Sammy working the politicians...

Today Minnesota Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was in town to meet with Sammy. Also in attendance was congressional candidate Randy Demmer (yeah, similar last names). Both worked hard to earn Sammy's support...

Sammy & Tom Emmer...

Sammy & Randy Demmer...

Randy Dammer & Sammy...

The truth is out there...and so is Jesse Ventura...

Jesse Ventura is peddling a new book on conspiracies and his signing tour came to Rochester. We took Sammy to see former governor Jesse (the Mind) Ventura. Jesse talked, and talked, and talked, and talked...and talked some more. Sammy lost interest after about an hour and a half, so Michele took him home. Paul stayed (being #140 in line) to have Jesse sign a copy of his masterpiece.

While waiting, Paul sat down at the Barnes & Noble cafe and was immediately befriended by a 9/11 "truther" and his son. The Truther had a hernia operation earlier in the week, but had driven down from the Twin Cities. Apparently when Jesse was at the Mall of America more than 5,000 people had shown up, most likely a conspiracy to deprive the Truther of a signed Jesse book.

The Truther then explained to Paul the complex physics of the 9/11 twin towers collapse...and how it had to be an inside job by Dick Cheny and a squad of 15 French ninjas. And about Florine in the water. And about poison in diet soda. And why fast food drive through speaker systems never work. And why 5,000 people showed up at the Mall of America to prevent him from...oh yeah, already mentioned that. The Truther had also brought a stack of DVDs to give to Jesse...saying he was going to offer to work for Jesse as a researcher for free.

The 9/11 Truther and his son...

...giving Jesse DVDs with conspiracy stuff on them...

(former) Gov. Jesse Ventura

He's like a modern day Davey Crockett...

Super Memories...

Watching the Super Bowl tonight brought back memories of...

A strike...from the mound...

Krauthammer and Choices...

"Among these crosscurrents, my thesis is simple: The question of whether America is in decline cannot be answered yes or no. There is no yes or no. Both answers are wrong, because the assumption that somehow there exists some predetermined inevitable trajectory, the result of uncontrollable external forces, is wrong. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is written. For America today, decline is not a condition. Decline is a choice. Two decades into the unipolar world that came about with the fall of the Soviet Union, America is in the position of deciding whether to abdicate or retain its dominance. Decline--or continued ascendancy--is in our hands."

-- Charles Krauthammer

Time to dust off our copy...

It seems Saul Alynski's book "Rules for Radicals" continues to gain popularity in the past year. Here is a good article to read. Looks like it is time to dust off our copy that we bought a while ago (first edition from 1971) and start reading it.

From the dedication of the book:

"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer"

Granted there are far more admirable activists than Alynski and Lucifer (Mother Theresa comes to mind...even Jesus)...but it behooves one who wants to make a positive impact in the world today to understand how the left operates.

We have our copy...

...do you have yours?

March on Washington 2009: How Many Were There?

It's tough to tell, but it's more than the 70,000 that some anonymous source in the fire department allegedly told ABC News (how many "estimates" did ABC get?...did they take the lowest one somebody was anonymously willing to give them? Was that one estimate biased?). The organizers should have put more effort in photographing the march to get accurate sizing estimates, but oh well...next time.

Here is an authentic photograph of the protest. Take a look at this...then take a look at the diagram from here to get an idea of the size...it looks to me that there was easily six figures at the March on Washington. Note that there were more people who actually marched but did not stay for the speeches. Zoom in on it...can you see Paul? He's wearing a white Wilson T-Shirt (no, not Joe Wilson).

Click here to see the full size image (blogger makes the images uploaded smaller).

The crowd at some point after the march started...

...photo was taken from Capital Building...

...sometime after the march finished and speeches were given...

March on Washington 2009: Meetup of Friends

Paul had a great time at the 2009 March on Washington. One of the highlights was getting to see his brother David, sister-in-law Jacci, cousin Pete, college colleague Dave, Dave's wife Jacque, and his son Max. (Yes we had two "Daves" and two "Jackies"...with slightly different spelling)

An added plus was meeting up with co-worker Chris who Paul only knew over the phone and by email. Chris brought along a co-worker friend of his named Sean. Sean, Pete, Paul, and Chris all work for the same company...the four went for a walk to the Washington Monument then the White House...

Co-workers and co-marchers...

Sean, Pete, Paul, & Chris...

representing Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Minnesota

Dubya...

While we sincerely wish our new president the best in being the kind of president this country needs, we take a brief moment to say thank you to President George W. Bush.

