Polinaut: March 21, 2006 Archive

And then they'll be 7

Posted at 12:41 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

Mike Erlandson to announce for 5th District tomorrow.

Make it stop

Posted at 12:42 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Stories have particular phases they go through in newsrooms, the Dean Johnson story has reached the "let's write letters to the newsroom asking what the big deal is here" stage. The Republican CD story reached the same stage. Of course, they all actually know what the story is, they just don't like that it's getting airtime. Just like when the shoe was on the other foot a few weeks ago.

My favorite e-mail of the day on the subject:

You might want to pull the tape that Brent Waldemarsen secretly made of Dean Johnson.

If the person who secretly recorded Pastor and Senator Johnson at the pastors' meeting was NOT the same person who asked him the questions about the anti-gay marriage bill, then it would appear that the recording was illegal.

Minnesota State Law holds that secretly taping a conversation is illegal unless one of the parties involved in the conversation is doing the taping.

Now, while Pastor Brent Waldemarsen was the person who did the recording at this private event, I have yet to find out who actually asked the question to which Senator Johnson was responding. The news stories seem to indicate that the person who actually asked the question was not in fact Pastor Waldemarsen. If this is indeed the case, then the taping is illegal, and its use in stories on websites is also illegal.

There's something in my mind about prying the 1st Amendment from my cold, dead fingers but I can't quite get the sentenced formed right now...

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What happens to whiny kids?

Posted at 3:38 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

This is one of those entries that should just be posted without comment.

So here.

Oh, but I can't. You just know I can't. Ladies and gentlemen, someone must rise to the defense of the conservatives who have been wronged -- wronged, I say -- by those ...those.... Canadians!

And so I give you the last place you'd expect to find that defender.

National....Public.... Radio.

Or so I hear.

Smear campaign appears underway

Posted at 3:47 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Earlier today I received an e-mail as a comment to Polinaut along the lines of "questions are being raised about (name of 5th District candidate or soon to be candidate here). I don't know if they're true but if so.... he/she/it should explain (1) alleged moral transgression here and (2) alleged moral transgression here."

You never saw it because, one, it was a phony e-mail account and, two, it involve the creative use of passive voice. I hate passive voice. Passive voice strips responsibility.

Passive voice is a favorite tool of politicians. Here's an example. A president admits that his administration screwed something up, so he comes out and accepts responsibility and says "mistakes were made."
Really? By whom?

Anyway, back to our story. A few minutes ago, Laura McCallum sends a fax that is being sent around the Capitol. Same thing, basically, except that it had added 4 more transgressions. But the first ones were word-for-word the same as the e-mail I received. And to make this an official release, this faxed document (from the Kinko's in Richfield, by the way) said "For Immediate Release."

Yeah, you wish.

We get hate faxes all the time; well, every morning, actually. And we just trash 'em. These will get trashed too but not before a little sermon. Come out in the light, make your allegations, state your proof, and say your name.

If you think the electoral process is important, that is.

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As Freeborn County goes

Posted at 11:37 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

Albert Lea Tribune has some breakdown of the Freeborn County DFL county caucus.