many schools in New York state between Buffalo and Syracuse closed or opened late. Single-digit temperatures plus wind drove the wind chill factor to nearly 20 below across much of upstate New York.
New York state got more than 3 feet of lake-effect snow Monday along the east end of Lake Ontario as the cold wind picked up moisture from the lake. "The highway crews are having a difficult time keeping up with the amount of snow and blowing conditions," said Oswego Town Supervisor Victoria Mullen.
South of the coldest air mass, freezing rain hit southwest Missouri, making roads hazardous and closing schools. Ice was more than an inch thick in places, authorities said. Several thousand lost electricity in the Springfield area when lines iced over and ice-covered limbs crashed onto power lines.
"It's treacherous" Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Bracker said in Springfield.
As the precipitation moved eastward out of Missouri, the weather service posted winter storm and snow warnings for parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
Hundreds of West Virginia homes and businesses had no electricity Monday, down from several thousand, after weekend wind gusts of up to 55 mph. At least nine counties closed schools because of power outages and the cold. The mountain city of Elkins had a low of 6 above.
Classes also were canceled Monday for a number of schools in Michigan, which remained in a deep freeze after a weekend of single-digit temperatures and gusty wind. One death was blamed on the weather there.
___
Associated Press writer Marcus Kabel in Springfield, Mo., contributed to this report.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
A look at the Senate's '08 election scorecard
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2007/09/a-look-at-the-s.html
A look at the Senate's '08 election scorecard
With Democrat Mark Warner announcing today --- via e-mail and a YouTube video --- that he will seek the Virginia Senate seat Republican John Warner (no relation) is giving up in next year's election, there's little question where one of the happiest places in Washington is located these days.
That would be the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where Mark Warner's decision is being toasted as the latest bit of glad tidings to come its way.
As the former --- and very popular --- governor of Virginia, Warner provides Democrats a strong shot at gaining a Senate seat in a state where they've been on the rebound anyway. More broadly, his candidacy now puts as many as seven GOP-held seats clearly at risk. Depending on the course of a couple of controversies, two more could be in play.
Among Democratic-held seats, meanwhile, one, maybe two, appear in jeopardy.
Bottom-line: barring a major reversal of political trends, Democrats not only are poised to build on the narrow Senate majority they surprisingly captured in the 2006 election, they could substantially expand it.
As this year's debates on the war in Iraq have vividly demonstrated, it's one thing to be in control of the Senate but it's quite another to have a working majority. And that's what could be within the grasp of the Democrats.
Unlike the House, where a simple majority dominates, 60 votes are often needed in the 100-member Senate to keep legislation from being talked to death. Currently, the Democratic caucus numbers 51 (comprising 49 members of the party and two independents who meet with them).
Some Democratic initiatives attract support from the handful of moderate Republicans who remain in the Senate. But time after time this year, an inability to hit the 60-vote mark has thwarted Democratic leaders from pushing their agenda.
It's the prospect of getting much closer to those 60 votes that has Democratic political operatives excited as they eye the next election. And they'll be almost giddy if, on the heels of Warner's announcement, the dream candidate they have in mind for Nebraska decides to take the plunge.
That would be Bob Kerrey, a Democrat who won the governorship and a Senate seat in the traditionally GOP state before retiring from politics a few years back. With Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel telling Nebraskans earlier this week that he would not be seeking reelection, Kerrey is mulling a run to replace him.
Along with Virginia (for sure) and Nebraska (maybe), here are the other at-risk Republican Senate seats in the '08 vote:
* Colorado, where incumbent Wayne Allard is bowing out. Democratic Rep. Mark Udall (son of one-time Democratic presidential contender Mo Udall) is the early favorite to claim the seat.
* Maine, where strong opposition to the Iraq war endangers incumbent Susan Collins.
* New Hampshire, where incumbent John Sununu also must buck an intense antiwar tide. He'll really be under the gun if Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, a former governor, decides to oppose him.
* Minnesota, where the Democratic challenger to incumbent Norm Coleman may be Al Franken, best known nationally for his lengthy stint on Saturday Night Live, as well as for his bestseller, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." (Some Democrats worry that Franken might be a bit too edgy for many voters; most bloggers wistfully contemplate his potential for livening up Senate debate).
* Oregon, where incumbent Gordon Smith must struggle to survive his state's Democratic-tilt but could benefit from the lack of a heavy-hitter foe.
In the best-case scenario for Democrats, New Mexico and Alaska could feature competitive contests.
In New Mexico, Republican Pete Domenici has been tarnished by his role in the firing of the U.S. attorney who was based in his state (part of the larger flap that did in Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales). Still, he's about as entrenched as a politician can be (he first won his seat in 1972), and has a vast well of support to draw upon.
In Alaska, Republican Ted Stevens will be vulnerable if he becomes further entangled in a corruption probe(he's already endured an FBI search of his home). Still, his time in the Senate exceeds even Domenici's (Stevens won an appointment to his seat in late 1968) and his current problems probably would have to blossom into a full-blown scandal to threaten his reelection chances.
The sole obviously vulnerable Senate Democrat comes from the region where the party is weakest --- the South --- and from the state where poor government response to Hurricane Katrina tainted all politicians --- Louisiana. Incumbent Mary Landrieu will have to overcome both of these factors, but she's shown keen political skills in the past.
Both parties will be closely watching South Dakota, where Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson only recently returned to any semblance of work after suffering a brain hemorrhage in December. Johnson insists he'll run for reelection, but some doubt it. The GOP will make a major push for the seat if he doesn't (and might even if he does, given the questions about his health that almost assuredly will persist).
