Friday miscellany (open thread)
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Rep. Mark Kennedy is out with a challenge to Amy Klobuchar today. Kennedy is promising not to accept pay for any day he's not able to vote in Washington. The challenge to Klobuchar is for her not to accept pay whenever she's not at the courthouse because of the campaign.
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OK, you have to admit, this is pretty funny. DFL Senate noted this picture adorning the front of the Kennedy for Senate campaign.
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What the heck is that? An extra arm (DFL Senate suggests)? It appears to be holding the fish properly. Whose arm is that? What's weird is the skin tone on the, umm... top arm... matches the guy's left arm and face. The ...err... "lower arm" is a darker tone, almost as if it were in the shadows. But if you look at the fish casting a shadow on the shirt, it's obvious the arm couldn't be in the shadows.
One arm is casting a shadow on the shirt, but the other one isn't.
Also, check out the shadow of the fix on the shirt and compare it to the position of the actual fish. The head is lower, indicate the sun high enough on the horizon to cast a downward shadow. The shadow of the tail, however, is even with the tail of the actual fish.
My theory: this is a legitimate picture of a fish that had just eaten a human. Only the poor victim's arm was left.
This is why I don't fish. Too dangerous.
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By the way, if you want to see some terrific pictures, check out Minnesota Democrats Exposed. You have to love the guy. He's on vacation, but still blogging. That's dedication. Nice pix.
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National Journal has a phrase I hadn't heard before: "Republican fatigue." It's uttered in this week's cover story, "How Republicans can get their groove back."
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The stadium conference committee began its work this morning. As far as commentary, Morning Edition had one this morning on "chronic stadium fatigue syndrome." Yesterday, by the way, Wurz talked with former House Speaker Dee Long about the conference committee process.
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Laura McCallum is pulling a piece together for All Things Considered tonight on the various plays politicians are drawing up regarding high gas prices. On the one hand, this is apparently a big political issue to folks. On the other hand, I once again got blown off the road by just about everyone as I drove home at 55 mph last night. Are people really interested in lower gas prices? Slowing down and using less of it is widely considered the best way to accomplish it, and yet clearly nobody is doing that. How that fact does or doesn't lead to a charged-up electorate, I obviously don't know; nothing about the gas price debate makes sense to me.
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The Fix at the Washington Post has the latest update of tight races. Guess which one is in there?
6. Minnesota -- OPEN Rep. Mark Kennedy continues to represent Republicans' best chance at a pick-up this cycle, but his road is not an easy one. Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar (D) cleared the primary field with remarkable ease over the past six months and has performed admirably on the fundraising front -- raising more than $3.7 million by the end of March. Klobuchar campaign pollster Anna Greenberg released a survey this week that showed her candidate with a 50 percent to 42 percent lead over Kennedy. More interesting than the head-to-head number, however, was that 66 percent of the sample said the state was on the wrong track and 58 percent voiced disapproval of the job President Bush is doing. Since the numbers were provided by Klobuchar's pollster, we take them with a grain of salt. But if Greenberg's numbers are anywhere close to where public sentiment actually lies, it will be extremely difficult for Kennedy to win. (Previous ranking: 5)
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People have looked at me funny over the last two years when I mentioned a civil war in this country isn't far-fetched. I view it as a bipartisan affair. A Weekly Standard article recently took apart a Harvard professor who seemed to lay it all at the feet of Republicans, something the Weekly Standard rightly criticized. So think about it: what makes the United State immune to civil war?
The Standard offers an intriguing answer:
Most Americans maintain an attitude towards politics that is best described as benign indifference. Even when the Bush-Gore battle hung in the balance, concerned partisans did not take to the streets in significant numbers. When the Supreme Court
put an end to that struggle, there were some delirious Republicans and some despondent Democrats. But most of America shrugged its shoulders and began looking forward to the second season of Survivor.
