Good news from Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces killed one terrorist, wounded another and detained one associate during a raid north of Balad on the morning of June 24.

Reliable intelligence indicates that the targeted terrorists were associated with numerous senior al-Qaida in Iraq members including two local Emirs.  The group is also reported to be tied to another recently captured individual who had previously led the overall network and has since admitted to countless attacks on Iraqi civilians.

While the troops were moving to the target area they encountered two armed terrorists who attempted to engage the ground force.  The ground force immediately engaged the terrorists killing one and wounding the other.  The wounded terrorist was provided immediate first aid on site.

Multiple men fled the immediate target area upon arrival of the assault force.  The ground force then quickly contained and secured the target area.

Keep up the good work.

I’m blushing.

Smartie Channels Triple A 

Now if they would only get the point that I don’t like any polls good or bad, then we could understand each other. Oh well.

Nice to see my work is getting noticed over there on the left. Thanks.

The term is starting to gain merits again, unfortunately.

A deadly night in north Minneapolis–Two men were killed.

Officers were called shortly after midnight on a report of a person lying in the street on Irving Ave. N. The man had been shot to death. His name hasn’t been released yet.

Around three hours later, a second man was found dead in the drive-through of a McDonald’s restaurant on West Broadway. His name hasn’t been released either.

These murders are the 37th and 38th murders of the year in the state’s largest city–That’s six more than were recorded at this time last year.

“There’s not borders or boundaries, we’re all Minnesotans, we all have to start taking responsibility and looking for solutions,” said Lt. Lee Edwards.

That is 6 more than last year!

The American Spectator notes Karl Rove’s visit to Minnesota last week for Mark Kennedy and Michele Bachmann plus the meaninglessness of the Minnesota Poll.

Senior Bush adviser and GOP political evil genius Karl Rove spent time in Minnesota late last week, fundraising for Republican Michele Bachmann running to hold Rep. Mark Kennedy’s 6th Congressional District. Bachmann is running against Democrat Patty Wetterling, an anti-war type who has failed in previous bids for Congress.

Rove also stumped for Mark Kennedy, who is giving up his seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

Rove’s arrival in Minnesota came at a time critical for Republicans there, particularly in a week that saw the release of a Minneapolis Star Tribune poll that showed Kennedy 19 points down to Democrat Amy Klobuchar.

Never mind that the Star Tribune poll has been discredited as regularly biased toward Democrats (HT Powerline — it’s a longstanding problem.)

The Kennedy/Klobuchar race is considered one of four critical races Republicans need to win if they are to hold if not expand their seat count in the Senate, and it is one that has been cited as highly competitive for Republicans, the Strib poll aside.

Almost every other in-state Minnesota poll shows Kennedy trailing within the margin of error at the narrow end and by high single digits at the other, but no double digit deficits as the Strib presented.

“Kennedy is in a good position,” says an RNC political operative. “We think he’s going to force the Democrats to spend up there, where they didn’t think they were going to have to invest so heavily, and that’s good for us and our candidates elsewhere.”

The Strib has a story on the Senate Race that shows pretty clearly the differences in how these 2 are trying to win Minnesotans over.

Kennedy’s endorsement was the first the statewide organization has made since its inception in 1991, said Gary Cayo, the organization’s president.

Cayo said the order, which has about 2,000 members, mostly outstate officers, agreed on Kennedy because he had supported law enforcement initiatives on ballistic vests, secured grants to eliminate methamphetamine labs and promoted full Social Security benefits for police officers. Cayo said Klobuchar had not sought the organization’s endorsement.

Klobuchar spokeswoman Tara McGuinness said the campaign intended to seek the endorsement of other public safety organizations, including Minnesota’s largest, the Minnesota Peace and Police Officers Association.

Klobuchar’s staffer added that she was going to ask for other endorsements, just not this law enforcement group’s.

Klobuchar is also tugging at the heart strings with an ad that politicizes painful event in her own life.

Klobuchar’s newest ad touts her role in helping pass a 1996 state law requiring hospitals to offer a minimum 48-hour stay for new mothers. Klobuchar, who gave birth to her daughter in 1995, was forced to leave the hospital even though her newborn was in an incubator, because her health maintenance organization would not cover a longer stay.

Klobuchar testified before a state legislative committee in 1995 and organized pregnant mothers to show up. The ad features pictures of her daughter in the incubator and, at the end of the ad, as a strapping 10-year-old. A narrator says that “Amy Klobuchar took on the insurance industry.” At the end Klobuchar hugs her daughter, who holds two thumbs up for the camera.