Consequential times and presidencies are often bitterly contested, partly because so much is at stake. A recent news article put it this way, "Few presidents had as many challenges arise during their eight years, had as many tough calls to make in such a partisan-charged environment, or had to act in the face of such hostile media and elite opinion"

Although there were legitimate policy alternatives to President Bush's responses to the 9/11 attacks, unfortunately the loudest voices of dissent (personal attacks) drowned them out from public discourse. President Bush--for better or worse--did what he thought was best. History as seen through the lens of several decades will be the ultimate judge. We think most people can agree that he did not follow opinion polls when making decisions.

Perhaps former President Bill Clinton said it best when he was making a speech on June 3, 2004 to promote his memoir (the whole speech is worth listening to --he's a fascinating speaker-- or you can just skip ahead to the part we quote below):

"If you don't support president Bush--if you go back and read what he said in the campaign--he's just doing what he said he would do--and you've got to give him credit for that. You don't have to say he's a bad person if you don't support him. You should say, "I think he's wrong and here's why" and if you do support him, you should say not those of us who don't are bad people, but you think we're wrong and why. Because this is a great enterprise and no one has the whole truth. We're struggling to create a new reality."

Thank you President Bush for acting out of belief and principles instead of political expediency. In many ways we believe history will judge you kindly.

The Challenged Ballot...

When Paul participated in the Great Minnesota 2008 Recount for the US Senate race between Coleman/Franken, he was in the position to challenge one ballot. This ballot had the ovals for both Franken and Coleman filled in...and it looked like it might get rejected as an over-vote (voting for more than one candidate). But there was a line through the Franken oval. At the Olmsted county recount, the Franken representative was content to let it get discarded. But Paul felt it was worth a shot contesting it--under the argument of "voter intent"--since seemingly the voter got cold feet about Franken and then switched to Coleman. The worst that could happen -- or so he thought -- was that the contested ballot would be discarded by the state canvassing board.

Today the canvassing board met...and video was streamed over the Internet by a Twin Cities newspaper. Paul watched/listened in, and started getting a bit concerned. The judges were somewhat liberal in dismissing Coleman contests of ballots (or so it would seem) and suddenly was worried that the ballot he had contested could somehow be contorted into a vote for Franken. Around 5pm the canvassing board started reviewing Olmsted county contested ballots. And there it was...the ballot Paul had contested. (Paul was partially concerned that it might be one of the ballots withdrawn by the candidates...to reduce the overall volume of contested ballots). But there it was being reviewed by the canvassing board. The board upheld the challenge, and Coleman picked up a vote!

Then the board adjourned for the day with Coleman ahead by a handful of votes. It will continue to see-saw for a while...but it was funny to see them quit for the day w/Coleman still ahead (Franken must be somewhere in Minnesota tonight angry about being denied the opportunity to claim having the lead for once in the ongoing recount).

We plan on giving a full account of Paul's recount experience--after all is said and done, but since this particular ballot was already decided by the state canvassing board, we thought it would be OK to post it now...given Paul's excitement.

Oh...and how might you ask does Paul know this was the ballot out of thousands of challenged ballots? Easy. There were only 22 ballots contested by Coleman in Olmsted county.

A screen-grab of the vote Paul contested...
...from the streaming video of the state canvassing board...
...click on it to enlarge...

Recalled for the Recount...

After having volunteered for the Great Minnesota Recount of 2008 (see here), Paul was called back. Local election officials were recently directed to sort rejected absentee ballots, placing them into piles among which were those rejected for reasons not covered in state law, or in error. So this past Thursday he was an observer at the Olmsted county sorting process. We'll give a more detailed posting after the recount is done and over...but for now you can follow this link to the local newspaper and see how Paul made the paper (though not credited) in the photo -- see red arrow in image immediately below.

A screen grab of the local news paper website...
...scaled down to protect intellectual property...
...note the red arrow to point out Paul...

The Great Minnesota Recount...

Minnesota is currently in its greatest election recount since 1962. Senatorial incumbent Norm Coleman (currently) has a slender lead over Al Franken. When the Coleman campaign asked for volunteers to help in the recall, Paul chose to help out this past Wednesday. After the recount is all said and done, we'll put in a complete account of Paul's experience. For now, here are some photos taken when Sammy came to visit his father that night at the Olmsted County recount.

Sammy is all smiles as votes are recount behind him...

Sammy gives his father tips on how to count...

Paul at the recount table...