Perhaps this rosy national picture for Democrats helped nudge Warner back into politics. After all, it was only 11 months ago (almost to the day) that he declared he would not be launching a presidential campaign for which he had been laying the groundwork.
Personal considerations were the main reasons he cited for his decision, saying he wanted to spend more time with his three teenage daughters.
"While politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge, at this point I want to have a real life," Warner said. "And while the chance may never come again, I shouldn't move forward unless I'm willing to put everything else in my life on the back burner."
Like many parents, Warner may have discovered that his teens didn't really want him around the house that much.
-- Don Frederick
September 13, 2007 in Campaigning, Congress, Democratic Politics, Iraq War, Republican Politics, Senate Races
A look at the Senate's '08 election scorecard
With Democrat Mark Warner announcing today --- via e-mail and a YouTube video --- that he will seek the Virginia Senate seat Republican John Warner (no relation) is giving up in next year's election, there's little question where one of the happiest places in Washington is located these days.
That would be the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where Mark Warner's decision is being toasted as the latest bit of glad tidings to come its way.
As the former --- and very popular --- governor of Virginia, Warner provides Democrats a strong shot at gaining a Senate seat in a state where they've been on the rebound anyway. More broadly, his candidacy now puts as many as seven GOP-held seats clearly at risk. Depending on the course of a couple of controversies, two more could be in play.
Among Democratic-held seats, meanwhile, one, maybe two, appear in jeopardy.
Bottom-line: barring a major reversal of political trends, Democrats not only are poised to build on the narrow Senate majority they surprisingly captured in the 2006 election, they could substantially expand it.
As this year's debates on the war in Iraq have vividly demonstrated, it's one thing to be in control of the Senate but it's quite another to have a working majority. And that's what could be within the grasp of the Democrats.
Unlike the House, where a simple majority dominates, 60 votes are often needed in the 100-member Senate to keep legislation from being talked to death. Currently, the Democratic caucus numbers 51 (comprising 49 members of the party and two independents who meet with them).
Some Democratic initiatives attract support from the handful of moderate Republicans who remain in the Senate. But time after time this year, an inability to hit the 60-vote mark has thwarted Democratic leaders from pushing their agenda.
It's the prospect of getting much closer to those 60 votes that has Democratic political operatives excited as they eye the next election. And they'll be almost giddy if, on the heels of Warner's announcement, the dream candidate they have in mind for Nebraska decides to take the plunge.
That would be Bob Kerrey, a Democrat who won the governorship and a Senate seat in the traditionally GOP state before retiring from politics a few years back. With Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel telling Nebraskans earlier this week that he would not be seeking reelection, Kerrey is mulling a run to replace him.
Along with Virginia (for sure) and Nebraska (maybe), here are the other at-risk Republican Senate seats in the '08 vote:
* Colorado, where incumbent Wayne Allard is bowing out. Democratic Rep. Mark Udall (son of one-time Democratic presidential contender Mo Udall) is the early favorite to claim the seat.
* Maine, where strong opposition to the Iraq war endangers incumbent Susan Collins.
* New Hampshire, where incumbent John Sununu also must buck an intense antiwar tide. He'll really be under the gun if Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, a former governor, decides to oppose him.
* Minnesota, where the Democratic challenger to incumbent Norm Coleman may be Al Franken, best known nationally for his lengthy stint on Saturday Night Live, as well as for his bestseller, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." (Some Democrats worry that Franken might be a bit too edgy for many voters; most bloggers wistfully contemplate his potential for livening up Senate debate).
* Oregon, where incumbent Gordon Smith must struggle to survive his state's Democratic-tilt but could benefit from the lack of a heavy-hitter foe.
In the best-case scenario for Democrats, New Mexico and Alaska could feature competitive contests.
In New Mexico, Republican Pete Domenici has been tarnished by his role in the firing of the U.S. attorney who was based in his state (part of the larger flap that did in Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales). Still, he's about as entrenched as a politician can be (he first won his seat in 1972), and has a vast well of support to draw upon.
In Alaska, Republican Ted Stevens will be vulnerable if he becomes further entangled in a corruption probe(he's already endured an FBI search of his home). Still, his time in the Senate exceeds even Domenici's (Stevens won an appointment to his seat in late 1968) and his current problems probably would have to blossom into a full-blown scandal to threaten his reelection chances.
The sole obviously vulnerable Senate Democrat comes from the region where the party is weakest --- the South --- and from the state where poor government response to Hurricane Katrina tainted all politicians --- Louisiana. Incumbent Mary Landrieu will have to overcome both of these factors, but she's shown keen political skills in the past.
Both parties will be closely watching South Dakota, where Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson only recently returned to any semblance of work after suffering a brain hemorrhage in December. Johnson insists he'll run for reelection, but some doubt it. The GOP will make a major push for the seat if he doesn't (and might even if he does, given the questions about his health that almost assuredly will persist).
Perhaps this rosy national picture for Democrats helped nudge Warner back into politics. After all, it was only 11 months ago (almost to the day) that he declared he would not be launching a presidential campaign for which he had been laying the groundwork.
Personal considerations were the main reasons he cited for his decision, saying he wanted to spend more time with his three teenage daughters.
"While politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge, at this point I want to have a real life," Warner said. "And while the chance may never come again, I shouldn't move forward unless I'm willing to put everything else in my life on the back burner."
Like many parents, Warner may have discovered that his teens didn't really want him around the house that much.
-- Don Frederick
September 13, 2007 in Campaigning, Congress, Democratic Politics, Iraq War, Republican Politics, Senate Races
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