So one candidate is working with important groups like law enforcement, and gained their trust that he is the better candidate for the US Senate. The other is trying to win with fancy TV ads, and snubbing those groups that may take too much energy and time to prove her worth to. Then again, law enforcement groups, may also have a keen eye focussed on her record as Hennepin County Attorney. They may also be hearing from some of the police officers and officials in places like Minneapolis that they are just plain tired of arresting the same people over and over again.

Yeah that sums up how I feel right now.

Tomorrow should be interesting.

Update:

Actually something more along the likes of a porta john.

(Cross posted on KvM)

Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall writes about a trip to her old home town and the dwindling energy of the protesters there. Hope Still On the Way for Democrats, a Plan Also Yet to Arrive

A lot of folks are saying this could be the Democrats’ 1994, that Republicans could lose both the House and Senate. Some of the evidence is there, in low poll numbers for the president and tight races for Republican incumbents that should have been much looser.

But I can’t shake the thought that, in my hometown, in our little blue neighborhood, it looks a heck of a lot like 2004, minus the enthusiasm. The anti-Bush anger is still here, and it flares up occasionally, but it’s usually simmering in a sort of tepid resentment stew. The activists mill instead of march, and they’ve added no new calls to action to their Sharpie-penned repertoire.

Yes, poll numbers are down and races are tight, but the folks around here are offering nothing in the way of a call for reform. In order to be a fiery reform party, the Democrats must have both fire and some kind of form. They seem to have neither.

But maybe it’s just the liberals around here. Maybe they’re just emotionally exhausted after four years of thankless protest against the “selected” President. Maybe the national party will pick up the slack.

It is the same here. I see the same old signs being waved by the same old folks too. Sure, they get motivated to get our and mill here too, but when you have the President, Vice President, Karl Rove, a Speaker Hastert making routine visits, these nutters aren’t dumb. They’re not so much out to say something new, but rather get on TV or a picture in the paper from the slew of reporters that also come with those big names.

It seems like it is standard operating procedure for the media to dedicate equal space and time for the protesters and the event they protest. Even though after all the years of covering these events, by this time they know the protesters by name, and have seen the same signs a dozen times before. They still get equal coverage when a dozen people show up to protest the fact that 100 people are inside with a Republican candidate and a big name like Bush or Cheney. Something to keep in mind. There are not a dozen different people that show up every time Bush or Cheney comes to town. It is the same people, some of them even paid to do so, that show up to make a stink that will be dutifully covered.

Will it work again? The constant protesting of Republicans, in support of getting people to vote Democrat, that is. Well it hasn’t worked yet. It didn’t work in 02 or 04. The left’s ‘energetic base’ of protesters is getting tired and weary of years of doing the exact same thing. Complaining. And so is the public. There is nothing being offered on those signs and banners. The Wellstone and Kerry yardsigns still littering certain neighborhoods don’t mean the same things anymore to passers by. An old, failed message, stubbornly left in plain sight for all to see, will eventually fail again.

You can only stay motivated so long with negativity. Eventually, you need something to fight for something, IE a plan or message. A list of complaints is not a plan for America.

Why the Rove meeting mattered to me:

I had the honor of sitting down with Karl Rove last Friday for a 1 hour round table discussion. It came at the perfect time to recharge my blog battery and rekindle my desire and determination to beat the Democrats in November. I hope what you are about to read helps do the same for you.

It is gametime in Minnesota and nationally as far as elections go. There’s just barely more than three months to go before election day. Democrats are amassing a huge amount of money to run attack ads against Republicans, and there is no amount of money, even the Republicans candidate’s superior warchests that can win the mud slinging war.

It is going to be a ground battle, not an air-‘waves’ fight. Like 2004 was for the Presidential race, 2006 is going to be about getting out the vote. For every dollar the Liberal 527s and Democrats spend to run TV ads attacking our President and candidates, we must make sure there are boots on the ground going door to door to identify and motivate voters to volunteer and show up on election day and dispel the lies.

Part of what we need to do that is have great candidates to give people a reason to show up, volunteer, and vote. We have that part all set. We have the strongest state-wide Republican ticket ever here in Minnesota.

From Governor Pawlenty and LG Molnau, SOS Kiffmeyer, Auditor Anderson, to AG candidate Johnson our constitutional officer candidates are the best we have ever seen. Add to that 3 term Congressman Mark Kennedy who is running for the US Senate, and you have the perfect storm of a ticket every voter in the state can have a reason to show up, volunteer, and vote for.

Then if you add to that our Congressional candidates who play a huge role in giving people a reason to show up, volunteer, and vote we have a great ticket too. Rep. Jim Ramstad, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, Rep. John Kline are all running for reelection, and are favored to win in strong Republican districts.

State Senator Michele Bachmann is the candidate to replace Mark Kennedy in another strong Republican District. Bachmann is most noted on the marriage amendment, but is one of the strongest fiscal conservatives in the Minnesota State Senate, a bastion of liberal tax and spend mentality. She fought tough fights there, and helped hold the line on the Democratic agenda and fight for so many important conservative issues. Out of pitty or misplaced compassion for her past, Democrats will dump millions into the District in the hopes Patty Wetterling can win a District she could barely understand the issues of let alone represent in 2004.

Then we have former US Senator Rod Grams who is running for Congress in the 8th District, and he will bring a caliber of candidate on the right like the Democrats and Liberal incumbent Oberstar haven’t seen up there for 30 plus years. Grams will no doubt give the pro-Life, pro-2nd Amendment, fiscal conservative voters in the 8th District a real choice this year and should make it very interesting. At the absolute least, Oberstar will have to fight tooth and nail for his job, which will mean the Democrats will have to divert resources to a formerly safe Democrat District.

In the 5th District, you have Alan Fine who is the most charismatic and engaging Republican running on the ballot since before my time. Like the 8th, the 5th is another 3 decade Democratic controlled district, but Fine’s enthusiasm and issues qualities will open up new doors with voters who were so used to just pulling the handle for Rep. Martin Sabo for over 30 years who decided to retire. That plus the DFL’s choice of candidate in Ellison, is far from what the voters were used to in the District. I have no doubt Democrats will be surprised on election night at the tallies in their former safe haven that they took for granted.

In the 7th District, Mike Barrett is taking on DINO campaigner - Liberal lapdog voting Democratic Rep. Colin Peterson. He’s often followed the Daschle model of say one thing when you are at home, and vote another way in DC. He’s fooled many of the conservative voters in the 7th that he is a moderate if not conservative Democrat, but he doesn’t vote that way. The 7th is another pro0Life, pro02nd Amendment, fiscal conservative District. And with the hard working pharmacist in Barrett on the job, Peterson too will have to fight this time around to keep his job.

In the 4th, Obi Sium is taking on Liberal Rep. Betty McCollum. Obi is one of the best candidates the Republicans have ever had in the 4th too. He’s an entrepreneur immigrant who has had to earn everything he has. He’ll help open up immigrant communities’ eyes to the Republican party, and will work his tail off. Given McCollum’s dismal fundraising numbers of just $70,000 so far, she is taking her race for granted and it could be interesting.

This should give people just about enough excitement to do something to help Republicans win. Just about everyone cares about what happens in DC, and the Congressional and Senate races are all about that. We have a group of candidates that just about every Republican can support for one reason or another. And many undecided or former Democratic voters will have plenty of reasons to think twice about just voting like they used to.

It is all about turnout. That is how Rove got Bush reelected. He turned voters out and made sure they knew who to vote for. You have to use everyone of our candidates to excite people. If you are in a DFL controlled House or Senate District, and the people don’t know your Republican challenger, maybe they know about the Congressional or state wide ones. When an issue comes up that people speak poorly of the Republicans on, as Rove said. “Talk about something else.”

It is up to us on the ground to explain face to face why it is so important that Republicans win. Given the war on terror, the economy, taxes, foreign policy, and immigration Republican activists have got to make sure they don’t give up.

We have got to man the phone banks. Leave no phone unrung.

We have got to knock on doors and brag about our candidates up and down the ticket. Leave no door unknocked.

Leave no voter unidentified. We have got to find out who cares about what issue and votes what way, so that we can make sure to stay in touch with them over the next three months to keep them hungry and make sure they don’t stay home on election day.

Leave no voter at home. We have got to make sure that the people who will vote for us, show up and do that. If they don’t everything Republican candidates and volunteers have done the last 2 years will have been a waste of time and money.

It is all about turnout. The person who gets the most people to the polls on November 7th, 2006 before the polls close will be victorious. It is that simple, but hard to do. That is not going to happen with fancy TV ads and lit pieces alone. It is only going to happen if each and every one of us; who believes in the Republican party and agrees on a majority of the issues with them, and understands them as the best of the two major parties for running our government and keeping us secure, to get out, volunteer, and support our candidates.

Whether all you can spare is just one night or everyone until election day everything you do will help. If you just stay home and sit on your hands, Republicans cannot win, and the Liberal Democrats will prevail. The fate of our nation is in your hands. Now is not the time to hold grudges over one issue. That time has passed.

Send your message of discontent by providing a larger margin of victory for that candidate. Send a message by giving our executive officers, in Bush and Pawlenty, even larger majorities of good Republicans to work with in Congress and the Legislature so that they CAN pass good Republican legislation and keep our state and country moving in the right direction.

I know some of you are looking for a person to go out and vote for. I think we have a ton of them on the right side. For them to win, it is just a matter of you helping make sure that happens. If you are still unsure about them, I encourage you to call them and ask them why you should vote for them, not why you shouldn’t vote against them.

You are the key to having what you want happen on election night. If you do nothing between now and then but complain you will be doing nothing that will actually help make your desires for Government into reality. In fact you will do nothing but hurt it.

Please find out about our Republican candidates.

United States Senate Mark Kennedy

Governor Tim Pawlenty
Lieutenant Governor Carol Molnau
Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer
Auditor Pat Anderson
Attorney General Jeff Johnson

CD 1 Gil Gutknecht
CD 2 John Kline
CD 3 Jim Ramsatd
CD 4 Obi Sium
CD 5 Alan Fine
CD 6 Michele Bachmann
CD 7 Mike Barrett
CD 8 Rod Grams

To find out who your local candidates for Minnesota House and Senate, go to the Republican Party of Minnesota’s candidate page.

CCO did a reality check on Ethanol, and included on their website is a link to a report about ethanol. It is well worth the look for any one who thinks Ethanol is really any type of an energy solution.

It answers questions like:

Q:Doesn’t ethanol have drawbacks?

Q:Does using ethanol help the environment?

Unfortunately, CCO didn’t bother to read it. They instead ran with the usual propaganda that the environutters spew as fact.

“What if there was a new high-octane fuel? What if this new fuel was cleaner burning and renewable?” said the narrator in a recent television ad.

There’s little doubt about this, it’s TRUE.

I work in New Brighton, so I know how the local government works pretty well. And I can tell you that it is one of the less taxpayer friendly cities around. Not only that, they have a problem with some members of their unelected administartive employees, playing god, not working for the citizens.

My love loss with Matt Fulton, who is the departing City Manager began on the night of the last truth and taxation hearing. I sat and watched him demand that the city levy the taxpayers for a double digit tax increase so the city could be garenteed of nuying new equipment in 20 years.

He has also made it a point to, before he leaves New Brighton for a job in Coon Rapids (I think) get the city council to agree that the cities employees would be garenteed large pay increases automatically every year. That’s right, this guy who is suppose to manage the city for the citizens, is abusing his power in my opinion, and taking money out of taxpayer’s pockets just for the sake of protecting the workers and departments years down the road from a possible change in the council.

Well, the guy is going even farther to force people to leave the city due to the already burdensomely high taxes. He’s trying to get the city to buy land for light rail. Now, keep in mind, there has not even been any talk of a rail line coming up this way. No one is even talking about.

But good old New Brighton has been chasing businesses out of the city faster than you can believe, and corner stone ones. Keys Cafe met its fate under the city’s strong desire to add another 1000 or so townhomes in the mystical Northwest redevelopement plans of the city. So did Beiswenger’s hardware, who has been a city staple tenant for decades, and had built a new store with in the last 10 or so years. Now both of those buildings are gone. While the hardware store moved (at the expense of taxpayers) and rebuilt n another location just on the edge of the city, Keys is gone. What was once the breakfast place in town, is nothing but a distant memory in the city.

Strib: A light rail, commuter rail or bus corridor could be coming through New Brighton and Arden Hills.

It’s still early in the process, but the cities are trying to preserve about a mile of rail line with 24 acres of surrounding right-of-way for a transportation corridor.

“Now’s the time to incorporate planning before the areas get totally developed,” said Matt Fulton, the former New Brighton city manager who recently became the Coon Rapids city manager.

It is even worse I guess, he doesn’t even work there anymore, yet he is still leaving behind a legacy of million dollar levies and boondoggle projects. Now I have dealt with Fulton personally on a number of issues regarding my business, and he was able to help half the time, but made things worse too.

I know he is a well received person by many, but he just has the wrong attitude when it comes to city government. It is not the place of an UNelected official to make decisions of what is the cities future and what isn’t. What the city should garentee its employees. What he interprets the criptic city code to be, or just plain make it up from time to time.

Unfortunately, we’re still stuck with a few people on the council who learned from Fulton, just how to stick it to the taxpayers.

New Brighton City Council Member Mary Burg is one person who hopes it all comes together.

“The council all agreed it’s forward thinking to consider that space,” she said. “You can’t wait for other people to make things happen.”

Burg said she supports mass transit because of the environmental benefits, congested highways and cost of gasoline.

“We cannot ignore that and we cannot wait,” she said. “It’s too expensive not to do it.”

There you go folks. The City of New Brighton is going to spend millions of dollars acquiring land for some as yet to be talked about choo choo train, because they think that you shouldn’t be driving your cars. Burg is worried about people having to buy the gas for their cars, I got an idea of she can help.

Stop rainsing the dang taxes in New Brighton! Leave more money in the pockets of the taxpayers and you won’t hear so many complaints.

This ought to make the next permit application quite interesting.